MONTPELIER – June 16 was a really big day in the State House. We adjourned around 8:30 p.m. after finally passing the big H. 454 education bill that was the main reason we had to adjourn for two weeks and then come back.
I voted No, one of only a few in the Northeast Kingdom.
The actual passing of the bill was very strange. In the floor speech I gave before the vote I said, “I admit that this bill was written with good intentions. But intentions do not shelter children from harm. They do not preserve communities. And they do not absolve us from the consequences of bad policy.”
In closing I said, “If we pass H.454, we will look back on this day with regret. And when the schools close and the towns wither, it will not be some distant accident. It will be our doing.”
Preceding the vote, there was a motion to suspend the rules, much as had happened in the Senate only an hour earlier, which would have rejected the Committee of Conference report because many perceived it went beyond its scope of responsibility by adding new articles to the final draft, rather than just negotiating what was already there. If that vote had passed, we could have killed the bill entirely, but it did not pass. However, because this was unexpected and different from the way that votes usually happen in the chamber, many members (including myself) became momentarily confused about where we were in the process. The Speaker of the House asked if we wanted to adopt the Committee of Conference report, and I think that many thought she was asking if we were ready to move forward with the vote following the discussion about rule suspension, and didn’t realize she was actually asking what our vote was. I realize this is a really nuanced difference, but none-the-less, the effect that it had was that it caused people not to be ready for the vote, and additionally, no one rose to be the one to ask for a roll call or to be the first to debate the bill on the floor, and so in just a few seconds, the Speaker asked for the vote, took Yes or No as a single-bodied voice vote, and announced we were sending the results of H. 454 to the Governor.
Needless to say, people were shocked and angry. So the way that it was handled was that instead of debating H. 454, we debated whether or not to send it to the Governor, and people with No votes read their statements and voiced their opposition in a roll-call that way instead. If you find all of this confusing (which many of us did), you can check out the video on the House Legislative channel on YouTube, or give me a call (802) 673-6742).
I think that the historical importance, as well as the devisiveness of the vote on H.454 last night also overshadowed what I think is one of most major accomplishments of the session, which came just a few minutes later, and that is that we passed the state-wide cell phone ban in all public or private Vermont K to 12 schools that will go into effect next year. This is a major win for all schools, all teachers, and most importantly, all Vermont kids. I consider this the big win of the session that I can hang my hat on.
We also passed a very complicated housing bill that will hopefully lead to more housing in rural areas, and we tried to pass H. 91, a bill related to reducing homelessness that the Governor vetoed. His veto is actually really baffling.
In his veto statement, which I am sure you can find on his Facebook page or his website, he listed all of the things that need to be done to end homelessness permanently, and what is crazy is that his list was exactly what this bill would have done. It made me wonder if he had even read it, or if he was just vetoing it because we are Democrats. He also went on about how bad, expensive and ineffective the hotel-motel program is, and what is so stupidly ironic is that by vetoing the bill, he is the one that is ensuring that either this program exists for at least another year, or that thousands of people, including children, pregnant women, elderly, handicapped people and veterans, are thrown out onto the streets, which is just cruel and heartless. We had a plan and he ignored it for politics.
There is a lot more that we accomplished this year, and I am going to be putting together an end-of-session report this week. My first session has been trial by fire, especially on the Education Committee, but I am so grateful to be there doing this work.
Leanne Harple is the Vt. State Rep. for Greensboro, Craftsbury, Albany and Glover.
Rep. Leanne Harple
Leanne Harple represents Orleans-4, the towns of Albany, Craftsbury, Glover and Greensboro.
