Legislative

Host Bobby Lussier, CCTV's Development Director, speaks with Senator Virginia "Ginny" Lyons and Senator Martine Gulick about healthcare.

To contact your local representative, you can find their contact information on the State's website. 

From the Office of Senator Welch:

On Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at 1:00 PM ET, U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI-06) will join Leslie Dach from Protect Our Care for a press conference to discuss how big pharmaceutical companies are putting profits over patients. During the call, Protect Our Care will release a new report summarizing big drug companies’ recent investor reports, demonstrating how they are raking in profit and rewarding shareholders while more than 1 in 3 Americans are cutting pills or skipping doses because they can’t afford their medication.

This call comes at a time where pharmaceutical giants are laser-focused on undermining the Inflation Reduction Act by filing lawsuits and increasing their lobbying to protect their profits. Drug companies have been working behind the scenes with Republican lawmakers to repeal all of the Inflation Reduction Act’s provisions aimed at making prescription drugs more affordable for seniors. Big drug companies claim that the new law to make drugs more affordable will harm patients, but in reality, they’re telling investors the opposite and spending billions on rewarding their investors through stock buybacks and dividends, paying their executives millions, and spending millions lobbying to keep their prices high.

Testimony of S.55 Update to Open Meeting Law at the House Committee on Government Operations.

On Friday morning, the House Government Operations committee did a walkthrough of Draft 4.1, the most recent version of the bill. The committee voted to move the bill out of committee favorably 9-2-1. A link to the most recent version of the bill and committee meeting are below. Chair McCarthy pointed out there were some concerns brought forward about the retention of records following meetings - the bill as voted out of committee is silent on this topic, cities and towns want clarity about how long they must keep records.

S.55: Draft 4.1:
https://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2024/WorkGroups/House%20Government%20Operations/Bills/S.55/Drafts,%20Amendments,%20and%20Legal%20Documents/S.55~Tim%20Devlin~%20Draft%204.1,%205-2-2024~5-3-2024.pdf

Testimony of S.55 Update to Open Meeting Law at the House Committee on Government Operations.

On Thursday, the House Government Operations committee met to discuss a new draft of the bill. Legislative counsel walked the committee through Draft 2.2 - the new draft of the bill still includes VAN in the Working Group member list. The committee discussed exemptions to the in-person meeting requirement for certain bodies proposed by S.55. On THURSDAY afternoon, the committee reconvened and a walkthrough of Draft 2.3 (which is almost the same at 2.2) - the most recent changes include redefining “undue hardship”, redefining “state nonadvisory public bodies”, allowing CUDs to not have a physical meeting local until 2025, among other technical changes.

S.55, Draft 2.3:
https://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2024/WorkGroups/House%20Government%20Operations/Bills/S.55/Drafts,%20Amendments,%20and%20Legal%20Documents/S.55~Tim%20Devlin~%20Draft%202.3,%205-2-2024~5-2-2024.pdf