Rep. Stevens: Six weeks down, looking ahead to the next six

February 16, 2024  |  By Tom Stevens 

The Legislature just wrapped up the first third (six weeks) of the session. Much like we can learn to tell the time of year by the height of the sun in the sky (when it reappears after a month behind the clouds), the Legislature can mark time by the service of our pages, eighth-grade students from around the state who serve us in the State House for six-week stints. 

Last week we said goodbye to the first group of pages, and then focused our thoughts on the next six-week period, which will see us work faster on a number of key issues and processes in front of us.

Over the next six weeks, committees will finish work on bills that are generated on our side of the building. Policy committees such as General and Housing finish this portion of our work on March 15 (the Ides of March!), while bills with money in them have a deadline of March 22. The deadline is the same in the Senate. Each body will then work to pass the bills in the full House or Senate, and then we will work on each other's bills until the end of the session. This middle section will also include Town Meeting Day, and we will attend each of them in our district.

Reporting what passes out of committee or through the House is, by its nature, incomplete. While it represents OUR work, what we report won't become law unless the Senate agrees to take up the bill and agree with it, with or without revision, and if that happens, it has to signed by the governor.

That said, here's what we passed the last two weeks, either in General and Housing or in the House: we've been focused on anti-discrimination work, and passed H.363, which would ban discrimination based on hairstyles. It is our variation on the CROWN Act, which is language that has passed in 23 states already. We also passed H.751, which would extend equal pay protections to individuals in all protected classes.

In addition, we are gearing up to deal with a number of bills related to housing, in categories such as funding, building, and landlord/tenant law.

State Rep. Tom Stevens, a Waterbury Democrat, is one of two representatives in the Washington-Chittenden district representing Waterbury, Bolton, Huntington and Buel’s Gore. He chairs the House General and Housing Committee. Reach him at tstevens@leg.state.vt.us.