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Leonine: April showers bring May adjournment

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Through a special arrangement with VBM,Leonine Public Affairsprovides a summary of legislative activity in Montpelier for the week ending April 7. 2017.

Leonine Public AffairsIf there was any doubt the 2017 legislative session is getting close to adjournment, those doubts were put to rest by the end of the week. The committees attempted to deal with bills quickly so any unforeseen contentiousness could be handled in the next two weeks. It appears the session will likely adjourn byMay 6thleaving only a few weeks to get agreement between the House and Senate on a number of policy issues.
The budget passed the House 143-1 last week and is now under consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee. It appears the committee could finalize their version of the FY18 budget bill in less than ten days. If the committee can meet that deadline, Senators would be on track to get the budget through the Senate and back to the House before the last week of April. This timeline would allow House and Senate budget negotiators to head to conference committee to settle their differences on the budget during the last week of April, which could lead to aMay 6thadjournment.

One highlight this week was the New England Patriots bringing the Super Bowl Lombardi trophy to the Statehouse on Friday. Hundreds of Vermonters came to get their picture taken with the trophy, the Patriots mascot and a member of the cheerleading squad. Along with Vermonters, the governor and just about every legislator and lobbyists lined up for an opportunity to see the trophy and snap a quick picture.

CAPITAL BILL PASSES HOUSE
The House unanimously approved the H.519, the Capital Bill this week. The bill dedicates $147.3 million in state infrastructure over the next two years, including $4 million to the Vermont State Colleges, and $45.4 million earmarked for clean water initiatives.
T-BILL
The Senate Transportation Committee wrapped up deliberation on H.494 this week and voted unanimously to pass the bill. The Senate did not make substantial changes to the House version of the annual transportation spending package, and the bill is not expected to be controversial when the full Senate considers it next week. Provisions in the bill include:
  • Increased spending authority for roadway and bridge projects in the event of savings from DMV’s new single license plate requirements.
  • $2 million reduction in personal services spending in the VTrans maintenance program.
  • Requirements that alternative transportation investment grants be geared toward environmental mitigation.
  • A study of automated vehicle technology.
  • Updated notice requirements for utility relocation and adjustment activities connected to transportation projects.
INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS AND CONSUMER PROTECTION
The House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development continues to discuss a draft independent contractor bill. Businesses, unions and other advocates failed to reach consensus on the issue of independent contractors last year. It remains to be seen whether a deal can be struck in the committee this year, enabling the bill to be brought to the House floor for a vote. The most recent draft can be readhere.

The committee is also considering a number of consumer protection bills including:

  • H.467proposes to regulate data brokers by:
    • (1) imposing a registration and reporting requirement;
    • (2) requiring data brokers to implement a customer identification program; and
    • (3) requiring public agencies to maintain a record of the sale of any personal information to a data broker.
  • H.286proposes to require that no automatic renewal provision in a contract take effect unless the consumer opts in.
  • H.147proposes to enhance the standards and requirements for a business to be notified of a possible data security breach and to be informed that it has legal duties under current law

Though these House bills missed the crossover deadline, the committee will decide if any of the bills listed above are a priority to pass this year and those bills will be attached to S.72, a bill related to telemarketers.
TELEMEDECINE
The House Health Care Committee continued its discussion of S.50, a bill that proposes to require commercial health insurance carriers and Medicaid to cover telemedicine services delivered in or outside a health care facility. Current law requires coverage only if the provider delivering services using telemedicine is located in a health care facility, such as a nursing home or hospital. S.50 allows providers located at any "distant site" to provide medical services by telemedicine (use of live interactive audio and video) to patients located at any "originating site," including a patient's home or place of work. In itslatest draft, the committee included a new requirement that a patient provide informed consent for the use of telemedicine. The latest draft allows all health care providers, rather than a limited list of providers in the Senate-passed bill, to deliver services by use of telemedicine if it is “clinically appropriate.” The committee is considering whether to write a letter to stakeholders to ask them to explore whether and under what circumstances home health providers should be reimbursed by commercial insurance and Medicaid for facilitating the use of telemedicine in a patient’s home and report back next December.
FROM THE LEONINE BLOG
Over seven years after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, debate over the law continues to rage. At the federal level, the recent failure of the American Healthcare Act, the Republican plan to “repeal and replace” the ACA, failed after it became apparent that it did not have the votes to pass the House, leaving the party in limbo and the ACA in effect for the foreseeable future. At the state level, the debate also continues on, with resistance slowly but surely beginning to erode. The expansion of Medicaid, one of the cornerstones of the law, and one of the most fervently opposed by the law’s opponents, has begun to pick up momentum following the failure of the U.S. Congress to repeal and replace the ACA, according toGoverning.

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