Legislative Update 04.08.24
In this legislative summary, we are sharing the latest status updates on the bills we’ve been reporting on so far and introducing you to additional bills that are relevant to the agricultural community. Those include legislative priorities of the migrant farmworker community, the Senate’s river corridor legislation, and a couple of bills from the House related to financial assistance to the forestry sector, land improvement fraud, and miscellaneous agricultural subjects.
Table of Contents
FULL 04.08.24 WEEKLY AUDIO RECORDING (16 minutes)
(includes all sections of the legislative summary)
RURAL VERMONT PRIORITIES
NEW RELEVANT BILLS
STATUS UPDATES ON BILLS PREVIOUSLY REPORTED ON
H.81 An act relating to fair repair of agricultural equipment
Rural Vermont Priorities
H.706 Neonicotinoid Pesticides
Modeled after legislation that passed in New York last year, H.706 would prohibit the use of field crop seeds (corn, soy, wheat, and cereal) treated with neonicotinoids ("neonics") starting in 2029; restrict outdoor uses of neonics that are harmful to pollinators; and require best management practices for allowed neonicotinoid uses.
Status: H.706 has been passed by the House and the Senate Committee on Agriculture started to hear from Representatives who sponsored and reported the bill in the House. There will be substantial testimony on this bill in the Senate Committee on Agriculture over the next number of weeks, including testimony from Rural VT.
Please see our current ACTION ALERT here…
H.603 Selling Uninspected Parted Poultry
This bill proposes to allow for the sale of poultry in parts and would boost direct-to-consumer margins and sales. Vermont statute limits the marketability of uninspected poultry to whole birds only. The Poultry Map and Chart of the Farm-To-Consumer Legal Defense Fund shows what’s legal state by state regarding on-farm processing of poultry without inspection. It shows that many states allow for the sale of uninspected poultry in parts in alignment with standing USDA Guidance. H.603 passed the House and the Senate Committee on Agriculture received good farmer testimonials in favor of the bill but also recommendations from larger producers who are under inspection to advance the higher tiers of the exemption with more safety requirements.
Status: After discussing multiple options for changing the language of the bill, the Committee voted on Friday, April 5th, unanimously in favor of the bill as passed by the House.
H.612 Cannabis
H. 612 is the miscellaneous cannabis bill and H. 549 is a bill around outdoor cannabis production. The Cannabis Equity Coalition is continuing to advocate for a number of changes to existing law, and to this bill; including: advocating funding to fund the funding of racial and social equity initiatives and investments directly with money from the cannabis excise tax, and to change how the Cannabis Development Fund is administered and how that relates to ag, land, housing, and food; the need to address fundamental aspects of market equity for producers and manufacturers, including related to direct sales of plants, seeds, and the products they produce; and a number of ways in which the committee could work to further institutionalize outdoor cultivation as agriculture in VT in order to support producers and address substantial barriers. In particular, H.612 currently carries regressive language related to municipal regulation of outdoor cultivators and required setbacks.
Status: H.612 passed the House and has been referred to the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs.
New Relevant Bills
H. 219 The Vermont Pro Act
H. 219 is related to miscellaneous employee and collective bargaining rights. This bill would allow farm workers the right to unionize. This is a priority bill for the migrant farmworker led advocacy organization Migrant Justice and could include the request to define immigration status as a protected class and explicitly add “actual or perceived citizenship” to the listed protected classes of the Vermont Fair Housing and Public Accommodations Act. The amended statute would say the following: “An owner or operator of a place of public accommodation or an agent or employee of such owner or operator shall not, because of the race, creed, color, national origin, actual or perceived citizenship and immigration status, marital status, sex, sexual orientation,or gender identity of any person, refuse, withhold from, or deny to that person any of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of the place of public accommodation.”
Status: This bill has not seen any committee activity since its introduction last year. In solidarity with this effort, Rural Vermont and Nofa-VT invited advocates from Migrant Justice during Small Farm Action Day to lobby for H. 219 and other priority bills in the House Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency and Forestry, watch the recording here.
H.721 An act relating to expanding access to medicaid and doctor dynasaur
H. 721 would expand the eligibility to these healthcare programs for low income Vermonters.
Status: This bill passed the House and is now in Senate Health and Welfare.
H.614 An act relating to land improvement fraud and timber trespass
H.614 seeks to codify the crime of land improvement fraud, including fraud of forestry operations. It proposes to require offenders to submit a surety bond or letter of credit with the Attorney General if they knowingly commit multiple violations of timber trespass or are subject to unpaid civil judgements of the same type. Finally, it would make equipment used in land improvement fraud subject to seizure and forfeiture.
Status: This bill passed the House. Early in April the Senate Committee on Agriculture got introduced to the bill.
H.877 An act relating to miscellaneous agricultural subjects
H.877 proposes to make various changes to agricultural statues, including amendments to eligibility requirements for the Agency’s Farm Agronomic Practices Program to extend to agricultural service providers and agricultural nonprofit organizations; the adoption of national standards for weights and measures; the adoption of an online testing option for the licensing of pesticide applicators in the state; and the inclusion of language relating to online vending of fertilizers, limes, biostimulants, etc.
Status: The House heard testimony from various experts on February 29th expressing their approval of the bill. The bill passed the House on March 26th and since has been referred to the Senate Committee on Agriculture where the committee received a brief overview about the bill two days later. Since then, the Senate committee has not started to work on this bill yet.
S.213 An act relating to the regulation of wetlands, river corridor development, and dam safety
This bill is the Senate's response to the extreme flood events of 2023 and the fact that north eastern States have seen a 60% increase in extreme precipitation events since 1958. Valleys and the people, infrastructure and agriculture that are concentrated here are the most affected in Vermont. Up to 70 to 80% of flood related damages occur in river valleys. S.213 proposes to establish as State policy that wetlands be regulated and managed to produce a net gain of their acreage to protect existing wetlands and to restore wetlands that were previously adversely affected. Projects with a larger than 5,000 square feet of adverse effects that cannot be avoided will require a permit that either restores, enhances or creates wetlands or buffers to compensate for the adverse effects on the wetland. The bill also requires updates to certain wetlands rules (which will incorporate the net gain rule into permitting requirements), inventory maps, and an amendment to the Vermont Flood Hazard Area and River Corridor Rule to better conform with environmental best practices when issuing development permits within a flood hazard area or a mapped river corridor in the State. The Department of Environmental Conservation is charged with doing outreach and education involving anyone affected by these projected changes and to gather input on the new requirements for permitting development within river corridors that will be developed.The bill also proposes amendments to the Dam Safety Revolving Fund to provide loans for funding dam repair.
Status: The bill has been passed on the Senate floor and has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Environment.
H.624 An act relating to providing financial assistance to the forest economy
H.624 would require the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation to establish and administer the Forest Management and Climate Resilience Grant Program to provide financial assistance to logging contractors in order for them to have enough funds to implement effective water quality protection and climate adaptation practices on harvest sites. Additionally, the bill would require the Commissioner of Forests, Parks and Recreation to begin a study on economic impact and workforce availability focused on professional logging and trucking in the State and a program of free safety training for logging contractors and timber truckers.
Status: The bill has been referred to the Committee on Appropriations.
STATUS UPDATES ON BILLS PREVIOUSLY REPORTED ON
H.81 An act relating to fair repair of agricultural equipment
The House passed H.81 in 2023 (vote 137-2), known as the Right to Repair. It ensures original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) offer for sale or otherwise make available parts, tools, and documentation to independent or authorized repair providers and equipment owners. OEMs must also provide information that’s necessary to unlock or disable a function and to reset a lock or function after the repair is complete. OEMs may also not impose an additional cost or burden that isn’t reasonably necessary on the independent provider or owner, and must offer for sale or provide tools, parts, and documentation at a cost that is fair to both parties and does not discourage repairs by an owner or independent provider. H.81 does not require an OEM to divulge in trade secrets to an owner or independent service provider and does not allow modification of equipment to deactivate a safety notification system or access a function or tool that would take a piece of equipment out of compliance with federal, State, or local safety or emissions law, except as necessary to provide a repair.
Status: Rural Vermont did an action alert on the Right to Repair last week to encourage anyone who would benefit from this legislation to contact Senators on the Agriculture Committee to vote in favor of this bill. Currently that committee stopped considering this legislation through hearings or discussion in the first week of April. In the legislative lingo, a bill that doesn’t get “voted out of committee,” “dies” which means that it will need to get reintroduced in a new session to go through the whole process again. It is not too late you can still mobilize and endorse this bill - see the action alert here!
S.197 Procurement and distribution of PFAS
Due to adverse health conditions attributed to PFAS, S. 197 this bill would charge an inter agency collaboration to propose a program requiring the State to identify and restrict the sale and distribution of consumer products containing perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that could impact public health and the environment.
Status: The bill passed the Senate and has been referred to the House Committee on Human Services where they received a walk-through by legislative council and input from the reporting Senator of the bill.
H.626 Animal Welfare
This bill proposes to establish a new Division of Animal Welfare at the Department of Public Safety to develop, implement, and administer a centralized program for investigating and enforcing animal welfare requirements on and off farms in the State. The bill would also amend or establish best management standards for the operation of animal shelters and animal rescue organizations. In addition, the bill would amend or establish requirements for the importation or transportation of animals into the State.
Status: The bill has been referred to the Committee on Appropriations on March 20th where the bill has not seen any activity yet. Since H.626 did not pass the House in time for the crossover deadline it seems likely that this legislation will not pass this session.
H.128 Accessory On-Farm Businesses
H.128 clarifies definitions related to "accessory on-farm businesses" and exempts those businesses, as well as small forest products manufacturers, from needing an Act 250 permit.
Status: It has passed out of the House Agriculture, Food Resiliency and Forestry Committee and has been referred to the House Environment & Energy Committee. After the introduction of the bill the committee started to discuss the bill amongst themselves instead of taking testimony. After Representatives Bongartz, Satcowitz and Stebbins favored adding language that would limit the allowed retail space of an AOFB to a square footage number smaller than 1,000 sq ft.; the discussion has stalled, and no hearings have occurred since. Given that the House Committee on Energy and Environment is not ready to move the bill in time for the crossover deadline it seems unlikely that this bill will pass.
H.813 Tree Fruit Farmer Assistance Program
H.813 proposes to establish the Tree Fruit Farmer Assistance Program to provide grants to tree fruit farmers who suffered production losses in calendar year 2023 due to freezing or frost conditions.
Status: The bill has been referred to the Committee on Appropriations but its language has not been voted on and it also hasn’t been adopted into the budget bills H.883 or H.882. The Senate could still add the requested 10M in funds to the budget.
H.687 Reforming the Natural Resources Board
This bill seeks to reform the name, functioning and composition of the Natural Resources Board (NRB) to review appeals to Act 250 permitting in the future as the Environmental Review Board. Any appeal to the Supreme Court would then accept the Board’s findings unless clearly faulty. The new board would retain current duties of the NRB and also review applications of the planned growth area designations, review future land use maps or regional plans - including those that establish rural and working lands areas.
Status: The bill passed the House and was referred to the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy.
NOFA-VT Food Access Program Funding (Budget Request)
NOFA-VT is seeking an appropriation of $478,500 in base funding in FY25 to support two local food access programs, Crop Cash (Plus) and Farm Share, that enhance food security while supporting farm viability.
Status: The funding request was included in the House budget w. $450K and the Senate Committee on Agriculture started to hear about the finding request from stakeholders like former Rural Vermont board member Ryan Yoder from Yoder Farm in Danby Vermont. Watch the recording of those presentations on Farm Share and Crop Cash (Plus) here.