Wednesday, May 6, 2015
“The court’s opinion in denying our request to block the Vermont law opens the door to states creating mandatory labeling requirements based on pseudo-science and web-fed hysteria,” Pamela G. Bailey, president of GMA, said in a news release. “If this law is allowed to go into effect, it will disrupt food supply chains, confuse consumers and lead to higher food costs.”
U.S. District Court Judge Christina Reiss last week ruled that the first-in-the-nation law, which is due to take effect in July 2016, can move forward pending the outcome of a lawsuit seeking to strike it down.
GMA takes issue with a state-by-state labeling approach. “This court ruling shows why Congress should pass the voluntary uniform GMO labeling bill quickly and federally preempt state mandatory GMO laws,” Bailey said in the statement.
Tags: genetically modified organisms , federal court , Grocery Manufacturers Associatoin , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
“The Kennedys have been part of my life since I was 23,” said t
Many in the Statehouse were similarly star-struck Tuesday as the son of the late presidential candidate and nephew of the former president flew to Vermont for the afternoon. He was here to argue against removing a philosophical exemption that allows parents to skip vaccinations for their children. And the Kennedy mystique set him apart from others testifying before legislators.
Kennedy got an audience with Gov. Peter Shumlin and House Speaker Shap Smith. And he got the first slot to testify before the House Health Care Committee, which waited while he was a few minutes late.
His message: Don’t take vaccination decisions away from parents, because the federal government cannot be trusted to regulate the pharmaceutical industry.
“The only thing left that protects that child from that company — the only barrier standing — is the parent and now they want to take the parent away,” Kennedy told the House Health Care Committee. He has worked on the issue for 11 years, but his work has has been widely questioned. His main focus has been on thimerosal, a mercury-containing compound that has already been removed or greatly reduced in childhood vaccines.
Kennedy was invited to Vermont by the Vermont Coalition of Vaccine Choice, which hopes to keep the House from removing the philosophical exemption. The Senate has already voted for removing the exemption. It’s unclear whether the House will vote on the highly charged issue this year. Three years ago, the House declined to do so, but sentiment on the issue has shifted toward mandatory vaccinations following measles outbreaks in California and Massachusetts.
Tags: Robert Kennedy Jr. , Peter Shumlin , vaccinations , Vernont legislature , Image , Web Only
Friday, May 1, 2015
Though the body rejected most of the last-minute cuts Gov. Peter Shumlin proposed Thursday morning, some will likely reemerge in the next week or two as the Senate and House resolve differences between their respective bills in conference committee. Just one administration suggestion, to realize $1.3 million in savings from a pharmacy benefits program, was approved by the Senate.
Shumlin spent much of the week denouncing the Senate's plan to cap mortgage interest deductions at $12,000; eliminate deductions for out-of-state charitable contributions; extend the 6 percent sales tax to soda, candy and bottled water; and impose a 5 percent excise tax on satellite television providers.
On Friday morning, two powerful senators managed to scale back two of those taxes.
Tags: Senate Finance Committee , sales tax , candy , satellite television , Image , Web Only
Both the House and Senate were in session Friday afternoon when about 50 chanting protesters passed through. Statehouse security officers stood in front of the House and Senate chamber doors, ready to deny protesters entry.
“We did have a plan,” said Janet Miller, the Statehouse sergeant-at-arms, who won election to her job after the January protests, in part over concerns about Statehouse security. “We knew protesters may be coming in.”
“Hey, hey, ho, ho, white supremacy has got to go,” protesters chanted as they passed the legislative chambers carrying signs that touted a variety of causes. Their noise prompted the Senate to temporarily stop action. A school group ducked into the Senate chamber to avoid the protesters.
No protesters tried to enter either the House or Senate chambers. Officers never confronted them and no arrests were made, Miller said.
Tags: Peter Shumlin , Vermont legislature , Vermont Workers' Center , May Day , Image , Web Only
Shumlin said the bill, S.141, was “a shadow of the legislation that I objected to at the beginning of the legislative session.” He chose to sign the bill in private, rather than at a public ceremony that accompanies many bill signings.
While some gun owners dropped their opposition to the bill because of compromises, others remained strongly opposed and urged Shumlin to veto it.
Shumlin issued a written statement Friday afternoon announcing he’d signed the bill and explaining his reasoning: “Vermonters know that I feel that Vermont’s gun laws make sense for our state. We in Vermont have a culture of using guns to care for and manage our natural resources in a respectful way that has served us well ... [The bill] makes common-sense changes, similar to the ones that I supported to prohibit guns on school grounds, and that is why I signed it.”
Tags: Peter Shumlin , gun control , Gun Sense Vermont , Image , Web Only
“It’s insulting to the process,” complained one top Dem.
The Senate had been scheduled to debate its $1.47 billion general fund budget Thursday morning. But late Wednesday, the administration delivered word that it would produce millions more in budget savings ideas.
That left some wondering why the governor waited so long.
“In the time I’ve been in the legislature, it’s never happened: to come in and say, ‘Oh, we’ve got some suggestions for you,’ after the committee has passed its budget,” said Sen. Jane Kitchel (D-Caledonia), who chairs the Appropriations Committee.
Thursday, April 30, 2015
By a 7-1 vote, the House Government Operations Committee voted against pursuing the charter changes, which would require legislative approval. The decision came after legislative lawyer Erik Fitzpatrick warned that the restrictions raise “significant constitutional questions.”
Legislators seized on that as a reason not to launch into what surely would have been a controversial discussion. Lawmakers had just finished a difficult debate in passing gun-control legislation to restrict possession of firearms by felons and the severely mentally ill.
“I think Burlington needs to re-craft these if that’s what they really want,” said Rep. Linda Martin (D-Wolcott).
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
By an 83-60 vote, the House voted against repeal.
“It’s our last chance to repeal the law this biennium. It’s certainly not our last chance to point out its flaws,” said Lynne Cleveland Vitzthum, who represents the Vermont Center for Independent Living.
Since the law took effect in May 2013, seven Vermonters have requested a lethal dose of medication. That's the only information that the state can publicly report on the law.
“It’s working in Vermont,” said Rep. Sandy Haas (P-Rochester). She cited stories told by friends and family of some of the patients as evidence.
Tags: Death with Dignity , end of life , physician assisted suicide , Vermont legislature , Image , Web Only
But after a story appeared in Seven Days Wednesday morning about the proposal — and an example of potentially unethical behavior — the committee's chair said she had changed her mind about creating such a panel.
"We can't do it now because of you," Sen. Jeanette White (D-Windham) told the story's author on her way into a noon caucus meeting. "If we did it now, it would look like it was in reaction to your article, and it isn't."
White said she still planned to turn her committee's proposal over to the Senate Rules Committee, which must approve it before it goes to the Senate floor.
"I don't know that they'll even have time to do it this year," she said of the Rules Committee.
Tags: John Campbell , Jeanette White , ethics committee , Image , Web Only
According to Campbell, it was Jerry Abramson, director of inter-governmental affairs for President Barack Obama, on the line.
Campbell said Abramson told him that paid sick leave is a priority for the president. “He told me the president is watching this bill and would love to see it pass,” the pro tem said.
Tags: Barack Obama , paid sick leave , John Campbell , Vermont legislature. , Image , Web Only