Vt. House Panel Punts Privacy Bill to 2024

The Vermont House won’t try to pass a privacy bill this year, Commerce Committee members agreed at a meeting livestreamed Thursday. With multiple members raising concerns with the current state of H-121, Chair Michael Marcotte (R) suggested working on the bill over the summer with a goal of having a bill ready for the House to pass in January. He said he planned to talk to House Speaker Jill Krowinski (D) about the best way procedurally to continue work. The bill wouldn’t have to be reintroduced in 2024 since Vermont has a two-year session. Conflicts and lack of clarity within H-121 bother Marcotte, he said. The chair would prefer a more comprehensive bill that closely matches Connecticut’s law since that state is in the same region, he said. Rep. Jarrod Sammis (R) noted compatibility with other states in the region could make it easier to join multi-state lawsuits, which Vermont may have to do given its limited resources. The current draft is trying to be everything but not doing anything well, he said. Two committee Democrats said they wanted to move forward with the bill. "We can't let perfect stop us from making good progress here,” said Rep. Edye Graning (D). However, Rep. Monique Priestley (D) said she wasn’t comfortable voting now. H-121 currently “is such a copy-and-paste of pieces of [other state[ bills, and not even whole sections of bills,” which leaves "a whole bunch of gaps,” she said.