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The rain held off Saturday for another wonderful Essex Memorial Day Parade. I’m grateful for the organizers and volunteers who make this event happen year after year so we can come together to honor and remember those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice protecting our freedoms.
The legislature is winding up its work (hopefully this week!). Rep. Dolan and I will share an End of Session Report in the coming weeks summarizing the more impactful legislation passed. As always we want to hear your perspectives and answer questions. Your engagement helps ensure we are informed about what is important to you. Please reach out to me ([email protected]) or Representative Dolan ([email protected]) at any time. STATE LEADERS TACKLE FEDERAL POLICY IN VERMONT - JUNE 2, 6 TO 8 PM Join Attorney General Charity Clark, Secretary of State, Sarah Copeland Hanzas, and Treasurer Mike Pieciak, and the Essex House Delegation for a community forum about the impacts of the Trump Administration's actions on Vermont. They will share current information about the legal, financial, and policy implications of the federal situation, as well as actions they are taking to respond. The current federal climate is raising a lot of questions and uncertainty in Vermont. We believe in transparency and collaboration, and we appreciate the opportunity to bring state leaders into our community to share firsthand what is happening and how these challenges are being addressed. This engaging evening will feature a panel discussion followed by a Q&A session, offering residents the opportunity to ask questions and share concerns directly with state officials. The forum will take place on Monday, June 2, 2025, at 6:00 PM at Essex Cinemas, 21 Essex Way, Suite 300, Essex, VT 05452. Doors open at 5:30 PM. This event is free and open to the public, though registration is requested via this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/essex-community-forum-tickets-1371152918289 S.69 - AN ACT RELATING TO AGE-APPROPRIATE DESIGN CODE S.69 received a House vote of 133-9 and will be read a third time on Tuesday before it heads back to the Senate. S.69 will require default privacy protections for minors, ban manipulative design features that keep youth glued to the screen, make platforms be honest about how they collect and use data and give users tools to control their digital presence. Finally it will ban discriminatory and unsafe practices that harm at-risk youth. S.127 AN ACT RELATING TO HOUSING AND HOUSING DEVELOPMENT On a roll call vote of 100-36, the House moves forward S.127. Vermont’s housing crisis calls for immediate and long-term solutions. S.127 reduces permitting and appeals hurdles, allocates money for lower and middle income Vermonters to access financing for house purchases and rentals, and grants landlords bringing units up to code. To expand housing options quickly, the bill also helps people living in mobile homes and encourages building prefabricated modular housing. To nurture our labor force, the bill also protects our growing immigrant population from housing discrimination, ensuring that our farmers, contractors, and tourism businesses can depend on a robust workforce. Finally, the bill creates a tax increment financing pilot program for municipalities and private developers to expand housing infrastructure in both rural and urban regions, which could help support up to 7,000 new units within five years of the program’s inception. In conjunction, these measures will help us make significant progress in our housing goals. The House will vote on the bill a third time Tuesday before it moves back to the Senate. H.454 AN ACT RELATING TO TRANSFORMING VERMONT’S EDUCATION GOVERNANCE, QUALITY, AND FINANCE SYSTEMS The Senate passed out H.454 Friday afternoon on a voice vote. The bill passed out of the Senate was largely the House version passed several weeks ago with a few changes. Below are a few of the education governance changes and we are still working through the financing changes.
https://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2026/Docs/JOURNAL/sj250523.pdf?20250523094304 Best, Rep. Lori Houghton
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