House advances bills promoting racial justice

The House advanced two pieces of legislation that aim to address racial justice issues in policing and across the state.

However, with less than a month to go before adjournment is expected, the bills’ path forward is not straightforward.

The bills are on track for final approval in the House, but they have not yet been through the Senate — and the responsible Senate committee is slated to end its meetings for the year Friday. However, members of the upper chamber have already started work on the issue in anticipation of the legislation.

One of the bills the House passed Wednesday, H.492, creates a 15-member board tasked with oversight of racial justice reform across the state, including in criminal justice, education, housing and other areas.

Rep. Kiah Morris, D-Bennington, a sponsor of the legislation, said the board is like “a super study committee.”

Racial justice issues in different spheres within Vermont intersect, she said; issues in school systems are interlinked with the criminal justice system, housing and more. The board would include members who represent the interests of communities of color, law enforcement, the judiciary and others.

On the floor, some lawmakers voiced opposition to the proposal.

“If people didn’t break the law, they wouldn’t be in jail,” said Rep. Thomas Terenzini, R-Rutland. He voted against the bill.

Some lawmakers questioned the creation of an additional board, arguing there are already too many, and asked whether the mission is redundant with other bodies already in place.

Morris responded that this proposal differs from existing boards because it takes a high-level look at systemic racial bias issues, rather than focusing on reacting to individual cases.

Many urged support for the legislation. Rep. Mike Mrowicki, D-Putney, said the legislation “helps move us further into the 21st century.”

The House adopted the amended version of the bill from the House Judiciary Committee on a vote of 120-25. The legislation advanced on a voice vote.

A separate measure, which would make changes to the current statute concerning law enforcement policies on fair and impartial policing, passed on a vote of 124-21.

That bill, H.523, would require the state to revisit a model fair and impartial policing policy that the Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council adopted last year.

When the policy was finalized, some components were deemed nonessential — so police departments could decide whether to include them in their own policies. The result, according to Morris, is “a true unfairness” because policies vary across the state.

There have been concerns about whether optional parts of the policy that relate to immigration enforcement are in conflict with federal law.

According to Rick Gauthier, executive director of the council, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is reviewing the state’s model policy on fair and impartial policing and will report back later this spring as to whether any of it conflicts with federal law.

The bill would require the attorney general to look into any potential conflict and would require a single uniform policy to be finalized and adopted by departments by the beginning of 2018.

Both bills will be up for final approval in the House on Thursday.

Senators have already gotten a jump on the legislation’s expected arrival. In the Senate Judiciary Committee, several witnesses testified on racial justice legislation Wednesday.

Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, chair of the committee, said panel members were “quite frankly doing our best” to work on the legislation given the timing.

The differences between the House and Senate on the issue will likely be settled “in one big, huge conference committee,” he said, referring to committees of House and Senate members that convene to reconcile differences in legislation.

Sears told the committee that the language on racial justice would likely be attached to a separate House bill concerning bail.

Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe, D/P-Chittenden, a member of the committee, said members had expected to receive the bill from the House at the beginning of this month.

“Around here, 11 days is a big deal,” Ashe said.

The delay left the panel a very tight window to vet the legislation, he said. Given the constraints, Ashe advocated against taking on any policy proposal too complex.

“It is becoming clearer and clearer to me, we need to go simpler and simpler and simpler to really accomplish something here,” he said.

Ashe said Wednesday afternoon that the committee will seek to move forward on both the racial justice board and the fair and impartial policing issues this year.

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