Legislative Update- February 21, 2022
Matt Musgrave and Shawn Rouleau AGC/VTs Workforce Development director along side Lori Valburn the Civil Rights Division Director from VTRANS gave a report to the Senate Transportation Committee about the programs being collaborated on between the agency and organization. Lori gave a great outline of programs both locally and nationally that VTRANS was working on. Matt gave a historic description of the institutional issues with workforce in construction focusing on attrition due to retirement not being replaced. Shawn gave an overview on the AGC/VT programs including our workforce platform www.vermontconstructionjobs.com, retainment trainings, introduction to construction and our Superbowl of Career Fairs being held on April 26th.
The House Commerce Committee spent a lot of time last week on the workforce development bill H.703 which includes many provisions that would fund education institutions including the CTE programs and Vermont State Colleges. The bill is targeting multiple industries including nursing, businesses, professionals, criminal justice and other critical industries including construction. AGC/VT will be attending a meeting on Wednesday, February 23rd at 2pm with members of the commerce committee. The topic will be involving contractors with the CTE program students on projects funded by the Housing and Conservation Board to repurpose or retrofit dilapidated buildings for workforce housing.
The House was scheduled to take up an override vote on the Governors veto on H.157 the bill which would create a registration system for residential contractors who take on projects over $3500 per job including materials. The Governors veto message spells out his concerns that a new regulatory framework would have a negative impact on small or new residential contractors while requiring liability insurance and contracts be written. This week the House opted to delay any action on the veto until April so that the committees who wrote the bill can consider a path forward that would get the Governors support.
Friday the Senate Economic Development committee took up testimony on a bill regarding unemployment insurance that would create a new way to deliver an additional $25/week benefit for a limited time for those collecting benefits. The $25/week was part of negotiations in the past session in return for the "2020 fix" to the unemployment system which allowed the calculation for premiums to ignore 2020s expenditures during COVID layoffs. The fix saved employers over $400 million in premiums over the next 10 years. As originally passed last year the legislative language was in violation of Federal unemployment trust fund rules so the efforts in the 2022 bill seek to repair the issue and deliver the funds to employees receiving benefits.
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