The Senate Government Operations Committee on Friday voted to advance House Bill H.397 (draft 2.5) after deleting a provision (section 10) that would have required a new report on gubernatorial authority to order dam drawdowns.

The change came after testimony from the Department of Environmental Conservation and a discussion among senators and staff about overlapping jurisdiction for federal and state-regulated dams and about work already underway by a state dam-safety study group.

Committee chair opened the meeting and asked Tucker Anderson, committee counsel, to walk members through draft 2.4 and the subsequent changes that led to draft 2.5. The committee accepted staff edits including a substitution of the term "flood prone" for "flood vulnerable" in the bill's voluntary buyout language, the removal of a retroactive abatement provision that had been enacted in another bill, and adjustments to effective dates: incorporation of federal regulations effective on passage, the local-option tax provision effective Oct. 1, and the rest effective July 1.

Neil Cameron, deputy commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation, told the committee the draft's section 10 raised jurisdictional issues because "the state of Vermont doesn't regulate the safety of federal dams. Those are regulated federally either by FERC or by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers." He explained that dams subject to FERC licensing are governed through the section 401 water-quality certification process, which allows the state to set operating conditions and to coordinate in real time during flood events.

Cameron said the dam-safety emergency action planning committee established under last year's Flood Safety Act (Act 121 of 2024) is "largely wrapping up their work" and that staff turnover has shifted day-to-day leadership. He told senators the committee can deliver a short report if the committee wishes but called the draft provision potentially duplicative of existing work and federal processes.

After discussion, committee members agreed to remove section 10 from draft 2.5. Committee counsel saved a clean copy of draft 2.5 with section 10 deleted and indicated he would email and post the updated draft and renumber as needed. The committee then voted to advance draft 2.5 of H.397 favorably. The recorded yes votes included the chair, Senator Clarkson, Senator Hart, Senator White and Senator Palmer (5 yes; no no/abstain votes recorded in the transcript).

The committee also discussed a separate but related bill, H.319, described as technical corrections and reported from Senate Natural Resources; members noted H.319 had been voted out of that committee and was moving through the process.

Other substantive language changes the committee approved in the bill include the replacement of "flood vulnerable" with "flood prone" for voluntary buyouts and the removal of a retroactive amendment dealing with abatement for flood-impacted properties because that amendment had already passed in a different bill. Committee counsel said the staff would conform effective-date language to prior committee decisions.

The bill was set to move on to the finance committee; staff indicated they would provide printed and posted copies of the new draft. No formal direction to create new substantive policy beyond the deletions and terminology edits was recorded during the committee session.