Senate Finance agrees to remove prioritization clause from H.398 disaster loan language

At a Senate Finance Committee meeting, members agreed to remove a clause from a draft amendment to H.398 that would have required prioritizing businesses that had not already received state disaster recovery assistance.

Committee members said the change will limit the directive to "considering" whether a business previously received help from the Vermont Disaster Recovery Loan Fund, rather than ordering officials to prioritize applicants who had not. That fund was referenced in the draft language as the "Vermont Disaster Recovery Loan Fund established under, by this subchapter 15."

The exchange began when a member reading the draft amendment said the full sentence ended, "in determining whether to issue financial assistance from the Vermont Disaster Recovery Loan Fund established under by this sub chapter 15. The authority shall consider whether a business has received disaster recovery financial assistance from state for the same disaster event." Committee members objected to an additional clause that would have required prioritizing businesses that had not received prior assistance. The committee agreed the sentence should end at "the same disaster event" and that the extra prioritization language should be struck.

Committee members directed staff to have the amendment redrafted to reflect that change before the bill proceeds. The committee did not record a formal vote on the redraft during the discussion on the transcript excerpt.

The transcript shows the redraft will be handled by staff (referred to as "Cameron" and the "secretary's office"); no further timeline for the refiled amendment was provided in the discussion excerpt.