§§ 301-305 §§ 301-305. Repealed. 1971, No. 204 (Adj. Sess.), § 7, eff. March 31, 1972; No. 256 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. March 31, 1972, and Jan. 15, 1973.
§§ 341, 342 §§ 341, 342. Repealed. 1971, No. 204 (Adj. Sess.), § 7, eff. March 31, 1972; No. 256 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. March 31, 1972.
§§ 371-374 §§ 371-374. Repealed. 1971, No. 204 (Adj. Sess.), § 7, eff. March 31, 1972; No. 256 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. March 31, 1972.
§ 401 § 401. Creation and purpose
A legislative council is created as a permanent agency to serve the general assembly with a professional staff and secretarial services. (Added 1971, No. 204 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. March 31, 1972.)
§ 402 § 402. Membership
(a) The legislative council shall consist of:
(1) The president pro tempore of the senate and three members of the senate appointed by the president.
(2) The speaker of the house and three members of the house appointed by the speaker.
(b) Members shall serve a term of two years or until their successors are appointed. The term of a member shall end upon his ceasing to be a member of the general assembly.
(c) Interim vacancies may be filled by appointment by the president of the senate or the speaker of the house in the same manner as in subsection (a) of this section.
(d) The members shall be appointed from the political parties in the general proportion to the membership of each party in each house.
(e) Appointments shall be made biennially at the same time as standing committees. (Added 1971, No. 204 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. Jan. 1, 1973.)
§ 403 § 403. Organization, expenses
(a) The legislative council shall meet immediately following the appointment of its membership to elect a chair, and a vice-chair, to organize and conduct its business. The members of the council shall adopt rules for the organization of the council and the operation of its personnel. The council may meet as often as it deems necessary, and a majority of the members shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. Meetings may be called by the chairman or by a majority of the members.
(b) The legislative council shall employ such professional and secretarial staff as are required to carry out its functions and fix their compensation. Chapter 13 of Title 3 shall not apply to employees of the council unless this exception is partially or wholly waived by the council.
(c) After July 1, 1972, all of the expenses of the legislative council shall be charged to the legislative appropriation, and the council shall prepare a detailed legislative council budget generally in the format of departmental budgets.
(d) The legislative council shall have its offices in the state house.
(e) For attending a meeting of the legislative council when he is not receiving compensation as a member of the general assembly, a member of the legislative council shall be entitled to the same per diem compensation and reimbursement for necessary expenses as provided members of standing committees under 2 V.S.A. § 406. (Added 1971, No. 204 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. March 31, 1972; amended 1983, No. 88, § 13, eff. July 3, 1983.)
§ 404 § 404. Functions
(a) The legislative council shall direct, supervise and coordinate the work of its staff and secretaries.
(b) The legislative council shall:
(1) Furnish research services in relation to legislative problems;
(2) Furnish drafting services for bills, resolutions and amendments;
(3) Establish and maintain a reference library;
(4) Furnish such other information and legal assistance respecting legislative matters as may be required by a committee of either house, a joint committee of the general assembly, or a member-elect of the general assembly;
(5) Appoint one or more persons to serve as staff for a standing committee of either house or any group of standing committees of the house and senate;
(6) Except when the general assembly is in session and upon the request of any person provide him, on a weekly basis, with a list of all public hearings or meetings scheduled by a council, committee, subcommittee, commission or study committee of the general assembly or any cancellations of hearings or meetings thereof previously scheduled;
(7) Keep minutes of its meetings and shall maintain a file thereof.
(c) All requests for legal assistance, information and advice and all information received in connection with research or drafting shall be confidential unless the party requesting or giving the information designates in the request that it is not confidential. Transcripts and minutes of committee meetings, including written testimony submitted to the committee, bills or amendments which have been released or approved for printing or introduction and material appearing in the journals or calendars of either house are official documents and shall not be confidential under this subsection. (Added 1971, No. 204 (Adj. Sess.), § 4, eff. March 31, 1972; amended 1973, No. 60, § 1, eff. May 13, 1973; 1981, No. 178 (Adj. Sess.), § 1.)
§ 405 § 405. Intergovernmental cooperation
For the purposes of carrying out its duties, the legislative council and its staff shall have access to and the right to copy any public record of all executive, administrative and judicial departments of the state, except income and franchise tax returns and other documents classified as confidential by law. (Added 1971, No. 204 (Adj. Sess.), § 5, eff. March 31, 1972.)
§ 406 § 406. Standing committees; authority to meet; out-of-state business
(a) During adjournment of the general assembly any standing committee or subcommittee of a standing committee may with the appropriate approval of the speaker or the president pro tempore meet at the call of its chairman to conduct legislative business within the state. For attendance at such a meeting or for attendance at a meeting of a special committee or joint committee, a committee member shall be entitled to per diem compensation and expense reimbursement as follows:
(1) Daily compensation at the rate then in effect for members of the general assembly during a special session.
(2) Actual mileage traveled at the rate paid state employees.
(3) Receipted lodging costs and actual meal costs.
(4) Other actual expenses, as reasonable and necessary.
(b) For attending to official duties out of the state, a member shall be entitled to the same per diem compensation as provided for attendance at sessions of the general assembly. Reimbursement of necessary and actual expenses for official duties out of the state shall be made from the legislative appropriation to any member of the general assembly or its staff. Such reimbursement and per diem compensation shall be in lieu of any other expenses payable by the state to that person during the period he is out of the state and shall be contingent upon:
(1) Prior approval of the out-of-state duties by the speaker of the house in the case of a house member or employee, or by the president pro tempore of the senate in the case of a senator or senate employee; and
(2) Certification of the expense voucher to the commissioner of finance and management by either the speaker of the house or president pro tempore of the senate in the appropriate case or designee.
(c) All per diem and expense claims for attendance at authorized committee meetings shall be submitted with the approval of the committee chairman. (Added 1971, No. 204 (Adj. Sess.), § 6, eff. March 31, 1972; amended 1973, No. 62, § 1, eff. April 24, 1973; 1983, No. 88, § 9, eff. July 3, 1983; 1983, No. 195 (Adj. Sess.), § 5(b); 1995, No. 123 (Adj. Sess.), § 8, eff. June 6, 1996; 2003, No. 156 (Adj. Sess.), § 15; 2007, No. 7, § 7.)
§ 421 § 421. Legislative council; statutory publication and revision duties
(a) The legislative council shall continuously maintain and update a formal topical revision of existing permanent statutory law to be known as the Vermont Statutes Annotated. The topical revision shall be arranged in a systematic and annotated form that is consolidated into the smallest practical number of volumes and indexes.
(b) The legislative council, on behalf of the state of Vermont, shall hold the copyright to the Vermont Statutes Annotated. (Added 2001, No. 30, § 1.)
§ 422 § 422. Contract for preparation of Vermont Statutes Annotated
(a) The legislative council shall contract with a competent legal publisher to revise and publish the Vermont Statutes Annotated.
(b) The contract for publishing the Vermont Statutes Annotated shall provide for the annual editing and publishing of cumulative pocket part supplements after each biennial and adjourned legislative session for the duration of the contract. The cumulative pocket part supplements shall include all the codified laws that were enacted during the concluded biennial or adjourned session of the general assembly, and during any special session that has occurred since the last annual publication. Each edition of the cumulative pocket part supplements to the Vermont Statutes Annotated shall include all annotations of constructions of the supreme court of the state of Vermont and all federal courts of the United States, available at the closing date of each edition of the pocket parts.
(c) The contracted publisher shall, as provided in the contract, or as statutorily directed by the general assembly, publish replacement volumes of existing titles, or separate volumes of new titles, of the Vermont Statutes Annotated. (Added 2001, No. 30, § 1.)
§ 423 § 423. Acceptance as evidence of law
(a) The legislative council shall require the contracted publisher to deliver the cumulative pocket parts and separate supplements to the Vermont Statutes Annotated prior to the convening of the next session of the general assembly, which shall include a certificate of authenticity that the legislative council shall issue. The certificate shall entitle the statutes contained in the cumulative pocket parts and separate supplements to admission in all the courts of Vermont as prima facie evidence of the law, and may be cited as "V.S.A."
(b) The legislative council shall require the contracted publisher to deliver new and replacement volumes of the Vermont Statutes Annotated with a certificate of authenticity that the legislative council shall issue. The certificate shall entitle the statutes contained in the new and replacement volumes to admission in all the courts of Vermont as prima facie evidence of the law, and may be cited as "V.S.A."
(c) A certificate of authority issued by the statutory revision commission pursuant to the authority of the former 1 V.S.A. § 4 shall continue to entitle a cumulative pocket part and separate supplement, or a new and replacement volume, for which it was issued to admission in all the courts of Vermont as prima facie evidence of the law and may be cited as "V.S.A." (Added 2001, No. 30, § 1.)
§ 424 § 424. Legislative council; revision authority
In preparing an individual act for codification in the Vermont Statutes Annotated, the legislative council may not alter the sense, meaning or effect of any act of the general assembly, but it may:
(1) renumber and rearrange sections or parts of sections;
(2) transfer sections or divide sections so as to give separate section numbers to distinct subject matters, but without changing the meaning;
(3) insert or change the wording of headnotes;
(4) change reference numbers to agree with renumbered chapters or sections;
(5) substitute the proper section or chapter number for the terms "this act," "the preceding section" and similar terms;
(6) strike out figures where they are merely a repetition of written words and vice versa;
(7) change capitalization for the purpose of conformity;
(8) correct manifest typographical and grammatical errors;
(9) make any changes in any of the forms provided as guides which may be necessitated by changes in the substantive law; and
(10) make any other purely formal or clerical changes in keeping with the purposes of revision. (Added 2001, No. 30, § 1.)
§ 425 § 425. Statutory databases
The legislative council shall maintain official computerized databases of the Vermont Statutes Annotated. The databases shall include the enactment history of a codified statutory section, but shall not maintain the revisor's notes, the judicial annotations added by the publisher, or the acts and resolves. The legislative council shall post these databases, along with a seal of authenticity, on the worldwide web site of the Vermont general assembly. (Added 2001, No. 30, § 1.)
§ 426 § 426. Annual statutory revision legislation
Annually, by February 1, the legislative council may prepare and submit to the general assembly a bill that proposes recommendations of any additions, repeals or amendments to the existing statutes. (Added 2001, No. 30, § 1.)