Action Taken by Governor Phil Scott on Legislation

Press Release

"Today, I am proud to sign a suite of bills that will enhance public safety, support victims of crime, keep our kids safer in school, and more. My team has worked collaboratively with the Legislature to advance these proposals, and I want to thank them for working with us. In particular, I want to express my appreciation to Senator Sears for his efforts and partnership. Several of these bills would not have made it across the finish line without his hard work.

"These bills take important steps. They work to provide local officials the ability to hold offenders accountable for straw purchases of guns; hold justice involved youth accountable for violent offenses and provide them with support services in a more timely manner; provide communities access to resources for violence prevention efforts in their towns; help better protect health care workers from violent incidents; lays the groundwork for a facility to fill a gap in our human services system for justice involved individuals who are incompetent to stand trial; separate competency and insanity evaluations to provide swifter justice and ease the backlog of evaluations; and increase school safety by standardizing basic measures in every school district across the state, such as high quality emergency operations plans, centralized visitor management, and behavioral threat assessment teams, a tool for schools to identify concerning behaviors and get kids the help they need before something goes wrong.

"As I have often said, public safety is a primary responsibility for any government, and although there is more that needs to be done, these bills make Vermont an even safer place to live and raise a family."

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