A little after 6 p.m. last Friday, people began streaming into Essex Center Grange Hall #155, an austere white clapboard building that shares a parking.
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Vermont House legislators overwhelmingly passed an overdose prevention bill earlier this month. It was in response to new health department data showing an alarming 38 percent increase in overdose deaths across Vermont. Now the Senate should do the same.
But will they?
While three Vermonters are dying of overdose every week and many thousands more are at immediate risk, there are troubling signs that this life-and-death bill may not pass this year based on scheduling issues and tit for tat political infighting.
Although more Vermonters died of overdose than COVID-19 in 2020, there has been no commitment from Senate leadership to act.
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MONTPELIER â An amendment that would have added criteria for businesses receiving relief funds to show economic loss during the pandemic was voted down by the State House of Representatives on Friday, as the $78.8 million bill passed on third reading and was sent to the state Senate.
The relief bill, in addition to funds for recreation, school air quality and mental health support, includes $10 million for businesses that did not qualify for earlier federal CARES Act relief funds. When the initiative was left out of the Budget Adjustment Act, House leaders pledged they would work quickly to get it through the committee process and out the door.