Senate reviews amendments to Truth and Reconciliation Commission bill; senators raise questions about support groups and confidentiality

The Vermont Senate on April 19 took up H649, a bill to amend the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's enabling law to extend deadlines, add a selection panel, and permit confidential group support sessions while preserving public deliberation requirements.

The reporting senator said the bill would delay the commission's sunset and reporting deadlines, reconstitute the selection panel as a five-member body, and give the panel authority to fill vacancies within 60 days. The bill removes the commission's rulemaking authority to ensure it remains an advisory body under changes to S.55, and it authorizes the commission to establish support groups for people who have experienced discrimination or harm while prohibiting commissioners from participating in those groups.

The bill requires group-session participants be provided notice of confidentiality rights and exceptions, creates a private right of action for damages from breach of confidentiality, and preserves mandated reporting obligations (for example, in instances involving harm to self or others or abuse of vulnerable people). The reporting senator said the commission has requested these protections to enable participants to process difficult experiences and to continue their work without the administrative burden of constant public streaming.

A senator pressed whether membership in those support groups could be limited to particular ethnicities or could result in segregated meetings. The reporting senator said that the underlying law and federal civil-rights law create constraints and that the commission would use judgment in establishing groups; the reporter offered to consult the commission before third reading to clarify processes and protections. "If the reporter could at least come back to us and give us an assurance that we are not creating groups that are racially segregated," one senator said.

The bill also adds requirements that draft and final reports include a bibliography, a summary of interviews used, and information on public access to materials. Committees asked for the Senate to concur with amendments and ordered third reading.