House concurs with amended H.655 to refine criminal-record sealing process and remove study committee

The Vermont House concurred in a further amendment to House Bill 655, a bill addressing qualifying offenses for sealing criminal-history records and access to sealed records.

The House Judiciary Committee (member from Essex Junction) reported that the version returning from the Senate had been significantly reduced; the committee removed a section that would have created a study committee and instead added language clarifying that the chief superior judge shall propose how a petition-based sealing process would operate — not whether a petition process should happen. The committee said information gathered during prior testimony made a study committee unnecessary.

The House agreed to the committee’s further amendment by voice vote and recorded concurrence in the Senate proposal of amendment with the further changes described by the committee reporter. The committee reported its action and asked for the body’s support; the transcript records the committee vote as recorded in the report.