House concurs in Senate changes to judiciary procedures bill, removes contested section and messages action to Senate

The House on May 10 concurred in the Senate proposal of amendment to House Bill 878, a miscellaneous judiciary procedures bill, and later sent the action to the Senate.

The member from Orwell and the member from South Burlington reviewed the Senate’s strike-all changes and the judiciary committee’s proposed further amendment. Noted changes included corrections to competency-hearing cross-references and language allowing psychologists or psychiatrists to testify remotely, retroactive corrections to domestic-violence and victims’ compensation fund fee language, technical amendments to the Uniform Power of Attorney Act form, an exemption for law-enforcement drone use over private property, civil violations for placing surveillance cameras without consent, and new language expanding protections for nonconsensual distribution of explicit images to cover AI-generated deep fakes.

The member from South Burlington offered a further amendment to remove section 49 because replacement language already appears elsewhere in the package; the committee voted in favor and the House concurred in the Senate proposal of amendment with that further amendment. The body then approved a motion to message the action on H.878 to the Senate forthwith.

Copies of the Senate strike-all, the House further amendment, and fiscal tabs were emailed to members and made available on the House overview webpage and at the main table.