Montpelier, VT - Governor Phil Scott announced action on the following bills, passed by the General Assembly.

On June 12th, Governor Scott signed bills of the following titles:

• H.173, An act relating to prohibiting manipulating a child for the purpose of sexual contact
• H.644, An act relating to access to records by individuals who were in foster care
• H.655, An act relating to qualifying offenses for sealing criminal history records and access to sealed criminal history records
• H.745, An act relating to the Vermont Parentage Act

When signing H.644, Governor Scott issued the following statement:

This bill will allow Vermonters to access their files from their time in foster care, which is important because I believe everyone deserves to know about their past. I appreciate the work done by the Department for Children and Families, the Office of the Child, Youth, and Family Advocate, Voices for Vermont’s Children, and those with lived experiences who worked on H.644 throughout this legislative session.

To view a complete list of action on bills passed during the 2024 legislative session, click here.

Governor Scott recently discussed his decision-making approach to the bills passed by the Legislature, highlighting the challenge of balancing benefits, costs and risks, and concerns about the realities of new costs and short timelines for numerous new initiatives coming out of the Legislature. In part, Governor Scott said, “As I’ve always done, I will carefully weigh the good against the bad to make a decision based on whether the benefits outweigh the negative impacts for our entire state. These decisions aren’t easy and they’re not always popular here in Montpelier. But I’ll take that heat when I believe I’m making the right choice for the everyday Vermonter.” Read his full statement here.