The House delayed its vote on the independent contractor bill again after a procedural maneuver Monday evening by a staunch opponent.
House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, ended up directing the bill, H.867, to the Legislature’s tax-writing committee because the classification of workers will affect Vermont’s unemployment insurance fund.
When Smith announced that the bill was about to be debated, Rep. Chris Pearson, P-Burlington, called “point of order,” saying the chamber’s rules required the House Ways and Means Committee to review the bill.
On the House floor, it is typical for an opponent of a bill to call “point of order” and ask to send a bill back into a committee to stop lawmakers from voting on the bill. However, the move doesn’t always work.
But a few minutes after meeting with the clerk of the House to discuss Pearson’s request, Smith told Pearson, “It is true that bills that impact the revenues to the state and in particular unemployment insurance bills … have traditionally gone to the Ways and Means Committee.”
Smith said there was a slight difference in rules because the committee of jurisdiction for H.867, House Commerce and Economic Development, had been “relieved” of it Thursdayso it could come to the floor for a vote. But he said the bill should have gone to Ways and Means in the first place and sent it back.
H.867 would rewrite the state’s laws on what makes a person an independent contractor versus an employee and make it easier for businesses to classify workers as independent contractors.
Read the full story at Last-minute move takes independent contractor bill off floor | VTDigger
