I was away all week at ABA Day in Washington with VBA President Teri Corsones; President Elect Jim Carroll; ABA State Delegate Fritz Langrock; and VBA Delegate to the ABA Rich Cassidy. We did our annual visits with members of our congressional delegation presenting issues of concern to the ABA and to the VBA. The usual top issue for the ABA is funding of the Legal Services Corporation. This year they a request for support on a new bill calling for tax intercepts of unpaid judicial fines. The VBA presented our congressmen the issues our property bar is facing under the licensed lender law and the federal SAFE Act. They were unfamiliar with the issue but all three expressed concerns about its effect on Vermonters. We were invited by each to submit our drafts of amendments to either the bill or the proposed HUD regulations, which we’re told will be out in early May to address the issue. I’ve shared this with Property Law Section Chair Hall Miller and would invite any of you with suggestions to forward them to me or to Hal.
The House has passed the Uniform Limited Cooperative Associations Act and the Senate is due to take up the UCCJEA today. The private roads bill is still in Committee with some more testimony due early next week. I’ll update this blog next week on things that I need to investigate further before reporting. I heard this morning that the Senate morning committees which includes Judiciary will stop meeting after next Tuesday. The “big” bills are due to hit the Senate floor next week which will limit all committee time: appropriations; taxes; capital construction; transportation; and health care.
Thanks for reading; sorry for the delay in posting.