Statement Celebrating Democrats’ 2023-24 Legislative Accomplishments

Vermont Democratic Party Executive Director Jim Dandeneau issued a statement today celebrating Democratic wins in the 2023-24 legislative session.

“Vermont Democrats had a legislative session full of tremendous successes,” said Dandeneau. “On everything from child care to climate change, from gun safety to housing, Democrats made huge progress on making Vermont a better place for working Vermonters.”

Democratic successes included:

• Overhauling Vermont’s broken child care network (H.217), providing thousands of dollars to working Vermont parents to lower the cost of child care; raising pay and improving working conditions for child care workers; and stabilizing providers across the state.

• Protecting reproductive and gender affirming care (H.89/S.37), ensuring that medical providers can provide care to trans patients and pregnant women without fear of retribution from Republican lawmakers in other states.

• Holding Big Oil accountable for wrecking our climate with the Make Big Oil Pay bill (S.259) and built a foundation to help end Vermont’s reliance on foreign oil and develop good paying green jobs right here at home (S.5, H.289).

• Saving lives with groundbreaking gun safety legislation (H.230), establishing waiting periods and safe storage requirements that, according to anecdotal evidence, already saved lives within months of passage.

• Providing food for all Vermont kids with universal school meals (H.165).

• Reforming Vermont’s broken health care system with billing changes that put the burden on insurers (H.766), enabling practices to focus more resources on patient care instead of untangling complicated medical billing procedures.

• Establishing one of the first Baby Bond programs in the country, depositing $3200 for each child born into Medicaid coverage in the state into a trust fund to be paid to that child after they turn 18 (H.55). This new program will give Vermont children a solid financial foundation as they grow and close a widening wealth gap.

• Getting people suffering from addiction off of the streets and connecting them to treatment (H.72).

• Making structural changes to land use laws and investing hundreds of millions of dollars to build more housing quickly (H.687, S.100).

“Vermont Democrats have made life better for thousands of Vermont families,” said Dandeneau. “There’s always more work to do, but we should be incredibly proud of what we’ve done to help so many people. I can’t wait to share these wins on the campaign trail.”