State House News -- Senate pressing first-in-nation auto repair bill
18.05.12
Impatient Senate leaders circumvented a House-controlled committee and blindsided colleagues Tuesday by scheduling consideration later this week of first-in-the nation legislation to force auto manufacturers to reveal additional repair data to body shops and aftermarket parts dealers.
The bill, released by the Senate Ways and Means Committee during a lightly attended session, is marked for consideration Thursday. With lobbyists on both sides of the issue scrambling to prepare, senators were ordered to quickly file amendments to the complex legislation by noon Wednesday.
Sen. Stephen Brewer (D-Barre), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said the effort to advance the bill was intended to prevent interest groups from placing a similar proposal before voters in November. If the legislation doesn’t pass by early May, he noted, proponents will begin gearing up to take the measure to the ballot.
“We are down to less than a month and we need to try and advance this discussion,” Brewer said. “We need to kick the discussion up a notch. It’s almost always unwise to do complicated policy by bumper sticker mentality.” Alluding to the feverish lobbying over the bill, Brewer said a ballot campaign “would just be the war of the worlds.”
Source: Wicked Local