Legislators gather in the cafeteria on the opening day of the Legislature at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Wednesday, January 3, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger The Senate was talking about construction on Friday. Specifically, the chamber passed their version of this year’s capital bill — legislation that is both large, and contains multitudes. While the crux of H.882 is in funding bonded state infrastructure projects, the bill also includes a handful of policy proposals, some on hot-button topics in different parts of the state. For instance, the bill includes measures designed to keep the state fish hatchery in Salisbury open through at least 2027. To the dismay of some anglers, funding for the historic hatchery wasn’t included in Gov. Phil Scott’s 2025 budget proposal earlier this year. As approved by the Senate, H.882 states that the hatchery “shall not close” without approval from the Legislature and tasks the administration with reporting annually on the state of the facility. (Both the House and Senate included $550,000 for the hatchery in 2025 in their respective proposed budgets.) The bill would also task the administration with studying whether a portion of the former Windsor prison site, which was shuttered in 2017, could be transferred to a nearby wildlife management area — or, whether certain portions are more suitable for future redevelopment.  It would also authorize the administration to sign a lease for a secure youth facility run by the Department for Children and Families on state land in Vergennes. Plans are for a developer to stand up the facility and then lease it back to the state, said Sen. Russ Ingalls, R-Essex, reporting the bill on the floor Friday.  Several minutes earlier, Ingalls had pointed out one other measure in the bill that’s, frankly, very different: a $100,000 appropriation for the Statehouse sergeant-at-arms to buy new tables and chairs for the cafeteria. “We have a seating problem up in the cafeteria — there’s not enough chairs most of the time,” Ingalls said, adding he hopes the sergeant-at-arms can “make that space work up there a little bit better than what it is right now.”  Maybe they could pick up a few power strips, too? — Shaun Robinson In the know For the third time in as many years, a crowd filed into a conference room at the University of Vermont last Thursday evening for a panel about Indigenous belonging. The focus, once again, was on Vermont’s four state-recognized tribes. Among the headline speakers was Darryl Leroux, a University of Ottawa associate professor who’s conducted leading research on Indigenous heritage in the region. “There’s such obvious and compelling evidence that these groups do not represent Abenaki people in any way,” Leroux said during the panel, detailing the findings of a paper he published last year about Abenaki identity in and around Vermont. “How,” he continued, “did the state of Vermont recognize them as such?” Leroux’s work has backed assertions made for years by the leaders of Odanak First Nation, an Abenaki tribe centered in southern Quebec. The First Nation has maintained that many members of Vermont’s four state-recognized tribes are not Indigenous and, instead, are appropriating Abenaki identity in ways that are harmful to their people. Leaders of the state-recognized tribes in Vermont have sought over the past several years to, as they tell it, defend their culture against attacks levied by a former ally.  But if the content of last week’s panel wasn’t entirely new, it came at a time in which the dispute over tribal identity in the state has become more entrenched.  Read more here.  — Shaun Robinson On the move After a flurry of last-minute deliberations, the Vermont Senate passed a mammoth bill on Friday afternoon that makes sweeping reforms to the state’s land use and housing policies. The bill, H.687, relaxes the reach of Act 250 — Vermont’s half-century-old land use review law — in existing development centers, a move proponents hope will clear red tape and encourage more housing growth amid an acute housing shortage. It also lays the groundwork for extending Act 250’s protections over to-be-determined ecologically sensitive areas.  The bill’s passage marks a major juncture for legislators, who for years have attempted — and failed — to thread the needle on modernizing Act 250. Yet the bill has more hurdles to clear. The Senate made fundamental changes to the version passed by the House in March; as lawmakers race toward a planned adjournment date on May 10, the two chambers have little time left to reconcile their differences. Read more tonight on VTDigger.org. — Carly Berlin May the Fourth be with you It seems that legislators are feeling a little… hairy this close to adjournment. At the end of the House’s floor session Friday, Rep. Brian Cina, P/D-Burlington, stood up to announce to his colleagues the arrival of a holiday this weekend: May the 4th, “a holiday for Star Wars lovers.” “For those who don’t know, Star Wars is a science fiction saga about the epic struggle within the force, between the powers of light and darkness,” Cina explained to his colleagues. Okay, Criterion Collection! Nerds everywhere have proclaimed  May 4th “Star Wars Day,” as a riff on the series’ classic line, “May the force be with you.” “Madame Speaker,” Cina continued, “May I end the week with a quote from Star Wars that captures how the body might feel right now, after many months of hard work and many debates with many words, from the indelible Wookiee, Chewbacca?” A perhaps unsuspecting House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, gave him her blessing. That’s when Cina let out a relatively convincing Wookiee call that went something like, “Eeeeeeuuuuuuggggggghhhhhhhhhh!” — Sarah Mearhoff Visit our 2024 Bill tracker for the latest updates on major legislation we are following.  Corrections section Yesterday’s newsletter omitted the byline for Juan Vega De Soto, who wrote the lead story. What we’re reading Vermont, federal officials plan rabies bait drop as wildlife cases rise, VTDigger Aggressive behavior, increased drug use at Burlington’s downtown library prompt calls for help, Seven Days Universities and colleges search for ways to reverse the decline in the ranks of male students, Vermont Public Read the story on VTDigger here: Final Reading: Senate passes annual capital bill — with new Statehouse furniture in the mix.