The House Government Operations Committee heard from Representative Brennan on Tuesday who, on behalf of the Town of Colchester, proposed an amendment to H.875 (the municipal ethics bill) which would require towns who have established policies and procedures on Ethics to be exempt from the entirety of the Bill upon submitting a letter from the legislative body to the State Ethics Commission by December 31^st of each year certifying that the municipality has adopted an ethics policy and  framework that does not conflict with the state standards.

The Committee discussed the Amendment and after discussion took a straw vote 8-3-1 against the amendment. Most of comments reflected a sentiment that the amendment went against the spirit of the bill. 

The bill then moved to the House Floor for discussion and vote by the body. Representative Waters Evans presented the bill on behalf of the Committee and reviewed the bill in detail as previously reported.

Brennan presented his amendment to the floor as he had presented to the Committee.  The amendment failed on a 43-95 vote. The underlying bill passed second reading and will advance to the Senate after being read a third time.