The Vermont House of Representatives did something kind of impressive a couple weeks ago. Not that the media paid much attention, due in part to all Trump all the time — and I let it pass by for that same reason, but I can play catchup when events call for it. So here I am, belatedly.

Way back on April 2, the House approved H.91, the “Vermont Homeless Emergency Assistance and Responsive Transition to Housing Program.” Quite a mouthful, but the acronym is VHEARTH, which is catchy indeed.

But that’s not the impressive part. What the bill’s writers managed to do is create a new state program from scratch. VHEARTH is meant to replace the much-lamented and chronically underfunded General Assistance Emergency Housing Program, d/b/a/ the motel voucher program. Yep, legislative leaders had been begging Gov. Phil Scott to propose an alternative to vouchers for years. Seems they finally got tired of waiting for the chief executive to do his damn job.

I first learned of this five days later, when the Barre Montpelier Times Argus published a front-page story (paywalled, sorry) about H.91 gaining House approval. I was so surprised to learn of a major Statehouse development in my sadly reduced local paper that I had to check and double-check to make sure I hadn’t missed a story in the more customary outlets like VTDigger, Seven Days, or Vermont Public.

But I hadn’t. Those usually dependable organizations either missed a major piece of legislation achieving a milestone, or they deemed it unworthy of their attention. If it was the latter, well, they were sorely mistaken.

The bill did prompt brief reports from WCAX and WPTZ marking the preliminary passage of H.91 on April 1, no foolin’. But as far as I can tell, that was all the coverage H.91 got.

The fact that the House had to take this on is a black mark on the Scott administration’s ledger. The part-time Legislature has very little support staff and not a lot of bandwidth for a heavy lift like crafting a major program on its own. The executive branch has thousands of full-time employees and far more expertise and experience. The usual procedure is for the governor to propose something like this, and then the Legislature works from the governor’s plan. But while Scott is always ready to whine about the voucher program, he has never bothered to propose a replacement. I call that a dereliction of duty, but maybe that’s just me.

The bill will begin its Senate adventure later this week, when it will be taken up by the Senate Health & Welfare Committee. I have no idea how that committee or the Senate as a whole will view this bill, but I do know the House and Senate majority caucuses are much more closely aligned on emergency housing now than in the past, when the senior chamber was much more tight-fisted and willing to swallow Scott administration assurances that nothing bad would happen if cuts were made to the voucher program. .

Even if the Senate approves the bill or an amended version thereof, it would face a very likely gubernatorial veto. House Republicans were complaining about the bill’s expense, and it’s hard to imagine Scott signing a bill if it costs a single dime more than the voucher program. It is, at the same time, unfortunately easy to imagine him again refusing to offer a plan of his own.

But the fact that H.91 has gotten this far is a victory unto itself. Its writers (credit to lead sponsor Rep. Jubilee McGill, who’s been working hard on this issue for years) and legislative shepherds deserve full credit for fighting the good fight. Who knows, it might start a conversation that will lead to a new emergency housing program down the road. That is, if Scott can be bothered to actually “come to the table” and engage in honest conversation about how to find common ground and help prevent the mass unshelterings we have seen in recent years. After all, I keep hearing that he’s a nice guy.