 Good afternoon Thanks for being here. I thought I'd take a few minutes to go over the highlights from the National Governors Association meeting I attended last week in Washington before taking your questions First the NGA always Offers an opportunity for Governors of both parties to come together and discuss shared priorities Members of Congress might want to take a look at how Governors are able to put that partisanship aside and focus on areas We agree because I believe there's more common ground than some would think We had a good meeting at the White House with the president vice president members of the cabinet Where we discuss infrastructure the implementation of IIJ a and the IRA We also got to know the president's team a bit better We also talked about some of the layers of federal permitting that can create problems and working on these projects The permitting process is much more onerous here than in other Western countries Which often makes projects more expensive and slower to get done Governors of both parties emphasize to the president the need to streamline some of these processes So states can take full advantage of these resources faster and more cost effectively Later I attended a meeting of President Biden's Council of Governors, which I was appointed to last year We met with senior officials from the Department of Defense to talk about National Guard issues cyber security and more I Also raised the need for us to focus on shoring up domestic supply chains During the pandemic it came became very very clear to me That we as a country are far too dependent on four nations for supplies And it's important for national security that would make sure we're capable of producing critical supplies right here at home I Also sat down with new England governors where we focus on power sources in the Northeast and the price of energy and How we can continue to work together Now this may be a bit of a blast of the past from the past for some of you But we had a lengthy discussion about TDI the fully permit permitted 1,000 megawatt transmission line that would come through Vermont and then connect Southern New England to clean energy from Quebec As you might remember we heavily promoted this in my first term and would have used the revenue for for Lake Champlain cleanup But unfortunately Massachusetts decided to go in a different direction. So the line was never built But now with significant problems with other routes considered in New Hampshire and Maine The new England governors are very interested in the opportunity TDI Provides to us and it now has legs again, which would be good news for Vermont in the entire region Lastly I was appointed by the NGA chair Governor Murphy of New Jersey to co-chair a task force with Governor Lamont on Public health and disaster response We co-hosted a panel with federal regulators and cybersecurity experts about protecting our grid from foreign threats As well as making sure the grid is prepared to handle a carbon-free world as we further our reliance on electricity Last week a report was issued on the number of attacks on our electric grid here in the US and we learned we had a 169 incidents in 2022 alone, which was the most in a decade in 2021 it was 96 and 88 in 2020 So as you can see the numbers are growing And as eye-opening as this data might be it doesn't include the climate-related weather events We've had which are also increasing in severity and frequency Because of the devastation these incidents can have on life property and our economies It's imperative or prepared to respond to any large-scale disruptions And as we continue to electrify it's so important we get this right Because dependence on electricity will only grow So I look forward to working with Governor Lamont and others on how we can work together as a region to prepare for the future of energy So with that, I'll open up the question We did We had the other governors had forward a letter to the federal government In terms of a grant for this in specifically To help defer some of the costs as they move forward. So it really is about seeing if we're going to receive that grant But then I think it's important for the new governors to go back to their folks and see if If we can get to the table with TDI and in their counterparts in Southern New England again I have a chance yet to review Senate Bill 4 It's a pretty wide-spanning gun piece of legislation that I believe is going to be hitting the Senate for Early next week probably Yeah, I I wasn't aware that it got out of Committee at this point. Oh, okay. I I haven't reviewed it at this point part of this week long as we're looking at suicide prevention as one of the Policy arenas and part of that comes with Conversation around waiting periods. I know we looked into this a few years ago. You didn't support it at the time How how was that that issue weighing on you now? It's still I I feel as though we should be looking at the root causes of suicide I'm not sure that the gun waiting period From my perspective is the right approach But but I know we're all focused on this. I I also know the governor Murphy the nga chair this year has made Children in suicide and mental health issues in particular One of his initiatives, so we talked quite a bit about that at one of the events I was at And so we're going to be working on that throughout the year. I know the The legislature has some thoughts. We have a lot of initiatives in In our proposal our budget proposal to to take Some steps forward in that area as well. So I also think I think it should be highlighted the 988 provision that was put in Place a few months ago. I think we're seeing positive effects from that and And I think that we can again take other steps towards getting to a point where we're seeing A downward trajectory You know Yeah, again, I haven't looked at it specifically But but we've had our challenges obviously as a state with that one particular facility And and finally through some of the Environmental provisions zoning regs and so forth. It looks like we've got that hopefully closed But but I'll take a look at that. I'm not closed minded to that I just don't know the particulars and and what Far-reaching effects it would have I don't know if there are any other facilities in vermont to be honest with you and whether any, you know, whether it would Encompass any other training type facilities or not if it's specific to A certain segment. I I just don't know What information Can you give us about This one incident since you moved this last week. Yeah, we're still gathering information on that It it appears that You know it was driven outside of our borders national borders But but we're trying to get all the information we can at this point We're we're still planning to have a debrief on that to see what we can do To better protect ourselves. We also Reached out to our congressional delegation This might be and I talked to other governors about this as well But this might be something that Then we might have to contemplate on a national scale because I don't know where it can lead us, you know, if it's if it's outside our borders I'm not weak. We don't have the ability to to prevent that in some respects So we might need some help on the federal level to do that, but I might ask Commissioner Morrison if she has any further information on that Additional information as you mentioned we are continuing to work with our partners to coordinate all the available information from the 21 communities in vermont And generally speaking we're looking to work with them to have one central repository for that information and as you mentioned there is every indication that this is an international origin, so It would likely be investigated primarily at the federal level, but we just haven't Got into that place yet to make that common determination. So More to come and as the government mentioned we're reading internally to debrief More community level is how our response went and how we can be better prepared in the future and other aspects of the incident such as how to continue to build resilience and and Hopefully minimize the amount of trauma that incidents like this Caused within our schools and our communities because that's scary stuff. So we'll We'll continue to learn all the lessons we can from this and not about applying and going forward across state government Not just from the police perspective. How are we able to determine commissioner that the Calls originated out of the country? I don't happen to have that information at my fingertips, but that is the Briefing that I have received and the governor as well. So I don't have to know the how we know that but if that's Importance I can try and get you to state them on that. Is that information from state investigators or federal? investigators It's the In my understanding, so it's the opinion of both Um, and do you have any specificity on where outside the country? this originated Not to a degree that I'd be comfortable saying I think that there are some theories and speculation, but I um Nothing that I go on record saying and do you know if it's um Is there a sense of whether this is part of a organized syndicate of some kind or a road after or? That I don't know We're hardly the the only state that's been dealing with this Until we can better Prevent this and I don't know if that's even possible because I mean is it something that the state should be Budgeting for maybe in school budgets are for enforcement of responding to these Well, again, I think we've proven I think the the steps were taken last wednesday I think we we did pretty well in our response. Um, but there's always ways to be better and That's something that will come out during the debrief and and we'll put those into practice if needed We'll take whatever steps we need to to make sure our kids are safe So if it needs if it's more resources, we'll take a look at that if it's just the the practice will Change our approach, but anything we can do to perfect that Commissioner anything you want to add to that? No, sir Tim McQuiston from our business magazine to see you're on Believe it or not governor. So you're a little bit off the hook But congratulations on the governor's association being Yeah, it was a good meeting Do you happen to be on? The house passed a bill seeking to prevent perpetrators of domestic violence from filing abusive litigation against their ex partners Have you reviewed this bill? It's over in the senate now That's past I'm sure our general counsel has been taking a look at this and as well as public safety, but I I'm not aware of this one But we'll take a look Well, thank you all very much. Appreciate it