City and town clerks across Vermont are preparing for a federal law that is expected to restrict public access to birth and death records as part of a tightening of national security.
State officials have held meetings with clerks during the past month to discuss the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, a lengthy bill signed into law a year ago that, among its provisions, requires increased protection for vital records such as birth certificates. The new regulations could close 70 years of Vermont's traditionally open records to genealogists, journalists and other researchers. It will also greatly increase the state's expenses.
You can read more in the Burlington (Vermont) Free Press.
