The 2023 session of the Connecticut General Assembly entered a quiet and crucial phase this week. All but the tax and budget committees have reached their deadlines for reporting bills to the floors of the House and Senate.
Complicated and contentious bills on wage and workplace standards, energy regulation, gun control, affordable housing, climate change and recycling all made the initial cut, winning favorable committee votes.
“This part of the legislative session now is very busy, but it’s mostly behind the scenes,” said Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, a lawmaker for 42 years and the Senate’s top leader for eight.
Some committee approvals were conditional, less an endorsement of a finished product than a decision to keep them alive for further polishing, negotiation or wholesale revamping.
What happens now can broadly be described as screening, a process for assessing the policy and political implications of the committees’ output, as well as whether they have the broader support sufficient for a floor vote.
“Now it’s time to sort out and prioritize,” said House Minority Leader Vincent. J Candelora, R-North Branford. “There’s only so much time on the clock, and what are the priorities?”
Unlike Congress, where bills can gestate over two years, the life cycle of a bill in the Connecticut General Assembly is surprisingly brief, akin to the growing season in a hostile climate.
General Assembly sessions are five months in odd years, three months in...
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