Down to 2 and a half weeks before adjournment.  Both chambers were in session Tues, Wed, & Thur this past week.  They were busy all days, but some of the bills were “talkers”.  These are bills in which there is a lot of debate and lots of discussion.  Sometimes on days like these, legislators may spend 8-10 hours debating one bill.  

Activity this past week with bills on my list were:

Mon 5/17   H.B. #5653 was passed and sent immediately to the Governor for his signature.

Tues 5/18   H.B. #6420 was passed and sent to the Senate

                   S.B. #1 was passed and sent to the House

                   H.B. #6595 was JF’d out of the Judiciary committee and placed on the House calendar

Thur 5/20   S.B. #141 & S.B. #1083 were passed and sent to the House

                   H.B. #6391 was passed by the House, but it has not shown as being on the Senate calendar yet.

I deleted 7 bills from the listing this week. All had been past their time for a few weeks, but I was waiting to see if they might show up elsewhere.  They were H.B. #5840, #5846, #5852, #6170, S.B. #638, #962 & #1010.  Most were money bills and the money committees are closed to new bills.

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I neglected to mention last week that it appears that S.B. #119 is dead.  It was sent to the Finance committee on 4/28.  If a bill is sent to committee and does not get voted back out within 3 session days or 7?? or 10?? business days, it is considered dead.  Both those times have passed.  The bill was proposed by Sen. Champagne from Vernon, but his district encompasses Ashford, Chaplin, Coventry, Eastford, Ellington, Hampton, Pomfret, Stafford, Tolland, Union, Vernon, Willington & Woodstock.  If anyone from his district reads this and has a rapport with him, you might call him and ask if he can revive the issue.  He may have way to bring it back to life.  This bill would have eliminated fees for volunteer F.D. for criminal history checks. 

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The House is scheduled to be in session Mon, Tues, Wed & Thur next week.  The Senate has not published their schedule at this time.  May be a short week this week as next Monday is Memorial Day.  Long Weekend????

Any questions you can reach me by email.  I’ll try to help   

Ted Schroll Jr., Legislative Representative
Connecticut State Firefighters Association
Email  thschroll@snet.net