These news briefs were originally written for CT Politics, The Connecticut Mirror’s weekly newsletter providing updates on the 2025 legislative session. To sign up for CT Politics, click here.

Mental health day

Lawmakers commemorated the third annual Mental Health and Wellness Day on Tuesday and used the occasion to highlight some of the bills they are working on this session. Rep. Kai Belton, D-Middletown, who led a press conference, said she wanted to create a “space for healing and support and for connection” when she started the mental health and wellness fair.

Among the bills on the table, H.B. 7158 would require health care providers treating minor patients to send a safety plan to that child’s school with the consent of their parent or guardian, and develop a discharge plan in a timely manner from inpatient facilities.

Rep. Tammy Exum, D-West Hartford, said the pandemic brought the children’s behavioral health crisis to the forefront. “Children should not have to leave the state of Connecticut to get the care that they needed.”

— Laura Tillman, Human Services Reporter

Multifamily housing bans

The state House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill that would ban towns from temporary pauses on multifamily housing constructions, a measure that aims to ensure municipalities don’t use zoning to ban apartment construction outright.

Trumbull has a moratorium in place that has stretched on for six years. Ridgefield has been trying to get one. Towns sometimes say they’re using these plans to pause applications while they plan where they want to put apartments or affordable housing.

“We believe that this leads to a shortage of housing in areas that really really need housing that’s more affordable, need better places for people to live,” said Housing Committee co-chair Rep. Antonio Felipe, D-Bridgeport, on the pauses.

Republicans opposed the measure, saying it would weaken local control. “I also worry about single-family housing,” said Housing Committee ranking member Rep. Tony Scott, R-Monroe. “By not addressing it in this bill, we are saying that a town could ban single-family housing.”

The bill next heads to the Senate for a vote.

— Ginny Monk, Housing & Children’s Issues Reporter

Net equality

The Senate passed a bill on Wednesday by a 29 to 7 majority that seeks to create more affordable internet access for low-income Connecticut residents. Senate Bill 514, as amended on Wednesday, would encourage broadband providers to offer a $40 per month plan for broadband internet, which would include all taxes and fees. Residents who are enrolled in SNAP would qualify.

Under the amended bill broadband internet providers that offer an affordable option would be given preference in state contracts, creating a “more stick than carrot approach,” Sen. James Maroney, D-Milford, said. “It’s not saying you need to do this to get a state contract, you could still win one without opting into this program, however it does give you preference in winning a state contract,” he said.

During the Senate discussion on Wednesday, Sen. Paul Cicarella, R-North Haven asked if the bill would spur an increase on internet rates for users who don’t qualify. Maroney said he didn’t believe so because most companies already provide a low cost service. The bill now heads to the House.

— Laura Tillman, Human Services Reporter

Serving green crabs

One of Connecticut’s most invasive species could soon find its path to the dinner plate eased under legislation approved by lawmakers on Thursday. The Senate gave unanimous approval to House Bill 6222, which would allow restaurants to serve invasive green crabs and other “bait” species without obtaining a license from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

The tiny crabs, which arrived from Europe and can wreak havoc on native habitats, are currently on the menu at The Shipwright’s Daughter, a James-Beard-award-winning restaurant in Mystic.

David Standridge, the executive chef and partner at the restaurant, told lawmakers in written testimony earlier this year that he has to import the crabs from Rhode Island due to the regulations in Connecticut. “Luckily we can eat our way out of this problem as green crabs have a very high culinary value,” he said.

In addition to easing the rules for restaurants to serve up green crabs, the bill also authorizes the Department of Agriculture to study lowering the minimum harvest size of oysters below the current standard of three inches. While some proponents pointed to consumers’ preference for smaller oysters, members of Connecticut’s oyster industry have argued in support of the current minimums, which they said help maintain the health of the species in Long Island Sound.

The bill previously passed the House, and now heads to Gov. Ned Lamont’s desk.

— John Moritz, Environment & Energy Reporter

Scholarships for aspiring teachers

A bill that would broaden scholarship eligibility for aspiring educators passed unanimously out of the Senate Thursday. Senate Bill 1513 would reframe what was known as the Aspiring Educators Diversity Scholarship Program.

The scholarship currently offers up to $10,000 annually to graduates from priority school districts — the top 10 lowest performing districts in the state — who are now seeking to become educators. The new proposal would open the scholarship to anyone becoming a teacher who comes from “a population subgroup that is underrepresented in the teaching profession in Connecticut and has been identified as a teacher shortage area under state law,” according to an Office of Legislative Research bill analysis.

The bill is expected to incentivize more people to enter the teaching profession as it hits critical staffing levels, lawmakers said earlier this legislative session.

— Jessika Harkay, Education Reporter

Recovery Day

Lawmakers shared personal stories on Thursday of how they and their families have been touched by addiction and recovery. Surrounded by groups that support people in recovery across Connecticut, Rep. Robin Comey, D-Branford, Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, Rep. Toni Walker, D-New Haven, Rep. Bill Heffernan, D-West Haven, Rep, Cristin McCarthy Vahey, D-Fairfield, and Rep. Devin Carney, R-Old Saybrook, Sen. Ceci Maher, D-Wilton and others.

Heffernan said that as a state representative, he goes to a million meetings, but, “The most important meetings I go to begin with me standing up and saying, ‘My name’s Bill, and I’m an alcoholic.'”

Carney, who said he had not planned to speak, shared that his father had died of addiction. “Throughout my whole childhood he was an addict,” Carney said. “People in recovery can do anything. They can be executives, they can be teachers, they can be doctors, and they can be elected officials in this building. And I’m one of them.”

Statewide efforts to support people in recovery with job, housing, counseling and other supports are showing promising signs of success. Overdose deaths fell across the U.S. in 2024, which is reflected in Connecticut’s statistics.

— Laura Tillman, Human Services Reporter

Pay hikes for CT troopers

The state Senate unanimously approved an agreement Thursday granting 885 unionized state police troopers a 2.5% general wage hike and a step increase next fiscal year. The House of Representatives approved the raises earlier in the week by a 134-12 margin.

Legislators from both parties have lamented a state police force that’s now about 25% smaller than the 1,200-plus troopers who served Connecticut prior to 2010. Nearly all unionized state workers have received a 2.5% general wage hike and a step, which typically adds another 2 percentage points to the raise, each fiscal year since 2021-22.

Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration, which negotiated the wage deal with the troopers, also is bargaining new contracts with all other major state employee unions. And it would be difficult for state officials not to award matching raises to other unions. That’s because they would have to convince labor arbiters that Connecticut could not afford effective 4.5% annual increases for other state employees even though the legislature approved such raises for troopers.

— Keith M. Phaneuf, State Budget Reporter

Street takeovers

The House paused discussion on a bill meant to increase penalties for people involved in street takeovers after several Republicans argued over provisions for seizing and destroying ATVs.

The bill allows towns and cities to adopt ordinances against street takeovers and to fine drivers and revoke or suspend the licenses of those who participate. Under the bill, a municipality would be allowed to destroy ATVs and dirt-bikes that were seized by the police after violating municipal ordinances if the owner does not claim the vehicles within 30 days.

The largest point of contention was how to identify the owners of ATVs after they were seized by the police. Rep. Craig Fishbein, R-Wallingford, noted that the municipalities who supported this bill wanted a way to dispose of the vehicles, which they were currently required to hold onto or auction. But Fishbein said many of the vehicles used at street takeovers are stolen, which makes it hard for the police to identify the owners, and possibly requiring the municipality to hold onto the vehicle indefinitely.

Rep. Jack Fazzino, D-Meriden, said he felt the ordinances would be difficult to enforce in smaller towns. The amendment failed on party lines.

— Emilia Otte, Justice Reporter

Traffic stops

Republicans unsuccessfully attempted to reinstate police officers’ ability to conduct consent searches in motor vehicles during a Senate debate Thursday. Senate Minority Leader Steve Harding, R-Brookfield, offered an amendment to a bill changing some of the laws around secondary traffic stops.

The bill would remove several equipment violations from a list of legal infractions for which Connecticut motorists can be pulled over, including a broken headlight; having license plates displayed in a rear window, but “plainly legible”; or having a windshield ornament or sticker, as long as it doesn’t “significantly block or conceal” the driver’s ability to see. It also allows a police officer to pull over drivers who they see consuming a cannabis product and smell its “burnt odor.”

Harding’s amendment would have allowed police officers to search a vehicle if the officer has “reasonable and articulable suspicion that weapons, contraband or other evidence of a crime is contained within the vehicle.” Harding argued that police officers saw consent searches, which were prohibited under the 2020 Police Accountability Act, as the most effective way of finding illegal drugs and weapons. 

Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney, D-New Haven, disagreed, saying the idea of anticipating crimes and preventing them in advance was “chilling in our democracy.” The amendment failed 12-24 on party lines. The bill passed unanimously.

— Emilia Otte, Justice Reporter

LGBTQ rights at nursing homes

A bill intended to promote LGBTQ rights among nursing home patients exposed intra-party differences in the General Assembly among House and Senate Republicans. The bill, which was amended in the House to draw bipartisan support, won final passage Thursday in the Senate on a 26-10 vote, with every Democrat in favor and every Republican save one in opposition.

It was a different story in the House, where the bill passed on a 124-19 vote, with every Democrat and 27 Republicans in favor, including House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford. The House Republicans became more comfortable with the bill after an amendment struck a provision that states that a transgender patient could not be refused a room or be forcibly transferred if another patient objected to a trans roommate.

Recommended by the state’s long-term care ombudsman, the bill affirms and requires public notice in nursing homes that state and federal law prohibits discrimination on any number of counts, among them sexual orientation, HIV status and “gender identity and expression.”

The bill requires facilities, at least every two years, to provide direct-care workers with cultural competency training focused on residents who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or gender-nonconforming, or are living with HIV. The training materials must be developed by the commissioner of public health by January.

— Mark Pazniokas, Capitol Bureau Chief

Energy bill gets one step closer

The Appropriations Committee gave its approval Friday to Democrats’ signature bill addressing Connecticut’s energy affordability crisis, even as lawmakers were continuing to hammer out the details of the measure.

Earlier in the week, negotiators revealed their latest draft of the legislation, Senate Bill 4, which they said could lower electricity prices by around 5% by borrowing money to pay for portions of the public benefits charge. The latest draft was quickly advanced by the Appropriations Committee on a party-line vote Friday. Republicans objected to the fact that the bill and its costs had not yet been worked into the state’s budget.

Members of that committee, Gov. Ned Lamont’s office and stakeholders were continuing to hold meetings on Friday to discuss further revisions to the bill. An initial vote in the Senate is expected some time next week.

— John Moritz, Environment & Energy Reporter

Federal public health changes

The Senate passed an omnibus bill that proponents say is meant to guard the state against potential changes to public health policy by the federal government.

The megabill contains provisions to guarantee in state law the current federal standard for the level of fluoride in drinking water and access to emergency reproductive services, including miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy treatment. It also creates a “safe harbor” account, to be managed by the state Treasurer and funded exclusively through private donations, to cover out-of-pocket costs for people who come to Connecticut from other states seeking reproductive or gender-affirming care. Additionally, it would create accounts for the Department of Public Health to use in the case of federal public health funding shortfalls, but does not include a funding source for those accounts. Some Republicans criticized the bill as jumping ahead and legislating in advance of situations that may never happen.

Outside of the measures that directly respond to potential federal changes, the legislation also seeks to establish overdose prevention centers that include safe injection sites and creates a program to promote pancreatic cancer screenings. The legislation now moves to the House for final passage.

— Katy Golvala, Health Reporter