After the early morning release and emergency certification of Connecticut’s latest budget package, which heads to a vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, House Speaker Matthew Ritter, D-Hartford, indicated at least three pieces of legislation will be included in the budget implementer.
The implementer is a massive budget document released and voted on separately from the budget which indicates how the budget will be implemented and is sometimes used as a vehicle to enact legislation that never made it through the full legislative process.
During a press conference ahead of an anticipated budget vote in the House, Ritter listed off three pieces of legislation that are part of the implementer, including a voting rights act in honor of John Lewis, health insurance changes and a bill regarding staff to patient ratios in hospitals.
All of the bills either didn’t come up for a vote in the General Assembly in time or stalled in the committee process.
Ritter indicated that Senate Bill 1226, which bans discrimination in voting and gives the Secretary of State’s Office oversight of certain municipalities with “a history of discrimination” when those municipalities seek to change election laws.
The fact that the bill appeared to be dead in the water or would be significantly amended in the implementer apparently triggered activist groups to raise the alarm with their supporters, which, in turn, raised the ire of Ritter who said they used “tactics they didn’t need to,” which resulted in his caucus members being targeted by activist campaigns.
“I just feel that they had people who weren’t from Connecticut, who don’t know how to lobby in Connecticut,” Ritter said. “So, I thought some of their tactics were unnecessary.”
“It’s a reminder that when you bring out-of-state people, sometimes they don’t know what they’re doing and they almost killed their own bill for no reason,” Ritter said. “So, I get frustrated by that. You go after my members, I get angry.”
Ritter said the voting rights language in the implementer would be “unamended,” although there was language, he conceded, that could have been better drafted.
Ritter also indicated the implementer will contain health insurance changes under Senate Bill 6, part of Democrats’ stated health policy goals during the legislative session. The bill extends the amount of time parents have to notify their insurance carrier of the birth of a baby and shortens the amount of time insurance companies have to review and authorize treatment requests.
The language also limits the amount of time insurers can use “step therapy” for mental health conditions. Step therapy is the practice of attempting to use less effective or cheaper treatments before moving on to more costly treatments and medications.
Lastly, Senate Bill 1067, would require specific staff-to-patient ratios in Connecticut hospitals, particularly for nurses, and limit mandatory overtime for nurses not covered under a collective bargaining agreement.
Ritter said the changes were agreed to by the Connecticut Hospital Association. Public testimony on the bill showed it was largely supported by nurses and largely opposed by hospitals. Ritter said the bill language was “slightly altered” from the language that stalled in the Judiciary Committee.
House Republican Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, said it was “a little disappointing” that the implementer contains items that didn’t go through the full legislative process.
Candelora said he was pleased with the tax cuts and state agency spending reductions but was concerned about non-budgetary language in the implementer. “I think the focus is really going to be around the non-budget language that we’re going to have to take a look at to make sure that it’s acceptable to our members.”
Candelora also highlighted the hospital staffing language, saying Republicans wanted to make sure that language was acceptable to the hospital industry.
Ritter said he expects the budget to pass on a bipartisan basis. Candelora agreed that Republicans were prepared to accept the budget but said their cooperation will largely depend on the budget implementer.
“If we don’t have some give on some of those provisions, I think you won’t see any Republicans voting for it,” Candelora said. “If there’s some cooperation today, some conversation, I think we can get there.”
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