House votes to extend Gov. Ned Lamont’s emergency powers.
HARTFORD — With most Connecticut residents still not vaccinated in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, state lawmakers voted Thursday to extend Gov. Ned Lamont’s extraordinary powers to combat the virus for another month.
On a strict party-line vote of 90-50 with nine members absent, the state House of Representatives also extended all 91 executive orders that Lamont has issued related to the pandemic during the past year dealing with virtually all aspects of state government, ranging from requiring mask-wearing to forcing bars to remain closed.
Lamont’s special authority is scheduled to expire April 20, but Democrats who control the legislature said that the 30-day extension is necessary at a time when the state’s test positivity and hospitalization rates have been higher than hoped.
The measure was sent to the Senate, which is expected to vote next week.
Rep. Michael D’Agostino, a Hamden Democrat who led the floor debate, rejected criticisms that Lamont has overstepped his bounds and become too powerful during the past year.
“He is not a prince,” D’Agostino said of Lamont. “He is a partner in a coequal branch of government, exercising powers that we have given him. ... He’s not a monarch. He’s been more of a minister.”
D’Agostino stressed that Thursday’s action covers only a 30-day period.
“This is not a debate about the merits of a particular order here or a particular order there,” he said. “All we’re doing is ratifying what he has done to those statutes. ... There is no indefinite extension of this power.”
But Republicans headed in a different direction, calling for an 11-day extension for all executive orders ending May 1 — rather than the Democratic call for May 20.
The Republican extension would give time for a committee of top legislative leaders, as well as Lamont, to decide which orders should be extended, which should be allowed to expire and which should be altered.
The full legislature would then need to vote on the recommendations.
The Republican amendment was rejected along strict party lines by a 89-50 vote with 10 members absent in an early test vote on the issue.
Rep. Thomas O’Dea of New Canaan and other Republicans said the legislature needs to be restored as a coequal branch of government.
A special committee of 10 legislators has extended Lamont’s powers in the past year, but not the full, 151-member House of Representatives and 36-member Senate.
“We have not done our job,” O’Dea told his colleagues in the House. “This is the first time since March [2020] that we’ve had a chance to discuss [Lamont’s executive orders] on the floor. ... I would submit the governor has overstepped his authority because we’ve allowed him to.
Republicans complained that they have been frozen out of the decision-making process by Lamont and the Democrats who control the House and Senate.
They noted that Lamont’s powers have been extended multiple times for relatively short periods with Republicans in opposition much of the time.
They said they should have been examining the executive orders since the legislative session began in January.
Rep. Mitch Bolinsky, a Newtown Republican, said he had not spoken negatively about Lamont until Thursday.
“His management has been impressive, but the thought that he’s the only one who can do this job is hogwash. Complete hogwash,” Bolinsky said. “When my mother passed, the first phone call I made was to Governor Lamont, not because we’re lifelong friends. ... You know what? Governor Lamont stepped up, and he really came through. ... Damn, was I impressed. But it’s been a year, and our voices have been terminated. We’ve asked to participate daily.”
Rep. David Yaccarino, a North Haven Republican and member of the legislature’s bioscience caucus, said GOP lawmakers have been wrongly criticized.
“I’m offended by the comments that Republicans don’t believe in science,” Yaccarino said.
House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, an East Hartford Democrat, said in his closing remarks that approving the bill was critical to guaranteeing crucial funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and for food stamps for needy families.
“This has not been easy on anyone,” Rojas said. “We’re in a much better place than we were a year ago, six months ago, even a month ago. ... We must continue to be ready to respond to ever-changing conditions. ... We have been doing our job. We are and always have been a co-equal branch of government.”