The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Lamont to extend emergency powers to Feb. 9
HARTFORD — Gov. Ned Lamont plans to extend his coronavirus emergency powers for five more months after the Sept. 9 expiration date, until Feb. 9, and will soon make the announcement, he said Monday.
Lamont thought he had a deal with legislative leaders after emerging from a meeting early in the afternoon. But Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano and House Minority Leader Themis Klarides later said Democratic and Republican leaders need to discuss the issue further, and possibly vote on the extension within 72 hours of Lamont’s announcement, as required by state law.
The confusing back-andforth underscored the tension between legislators, especially Republicans, and the governor’s office over the role of the General Assembly in crafting the coronavirus rules. Most agree it’s not practical for lawmakers to manage the constantly evolving orders on public safety and the economy — how and whether bars can reopen, for example.
Still, they want a strong role and many want more opportunities for public input.
“Leaders thought Feb. 9 was an appropriate time,” Lamont said during his daily news briefing, about three hours after he met with leaders of the House and Senate. He said the timing would allow the next legislature to have met for a month or so.
The flap over extending the orders came on a day when the state once again announced strong numbers in keeping the virus under control, with less than 1 percent of the latest tests coming back positive — compared with more than 5 percent across the nation.
An extension of the public health and civil preparedness emergencies, which started March 9, does not require the approval of the full General Assembly. A 10-member group of legislative and committee leaders approved his initial six-month emergency declaration.
Emerging from a Capitol meeting room after a twohour, closed-door session of leadership, Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz confirmed that Lamont was intent on extending the orders, which started March 9.
“The governor has to still decide whether he will reassert his emergency authority, and once that’s answered then we’ll talk,” Aresimowicz said at about 2 p.m. “Based on what he said today, within the next couple of days that decision should be reached.”
Not so fast ...
After Lamont’s news conference, Fasano, RNorth Haven, underscored the need for the leaders from both sides of the aisle to discuss it further.
“It was never decided that any legislative leader would vote in favor of extending the governor's powers,” Fasano said in a written statement. “Republican legislative leaders made it very clear that we have serious concerns about expanding any emergency powers without also implementing a plan to give the public a voice in the process, which they have been entirely shut out of thus far.”
Likewise, when leaders spoke with reporters in the Capitol after the midday meeting with Lamont, House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, said it makes sense for Lamont to soon extend the emergency, which has drastically changed life for state residents during the pandemic shutdown.
“It would be logistically difficult to just say all of a sudden on Sept. 10 everything goes back to pre-COVID,” Klarides said. The original 10-member group, including committee chairmen of key legislative committees, is stacked with majority Democrats who support Lamont.
But later in the afternoon she said in an interview that the state is in much-different shape than back in March.
“The governor is thinking in a very linear way,” Klarides said. “I think that is an all-or-nothing approach. When we started this, we were in a place we had never been before. It was necessary, in the beginning. Certainly we’re in a health pandemic, but the broadness of the orders have passed.”
Klarides said big issues such as the ability of residents to sue nursing homes, prohibited under the orders, and the extension of bans on evictions until October, need to be examined by lawmakers.
“The answer isn’t all or nothing,” Klarides said. “A lack of transparency has been a hallmark of this administration . ... The Connecticut of September is different from the Connecticut of March.”
Since March, when the governor’s executive powers began, Lamont has issued more than 90 separate orders, many of which contain multiple sections. They govern, for example, rules on social distancing and on how travelers from other states may visit Connecticut in the pandemic.
Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, said that the September 9 date looms large. “There would be nothing to prevent us from reopening if the order expires on that date,” he said.
Lamont announced here were no new fatalities ove the weekend in the pandemic that has been linked to the deaths of 4,465 Connecticut residents since March 17. He reported a net reduction of eight patients for a total of 52 people hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide, down from 1,972 hospitalizations in April.
Electric grid regulation, police reform
With the next regular session of the legislature scheduled for the first week in January — after every member is either reelected or replaced at the ballot box — some lawmakers have called for a special session in September. Leaders say the House and Senate may address issues with electric utility regulation that arose after the Aug. 4 tropical storm, and school construction bonding.
Some legislators and advocates say the police reform bill, enacted in the August special session, requires revisions. For example, police unions argue there are issues involving disciplinary records in the bill, which Lamont signed.
But legislative leaders said the issue of police accountability did not come up in the noon meeting with Lamont Monday, which was closed to the public and the media.
“Some of the members want to do an energy bill in response to some of the issues that have been identified over the last storm,” Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, said after emerging from a thirdfloor meeting room with other leaders after the twohour session. “I think they’re going to proceed with at least an informational hearing and putting a bill out there to gauge support, and then we’ll meet with leaders and decide that.”