On deadline, Democrats flex muscle on key bills
Democratic majorities in key legislative committees on Wednesday flexed their partisan muscle, approving bills that would make vaccinations mandatory for school kids, double the bottle-deposit law to 10 cents, promote more affordable housing and start to address regional needs to combat climate change.
It was a day for some of the year’s most controversial bills in a year when leading Republicans have urged the General Assembly to use the distanced session for COVID-19-related bills and only the most pressing issues that can’t wait.
The votes amounted to at least short-term victories toward goals that have been targeted for years by Democrats, who in 2020 saw the coronavirus pandemic end the legislative session two months early. But the bills still have a long way to go before the June 9 adjournment date, amid leadership acknowledgments that major changes to the bills could still occur before they reach the House and Senate floors.
And the parties remained far apart, deeply split as they eyed middle ground.
Republicans warned that the legislation would take away the power of parents to decide on their children’s health; make it more expensive for people to purchase beverages; take away the power of towns and cities to decide on their development and character; and raise gas prices at the pump by as much as 26 cents a gallon by the middle of the decade.
Democrats charged that herd immunity for school kids has fallen sharply in recent years in some of the diseases targeted by traditional vaccines. They said religious exemptions have been exploited to the point where public health is threatened, particularly for students with serious ailments that prevent them from seeking inoculations.
And the Democrats said raising drink deposits would partially address the state’s solid-waste and recycling crisis and give more money to those handling the empties.
Democrats also stressed the pressing need for better commitments from small and midsize towns in establishing more-affordable housing units, from new apartments in private homes, to making it easier for developers to site new housing — and leading to more desegregation.
And while the bills, collectively, represent mid-legislative-session wins for Democrats who control the Senate 24-12 and the House 96-53, pending two special elections, the legislation still faces obstacles and bipartisan negotiations.
The controversial vaccination requirement, which prompted a 24-hour-long virtual public hearing last month, on year after thousands of people crowded into the Capitol complex, would allow seventh graders and above to remain in school without proof of inoculations for childhood diseases. Lawmakers including Rep. Sean Scanlon, D-Guilford, and
Rep. Michelle Cook, D-Torrington, promised that they would work to amend the bill to allow all children already in the K-through-12 system to remain there without vaccinations.
Scanlon, who is now the chairman of the powerful Finance Committee, planned on a similar amendment last year before the pandemic forced the early closure of the General Assembly. “Going forward I believe the choice is clear,” Scanlon said.
“It truly bothers me that we continue to make public-health issues partisan issues,” said Cook. “For me, I think this is a horrible path for you to go down, especially on this committee. I cannot support this bill if there is not an amendment to grandfather children in K-through-12 on the floor.”