Lamont will likely not seek to extend COVID powers
With a month to go before the expiration of his emergency powers, Gov. Ned Lamont is seeking to give the legislature more control over the state’s pandemic response, signaling in recent days that he’s not going to formally request an extension of his emergency authority.
But Lamont and Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, on Wednesday left open the possibility of a narrow continuation of the governor’s emergency powers as Connecticut, approaching two years since the COVID pandemic began, grapples with a surge in omicron infections.
Lamont said his general counsel was compiling a list of executive orders he thinks should be extended beyond Feb. 15 when his powers are due to expire, but welcomed input from the legislature.
“We are preparing for legislative leaders and the legislature a list of the EOs
that we think should be continued,” Lamont said Wednesday, speaking after an unrelated online news conference. “But I’d like the legislature’s imprimatur on
that. The legislature may say, ‘I don’t think we ought to be wearing masks in schools’ or ‘I don’t think a store should be able to ask people their vaccination
status.’”
Max Reiss, the governor’s director of communications, said that list would likely include orders dealing with the procurement of supplies, testing and vaccination sites, and mandating vaccinations for certain state employees and booster shots for long-term care workers.
“We’re packaging together what executive orders are currently in effect which are needed to adequately respond to the pandemic,” Reiss said. “The governor has said he wants the legislature to have skin in the game on this. He’s said that multiple times that this is not meant to be a one-person decision.”
The General Assembly last approved an extension of Lamont’s powers in September. Lawmakers are due back in session on Feb. 9, and if the state’s civil preparedness and public health emergency declarations expire, they would have to debate whether to codify or extend Lamont’s orders.
Looney said Wednesday while there are areas where the legislature could become more involved, certain aspects of the pandemic, which has often been unpredictable, still require a nimble response.
“There are some areas where we need to have the capacity for quick action that is the hallmark of the executive,” Looney said.
Republicans have long opposed extending Lamont’s powers and have called for lawmakers to play a bigger role in the decisions around COVID policies — a point Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford, reiterated Wednesday, in response to the possibility that even a limited extension of Lamont’s powers was under consideration.
“There is no reason why the legislature cannot act as an equal branch of government to manage the pandemic response and represent the voices of our constituents,” Kelly said. “It is past time to reinstate the oversight and transparency our three-branch system of government was designed to protect.”