Is it a bottleneck, conflicting solutions to big problems, or an orchestrated effort to slow down the calendars in the House and Senate? Everyone is feeling like this is the oddest session yet! As the Connecticut General Assembly is approaching the one month mark till adjournment (22 working days), legislators, lobbyists and advocates are scratching their heads trying to figure what what's up with the critical issues of the 2007 session including the budget, healthcare, energy, eminent domain, and property tax reform. With a record number of proposed bills introduced this session, anyone with important issues hanging in the balance are starting to worry if the bills will get a chance for passage. Legislators and lobbyists alike have begun to lobby leadership in an attempt to give their initiatives great "pole position" in the race to beat the clock on June 6.

There's a huge increase in committee referrals this year compared to past sessions and the effect is starting to become apparent. Committees are meeting daily to handle the volume. Bills JF'd more than a month ago are still waiting for a file copy to appear because the Office of Fiscal Analysis (OFA), Office of Legislative Review (OLR), and the Legislative Commissioners' Office (LCO) are so inundated with work that the turn around time is now an alarming three weeks. Bills that were approved in committee nearly a month ago are just now beginning to surface and with only 22 working days left, tick - tick - tick goes the clock.

The House members have been meeting weekly for the past few weeks and in the process has been referring bills out to committees as soon as the bills are ready. Meanwhile everyone waits for the leaders to get together on the huge initiatives - budget, an energy package and a health care package. The Senate on the other hand has been meeting once a week now and then and is taking up minor bills while "cleaning house" (i.e. cleaning up the calendar by referring bills to committees).

As committees meet, some items just don't make it back out. An effective way to cull out the wheat from the shaft! With huge numbers in both chambers, the only weapon that Republicans have is to talk the bill to death. The battle ground has become those committees where the R's have the ability to filibuster any agenda. The Dems, however, can keep referring a bill so that a vote is never taken on it - a clever way to avoid voting on a controversial piece of legislation.

The Sullivan & LeShane team has also been "clearing our calendars" by getting our priorities placed on the Go list as soon as possible. Several of our key initiatives have passed one chamber and currently await action in the other. As adjournment gets closer, the number of bills reappearing from committees will begin to create a bottleneck and compete for time as caucuses need to schedule briefings, leaders need time to negotiate, and long debates eat up the clock.

So far the team at S&L has kept focused, chased many a bill through the needed committees, and is in great position to see success on June 6. You can count on us to keep the ball rolling.

With 22 days left in session, there are still a number of major issues for the legislature to tackle. Among them is what many consider to be the #1 issue facing CT: universal health care. As folks under the dome began to wonder how the multiple healthcare bills would begin to take shape into comprehensive legislation, right on cue Sen. Donald Williams gave a presentation on his health care plan, "HealthFirst Connecticut."

"HealthFirst Connecticut" is a merging of priorities that Sen. Williams has touched upon throughout session. The plan aims to cover the essentials including accessibility, affordability, increasing provider rates, preventive care, chronic disease management, electronic records and other elements.

Before outlining his plan, Sen. Williams explained the current health care situation in CT. According to Williams, CT spent $22 billion dollars on health care in 2004 alone - the same amount the U.N. said we'd need to fight the spread of AIDS worldwide. Williams also pointed out that health insurance premiums have risen 87% in the past 6 years, compared to CT's rate of inflation, which was only 18%. Williams said health care is, "too expensive for people who have insurance, and the system fails people who don't." According to Williams' data, there are 350,000 uninsured citizens in CT, which makes up 10% of the state. Most of the uninsured adults are employed.

According to a Department of Social Services (DSS) study that Williams quoted, even those who are on the state HUSKY plan do not always receive proper care. The study reported that Medicaid or HUSKY patients were turned down for care by providers 75% of the time. Also, only 4% of dentists in the state accept patients of Medicaid or HUSKY due to low provider rates.

Williams' healthcare proposal aims to correct the inequalities in the system. The center of the "HealthFirst Connecticut" proposal is Williams' "Medicare-for-all" plan. Williams believes Medicare is a great model to use for universal health care, but admits that nothing like this has been tried in any other state. Williams thinks that this plan would be more effective on a national scale, but until that happens, CT must take the initiative to revitalize the health care system.

The Medicare-for-all plan would start on a smaller scale with CT's municipal employees. There are approximately 200,000 municipal employees in the state. The state would provide these people with a standard set of benefits and would self insure the group. Williams said that this would cut down on administrative overhead costs and the savings could be returned to the program. He predicts that this process would take about a year to accomplish. Once the savings of this program were proved, it would be opened to anyone in the state.

Some parts of Williams plan are already in place in SB 1 and SB 3, but much of the details of this new initiative still need to be drafted and added. There is also $300 million, including Federal reimbursements, already worked into the budget to fund this proposal. "In the wealthiest state of the wealthiest country, [the state of the health care system] is unacceptable," Williams declared. Only time (22 working days remaining in session to be exact) will tell if the "HealthFirst Connecticut" solution is what CT needs to get health care back on track for its citizens. We're still awaiting a response to this plan from the House leadership, the Republicans, and the Governor's Office.

According to the joint rules of the legislature, after a bill is passed by both the House and Senate during session, the Governor has 5 calendar days, exclusive of Sundays and holidays, from when a bill is presented to sign or veto the bill. After session has adjourned, the bill becomes a law unless the Governor vetoes the bill within 15 calendar days after presentment. It takes at least 2/3 of the members of each house to override the Governor's veto. The Democrats currently have the numbers to do so in both chambers.

As the House and Senate pass bills, S&L will continue to post the bills that are of interest to our clients that have been signed into law and become public acts (PA) or special acts (SA), or vetoed, by Governor Rell. For a list of bills passed, but not yet acted upon by the Governor, please click the link below.

PA 07-1 (S.B. 1112) AN ACT CONCERNING THE STATE CONTRACTOR CONTRIBUTION PLAN

PA 07-3 (HB 5706) AN ACT CONCERNING LEAVE FOR STATE EMPLOYEES PROVIDING DISASTER RELIEF SERVICES

PA 07-5 (SB 109) AN ACT REQUIRING AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE DISCOUNTS FOR DRIVERS SIXTY YEARS OF AGE AND OVER WHO COMPLETE AN ACCIDENT PREVENTION COURSE

PA 07-6 (SB 1111) AN ACT CONCERNING TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS TO THE PUBLIC SAFETY STATUTES

PA 07-9 (SB 1195) AN ACT CONCERNING ADMINISTRATION OF INFLUENZA AND PNEUMOCOCCAL POLYSACCHARIDE VACCINES BY LICENSED HOME HEALTH CARE AGENCY STAFF

PA 07-10 (SB 1261) AN ACT CONCERNING PUBLIC INVESTMENT COMMUNITIES