by Donald Eng CTNewsJunkie
As the state House of Representatives prepared to take action on a pair of emergency certification bills that passed the Senate Wednesday evening, Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, had a pointed message for Republicans: Don’t abuse the system.
Ritter said Connecticut has a tradition of unlimited debate on bills, and he said the state could be the only one in the nation that does. But when legislators in one chamber use their debate privilege to kill bills that passed with broad bipartisan support in the other chamber, that was a problem, he said.
“I remind people, when you go too far, there will be reactions to it,” Ritter said. “To my Democratic colleagues — No, we’re not going to pass 80 bills in e-certs every day and circumvent the rules in the process on an ongoing basis just because we want to. But to my Republican colleagues I would say, play it fair. Play it straight. You want to vote no on a bill on May 18 in a long session because you don’t like one provision? I’m never going to say a word. Or if we pass a bill 79-72 with three days to go? No complaints from me, you have the right to filibuster it. Don’t do it to 151-0 with three weeks to go. Don’t do it. Just vote no.”
Ritter’s comments came a day after the Senate had passed a wide-ranging bill, Senate Bill 298, under emergency certification. That is a process that avoids normal legislative delays and is typically used when bills are needed to address an urgent situation or when legislation is stalled in one house of the General Assembly.
Ritter went on to say that in this circumstance, legislation passed by the House with strong support last year had died in the Senate when a Republican spoke for the better part of a day.
“This is a byproduct of some people, not many but some, perhaps abusing the system a little bit,” he said. “And it’s a reminder. Don’t abuse it.”
Ritter did not specify which Senate Republican he was referring to, but around the Capitol consensus was that it was Robert Sampson of Wolcott, who issued a statement of his own in response.
State Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott, speaks during debate on a firearms industry responsibility bill on May 29, 2025. Credit: Donald Eng / CTNewsJunkie
“Democrats hold greater than two to one majorities in both chambers and control the governor’s office. They have the votes to pass anything they want and yet they are threatening to silence dissent,” he said. “Debate is not obstruction. Debate is the job.”
But Republican House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford said the emergency certification was an abuse of process.
House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora addresses the media before the Feb. 26 House of Representatives session at the State Capitol in Hartford, CT. Credit: Donald Eng / CTNewsJunkie
“I understand that there were two bills that got out of the House that didn’t get out of the Senate that did have broad Republican support in the House. And certainly it was frustrating,” he said. “But this process is frustrating all of the time. It doesn’t mean that we should then be creating an e-cert and passing those bills. We could take those bills up again in the House all over again using the same process.”
Candelora said he and Ritter had previously had a bipartisan podcast.
“One of the points I made is that, I get it we’re in the minority. And I get it, I’m not going to win all my arguments,” Candelora said. “And I’m OK if I don’t win an argument so long as the process is respected. And what the Democrats have decided to say is, we don’t care … we want our way.”
House Democrats appear confident the two bills, Senate Bill 299, which modifies the state’s bottle redemption law in an attempt to reduce fraudulent returns, and Senate Bill 298, a wide-ranging omnibus bill that addresses education, warehouse working conditions, police training, firefighter cancer funds, and more, will pass. But some of S.B. 298’s sections included in its 121 pages include a section on municipal pensions that the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities called a costly mandate, and some funding earmarks that House and Senate Republicans have said should be reexamined.
In particular, Republicans have criticized Section 12, which provides $750,000 to the Capitol Region Education Council, which employs state Sen. Doug McCory, D-Hartford, who is at the center of a state audit and federal probe.
“Given what we have seen with earmarks, with the potential criminal activity in the building with these earmarks, this bill doubles down on providing more earmarks to organizations,” he said. “I am going to request that the governor exercise his veto power and at the very least line-item veto all of the earmarks that are contained in this emergency certified bill so we could actually properly vet these earmarks to see where this money is actually going.”
Gov. Ned Lamont speaks at a press conference announcing the rebranding on Feb. 17, 2026. Credit: Ronni Newton / We-Ha.com
A few hours later, at an unrelated event, Gov. Ned Lamont hinted that he may be considering doing just that.
Lamont said he backed earmark reform currently in front of legislative leaders, but that “we have to do a better job giving people confidence that the taxpayers’ money is going for the purposes for which it’s intended.”
Asked directly if he was considering vetoing the omnibus that contained the earmarks, Lamont replied, “Yeah. Let me talk to Marty and Matt (Senate President Martin Looney, D-New Haven and Ritter) about that.”
Asked further if he meant a line-item veto of certain sections, Lamont nodded and said, “Let me take a look at that. I think the answer to that is yes, but I’ve got to talk to legislative leadership on it.”
Discover more from InnerCity News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
