HARTFORD, CT – Democratic Senate leaders announced two more of their high-priority bills Tuesday: a bill to combat price gouging and a bill to protect public health at the state level from federal interference. Republicans, however, are skeptical of what they characterize as “government overreach.”
Senate President Martin Looney, D-New Haven, was joined by Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, Sens. James Maroney, D-Milford, and Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, to announce Senate Bill 3, An Act Concerning Consumer Protection and Safety, and Senate Bill 7, An Act Concerning Protections for Access to Health Care and the Equitable Delivery of Health Care Services in the State.
“We are committed to making life more affordable for Connecticut families by addressing the practices that unfairly drive up costs,” Looney said. “Price gouging shouldn’t be prohibited only during declared emergencies – it’s a harmful practice that burdens consumers at any time. This legislation will ensure fairness and accountability up and down the supply chain, so that residents aren’t exploited when they shop for essential goods.”
S.B. 3 would primarily expand the attorney general’s authority to pursue price gougers. The attorney general would be empowered to issue notices of abnormal economic disruption. These notices would apply to significant interferences in the production, distribution, supply, sale or availability of necessary consumer goods such as diapers, baby formula or prescription medications. Once issued, the state could then target manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers and suppliers who drive up prices.
“Yesterday we saw an inauguration of a president that was of the billionaires, by the billionaires, and for the billionaires,” Duff said. “And here in the state of Connecticut, we’re going to make sure that we continue to focus on the people, by the people, and for the people. Which is why we have these bills today, and why we’ll continue to roll out legislation that impacts working families, working people, for the positive, all across the state of Connecticut.”
Additional provisions of S.B. 3 include steps to protect consumers from junk fees that drive up prices, creating a right to repair products by requiring companies to make consumer tools and parts available and a ban on state agencies buying drones manufactured by “adversarial” countries such as Russia and China.
Anwar discussed S.B. 7, which Democrats say is focused on strengthening Connecticut’s public health infrastructure against potential disruptions by the newly inaugurated administration of President Donald Trump.
The major provisions of S.B. 7 are to maintain the current level of fluoridation in Connecticut’s public drinking water in the event the federal Department of Health and Human Services makes changes. The bill also provides for funding for a public health urgent communication fund and an emergency public health financial safeguard fund that would be used in cases of emergency to address unexpected shortfalls in public health funding.
S.B. 7 would also address the potential ban of abortion drugs at the federal level by authorizing the state to import the active ingredients of drugs like levonorgestrel, mifepristone and misoprostol to ensure production can occur locally and access can be retained in the event of a larger ban. Finally, the bill would establish a Public Health Advisory Body within the state Department of Public Health to combat what Democrats say could be misleading public health information coming from the Trump administration in the event of a public health emergency.
“This is the time for us to shield the citizens of the state of Connecticut,” Anwar said. “This is the time for us to stay focused on evidence-based medicine, evidence-based public health policies, and also do that in a manner which is accepted by almost all of the public health experts in the country and beyond. And that’s what the time requires. And we are calling [SB 7] the Shield Bill because this is to shield the public health of our citizens.”
House Minority Leader Rep. Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, said in an interview that the Democrats’ proposals are an attempt to solve a problem they created.
“I think when it comes to the high cost and affordability of living, it’s the Democrats’ own policies over the last 20 years that have put Connecticut at a very competitive disadvantage,” Candelora said. “They’re the ones that have raised taxes over a decade on the middle class. And so if they want to get real and have a conversation about how to make things more affordable in the state of Connecticut, I hope they bring the Republicans in the room, because we are really the only party that has championed those positions.”
Candelora said Republicans would be offering their own set of proposals, centered on taxation and regulation.
“Democrats raised taxes on car purchases by 1 percent,” he said. “They raised taxes on meals by 1 percent, and they raised taxes on children’s clothing. We want to pull some of those back and make it more affordable for residents.”
“And when it comes to the private sector, we need to look at what regulatory environment the state of Connecticut has. There was just a report that came out yesterday. Connecticut is dead last in start-ups and when you restrict the ability for companies to come into this state and you restrict competition because you’re unaffordable, that trickles down to its residents.”
While Candelora is generally supportive of empowering Connecticut to manage its own public health affairs as a matter of state’s rights, he expressed doubt about the need for a new public health advisory board.
“I think we already have that with the Department of Public Health,” he said. “What I don’t want to see us doing is spending more money for the sake of spending money. That’s government tax dollars.”
“So in terms of public health advisory, the devil’s in the details. That’s what the department is already charged to do. So I’m not sure creating another layer of bureaucracy somehow creates more public health for the state of Connecticut.”