Sen. Martin Questions Majority’s Sweeping “Emergency” Bill & Priorities  

State Senate Minority Leader Pro Tem Henri Martin (R-Bristol) questioned the senate majority’s decision to convene a Feb. 25 “emergency session” that included a 139-page, emergency-certified omnibus bill that includes more than a dozen unrelated provisions recycled from the past year, many of them controversial, and not subject to a public hearing.

“Why are we here? What exactly is the emergency?” said Sen. Martin.

“Nothing in this bill is time-sensitive or tied to an immediate crisis. The real emergency in Connecticut is affordability.

“The legislative process is designed to be open and transparent. The public has the right to weigh in on legislation before it potentially becomes law. Instead, we were handed a nearly 140-page bill only hours before session that was filled with taxpayer-funded giveaways to politically connected organizations, and policy provisions that have nothing to do with any emergency,” he said.

Sen. Martin also pushed back on arguments from majority leadership that the emergency session was necessary because certain measures failed to pass during last year’s legislative session as a consequence of unlimited debate.

“Manipulating the tradition of unlimited debate and circumventing our process by inserting bills that didn’t pass last year is wrong. Nonetheless, I supported several Republican amendments aimed at improving the bill, including a proposal to return $1.5 billion in taxpayer relief.

“I’ll continue to support ideas that reduce our sky-high cost of living and provide real relief to families, seniors, and businesses. If we’re going to convene for an emergency session, it should be to address the affordability crisis, and not to advance unpopular policy that could not pass muster during the proper legislative process,” he said.