The General Assembly voted Wednesday for a 44-word resolution extending Gov. Ned Lamont’s emergency powers through Sept. 30, making Connecticut among the last in the northeast under a COVID-19 state of emergency.
Lamont has lifted nearly all restrictions imposed under his emergency authority since March 9, 2020, with the most visible and contentious exception being a requirement for mask wearing by the unvaccinated in schools and other indoor public places.
Concurrent debates in the House and Senate took place Wednesday in a state Capitol that reopened to the public on July 6 yet still limits access to the first floor, where lobbyists gathered in the lobby. The visitor galleries overlooking the House and Senate remained locked.
Passage came on votes of 73-56 in the House and 19-15 in the Senate, with nine House Democrats and four Senate Democrats joining the GOP minority in opposition — the strongest evidence to date of internal opposition to the Democratic governor over his powers.
Infections, hospitalizations and deaths have plummeted in Connecticut as the state conducted one of the most successful vaccination campaigns in the U.S., but the administration noted that the positivity rate in COVID tests reached 1.28% on Wednesday, the highest since May 25 and first time exceeding 1% since June 1.
The governor sought the extension to continue 11 of the 300 emergency orders in effect at the height of the pandemic, most that Lamont sees as ministerial measures allowing flexibility in purchasing, qualifying for federal funds and standing up vaccination clinics.
“These orders are still needed to protect the public and continue critical measures to provide healthcare access and economic relief and respond to evolving changes,” Lamont said in a message to lawmakers. “They are also narrowly targeted to achieve specific goals that would otherwise be unachievable because of statutory or regulatory barriers that were not contemplated in the context of a highly transmissible and long- lasting disease outbreak when the statutes were passed.”
Other states have ended emergencies, though some such as New Jersey have given their governors narrowly drawn temporary powers, an approach that Republicans say would have been preferable to an extension of powers that allow Lamont to set aside state laws and impose new ones via executive orders.
After the vote, Porter said no one from the governor’s office issued such a warning. It came, she said, from within her caucus. She declined to say from whom.
House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, dismissed Porter’s comments, saying there will be no adverse ramifications for anyone.
“We’re a diverse caucus,” he said. “And we’ll remain a diverse caucus.”
The 13 Democrats casting no votes cut across geographic, racial and ideological lines.
In the Senate, Saud Anwar of South Windsor, Dennis Bradley of Bridgeport, Marilyn Moore of Bridgeport and Cathy Osten of Sprague.
In the House, Raghib Allie-Brennan of Bethel, Jill Barry of Glastonbury, Michael DiGiovancarlo of Waterbury, Anne Hughes of Easton, Jennifer Leeper of Fairfield, Liz Linehan of Cheshire, David Michel of Stamford, Robyn Porter of New Haven, and Travis Simms of Norwalk.
