Committee Extends Gov. Lamont's Emergency Powers

CONNECTICUT — A legislative committee voted along party lines to extend Gov. Ned Lamont’s emergency powers until Feb. 9.

The final vote was 6 to 4 with Democrats for and Republicans against extending Lamont’s powers. Under state law the committee’s only possible action was to nullify Lamont’s extension.

Lamont has signed around 70 executive orders since being granted emergency powers in March. The orders came on a near-daily basis in March and April as the coronavirus situation rapidly evolved, but have since slowed down.

Originally the committee wasn’t going to meet, which would’ve automatically allowed Lamont’s powers to be extended. Republican legislators held several press conferences leading up to the deadline and argued that Lamont’s broad actions have gone beyond public health and into economic and other decisions.

“Initially we did not anticipate having this meeting considering the incredible success that we’ve had with our Covid results,” said House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz (D-Berlin). “...that being said we understand it is the legislature’s responsibility to at least meet and discuss it so that’s what we are here for today.”

Senate Republican leader Len Fasano said that the meeting was important to memorialize decisions should future leaders deal with a similar situation. He said the meeting wasn’t about agreeing or disagreeing with Lamont’s executive orders.

Republican legislators on the committee said that Lamont’s administration communicated well with them during March, April and most of May, but the communication has dwindled since then. Democrats on the committee said that was at least partially due to the fact that Lamont has signed far fewer executive orders since that time period.

Lamont recently said he would work to inform legislators better in the future.

Connecticut has a part-time legislature and committee assignments don’t exist outside of the regular session that runs in the first half of the year, Aresimowicz said. He said he was open to having discussions about changing that, but that as it stands running the state by legislative action during a public health emergency would be incredibly difficult.

“The legislature is a deliberative body, we are not designed to administer or run the state of Connecticut, that is why we have the executive branch,” he said.

Lamont’s ability to have broad powers during an emergency were created by a 2010 state law that passed with near unanimous bipartisan support.

Fasano said that there isn’t anything in legislative history to show the intent legislators had when creating the bill, but that it can reasonably be assumed that the law was made to give the governor power to react quickly to emergency situations, but that it was supposed to have a time limit.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff said his constituents in Norwalk and Darien are primarily concerned with being kept healthy and safe during the pandemic.

“You can’t argue with the results of the process that we’ve had over the last six months,” he said.