Sen. Jonathan Harris, D-West Hartford, (pictured) wasn’t going to talk about the fact that in 1985 as a legislator, Gov. M. Jodi Rell had voted in favor of the Department of Social Services waiver she vetoed last week, but Republicans gave him no choice.
Several Republican senators had spoken about how delegating approval of the waiver to a committee of legislators is not the way to go. Sen. Sam Caligiuri, R-Waterbury, said “In my mind this is not about the governor or how the General Assembly will exercise its authority. This is about delegating power to a handful of legislators.”
Harris said the legislation sets out a clear procedure for how this legislation should be executed. Tuesday’s waiver override gives the legislature authority to reject or modify waiver requests made by Rell’s administration to the federal government on behalf of DSS.
Harris reminded his colleagues that when Republicans controlled both chambers of the General Assembly it passed the House 138 to 12 and by consent in the Senate.
Tuesday the House approved the measure 102 to 47 and the Senate approved it 24 to 12.
See the roll callon the House vote from 1985.
Click here for Rell’s press release about why she vetoed the legislation. And here for the Hartford Courant’s coverage.
