The documents aren’t yet available online, but lawmakers have already started filing bills for the 2011 session.
Between the House and the Senate a total of about 20 “pre-filed” bills have been written and submitted to the House and Senate clerks offices.
Many are bills that have been submitted and defeated in previous legislative sessions.
Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield of New Haven submitted a bill to abolish the death penalty. As a freshman he submitted a similar bill in 2009 which ended up being vetoed by Gov. M. Jodi Rell.
“An Act Abolishing the Death Penalty” may have a different fate this year with Gov.-elect Dan Malloy who said on the campaign trail that he would sign such a bill if it made it to his desk. However, the makeup of the legislature has changed since 2009 and it’s likely the trial of Joshua Komisarjevsky will be happening as the legislature debates the bill in committee adding a new dimension to the debate.
It remains to be seen if legislative leadership will make the issue one of their priorities this year. Several issues are still up in the air as legislative leaders wait for Malloy to make his appointments.
Sen. Majority Leader Martin Looney of New Haven also introduced a controversial piece of legislation, which has yet to make it to the floor of either chamber during past sessions.
This year Looney again introduced legislation that would allow children of immigrants residing in the state to pay in-state tuition rates at the states colleges and universities.
Last month, Looney announced he would be reintroducing the legislation at a Southern Connecticut State University event where Lorella Praeli, a 22-year-old originally from Peru, came “out of the shadows” to announce that she is living in the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant. Praeli said she was lucky enough to land a full ride to Quinnipiac University through a private scholarship. Otherwise, she would have had to pay three times the rate of in-state tuition at an in-state college or university.
Looney is hoping his legislation will prevent students like Praeli from paying three times the rate of in-state tuition.
In addition to the legislation introduced by Looney and Holder-Winfield a handful of other lawmakers have introduced legislation regarding a whole host of other issues such as mandating air conditioning in nursing homes, changing how the state spending cap is calculated and increasing the penalties for manslaughter with a motor vehicle.
We grouped and uploaded the bills by topic below.
Finance and Appropriations Committees
Meanwhile, CTNewsjunkie plans on uploading more legislation as it becomes available.
