In a week marked by an historic bipartisan vote on sweeping gun-control legislation, the Public Health Committee crawled through its deadline to act on bills Friday with hours of partisan back and forth.
Unlike typical meetings, when committees can take as long as necessary to discuss and debate legislation, a committee must finish its work on the day of its deadline by 5 p.m. As a result, protracted debate immediately before a group’s deadline can prevent bills from moving forward in the legislative process.
On Friday afternoon, with 10 items on its agenda, the Public Health Committee was moving nowhere fast.
Apparently surprised by some of the bills the Democrats placed on the agenda for action during Friday’s meeting, Republicans on the committee filibustered the first few pieces of legislation for hours.
When the committee’s deadline passed,a controversial bill that would have allowed terminally ill patients to end their lives with the help of a doctor was left on the cutting room floor.
Supporters of the bill signaled early in the day that they were happy the concept had made it as far is had in the legislative process. But they expected the committee’s chairs to hold the legislation in an effort to avoid a lengthy debate.
The bill was never called. But lengthy debate on bills like “An Act Concerning Licensing of Tattoo Artists” and ” An Act Requiring The Euthanization Of Any Cat Or Dog To Be Performed By A Licensed Veterinarian” ensued.
“The agenda was changed without communication between the two parties on how it was going to look and I think some people take issue with that,” Sen. Rob Kane, R-Watertown, said. “We’re supposed to be upfront. We’re supposed to be bipartisan. We’re supposed to be working together, and we didn’t feel that was taking place.”
House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk, was in and out of the hearing room, speaking privately with some of the committee’s Republican members as their colleagues asked extensive questions and offered amendments to uncontroversial bills.
“It’s about respect,” he said, when asked what prompted the early filibuster.
Cafero said the committee had held a bipartisan screening session and agreed upon which bills would be acted upon. He said the agenda did not reflect what was discussed in the screening.
“That’s not fair. That’s not respectful,” he said.
But following the meeting, Rep. Themis Klarides, R-Derby, characterized the deadline filibuster as one of the rare opportunities the minority party has to ensure some of its priorities are acted upon. Klarides spent much of the meeting negotiating with Democratic committee chairs Sen. Terry Gerratana and Rep. Susan Johnson.
“Because there’s a definitive deadline, the minority has the clear advantage. And that’s what we did. I negotiated with them,” she said.
Because of those negotiations, Klarides said the committee alternated between Democratic and Republican bills.
One of the pieces of legislation that did pass the committee, Klarides said, was important to the lawmakers who represent Newtown. The bill would limit public access to some of the information included in a death certificate. The bill would make information like the birthdate of the person who died and the specifics of their death unavailable to most people.
Rep. DebraLee Hovey, R-Monroe, who also represents Newtown, said she had questions about the ethical behavior of some of the people who requested access to public death certificates following the Newtown massacre in December when a gunman murdered 20 children and six educators at an elementary school.
Hovey said town clerks have requested some limitations on the information that they are required to release because they were “badgered” after the shooting.
“When people are just trying to get their arms around what has actually occurred, there are those who would just like to exploit the sensitivities of a community,” she said. “I would suggest that we need to protect that community a little bit.”
Rep. Peter Tercyak, D-New Britain, opposed the bill, pointing to a news story which highlighted abuse and deaths of developmentally disabled people in the state’s care. He said those types of investigations might not be possible if the state limits access to public information.
Support authentic, locally owned and operated public service journalism!
Rep. Prasad Srinivasan, R-Glastonbury, said there are proper authorities to investigate such incidents. He said the information should not be available to “anybody and everybody.”
Tercyak called the bill “dangerous stuff,” saying sometimes the “proper authorities” don’t release the information that they should.
“The press? Those stinkers, those invasive bastards? That’s for us. That’s not for their curiosity. That’s about our ability to know. That’s about so the whole state of Connecticut doesn’t have to go marching down and asking for the records,” Tercyak said.
The committee approved the bill with strong support on a 21-7 vote.
More about aid-in-dying

PODCAST | How Medical Aid In Dying May Change The Way We Live
Medical aid in dying offers what some may call “a good death.” But how will the increased use of it change our relationship with dying? That’s the topic of the latest episode of Audacious with Chion Wolf from Connecticut Public Radio.
Keep reading
Aid-in-Dying Bill Fails in Judiciary Committee
This year’s aid-in-dying bill was voted down Monday by the Senate half of the General Assembly’s Judiciary Committee, which divided itself in an unusual legislative maneuver before putting the policy to an unsuccessful vote. Senators on the legal panel rejected the bill, which would have allowed terminally ill patients in Connecticut to end their lives…
Keep reading
Committee Referral Jeopardizes Aid-in-Dying Bill
A bill to allow terminally ill patients in Connecticut to end their lives through medication was dealt a blow Thursday when the Senate referred it to the Judiciary Committee, a legislative panel that lacked the votes to pass it last year. The legislation, called aid-in-dying for terminally ill patients, cleared the Public Health Committee for…
Keep reading
Aid-in-Dying Bill Clears Public Health Committee
For the second consecutive year, a key legislative committee endorsed a controversial bill Friday to allow terminally ill patients in Connecticut an option to end their own lives with doctor-prescribed medication. The legislation, called aid-in-dying for terminally ill patients, cleared the Public Health Committee on a 21 to 9 vote that followed an emotional public…
Keep reading
Public Hearing on Aid-in-Dying Bill Draws Moving Testimony
Connecticut lawmakers heard a procession of emotionally bruising testimony Wednesday during this year’s public hearing on legislation that would give terminally ill patients a legal option to end their own lives with doctor-prescribed medication. The concept, alternatively called aid-in-dying and assisted suicide, has been raised in some form by state legislators more than a dozen…
Keep reading
Committee To Tackle Aid-In-Dying Legislation
Lawmakers on the Public Health Committee reintroduced legislation Monday to allow terminally ill patients in Connecticut the option of using medication to end their own lives. The move rekindles a divisive and emotional issue during the short, election year session. During a morning meeting held virtually on Zoom, Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, a Westport Democrat and…
Keep reading
Without Vote, Aid-In-Dying Bill Expires
A bill allowing terminally ill patients the option of using medication to end their own lives failed to garner enough support in the legislature’s Judiciary Committee before a Tuesday deadline, effectively halting the proposal for the year.
Keep reading
OP-ED | Aid in Dying is an Uncomfortable, But Pressing Issue for Terminally Ill
Aid in dying legislation may be “uncomfortable” to talk about but that does not make it any less necessary, writes Jennifer Barahona.
Keep reading
After Emotional Debate, Committee Sends Aid-In-Dying To House
Lawmakers on the public health committee struggled Friday with a bill that allows a terminally-ill person to end their life. Lawmakers on both sides of the issue set politics aside and used their personal experience to guide them in making the decision to send the bill to the House.
Keep reading
Aid-In-Dying Bill Back For Hearing Friday
Connecticut lawmakers will hear public testimony Friday on a bill giving terminally ill patients the option to take doctor-prescribed medication to end their own lives. Public hearings on similar bills have elicited emotional testimony both for and against the proposal in prior legislative sessions. Despite repeated attempts by proponents, the bill has yet to pass…
Keep reading
Public Health Committee Eyes Controversial Agenda
HARTFORD, CT — The legislature’s Public Health Committee tabled one controversial issue and raised another during one of its first meetings of the session Wednesday. “When we get to the controversy I don’t want anyone to say we didn’t follow a good process,” Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-Westport, said. Steinberg co-chairs the committee and believes it…
Keep reading
Advocates Want More Progress On Mental Health Parity
HARTFORD – Advocates say passage of 2019’s Mental Health Parity bill represented great progress in the battle for increased mental health access and insurance coverage for those afflicted throughout Connecticut, but it’s not enough. That’s what state Rep. Sean Scanlon, co-chairman of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee, stressed at a press conference Tuesday when…
Keep reading
Public Health Committee Will Tackle Aid-In-Dying And Pregnancy Centers
HARTFORD, CT — Despite the skepticism from some of its members the Public Health Committee voted Friday to raise two controversial issues: aid-in-dying and pregnancy center advertising. The committee voted 12-9 to draft aid-in-dying legislation and 14-7 to draft the pregnancy center bill. Four members were absent. Several members of the committee said they’ve already…
Keep reading
Public Health Delays Raising Aid-In-Dying, Pregnancy Center Legislation
HARTFORD, CT — The Public Health Committee decided again Monday to postpone a vote on whether to raise a bill that would allow terminally ill patients to end their lives and another that would seek to regulate pregnancy center advertising. Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-Westport, who co-chairs the Public Health Committee, said they held the aid-in-dying…
Keep reading
Aid-In-Dying Fails To Get A Vote
HARTFORD, CT—Connecticut will not be one of the state’s to adopt aid-in-dying legislation as its chief proponent threw in the towel Monday, not allowing the bill to come up for vote in front of the Public Health Committee. “We just didn’t have the votes,” Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-Westport, co-chair of the committee said. He said…
Keep reading
Bill Regulating Pregnancy Centers Advances, Aid-In-Dying Is Held
HARTFORD, CT — The Public Health Committee forwarded to the House a controversial bill Friday that would regulate advertising for crisis pregnancy centers, but it held legislation that would allow terminally ill patients to end their lives with medication. Crisis pregnancy centers provide pregnancy-related services and support, but do not offer abortions or emergency contraception…
Keep readingMore Health Care News & Analysis
Medical Examining Board Fines Doctor $10,000
The state Medical Examining Board on Tuesday fined an Oxford doctor $10,000 for fraudulently using another doctor’s name and Drug Enforcement Agency registration number to prescribe controlled substances to a family member.
Keep reading
Clinical Trials With Immunotherapy Drugs Are Source Of Hope And Challenges In Treating Aggressive Breast Cancer
Joshalyn Mills of Branford and Nancy Witz of Kensington had the best possible results after being treated in clinical trials with immunotherapy drugs for aggressive breast cancer: Their tumors were eliminated. But while there are dramatic successes with immunotherapy drugs, there are also many failures, and researchers are trying to find out why in hopes…
Keep reading
Coalition of Health Insurers Questions Viability of Connecticut Partnership Plan
Members of Connecticut’s Health Care Future, a coalition of health insurers, hospitals, and businesses, are questioning whether Connecticut lawmakers have done enough this year to protect teachers and municipal employees from increases in health insurance premiums. “Despite repeated bailouts from taxpayers, the Connecticut Partnership Plan continues to be a fiscal Titanic that demonstrates why government-controlled health…
Keep reading
AG’s Tackle Mental Health Parity
Attorneys General in Connecticut and Rhode Island threw their support Monday behind a coalition of mental health advocacy groups asking a federal appeals court to revisit a recent ruling giving insurance companies more flexibility to deny mental health claims.
Keep reading
Budget Green Lights Psychedelic Therapies
Buried in the budget Gov. Ned Lamont signed this week is a provision that would create a pilot program to allow Connecticut to be the first-in-the-nation to study the impact of psychedelic drugs like psilocybin and MDMA on patients with depression and PTSD. The budget now creates a pilot program within the Department of Mental…
Keep reading
Officials Highlight Effort To Boost Mental Health Services For Kids
At a Hartford-based community provider Wednesday, Gov. Ned Lamont and a handful of his agency commissioners highlighted the expected impact of more than $100 million in recently passed funding aimed at increasing behavioral health services for Connecticut children. The governor appeared at The Village for Families and Children, a recipient of new state funding included…
Keep reading