Welcome to the CT state legislative session! This a very short session – only 12 weeks – so let’s stay focused!
In our webinar, How to Be an Effective Advocate for Climate Justice, Lori Brown and Leticia Colon de Mejias talked about different bills that have been raised in different committees. If you missed the webinar,
The legislative process works like this:
A bill gets raised in the most relevant committee – a lot of environmental bills get raised by the Environment Committee, but some also get raised in the Energy & Technology Committee (if it is on renewable energy, for example), the Public Health Committee (chemicals), or the Education Committee (the climate education bill). The bill needs to get raised in that committee and receive a hearing, then it is voted on.
If it passes the Committee, it then either goes to another relevant committee OR to the House or Senate, depending on the Bill number. The bills start with either HB (House bill) or SB (Senate bill.) Once the bill is passed out of the relevant committees, it will be referred to the House or the Senate for a hearing and a vote. Once it passes out of that chamber, it is sent to the other chamber for a vote. If it passes both chambers, it goes to the Governor – he can sign it, veto it, or take no action, which automatically passes it into law after a period of time.
As you can see, there are a lot of opportunities for bills to die – they can die in Committee, in either chamber, or receive a veto. Every session, thousands of bills are raised, and if legislators don’t hear from YOU, they won’t know which bills you care about! Here are few quick directions on using the Connecticut legislative website
FINDING YOUR LEGISLATOR
If you need to find your legislator, you can click below.
You can put in your town and street name, which will give you the name and contact info for your legislator.
If you live in a town with more than one legislator, you can also search by town and contact your legislator, as well as the legislators that represent your town. You can also forward this info to other people that live in your town to increase your impact!
TRACKING BILLS
You can search bills by bill number at the link below. It is by far the easiest way to find a bill, however, you have to know the bill number. A the bottom of the page, you will see a small tab that says “Bills.” Click on that and you will see a way to enter the bill number.
You can also find bills by subject. If you don’t know the bill number, but you do know the subject, you can type it in the search bar and bring up every bill on that subject. However, there may be several bills filed on a particular subject, but only one will get raised. (Legislators will often files bills on the same subject and then unite behind one bill.)
Once you locate the bill you are interested in, you will be able to see more information on where it is in the legislative process. There is a simple color code at the top of the page; an orange square next to the action means the action is new today, a blue square means that the action is 2-5 days old, and a black square means that the action is more than 5 days old. If you continue scrolling down, you can see the list and dates of different actions. Scroll down even more and you can see which legislators are co-sponsoring the bill. Co-sponsors are important, so if you don’t see your legislator on the list, definitely contact them and ask them to co-sponsor and support the bill!
SUBMITTING TESTIMONY
If a hearing is scheduled, you will have the opportunity to submit testimony. You can give the testimony in person/virtually or you can submit written comments. For the testimony to be counted for the hearing, you need to submit written testimony the day before the hearing, however, you can continue to submit comments after that. In order to submit testimony at the hearing, you need to sign up ahead of time to receive a place in line. It is best to keep your comments pretty brief and to the point, especially if you are talking about more than one bill in front of the committee that day. To submit written testimony, e-mail it to the address for that committee in the “Contact” information for that Committee. You will see the little envelope icon with “Public Hearing Testimony” next to it. Click on that to get the e-mail information. For example, the address to submit written testimony to the Environment Committee is envtestimony@cga.ct.gov.
STAYING INFORMED
IREJN will be tracking legislation this session. Another great resource is the CT League of Conservation Voters Watchlist, which you can find here.
Thank you!
