Nick Gauthier

I was proud to stand this week with my colleagues in recognizing Military Suicide Awareness and Remembrance Day to acknowledge the importance of providing services and support to our veterans and to anyone in their time of need.

Dial 988, available 24/7. Press 1 for veterans services.

This effort is rooted in the legacy of Command Sergeant Major Gary Sirois, a decorated veteran and Plainville native whose life and service continue to inspire action.

Call for a Special Session

Also on Wednesday, I stood alongside workers, community leaders, and legislative colleagues on the first day of the federal government shutdown to make one thing clear: while chaos continues in Washington, we in Connecticut must step up to protect our residents.

A number of my colleagues and I are calling for a special legislative session by Nov. 1  to responsibly invest a significant portion of Connecticut's surplus revenue (currently over $2 billion) to ensure that our neighbors and families don’t go hungry, that people don’t lose healthcare insurance coverage, and that rising health care costs don’t fall even harder on the backs of working people.

We are asking for the following to be addressed in a Special Session:

• Shore up DSS’s Call Center and fund Community Health Workers.  New, burdensome requirements will mean that the Department of Social Services call center will need to process thousands more calls every day. The average wait time is already an alarming 50 minutes, and it takes nine months to train a call center worker. We need to act now to shore up the call center, and fund CHWs to assist people with redetermination.
• Make up the funding blocked by the federal government for Planned Parenthood of Southern New England.
• Make up subsidies for 4,500 Legally Permanent Immigrants who are losing all their subsidies on the exchange at the end of December - or, open access to a Medicaid-equivalent program.
• Protect people who are buying insurance on the Health Access exchange.
• Make up for cuts to SNAP food benefits. Changes to SNAP eligibility mean that 42,000 state residents will be immediately cut off from benefits; 39,000 of these people are American citizens, and another 3,000 are “lawfully present individuals,” mostly immigrants who are recognized as refugees, survivors of human trafficking or asylum-seekers. It is outrageous for Connecticut children to go hungry. SNAP will be needed more than ever in the face of other cruel cuts, rising grocery prices and spikes in costs driven by tariffs.
• Maintain HUSKY (Medicaid) coverage for all who have it now, especially the thousands of residents of nursing homes and long-term care.
• Better Protect and guard the data, personal information and safety of those going to court, school and hospitals.