Upcoming Forum and Updates

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March 24, 2021
Spring is upon us and more and more vaccines are becoming available. For those of you 45 and older, I hope you’ve been able to get your vaccine appointment. I was excited to get one myself today. It took a number of attempts, so I hope those of you experiencing the same will keep trying.
 
This session, there are a number of concepts before the Planning and Development Committee which have engendered significant conversation and debate. Over the coming weeks, I will continue to engage with all of you to hear your ideas, thoughts and concerns as well as to give you an opportunity to learn more about both the content of the bills as well as the conversation behind them.
Next Monday, I am pleased to welcome Kiley Gosselin of the Partnership for Strong Communities, Majority Leader Jason Rojas, and John Guszkowski, Government Relations Director for the CT Planners to join me for an online forum, the first of a series. Hearing from the panelists will provide an opportunity for you to ask questions directly and learn more about the content of some of the bills being discussed.
  
The Committee deadlines are approaching. Within the next week or so, the committee will need to vote bills out of the committee in order to allow debate and discussion to continue. This does not mean that every bill that passes the committee is what will pass in the House and Senate. The bipartisan leadership group will be meeting in the coming days to determine what bills will continue for further debate. Again, even after that committee vote, these conversations, with legislative leaders from both sides of the aisle, constituents, fellow legislators, and stakeholders, will continue throughout the legislative session.
Comments in Planning and Development Committee Meeting

Racism, discrimination, hate and intolerance are destructive forces that not only tear apart relationships but the very fabric of our society. They cannot and must not be tolerated anywhere. Reports of hate incidents against members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community are on the rise. This is well documented. We saw the worst culmination of this only last week in the targeted attacks on people in the AAPI community, as 6 of the 8 women brutally murdered in Atlanta were women of Asian descent.
 
Monday, during the legislature's Planning and Development Committee public hearing, a member of the committee made statements that discounted these truths and the very real experience of members of the AAPI community. There is no place either within the committee or within the legislature for statements that attempt to diminish or discount that very real discrimination. As chair of that committee and as an American and elected leader, I want to make clear that I stand against such statements as I stand against racism and discrimination anywhere.
 
Yesterday I participated in Bystander Intervention Training to Stop Anti-Asian/American Hate. Fighting racism, discrimination, hate and intolerance requires us to put aside our preconceptions about ourselves and others. It requires strength to speak out and the humility to look within ourselves. We must stand in solidarity with those who face discrimination, and work to remove this stain on our democracy. I am committed to learn and grow in my awareness and abilities as an upstander, and will continue ask that my fellow leaders do the same.
Transportation Bills Advanced Today

At today’s Transportation Committee meeting, the bulk of the discussion time focused on SB 127, which will allow direct sales of electric vehicles, one which I have been happy to support for many years and did again today. There was another bill on the agenda, HB 6484 An Act Concerning Recommendations By The Department Of Transportation.

Within that lengthy bill, Sections 17 and 18 would require, for the first time, the use of backseat seat-belts for drivers of all ages. This is an issue I have worked on and have advocated for over a number of years as a transportation committee member. I am so grateful for the support from the chairs and the state Department of Transportation to advance the bill through the committee process. Seat-belts save lives. Specifically, rear seat-belts save not only the lives of those who are belted, but also the lives of those who are in the front seat, who may be belted themselves, but remain at risk if those behind them are not.

Testimony from the National Transportation Safety Board indicated that rear seat belt use is higher in states that require them. Perhaps most striking was the online testimony, made possible due to the zoom format for this session’s hearings, by Alec Slatky, Director of Public and Government Affairs for AAA Northeast. The crash simulation video is motivation enough to not only pass the bill, but also to be sure that all of us and our passengers wear a seat belt when riding in the rear of a vehicle. You can watch Alec testify here.