Who’s on first – What’s on second?
That’s the question this week as the committee process rolls to an end. The annual arrival of the committee deadlines is the kick-off of the negotiating season at the Capitol. Under normal circumstances, committee co-chairs, leaders, other lawmakers and administration officials huddle behind closed doors and in just about any nook or cranny—and yes, lobby—of the Legislative Office Building to hammer out the final agendas and count their votes to decide which bills live to fight another day and which ones fall to the wayside.
Not this year. With a remote session, Wednesday and Thursday’s closing days of the Appropriations Committee (APPS – spending side of the budget) and the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee (FRB – the revenue side of the budget) were positively nuts. Both committees—the largest two in the General Assembly—are tasked with writing the legislature’s version of the Governor’s proposed two-year spending and taxing bill. Let’s just say the landing wasn’t pretty.
The rough landing was further fueled by the lack of face-to-face opportunities to negotiate, converse, and work in tandem with the committee co-chairs and ranking members of FRB. APPS seemed to have a smoother give and go. They convened, caucused for a while, reappeared on the YouTube platform and then spent a long – very long – meeting debating the spending package and the other key issues that they had on their agenda. While many bills were left behind, the important ones made it out of the APPS committee before its deadline on April 23rd.
Not so in FRB. On Tuesday, tensions erupted over competing versions of the so-called “public option” health insurance bill—one backed by the Governor and another by the Comptroller and House co-chair. The dispute continued through the committee’s final public hearing, where at one point both chairs went offline, leaving the clerk to see if there was a vice-chair to take over the controls. Newly minted FRB vice-chair Dorinda Borer (D–West Haven) stepped in and covered the public hearing using her well-practiced skills honed when she chaired the Environment Committee. Finally, the Senate co-chair reappeared to take over later in the meeting.
Come Wednesday, things were still a bit raw with the FRB co-chairs wrangling over the details of the public option bill and other interesting ideas supported by the Senate co-chair John Fonfara (D-Hartford). House co-chair, state Rep. Sean Scanlon (D-Branford), called the meeting to order and then announced the committee was going straight to caucus to work on their final position on both the revenue side of the budget and the other bills on the final committee agenda.
Over the next 10 hours, with a blank screen reading “Committee in recess,” periodic voices could be heard over the open mic to ensure the platform did not go dead: “Check, check,” sometimes a clearing of a voice, or a “Howdy! Hang with us we’re still in recess,” was heard over and over again. Other times, a wayward legislator logged on and viewers could hear a variety of comments from committee members asking instructions of where their caucus meeting was, if the committee was still in recess, or if they missed any votes. Several even engaged in quick back and forth conversations only to be alerted by the committee clerk that they were on a “hot mic.”
By 10 p.m. Wednesday, with no sign of change, the number of logged-on viewers plummeted from an all-time high of 756 to 27.
Come Thursday morning, Rep. Scanlon came on at about 9:03 a.m. and welcomed everybody to the committee’s last meeting… and announced they were going into recess! He promised this recess will be a lot shorter than the previous day. “Hopefully we’ll see you back here in about 20 minutes or so.”
He was pretty close. At 9:40 a.m., the committee was called back to order, entertained opening comments by the committee co-chairs, the ranking members (aka the top two Republicans) talked about the need for collaborative communications and lamented the impact that virtual meetings had on the normal face-to-face committee process. Then it was “Go time,” and FRB began to tackle the lengthy agenda that had been revised late Wednesday. The easy bills went first, followed by the priorities of the co-chairs. Finally by mid-day they called the top two agenda items: the revenue side of the budget and the bonding package recommendations.
Those of us who normally roam those halls, nooks and crannies of the LOB, observing body language, who’s talking to who, picking up tidbits of what’s happening in caucus, locating substitute language or chasing down folks to discuss pending bills in other committees, were left to scratch our heads trying to figure out the answer to the big question: Will they or won’t they have the votes?
They did. Barely. After an arduous voting process whereby each member of the 50-member committee had to vote by un-muting their mics, turning on their cameras and reciting their name and vote—often needing two attempts—the tax package passed by a vote of 26-22. The bond package passed unanimously. Weary committee members thanked their stalwart staff, each other, and declared their job done.
Hmm… I’m not so sure they did the job that’s needed to keep Connecticut moving forward, and neither is the Governor. Even before the FRB committee had adjourned their final meeting, Gov. Ned Lamont announced he would not sign the budget package and would meet next week with leaders to start to rework this plan after discussing some of the legislature’s desires. But he was clear: this is not the time to ask Connecticut residents to pay increased taxes, to put additional burdens on our businesses or increase the spending side with ongoing big-ticket programs and services. Just as concerning, some legislators justified the spending on new programs and increased benefits by pointing out the billions of federal dollars coming our way from the federal government. Hold the phone: that would be one-time funding, and legislatures of the past have learned the downside of devoting “one-shot” revenues for ongoing commitments. In two words: not sustainable.
And so, after this past week, there’s a little voice saying to me, “Buckle up!” The next 30 days are going to be extra, extra long. While lobbyists face the arm’s-length remote challenge of locating critical “intel” for our clients, the virtual session is not making it easy to bridge the distance between the House and Senate, the simmering tensions between the co-chairs of several committees or the policy differences between the legislature and the Governor’s Office.
I don’t believe that the clock will be the legislative leaders’ best friend this year. Once-wishful thinking of an early end to the session has given way to Capitol-watchers keeping an eye on the “shot clock” of the constitutional deadline of midnight on Wednesday, June 9.
We will see if they can gather it all together. With limited time left in the session, someone is going to have to blink—either in person or on the screen.
