July 23, 2026 · 9,680 words · 39 speakers · 207 segments
Chamber will come to order, please. Staff and guests, please try to find a spot in the back or in the front. And welcome to the opening day of the 2026 Legislative Session, as constitutionally required on this Wednesday, February 4th, 2026. And we will start our day with a prayer, which will be offered by our House Chaplain, Reverend Erica Thompson of West Hartford.
Friends, it is an honor to be with you today as you gather to do the people's work for the State of Connecticut. In a season marked by deep complexity, competing priorities, and vs/rp 2 strong convictions, this Chamber remains a place where the common good is sought through dialogue, discernment, and decision. As you begin today's session, I invite you to take a moment to breathe, to center yourselves, and to remember the trust that has been placed in you by your constituents, by this state, and by generations yet to come. Let us pray. Gracious and Eternal God - source of wisdom, justice, and compassion - we give you thanks for this day and for the opportunity to serve. We pray for the women and men gathered in this House for their safety and for their health. Grant them clarity of mind - generosity of spirit - and steadiness of heart. When voices differ may they listen with respect and speak with integrity. We ask Your blessing upon the work set before them today - that the laws debated and enacted may promote justice - protect the vulnerable - strengthen our communities and serve the well-being of all who call Connecticut home. Remind us that leadership is not only about power - but about responsibility - not only about conviction - but about humility - not only about vision - but about care for our vs/rp 3 neighbors. May this House be a place where truth is honored - where collaboration is possible and where hope is kept alive through faithful service. All this we ask in the spirit of peace and the pursuit of the common good. Amen. (ALL MEMBERS): Amen.
Thanks, Erica. And I would ask our Majority Leader, Representative Rojas of the 9th District, and our Minority Leader, Representative Candelora of the 86, to join me in the dais to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. REP. ROJAS (9TH)/REP. CANDELORA (86TH): (ALL MEMBERS) I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
vs/rp 4 Members, please be seated if you have a seat. For those of you who have to stand, we'll try to make this quick as we can for you. We do have some business we have to get to. I would ask the Chamber to keep their conversations -- (gavel) I'd ask the Chamber to keep their conversations to a minimum, or take it outside. I do want to, unfortunately, start our opening day, let me start on a brighter note, and then we'll do maybe a sadder note with a moment of silence. But we do have two new members that have joined our Chamber since we last left in June, and we came back for one day, but they still weren't there for that one day. So we had two special elections. So let me start in order of how they got elected. Where's Representative Sanchez from New Britain? Would you please stand? Welcome to our Chamber. (applause) Turn the mic on. See, I'm rusty too, folks. And let's also welcome from the 139th, Representative Pemberton. Very nice to have both of you up here, and it was a pleasure to swear both of you in with the Office of the Secretary of State over the last couple of weeks. Actually, in referencing Representative Pemberton, it sort of leads us to the moment of silence that I would ask the Chamber to take. vs/rp 5 It's actually been a tough week, or a tough couple of weeks, so there's going to be a couple of things I'd like to mention, and we'll rise and do one moment of silence. Obviously, Representative Pemberton filled a seat that was vacated by the passing of our longtime member and Deputy Speaker, Kevin Ryan, from the 139th, who was first elected in 1992 when some of you were not born yet. We will have a chance later in session to do a video and have some remarks about Kevin at the right time, maybe in a couple weeks. But obviously, Kevin served with great distinction. He was a friend to many of us. I had the pleasure of going down with Representative Carpino, and recognizing Deputy Speaker Ryan at a national forum where they had a moment of silence for him there. He was a unique individual. So when I look to my right, it'll be a little less worrisome, I suppose, for me, but we will miss Kevin a great deal. Again, we'll have a chance to honor him, and I know we all miss him. Over the holidays, we had one of our former House speakers pass away, Fran Collins from the 107th, from the town of Brookfield, who served from 1971 to 1975, as a Republican speaker of the House passed away. vs/rp 6 I know the Majority Leader and I were able to put out a statement, and send our regards to the family. And so, we're thinking of him and his family during this time. Just a couple days ago, I know it started kind of on a dour note here, our permanent House Clerk, Ann Clark, who has done her job, some of you know her well, her job so well for decades with distinction. She does all the things that makes the process seem like it's just going easy, it's seamless. It's really Ann and her team that are behind the scenes, making sure all the bills are filed, the amendments are tracked. Ann lost her mom, Veronica, a couple days ago, and so she's not going to be here today. This is probably the first opening day she's missed, and my guess is three decades, if not longer. And I talked to Ann this morning. She's, of course, watching on TV, which speaks to her work ethic. And so we're thinking of her and her family. And then lastly, our House Chaplain, Erica Thompson, who gave that prayer to begin, she lost her father, just last week. So it's a reminder on these happy days when we all get together with our family and friends, and be back together, and do the work of the people of the state that, unfortunately, life vs/rp 7 doesn't stop for any of us, and there are still things that happen. So, if we could collectively rise and think of these individuals and their families, and for a moment of silence, I would appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you very much. And the Chamber will come back to order. Before we get down to some small business, we have a couple of resolutions, which hopefully are not too controversial, since they are simply to print to the bills. Let me look to my left and see if there's any remarks or comments from Minority Leader, Representative Candelora.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's wonderful to be here on opening day. We are going to be into a sprint, rather than a marathon, I think, this session. I didn't prepare any remarks. I think maybe I've been doing this too long, but I'll say I had a dream last night that my television set had broken, and PURA came to my house to help fix it. (laughter) And so I'm starting to wonder if maybe I've been here too long. vs/rp 8 But I figured I would start out the day with a little bit of humor, because I know we were going to have a lot of weighty decisions coming up this session. I want to welcome our two new members from this special election. I did have the pleasure of being here for the swearing-in ceremonies. And we certainly are a family in this House, and I look forward to continue to work with all of you. I just want to acknowledge here, I'm seeing my First Selectman from Guilford, Matt Hoey, and my First Selectman from Durham, Selectman Brendan Rea. And we have Willie Dellacamera in the House from Cecarelli Farms in Northford, who has become a regular up in Connecticut, advocating for our farms. And I'm sure we're going to hear more from him this session. So, please welcome them, and good luck to everybody as we take off flying. Thank you. (applause)
Mr. Majority Leader of the 9th, I'm assuming you enjoyed the game last night.
vs/rp 9 I did enjoy the game. My flight got back at seven o'clock, so I was able to get my "Let's go Huskies" post up, and watch the game once I got home. And it was a bit of a snoozer since they blew out Xavier. But thank you, Mr. Speaker. And certainly, I want to rise and welcome everyone, welcome our colleagues, certainly a special welcome to our two new colleagues who join us today. To our staff, partisan and nonpartisan, welcome back to legislative session. To our Capitol Police who keep us safe and keep the building safe, welcome. Members of the professional media, families, guests, everybody who's here, welcome. And legislators are often understood as being kind of the primary focal point of this institution. But everybody that I just acknowledge actually has a role in ensuring that we produce good public policy and advance democracy. And that's why I want to welcome everybody who's in the room today and people who are watching on TV, welcome to the 2026 legislative session. We are living in a time of significant uncertainty. People are uncertain about a lot of things, our relationship with the federal government, the rapid technological change that we're vs/rp 10 seeing in our world, how we engage with each other, both in person and obviously on social media. Individuals that we all represent and care about are uncertain about food, security, and housing, access to health care, access to higher education, access to well resourced schools, childcare, and jobs that pay a livable wage, safety for themselves, but increasingly safety for others, given the actions of our federal government and how we treat certain people in our communities. We must recognize the uncertainties and see them as opportunities, because that's what we do here. And this is where I'm going to turn to my optimism, and most people who know me know that I'm annoyingly optimistic. And after 18 sessions, six sessions as Majority Leader, I have a unique vantage point. Right? Because I see how we conduct ourselves on a minute-by- minute basis here in this Chamber. And anytime I have an opportunity to speak to the public, I often remind them that it's likely that Representative Candelora and I, in any given session, will vote together 80%, 85% of the time. That means that the vast majority of the work that takes place in this room and in this building is done on a bipartisan vs/rp 11 basis. And often when I say that, people just find that unbelievable. But I think we have to keep reminding ourselves of that, given how difficult it is to engage with each other. We have to remind the public of that so that they can retain their confidence in their government and what we do in this building, because that is really, really important at a moment like this where far too many people are losing their faith in so many important institutions. And this institution that we're all lucky to be a member of is one of the most important ones. So, with that, I ask everybody to think about it that way. I observe our chairs working with ranking members on a regular basis, communicating with each other respectfully, and getting really good work done. Often, that is more a product of compromise than simple partisanship. The speaker often talks about how proud we should be to be here in the State of Connecticut. We should be proud. He's exactly right, because of how we conduct ourselves. And we're going to disagree, right? We have fundamental differences on policy, but we never lose sight of the responsibility that we have to each other, to communicate, to vs/rp 12 treat each other with respect, and to ensure that we're adopting good public policy that advances the well-being of our families, of our communities, and our state. And if my counting is correctly, after today, we'll have 62 days to do all of that. And I hope that we do it every day with integrity and goodwill. Thank you, Mr.
Thank you, Mr. Majority Leader, for your remarks. Before we get down to some of our simple resolutions, then we can do announcements and introductions, I do have some introductions to make on my own. We have to my left, it looks like five former House speakers. Yes. We can give them a round of applause. (applause) We have Richard Balducci to my far left; my father, Tom Ritter; my first speaker, Chris Donovan; Speaker, Brendan Sharkey from Hamden, and a guy with a tough last name to spell, my good friend, Joe Aresimowicz. So, the Majority Leader, I'll just quickly, to the 151 of us that are in here, made a good point. It's 62 days or something like that. So Ricky Baltimore, who's my General Counsel, he's like sending shock waves to me about how short the vs/rp 13 session is, right? It's so short. So if WTNH does the bingo game, how many times people say it's a short session? It's so short. It's actually not that short. It's what the Constitution says it should be. It's always short. It might be two days shorter than prior years, but it's always a short session. So, what happens in the short session? It is hard to be the Speaker, the Minority Leader, the Majority Leader, because you say that we three kill all your bills. You ignore the calendar, you ignore deadlines. I didn't write the Constitution to make it 62 days. And so, at the last two weeks, these are the words uttered in the caucus rooms in the hallways, "The Minority Leader killed my bill. The Majority Leader is so evil, he killed my bill." And if you're really brash, "The Speaker killed my bill." Folks, we hopefully have trained, not trained each other, but have a system in place where we warned you that your relationships and the way that you conduct yourself will lead to your successes or failures for the things that you care about. If you spent the last year and a half never having a conversation with your colleagues who might have a different vs/rp 14 perspective, who might come from a different area, who might just have a whole different way of thinking, these 62 days could be challenging. If your bill is a work in progress in April, it'll be a work in progress in January 2027. Okay? If you look at it on the calendar days, assuming we do tweak them here and there, but we intend to do them. To Jason's point, to the Majority Leader's point, you don't have a lot of time. So you really have to fall back on the trust and relationships you develop with your caucus members and the folks on your committee. Because what you put out of that committee, if it's more in final product, is going to make it a lot easier for us to find the time to make it work. But the short session is sort of a cruel joke that the framers have put upon us. I mean, you could almost see him having the conversation where they said, "You know what? Let's not do the normal January to June. Let's make these people really sweat for 60 days. Let's see if they can figure it out." But I think it's a great challenge. And you will see the conversation about how we're different. Because we have a shot vs/rp 15 clock, because we expire, it does force those conversations. It forces compromise. And I said that last year. We are not governed by this. I don't set the schedule and tell you what we're going to do every five minutes. The Minority and the Majority Leader have conversations, and then we kind of let democracy flow. So, everything that happens is as much in your hands as ours because the last week is about relationships and how hard you've worked with each other. So I hope you remember that. And yes, the last week, when some advocacy group says that I killed their bill, that's fine. That's fine. We all can accept that. But the reality is the bills don't die in April. They die in February. They die in January. So, I hope you keep that in mind for the things that you care about and that you want to see be successful in the State of Connecticut. Okay? And with that, we are going to do some quick business. We have House Resolution No. 1, which I'd ask the clerk to call,
vs/rp 16 House Resolution No. 1, resolution concerning the printing of the House Journal, introduced by Representative Rojas.
All right. So before we take that up, we're going to suspend the rules. So, Mr. Majority Leader, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move for suspension of our rules for immediate consideration of House Resolution 1 and House Resolution 2.
Any objection to suspending our rules for the immediate consideration of House Resolution 1 and House Resolution 2? Seeing none, so ordered. (gavel) So we are back. Mr. Clerk, why don't you read it one more time H.R. 1, please?
vs/rp 17 House Resolution No. 1, resolution concerning the printing of the House Journal, introduced by Representative Rojas.
Mr. Majority Leader.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move adoption of House Resolution 1. The resolution is self-explanatory.
Would you care to mark on House 1? Anyone care to mark on House 1? Objection to a voice vote. Seeing none, I'll try your minds. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. (ALL MEMBERS): Aye.
vs/rp 18 Opposed, Nay. Ayes have it. Resolution is adopted. (gavel) Mr. Clerk, please call House Resolution No. 2.
House Resolution No. 2, resolution raising a committee to inform the Senate that the House is ready to meet in joint convention, introduced by Representative Rojas.
Mr. Majority Leader, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move adoption of House Resolution No. 2. We have to invite them down here, so I encourage everyone to support it.
Would you mark further on this one? If not, I'll try your minds. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. vs/rp 19 (ALL MEMBERS): Aye.
Opposed, Nay. Ayes have it. What was that? The ayes did have it, but let the record reflect there were some nays in there. But the resolution is nonetheless adopted. (gavel) At this time, I will appoint Representative Joe Gresko, Representative Hilda Santiago, and Representative Tom O'Dea, to inform the Senate we are ready to meet. We are well ahead of schedule, so I wouldn't go meet them quite yet, unless you want to spend an hour and 39 minutes up there. But at some point, we will go inform the Senate we're ready to meet, okay? But we now have a little bit of time to do announcements or introductions or personal points of privilege. So if you'd like to speak, just hit your button. And we'll start in order. Representative Reyes from the 75th, City Of Waterbury, the floor is yours, sir.
vs/rp 20 Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good morning, everybody. It's an honor and privilege to be here today, sir. And I just want to take a point of personal privilege.
You may proceed.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I am here today with a young visitor that wanted to come back. Last time she was here, please stay in Veda Rey. So this is my granddaughter, her third visit here. When she first came here, she was sitting on my lap and making a ruckus. And today she comes back as my detail. Please welcome Veda Rey Kingsbury. Thank you very much, everybody. I'm here with my wife, Hilda Reyes, my daughter, Cassandra Reyes, my esteemed brother, Abdullah Johnson, who's here somewhere. And I just want to --
vs/rp 21 Let's turn on, Deputy Speaker Reyes again, please. So just hit that button to speak again, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and we'll get you on. There we go. Hang on. Give me sec. It's all right. Opening day.
Opening day jitters.
It's like the pitcher walks the first batter. It happens.
And again, I just want to take this point of personal privilege, welcome back all my colleagues, and in particular, Representative Pemberton and Representative Iris Sanchez. Welcome to the People's House. (applause)
Thank you, Representative Reyes. Representative Hoxha of the 78th, you have the floor, sir. vs/rp 22
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise for a point of personal privilege.
You may proceed, sir.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to introduce the new mayor of one of the towns I represent, Plymouth, Connecticut. He's right here, Mr. Dave Sekorski. So, I just ask that the House give him a warm welcome today. Thank you.
Welcome to our Chamber, Mr. Mayor. We look forward to welcoming you back. Representative Paris of the 145th.
vs/rp 23 Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise for the purpose of introduction.
You may proceed, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Speaker, we know that Stanford is the leader of many things in this great state, sir, and many of us --
I'm sorry, did you say Stanford?
I did, sir. Many people couldn't hear that, so we'll let that pass. But we have a very special guest with us today, so I'm happy to make this introduction with the rest of our Stamford delegation. We have with us Miss Jenna Hofmann, who is a resident of Stamford, and our current reigning Miss Connecticut USA. She has represented our state and has served us vs/rp 24 admirably over the last year. She's about to give up her reign soon, and she has made a major focus of her reign on the issues of mental health and also breast cancer. So would you all please join me in welcoming Stamford's finest?
Thank you to the Stamford delegation, and congratulations, and good luck going forward. Representative Santos from Danbury of the 109th.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's good to see you there, sir. I rise for an invitation, or a introduction, if I could.
You may proceed. You can invite me wherever you want, but let's get to the introduction.
vs/rp 25 Mr. Speaker, I'm going to introduce someone who we all pretty much know. He's been introduced a couple of times, but this time, it's actually very special for me. I'm joined here by the Danbury delegation, Representative Callahan, Godfrey, Ali Brennan, and Gucker. Mr. Speaker, about six months ago, right around his 42nd birthday, one of my best friends found out that he had stage 4 lymphoma. And I work with this guy every single day.
Representative Santos, give me one sec, all right? I would ask, it's loud, right, so I can hear you all. Okay? But I'm not sure we can hear the speakers. So, if you have conversations, either turn them down or bring them outside. Okay? Representative, you may continue.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said, about six months ago, right around his 42nd birthday, one of my best friends found out that he had stage 4 lymphoma. And I work with him every single day. He's my boss in my day job. And through that process, I saw vs/rp 26 him endure six rounds of chemo, working harder than ever. The 16-hour days turned to 12-hour days, maybe 14. But every single day, he was there fighting for our community. We all know him because he's up here fighting for Danbury every single time that he can as well. And Mr. Speaker, throughout that time, I saw grit, I saw determination, I saw continued compassion and a heart of gold to continue serving his city. And as of his last scan, my good friend, my brother, no longer has this cancer. It's no longer detectable. And so I would hope that my colleagues would rise and greet my friend, and also congratulate the great mayor of the city of Danbury, my brother, Roberto Alves, here today.
Mr. Mayor, it's great to have you. And thank you, Representative Santos, for those remarks. Representative Canino of the 65th from Torrington, you have the floor, sir.
vs/rp 27 Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a point of personal privilege.
You may proceed, sir.
Thank you. As you may know, Torrington, the gem of the Northwest Corner, our pizza can go toe to toe with anybody else in this state. I don't deny it. We have a very special guest here today, a marine, a lifelong Torrington resident, and our new mayor, Molly Spino. Please welcome her to the Chamber.
Welcome, Mayor, and you're welcome to our Chamber anytime. Thanks for being here today with us. Representative Gresko of the 121st, you have the floor, sir.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for purposes of an introduction. vs/rp 28
Mr. Speaker, I'd like to introduce on behalf of myself and Representative Shake and Representative McGorty, our new mayor of the town of Stratford, Dr. David Chess. Dr. Chess joins us after a successful career in medicine and as a business owner, and hopes to establish a fine rapport with leadership and members here in the House, and also maybe upstairs as well. Thank you. We can give them a round of applause as our custom. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (applause)
Congratulations, Mr. Mayor. Although if I were a doctor, I'd prefer to be called doctor than mayor. You can call yourself what you want, but welcome to our Chamber. Representative Kavros DeGraw of the 17th.
vs/rp 29 Good morning, and thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise for a point of personal privilege.
You may proceed.
Mr. Speaker, Avon's community unfortunately recently lost two hometown heroes, so I will be asking for a moment of silence in just a minute. Our first hometown hero was our beloved Anne Clark, who was the Democratic town registrar for many years. Not only was she working for our town, but she also was very involved in other wonderful aspects, including our Rotary Club, our Lions, as well as the Garden Club. And she was an avid watcher of CTN whenever we were in session. Secondly, we also lost, unfortunately, to a firefighter-related cancer, our Deputy Chief David Theriault, a few weeks ago to cancer as well. And he leaves behind a wife and two wonderful children. And so I just would ask for a moment of vs/rp 30 silence for these two hometown heroes in Avon. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Chamber, please rise for a moment of silence. And thank you, Representative Kavros DeGraw. Our condolences and thoughts are with the families and those affected in Avon. Thank you for saying that. Thank you. The Chamber will come back to order. Representative Steinberg from Westport, the Chairman of the Energy and Technology Committee. Vinny is now dreaming of your committee, so you may proceed.
Thank you for that, I think, Mr. Speaker. I rise for a purpose of an introduction
You may proceed.
vs/rp 31 And an announcement. You heard me complain in the past that nobody from Westport ever comes up here to visit me. Today, I have an embarrassment of riches. There are a number of Westporters here in the audience. Beside me here, I have my friend and colleague, Matt Mandel, Sal Liccione. If you don't know Sal, you will eventually. Everybody gets to know Sal. We have the Chair of our board of education, Lee Goldstein, over there. We have in the gallery, Harris Faulk and Gloria Gouveia. And I understand our new First Selectman, Kevin Christie, is here as well, but he's hanging with the Senate, so forget him. And for just for the purpose of another announcement.
All right, it's getting loud again. We got the whole town of Westport here, and everybody's being loud. So let's show a little respect. Come on.
vs/rp 32 I also want to recognize one of our colleagues. We don't do that very often, but today happens to be the 10th anniversary of the swearing in of my friend and colleague, Joe Gresko, who has represented the 121st for 10 years now. I figured if I didn't recognize him, no one will. So, acknowledging his role here, he replaced, as we all remember, Terry Backer, who I sat next to in the front row my first term, one of the great characters of the legislature, and Joe has ably filled those shoes in the past 10 years. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Well said, sir. Representative Weir of the 55th, you have the floor, sir.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a couple of introductions and one announcement.
You may proceed, sir. vs/rp 33
Mr. Speaker, I'd like to, along with Representative Ackert from the 8th District, introduce to my right, First Selectman from Bolton, Rodney Fournier. Also, for me, town of Marlborough, town manager, David Porter. Excuse me. And then constituent from Glastonbury who wanted to see how this place works, Stephanie Johnson. So I thought that was pretty nice to have them. And a round of applause. (applause)
We welcome them to our Chamber. Yes. Thank you for joining us today.
And a brief announcement. I hope I'm not stealing anybody's thunder, but my Co-Chair on the Labor Committee, Manny Sanchez and his wife introduced a baby yesterday, Jackson Robert Sanchez to the twirl. So prayers for them, and happy delivery. Thank you. vs/rp 34
Congratulations to Representative Manny Sanchez on the birth of his second child. Thank you, Representative Weir. All right. We got Representative Parker of the 101st, the Chairman of the Environment Committee. Speaking of babies.
Good morning, Mr. Speaker. I rise for a point of personal privilege and introduction.
You may proceed, sir.
Thank you, sir. So lovely to be here with all of our beautiful colleagues this morning. Grateful to welcome our First Selectman from Durham, First Selectman Rea, and from Madison, Peggy Lyons. I don't know where you are right now, Peggy, but we're grateful to have you here. Another shout-out to Manny and to his beautiful family. Welcome, Jackson. And then I'm very vs/rp 35 excited to introduce some folks you've seen before. My wife, Joyce; my son, Charles; my mother, Clara, and this is Rosie Kate Parker. We are very excited to have her with us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It's really nice to have all of you here. I know it's a busy time, so thanks for being here. Representative Rosario of the 128th, you have the floor, sir.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise for the purpose of couple of introductions.
You look like you got a lot of people over there. You may proceed.
vs/rp 36 We got a lot of people. The city of Bridgeport is well represented today, Mr. Speaker. Joining us today is a group from M&T Bank, which is headquartered in the great city of Bridgeport, led by the Regional President, Frank Micalizzi, and his wonderful team. If we could ask the Chamber to give them a round of applause. (applause) And secondly, Mr. Speaker, we're joined by Bridgeport city Councilman Richard Ortiz, and we're also joined by Bridgeport President Pro Tempore, but most importantly, a former deputy speaker here in this Chamber, Ernie Newton. Let's give him our customary welcome. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Representative Rosario. Representative Newton, it's nice to see you former Representative Newton, again. Representative Howard of the 43rd, what do you got?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have an introduction, if I may. vs/rp 37
You may proceed.
Mr. Speaker, you and the Majority Leader spoke at least implicitly about working across the aisle. Down where I live, I find myself have to work across the aisle and also the state line. I work collaboratively with my good friend, Sam Azzinaro, who is a Democrat State Representative, representing the town of Westerly, Rhode Island, bordering me where I grew up. And over the years, his grandson, Ryan Galluccio, has followed his grandfather many times to the Rhode Island State Capitol, and we often are in parades together. And Ryan comes with his grandfather, and I've often told him that it's just better here. So he came to see that himself. So I brought with me today my good friend, Ryan Gallucio, to see how things go in Connecticut. I hope my colleagues can help give him a warm welcome. Sand up, buddy.
vs/rp 38 Welcome to our Chamber. I hope you enjoy today. Thank you, Representative Howard. Representative Dathan of the 142nd, you have the floor, madam.
Good morning, Mr. Speaker. I rise for a point of personal privilege.
You may proceed.
Thank you very much. Along with the New Canaan delegation and Representative O'Dea, who's very busy right now, and Representative Constantine, we'd like to introduce a friend of mine, Meredith Tovich, coming from New Canaan, who's delighted to come up here and see how democracy works in our state. I ask the Chamber to give her a warm welcome.
vs/rp 39 Thank you for joining us. Representative Lanoue of the 45th, you have the floor, sir.
Good morning, Mr. Speaker. I rise for the point of introduction.
Good morning to you. You may proceed, sir.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would hope you and the Chamber could give a very warm welcome to the 45th District's goodwill ambassador. That's my mom, Suzanne Lanoue, known as Mama Lanoue. She's always keeping me on the straight and narrow, always reminding me why I'm here, who I represent, and fight for those who can't fight for themselves. Always wears her heart on her sleeve. Very honored to be the only person in this world to be able to call her mom. Please if we could welcome my mom, Suzanne Lanoue, to the House Chamber. vs/rp 40
Thank you to Mama. Welcome to the Chamber. It's nice to have you here today. Representative Exum of the 19, West Hartford and Avon, what do you got?
Through you, Mr. Speaker. Good morning. First of all, thank you so much for wearing red.
Hang on one second. One second. One second. Just a reminder, we've got a few left, and then we'll have a break before the Governor comes in. So, if you have conversations, you can go outside, but try to keep it down, so we can hear our colleagues. Representative Exum.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A personal point of privilege. First, I'd like to thank all of you who are showing up today in red. It marks American Heart Health Month, and it's a really vs/rp 41 important cause. And I wanted us to do this, and I can see in solidarity how so many of you have participated, so I am really grateful. I want to remind you that one year ago, we passed a really important piece of legislation, and that's to cover the cost of coronary calcium scans for individuals with state plans. That was a big deal. And I know it's a big deal because people keep coming to me, texting me, calling me, emailing me to say, "Thank you. I learned about this test, and I was able to get coverage for myself, or able to get coverage for a loved one." I want to continue that advocacy. I learned about coronary calcium scans from my husband's autopsy. And one of the things I know for sure is that we test for colons --
Again, I would just ask that if we could keep our conversations down or outside. It is fine outside. It is just as warm out there as it is in here. So if you go out there, you'll be good. Sorry. Representative Exum.
vs/rp 42 Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to remind you of the importance. The number one killer is heart disease. Yet we test for colons, we test our prostates, we test our breasts, we scan our eyes, but we don't have a test that we do on a regular basis as preventative for heart disease. There is a test, it's a coronary calcium scan. Everyone may or may not need it, but if you don't know about it, you can't ask for it. The test cost about a $150 at the most, but you need to be aware and advocate for whatever it is that you need. And so, today, we're taking a stand on that. We did it as a body. Continue to talk about it. I'd love to see it covered by private insurance. I'd love to see this covered at the federal level so that this test can continue to be given and to save lives. So I just want to thank you so much for showing your support and wearing red. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Representative Exum. And I wore red today. I did not forget for you. Representative Wood, the Chairwoman of the Insurance Committee, from Rocky Hill -- vs/rp 43
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
-- in a sliver of Wethersfield. Just a little bit. You have the floor.
Great part of Wethersfield. I rise for the purpose of introductions.
Yes, you may proceed.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to introduce three amazing women that are here with us today. We have Town Councilwoman Melissa Kaplan from Rocky Hill. We have the Board of Education Chair, Jessica Loffredo. And we also have from the Board of vs/rp 44 Education, Jennifer Baron-Morfea, who may have grown up with me and may know all the secrets about me, if anyone was wondering. Thank you.
Welcome to the Chamber. Representative Wood, I have someone behind me who knows secrets too, but good luck getting out of them. Representative Osborne of the 16th.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise for a point of personal privilege.
You may proceed, madam.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And for an introduction, it is a proud mama moment for me here, to introduce my son, William Varbel, who is joining us from Denver today. Come on up here, vs/rp 45 William. And we just ask that my colleagues welcome him, and give him a warm round of applause. Welcome, William. (applause)
Thank you, Representative Osborne, and welcome to our Chamber. Representative Keitt of 134th, from Fairfield, what do you got?
Good morning, Mr. Speaker. I rise for a point of personal privilege and an introduction.
You may proceed.
Thank you. I and my fellow delegates from Fairfield are here to welcome Fairfield's newly reelected First Selectperson, Christine Vitale. Christine has served the Fairfield community for decades, steering our board of education through COVID, on vs/rp 46 our PTAs, and various town commissions and boards. She stepped up when we lost our former First Selectman Bill Gerber tragically this summer. She's been leading our town with grace, strength, intelligence, and just an open heart. And we want to congratulate her and wish her well on the rest of her term as Fairfield's First Selectperson.
Congratulations and welcome to our Chamber. You look pretty good for having had an election yesterday. So congratulations. Representative Hall of the 7th City of Hartford.
Good morning, Mr. Speaker. Great to be here on this fine Wednesday morning. I would just like to introduce our City Council President, Thomas T. J. Clarke here, and welcome him to the Chamber, on behalf of the Hartford delegation.
vs/rp 47 Thank you, Representative Hall. Mr. President, welcome. Representative Turco, 27th, Newington, let's go.
Mr. Speaker, I rise for the purpose of the announcement.
You may proceed.
Mr. Speaker, my thunder has been stolen, but on behalf of the New Britain legislative delegation, as we can see, we're missing a colleague here, State Representative Manny Sanchez, because his wife, Nicole, gave birth to their second child, a beautiful baby boy, Jackson Robert Sanchez, on Monday. So, let's wish Representative Sanchez and his wife good wishes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (applause)
vs/rp 48 Representative Belton of the 100th, from Middletown, you have the floor, Madam.
Good morning, Mr. Speaker. I rise for the purpose of introduction, please.
You may proceed, Madam.
Representative Chaffee and I are honored to introduce our newly elected mayor, Gene Nocera, and his Chief of Staff, Steven Kovach. Mayor Nocera has served our city for many years in many different capacities, and we are just so blessed to have him as our mayor, leading our city. I also want to introduce Janette Blackwell, who is our very first elected Black woman to the Common Council. And she now serves as the Council President, and we are so proud of her. And it was fitting to announce because it is Black History Month. Happy Black History Month, everyone. vs/rp 49
Congratulations to all of you, and welcome to our Chamber. Representative Bolinsky of the 106th. It's a lot of people, I know. Lots of manage up here. Lot of buttons being hit. You have the floor, sir.
Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker. It is an absolute honor and a privilege to be with you today on opening day. Thank you so much.
Hang on one second. One second. Because I can't hear you. Hang on. Hang on. (gavel) Okay. Come on. We got a few more, but I can't even hear one word that the Representative is saying, so I got to gavel that out. Representative, you may proceed, sir.
Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker. It's a pleasure to be here with you on opening day. I do have some news I'd like to share vs/rp 50 about Newtown that does require a quiet Chamber, so I appreciate the hammer being put down for that. But I have a question of procedure to ask you, sir. I am not certain that I've ever seen somebody else speak on a microphone of the Representative who's been called. But I'm going to make a memorial note for a very special constituent who passed away recently. Can you not hear me, sir?
I'm having a hard time hearing. Let me say this; if you're asking if we can share microphones, no. We can't share microphones, unfortunately. Okay? Because they can't transcribe it accurately. Okay?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, I'd just like to acknowledge, we, in Newtown, lost a 102-year-old World War II veteran just last week. His name was William Petrone. We have celebrated his 100th, his 101st, his 102nd birthday. And he not only was a wonderful man and loved by everybody, but he was the last surviving soldier from the 751st Field Artillery Unit that vs/rp 51 landed on the beaches of Normandy under the command of General Patton. So, I would be very appreciative, sir, if on behalf of Representative Foncello and I and the entire Newtown community and the family of William Patrone, if we could observe a moment of silence, sir.
Absolutely, sir. I'd ask that the Chamber, please come to order and rise for a moment of silence. Representative Bolinsky is describing a constituent of his who passed away at 102, who served our country with great distinction. Thank you, sir. (gavel) Thank you. Representative Johnson of the 143rd, from the city of Norwalk.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise for a point of personal privilege.
vs/rp 52 Yes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm honored to represent two wonderful communities in our state, Norwalk and Westport. And I see our First Selectman, newly elected from Westport, here in the Chamber. Please, join my colleague Representative Steinberg and I in welcoming Kevin Christie to the House of Representatives.
We got a lot of mayors here today. I'm getting worried. So I don't know what they want. Oh, I didn't see Simmons yet from Stanford, so we're safe for now. Representative Gibson, 15th, Bloomfield in a sliver of West Hartford, you have the floor, sir.
Good morning. Good morning, Mr. Speaker. How are you, sir? vs/rp 53
I'm doing great.
You look well up there. Mr. Speaker, it's my honor to reintroduce someone that we all know and love, Miss Luwannia Johnson-Martin, who is now Miss Luwannia Brown. She got married not too long ago. Miss Brown.
It's nice to see you, Luwannia. Congratulations.
Thank you, sir.
And I know that if you had a mic, we'd be able to hear you with or without. So it's nice to have you here today. Representative Yaccarino, you have the floor, sir. vs/rp 54
Good morning, Mr. Speaker. It's great to be here with everybody. It's a beautiful morning. Here with me -- for point of personal privilege, sir.
Thank you, sir. My good friend and colleague, Mike Freda, our First Selectman of North Haven. Mike got into politics 17 years ago when I never thought I'd get into politics. We're good friends. We talk sports. We talk books. And then lo and behold, Mike's been our First Selectman for 17 years, and I'm starting my 16th year, I think, with you, sir. So I just want to recognize our First Selectman, Mike Freda, North Haven, Connecticut. Mike, get up. Thank you. Give him a nice, warm welcome.
vs/rp 55 Thank you, Representative Yaccarino, and you got a wonderful First Selectman and a fine gentleman in your seat over there. Representative Dathan, for the second time. We're going to let it slide because it's opening day. And you have Representative Roberts who once again wore the suit I was going to wear at opening day.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, for letting me have a second point of personal privilege. But I'm here with my Norwalk delegation, representing the best city in Connecticut, Norwalk. I want to introduce our mayor, Barbara Smyth, Josh Goldstein --
-- our Council President; Jaylen Seed, our Majority Leader; Lamont Daniels, Chief of Staff; Jenn McMurrer, communications director; Brandalyn Fulton Williams, director of policy and vs/rp 56 strategy; Brenda Penn-Williams, there she is, President of the NAACP. And Melody Reagan, community advocate. I'd love everyone to give this awesome city and the wonderful new representatives and wonderful new mayor, a very warm welcome from the General Assembly.
Thank you, Representative Dathan. Representative Simms, and Representative Roberts, and Representative Johnson. Clearly, there's nobody in Norwalk, so I hope someone's minding the store at City Hall for you all, but welcome to our Chamber today. Representative Poulos of the 81st, where are you? Let's go.
I rise for a point of personal privilege.
Yes, you may proceed, sir.
vs/rp 57 I just wanted to share with the Chamber that we have, in Southington, a constituent of mine, Austin Florian, who is made team USA for the US Skeleton, and he'll be competing in Italy in the upcoming Winter Olympics. And I just wanted to publicly wish him well, and hope he comes home with the gold.
We wish your constituent a lot of luck in the Skeleton, and I'll give you $5 if Napoli and DG can actually tell me what the Skeleton is. Okay? All right. Representative Elliott of the 88th.
I rise for a point of personal privilege, Speaker.
You may proceed, sir.
vs/rp 58 We are here with both a previous mayor of Hamden and a now new current mayor of Hamden, Adam Sendroff. He outlasted a field of, I think, seven for a primary as the non-endorsed candidate, something that you and myself can certainly appreciate. I would like the Chamber to just welcome Adam, our new mayor, with a warm round of applause. (applause)
Welcome, Mr. Mayor. You got quite a delegation. You got a lot of you stuffed into Hamden, pretty good there now. Representative Dubitsky of the 47th, you have the floor, sir.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have anybody to introduce today, but I figured that since everybody was talking, I would get up and talk too. But I did want to say that this is my first opening session without Representative Ryan here. Kevin Ryan represented the city of Norwich, along with me, and Representative Wilson. And he was also a very good friend of mine. And his absence will leave a big hole in this Chamber and in my life personally. And I welcome Representative Pemberton, vs/rp 59 both to this Chamber and to Norwich. He's got very big shoes to fill. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Thank you very much, Representative Dubitsky. And again, we'll have a chance to recognize former Representative Ryan in a more formal setting in a couple weeks here, so formal way. Okay? Thank you, sir. Representative Carney, 23rd, what do you got?
That was a lot faster than I was expecting. So with me, I have some wonderful people from Southeastern Connecticut: Jessica Bertagna, Captain Keith Williams from the State Environmental Conservation Police, Glenna Doyle, and Bay, which is a water safety dog, who helps so many people and teaches people about water safety. And all of this is because Jessica advocated for water safety after the tragic death of her son, Ryan. She helped me pass the DUI, BUI law last year, and has some other proposals to vs/rp 60 make, bake boater safety and increase safety on the water. They're wonderful people, they're doing great work, and I'd like the Chamber to recognize them.
Thank you very much, Representative Carney, and welcome to our Chamber. And our furry friend, it's nice to have you as well. Representative Pemberton of the 139th. Representative Pemberton, did you hit your button? The floor is yours, sir.
Yes. So, I'm here today with Mayor Singh from Norwich. I want to introduce him to the crowd.
You're rising for the purpose of an introduction, sir.
I'm rising for introduction. vs/rp 61
You may proceed, sir. It's okay. It's all right. You may proceed.
Anyway, I'm here introducing Mayor Singh today of Norwich. He had a few words he would like to say.
Thank you very much. Welcome, Mr. Mayor. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. We can't share the microphone. Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much. Press go. If we let every major speak, by God, we'd be here till Friday. Representative Rojas.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. For an introduction.
Yes, Mr. Majority Leader. vs/rp 62
I'm going to do an introduction. I hope the individual can actually hear me. But in the well of the House, we do have a special guest.
All right. All right. Come on. A little decorum here. Come on.
All right. It's all right. I'm going to embarrass my guest here today. In the well of the House is Addison Buckeye. She's a senior at Coginchaug High School. She's excused from school today to be with us. I'm hoping that my child is not watching because she would like to be excused from school to be here, but I didn't allow it. But she's interested in public policy, and then the process we do here, and I just want to welcome Addie to the Chamber.
vs/rp 63 Representative Hall, for the second time. But you're from Harvard, so you could probably go four for all I care. Go ahead.
All right. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And for the second time, I really appreciate it. I would just like to introduce Pastor AJ Johnson and First Lady Melinda Johnson for the Urban Hope Refuge Church. But he's also one of our deputy chaplain here in the House Capitol. So thank you so much. Welcome.
All right, we're getting to the end. We have two more resolutions, then we'll have a break. Okay? Representative Nolan from New London, what do you got?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If I can do introduction.
You may proceed, sir. vs/rp 64
I'd like to introduce some friends from New London, down in the galley there. You see Kevin Booker is a professor from Mitchell College. And he's with his crew of students that came from New London to see the first day of session. And I just want to recognize them and thank them for coming from Mitchell College to the Capitol to see how things are going on.
Thank you, sir, and welcome. Okay. (gavel) We have a little bit of business we have to get to. The Senate has sent us some joint resolutions.
We've got to suspend again.
We're going to have to suspend the rules again. Mr. Majority Leader, you have the floor, sir. vs/rp 65
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to make sure I was making the right motion. So I move adoption of Senate Joint Resolution 1. I move for immediate suspension of our rules for immediate consideration of Senate Joint Resolution 1.
Motion is immediate suspension. Any objection? Hearing none, so ordered. (gavel)
Will the Clerk please call, Mr. Clerk, Senate Joint Resolution 1, please?
PUBLICATION OF LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN, PRINTING OF BILLS AND EXPENSES. Introduced by Senator Duff, Representative Rojas.
vs/rp 66 Mr. Majority Leader.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now I move for adoption of Senate Joint Resolution 1.
Question is adoption of Senate Joint Resolution 1. Objection to a voice vote? Seeing none, I'll try your minds. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. (ALL MEMBERS): Aye.
Opposed, nay. Ayes have it, resolution is adopted. (gavel) Mr. Clerk, any business on your desk?
vs/rp 67 Yes, Mr. Speaker, I have interim communications from the Speaker of House Representatives concerning committee assignments.
(gavel) I order it printed in the journal.
Communications from the Secretary of State interim communications concerning return of votes cast at a special elections held in the 25th and 139th assembly districts.
I order it printed in the journal. (gavel)
Introduction of bills list No. 1.
vs/rp 68 Mr. Majority Leader.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move we waive the reading of the list of bills and refer them to the committees as indicated.
So ordered. (gavel) Are we good? No? Any more announcements or introductions? Representative Klarides-Ditria of the 105th, and the chairwoman of the animal caucus, the floor is yours, madam.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise for a point of personal privilege.
You may proceed.
vs/rp 69 Thank you. Mr. Speaker, I have the honor of announcing two almost of the most important people in my life: my sister, Themis Klarides, our former Minority Leader. (applause) And my son, Cade Klarides-Ditria, who's in his second year of law school at Quinnipiac School of Law, and will be interning this year for Vinny and House Republicans. Please, everybody, give them a nice round of applause. (applause)
Thank you. It's nice to have you all here. Thanks for joining us. Any more announcements or introductions? This is your last chance. Any more announcements or introductions? Okay. We'll just go in a recess? I see it. Okay. Representative Sanchez of the 25th, you have the floor, madam.
It's on? Okay. I rise from the point of privilege.
You may proceed, madam. vs/rp 70
I would like to introduce the mayor of New Britain, the first Puerto Rican mayor in New Britain, Mr. Bobby Sanchez. Is he with us? So, I'm representing the Sanchez today. So Manny's not here, but I'm here for them.
We still know the other guy. Welcome, Mr. Mayor. And somehow the other Sanchez of New Britain made up some convenient excuse to miss today. I don't know what happened, but, you know. All right. Any more announcements or introductions? We good? We are going to be in recess. We are reconvening at 11:55. Actually, no. 11:50. 11:50. We reconvene at 11:50. Mr. Majority Leader.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A good recommendation, 11:50. And with that, I move we recess, subject to the call of the Chair.
vs/rp 71 So ordered. (gavel) House will come back to order. (gavel) Please take your conversations outside. We have a little bit of work to do over the House. Mr. Clerk, anything on your desk?
Communication from the Governor, list of interim appointments.
Ordered printed in the journal. (gavel)
Communication from the Governor, Executive and Legislative nominations.
So refer to the Committee on Executive Legislative Nominations. (gavel)
vs/rp 72 Communication from the Governor, Judicial nominations.
Refer to Judiciary. (gavel) Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Mr. Majority Leader, the floor is yours, sir.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have completed our work for the day. And with that, I move we adjourn, subject to the call of the Chair.
Motion is to adjourn, subject to the call of the Chair. Seeing no objections, so ordered. (gavel) We are in session at noon tomorrow in the House of Representatives. We will start 12 o'clock promptly. Thank you. (The House of Representatives adjourned at 12:54 o’clock p.m., subject to the call of the Chair.) vs/rp 73 CERTIFICATE I hereby certify that the preceding 72 pages is a complete and accurate transcription of a digital sound recording of the House Proceedings on February 4, 2026. I further certify that this digital sound recording was transcribed by the word processing department employees of Datagain, under my direction. Kanchan Mutreja Datagain 10750 Moore Drive, Parkland, FL 33076.