Maria Horn

Plans are beginning to solidify for the Connecticut General Assembly to hold a Special Session before the end of September.  This time, the Senate will convene first: we expect that to happen next week.  The House will follow, and we expect to convene on either September 29 or September 30.  The agenda is still under negotiation, but the focus will be on bills which have had hearings during the truncated regular session, that have strong bipartisan support, and/or that address urgent situations that need immediate attention.

Nonprofit organizations in our area do incredible work to keep our communities healthy, and to keep us connected to one another

School, in its new and varied formats and schedules, began in earnest this week.  Before the schedule kicked into gear, I had many anxious conversations with teachers, parents, administrators, and staff, about the unknowns they were facing as they made decisions about how to move forward. 

Our long-term care facilities – nursing homes and assisted living facilities – have been hard hit by the COVID-19 crisis, and deaths among those residents make up more than half of the state’s total. Those deaths are concentrated in certain facilities, while almost 30% of the nursing homes in CT suffered almost no infections at all.

Earlier this week, Governor Lamont signed orders extending the state’s civil preparedness and public health emergency to February 9, 2021. Due to expire on September 9, this extension allows the Governor’s prior executive orders to remain in effect (pending any legislative action, which would override them) and allows him to continue to modify those orders as conditions change.

Some students in the district went back to school yesterday, and others will be going back next week. "Back to School" this year looks different for every family and I have heard from many of you about the anxiety caused by the uncertainty about COVID-19.

I had a confluence of events this week that focused on public goods: things that are, or should be, available and accessible to all of us.  They include the US Postal Service, the ballot box, clean air and water, mental health care, and utilities like electricity, phone and internet, for example.  The way we make these accessible is different in each case, but there are market failures with each that make it necessary for the government to play a role to ensure equitable access. 

The need to close the digital divide and provide reliable internet access for every resident becomes more clear with every event that befalls us. The pandemic showed us that bare-bones access is not adequate for a family working from home with children who are expected to learn remotely. Health care also suffers when there’s no internet access.