Newsletter
June is Pride Month! Throughout this month, I hope we take the time to celebrate our differences, and may we continue to fight for equity alongside the LGBTQ+ community all year.
This year, the Legislature kicked off Pride Month with the LGBTQ+ flag raising ceremony and the signing of the Parentage Act. This law protects the legal rights of ALL families, regardless of how they are formed. Before the Governor signed this bill into law, Connecticut was the only state in New England without protections for non-biological parents to secure a legal relationship with their child. With this law, Connecticut will provide support to all LGBTQ+ parents seeking adoption and provide protection to all children with non-biological parents.
| LEGISLATION PASSED THIS WEEK |
There are only four more days for the House to pass bills before the legislative session ends on June 9th. As we enter the home stretch of session, please look out for my updates on Facebook and my newsletters for information on legislation passed.
For a comprehensive list of legislation passed this week, please click here. I have highlighted a few pieces of legislation that are particularly important to me below.
HB 5429: As Co-Chair of the Main Street Working Group, I am very excited that An Act Concerning Pedestrian Safety has passed through this House! This bill is essential to creating a walkable and flourishing main street.
SB 1091: Connecticut's current domestic violence laws fall short of offering comprehensive support and protection for survivors. To strengthen protections for domestic violence victims and survivors, the Connecticut House of Representatives passed legislation that, among other things, would expand the definition of domestic violence to include coercive control. Coercive control is a pattern or behavior that can use threatening, intimidation, or exploitation to trap individuals in abusive relationships.
This expanded definition recognizes intimate partner violence can be more than physical abuse – it can take shape as emotional, psychological and sexual abuse. This bill will help make the process of filing for restraining orders, divorce, child custody, and other family court matters easier for victims and survivors. It would also create a new legal aid program to provide legal representation for victims and survivors of domestic violence.
SB 1: This bill declares that racism is a public health crisis in our state. The COVID-19 pandemic has only highlighted the wide health and quality of life disparities in communities of color. Studies have shown that Black women are up to four times more likely to die of pregnancy related complications than white women; Black men are more than twice as likely to be killed by police as white men; and the average life expectancy of Black Americans is four years lower than the rest of the U.S. population.
Beyond identifying the racism as a public health crisis, S.B. 1 also includes a number of provisions aimed at addressing and combatting this public health crisis such as:
- Creating a Commission on Racial Equity in Public Health to make recommendations to decrease racism’s effect on public health and to create a strategic plan to eliminate health disparities and inequities
- Increasing recruitment and retention of healthcare workers of color
- Providing employers with tools to support their mental health needs
- Establishing a gun violence intervention and prevention committee
- Improving demographic data collection
SB 2: This legislation covered a broad range of concerns facing children across the state that became higher priorities due to the pandemic. One of the major components was the inclusion of QPR training in the licensure process for different professions that interact with children. QPR, which stands for Question, Persuade, Refer, is a program that trains individuals to identify the risks of suicide or self-harm and refer them to care. The more care providers that can be trained to recognize the signs of suicide or mental distress, the earlier we can identify concerns and provide the needed interventions. This bill also contained provisions to provide clear information about available mental and behavioral health resources to schools and other organizations, as well as a school lunch section that ensures that all students have access to one full meal a day at school and prevents the use of the ‘shame sandwich’ if a child’s family cannot pay for the standard meal. It also codifies the ability of the school district to accept donations to cover any outstanding lunch debts.
SB 989: Incidents of stalking, harassment, bias and hate have increased with the use of technology and SB 989 takes that into consideration. This bill includes several provisions aimed at combatting online harassment including:
- Expanding what constitutes second degree stalking and second-degree harassment
- Expanding 1st degree stalking to include situations in which a person intentionally directs harassment towards another person based on their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability
- Allowing individuals to bring a civil action against their harassers for disclosing personally identifiable information.
SB 1037: This week we took action on modernizing Connecticut's bottle deposit program to encourage residents to recycle and keep our beautiful parks, beaches and streets clean. Connecticut's original bottle bill was enacted in 1978 and was one of the most progressive anti-litter laws of its time. While the program worked extremely well in its early years, the law has since become outdated and return rates have dropped below 50%.
An Act Concerning Solid Waste Management includes a number of provisions aimed at updating the bottle deposit program and increasing redemption, such as:
- Increases the redemption rate on beverage containers from 5 to 10 cents starting January 2024
- Requires certain retailers that sell beverage containers captured by the bottle program to have two reverse vending machines outside of their stores starting in October 2021
- Updates the types of beverage containers captured by the bottle program, such as containers for teas, juices, hard ciders, and hard seltzers
- Allocates $5 million through the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) to create a grant program for new redemption centers in urban areas
- Creates a nickel surcharge on nip bottles, which are a major source of litter in towns across the state, at the point of sale. The money will be redistributed to Connecticut towns and cities to use to reduce waste and litter.
I was proud to vote for this legislation because it is a common-sense modernization of the bottle deposit program that will go a long way towards cleaning up our communities, reducing waste, and providing people in towns and cities across Connecticut with greater access to redemption facilities.
HB 5597: The opioid epidemic has devastated our state. HB 5597 would help combat this epidemic by creating a task force to study the response protocols used by emergency responders and medical personnel following an opioid overdose death. It also requires the state Department of Public Health Commissioner to develop guidelines for the use of non-pharmaceutical methods of treating chronic pain and conduct community outreach to raise awareness. This bill could save lives and address the stigma of opioid use disorder.
HB 6517: Over 2,000 Connecticut students were diagnosed with dyslexia during the 2018-19 school year, and 80% of students with learning disabilities have dyslexia. To improve instruction and better support students with dyslexia, the House passed HB 6517. This bill establishes an Office of Dyslexia and Reading Disabilities that will help teachers identify students who may have dyslexia and become more effective at instructing them to achieve greater success. The first step in helping students overcome challenges in the classroom is identifying why they're struggling. This bill provides the tools to help students succeed.
| GUN VIOLENCE AWARENESS WEEKEND |
June 4th through 6th is Gun Violence Awareness weekend. Over 100 lives are taken every day from our nation's gun violence epidemic. To raise awareness of this crisis, join me in wearing orange this weekend.
| MEMORIAL DAY CEREMONY |
It was an honor to walk in Monday's Memorial Day parade. I maintain that Fairfield has THE best parade in the state. After the year we had, wow, did it feel good to be with our community in this way, memorializing our fallen heroes and taking a step back to remember how fortunate and blessed we are. While Memorial Day is a somber day of reflection, there was a tremendous amount of joy present at today’s parade as we shared memories of our own loved ones who have served our country. I will never take for granted what a privilege it is to represent this wonderful community- thank you for the honor.
| THE SNAIL AND THE WHALE |
I had a lot of fun reading to Sam’s 1st grade class this afternoon! I read “The Snail and the Whale”; even if you’re small, you can still do big and important things.
| PEQUOT GARDEN STROLL |
Friday morning the Pequot Library hosted the beautiful Southport Garden Stroll through Southport Village. The tour consists of standout private gardens in the Southport Village and shop at different local vendors. The event sold out and was a lovely occasion bringing joy and togetherness to the community. What a great way to admire the natural beauty in our community and support Fairfield businesses!
| COMMUNITY THEATRE MOVIE NIGHTS |
The Fairfield Museum and History Center has partnered with the Sacred Heart Community Theatre for the grand reopening of the Community Theatre and for launch of this summer’s SHU Community Theater Movie Nights! Located on the Town Green, June 10th's feature film is “Up,” a comedic adventure that's fun and heart-warming for the whole family. Check out their website to see their summer line-up!
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