HARTFORD -- Rules of the Connecticut legislature left over from the COVID-19 pandemic allowed General Assembly committees to stay on track in their short 13-week law-writing process even as a raging snowstorm shut down the Capitol on Monday.
But Republican leaders complained that the remote meetings, including public hearings on proposed bills, were disrespectful to taxpayers on a day when many residents were hunkered down or digging out from the blizzard of 2026.
"Ridiculous. Disrespectful. Arrogance," said Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, in a statement. "This shows what super-majority Democrats think of Connecticut residents. During this blizzard emergency, Connecticut Senate Republicans are putting people first, working with municipal leaders and others for public safety. That should remain the focus during the blizzard. Not politics."
But Democrats, who have majorities of 102-49 in the House of Representatives and 25-11 in the state Senate, said remote meetings, with both lawmakers and the public participating despite a snow emergency that closed state offices, remain a good option.
Only one committee postponed its meeting Monday, while panels including the budget-writing Appropriations Committee, the Government Administration and Elections Committee, the Education Committee, the General Law Committee, the Public Health Committee and the Majority Leaders' Committee on Housing all met virtually.
Ben Proto, Republican state chair, said that doing legislative business when the government was closed in an emergency declared by Gov. Ned Lamont was unfair and would give an advantage to Capitol insiders. "Every special interest group that wants the bills was aware," Proto said. "Joe and Jane Smith were told that the state was shut down."
Lawmakers referenced the heavy snow and winds as the virtual meetings began.
"I live in New London and we are getting pounded," said Sen. Martha Marx, a Democrat, at the start of the Appropriations Committee's budget hearing on health-related state agencies at about 10 a.m.
"I know this is a public meeting, but I will state for the record that Zoom has ruined snow days," said House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, at the state of the housing meeting that he co-chairs with Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk>. "Put in a bill to ban Zoom on snow days," he quipped.
"It's like we're clairvoyant," Duff joked to Rojas at the start of the housing meeting. "We knew this was going to happen, this storm. So we did it by Zoom."
By early afternoon, Harding had remotely joined the General Law Committee to testify in favor of a GOP proposal to eliminate annual license fees for a number of occupations. State Rep. Roland Lemar, D-New Haven, co-chairman of the panel, noted that the Republican proposal is similar to Lamont's recent budget proposal.