Submitted by State Rep Rachel Khanna (D-149)
In a week where Republican-led states continued to chip away at individual freedoms, the CT legislative assembly took a different approach, passing bills to improve the quality of our lives and expand our freedoms. We have done this despite attacks within our own state and legislature.
Democrat legislators advanced bills to prevent gun violence, reduce traffic fatalities, protect reproductive freedom, expand healthcare access, address the needs of the intellectually and developmentally disabled community, and improve senior care.
PREVENTING GUN VIOLENCE
The CT House approved a comprehensive bill to reduce gun violence, stop mass shootings, and prevent firearm accidents and suicides. Among the provisions:
- a limit on the bulk purchase of guns,
- a requirement to register existing ghost guns,
- expansion of the state’s safe storage laws,
- closing loopholes in the state assault weapons ban,
- better enforcement of the ban on high-capacity magazines,
- disqualifying convicted domestic abusers from obtaining a pistol permit.
REDUCING TRAFFIC FATALITIES
Wrong-way crashes in Connecticut tripled in 2022. These are the deadliest kind of automobile collisions. The House passed a bill requiring the Department of Transportation to implement wrong-way driving countermeasures and include instruction on reducing wrong-way driving in driver’s education programs. The House also passed a bill implementing the recommendations of the Vision Zero Council to eliminate transportation-related fatalities and severe injuries involving pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, motorists, and passengers.
EXPANDING REPRODUCTIVE CARE AND PROTECTIONS
Last week, the House voted to allow specially trained pharmacists to prescribe hormonal birth control and to legalize vending machines that dispense an over-the-counter emergency contraceptive commonly known as “Plan B.” The pill is already available over the counter and without age restrictions. Last year, we became the first state in the nation to pass a safe harbor law. It protects abortion seekers and providers here from prosecution by other states for procedures performed in Connecticut. Last week, the state House of Representatives strengthened that law with a bill extending protections for medical providers who offer abortions or other reproductive care.
QUICKER ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE
Senate Democrats passed a bill to reduce the burdens of “prior authorization,” a cumbersome process that delays patients’ care while medical professionals seek approval from insurance companies to treat them. The bill would also limit step therapy, where insurance companies require patients to exhaust less costly medications before approving the medications they require. The bill also protects newborns from denial of coverage by giving parents additional time to enroll them in health insurance.
PROTECTIONS FOR VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
After the murder of a woman last year by her ex-boyfriend, despite having both a restraining order and a protective order against him, Senate Democrats made strengthening protections a priority. They passed a bill that would expand the use of GPS monitors which track the movements of domestic violence offenders. That increases the chances that first responders can reach them quickly if restraining orders are violated. The bill would also prevent assailants from collecting alimony from the victims of their abuse.
SUPPORTING THE INTELLECTUALLY AND DEVELOPMENTALLY DISABLED COMMUNITY
To complement the children’s mental health legislation that became law last year, the House passed a comprehensive multi-year measure to expand vital services to individuals who are intellectually and developmentally disabled, so that their most basic needs are properly met, including the reduction of waitlists and updating a decades-old approach to serving this community.
IMPROVED ELDER CARE
Too often, abuse or neglect of seniors goes under-reported. A bill passed the House last week which would expand the professional classes legally required to report suspected elder abuse. Another bill seeks to increase the number of state residents eligible for adult daycare services, offering a lifeline to family caregivers.
The legislative session draws to a close on June 7, and we are working furiously to get these and other bills to improve our quality of life, expand our freedoms, and grow our economy over the finish line.
State Representative Rachel Khanna proudly represents the 149th District, serving Greenwich and Stamford.