The legislative session ends in two weeks on May 5, 2010. The activity at the General Assembly has already sped up. The House and Senate are meeting regularly and committees are busy meeting on referred bills. Table 1 below provides the status of select environmental, energy, and land use related bills that may be of interest. The bill text and a short plain language summary are available by clicking on the "File Copy" for each bill.
This is also the busiest time of year for amendments to bills. So, if you are tracking specific bills, you can search the legislative database for amendments related to your bill by going to the "Bill Status" page and looking for links to amendments or search all amendments at www.search.cga.state.ct.us (not all amendments are filed well in advance of being called so there may still be some surprises).
Tracking bills in the last few days of the session can also be a little trickier. During most of the session, bills are reprinted with the amended text before final action; however, because of the pace of activities in the final days, reprinting is not required for bills acted on after May 1, 2010. Therefore, the best way to check for amendments in the final days of the session is to check the "Bill Status" page for adopted amendments and then check to see if the latest file copy includes the amendment.
Finally, if you are trying to figure out whether the House or Senate is ready to vote on a bill, first refer to the respective "Calendar" to see if the bill is marked double "XX" (bills marked with one "X" are not technically ready for action). Next, for House action, check the daily "Go List" on session days to see if the bill is scheduled for a vote. The Senate designates which bills it will take up at the beginning of each session so you just have to wait and listen for the Senate markings. The Calendars and the "Go List" are available on the General Assembly's main webpage: www.cga.ct.gov.
Table 1: Select Environment, Energy, and Land Use Related Bills
Committees continue to meet even after the JF deadlines to act on bills referred from the Floor. Bills referred out to Committee after the JF deadline die unless the Committee acts on them before the earlier of (1) the start of the session on the third regular session day of the chamber that referred the bill or (2) seven calendar days. You can continue to check the Committee meeting agendas using the links below to see which referred bills a Committee plans to take up.
Table 2: Committee Agendas and JF Reports
If you have any questions regarding this newsletter or would like more detailed information on any bills, please contact Matt Ranelli at (860) 251-5748 or by e-mail at mranelli@goodwin.com. You can also contact any member of the Environment, Energy and Land Use Group by calling (860) 251-5000 or by visiting Shipman & Goodwin's website at http://www.shipmangoodwin.com/.