The Black and Puerto Rican Caucus (BPRC) led by Chair, Representative Geraldo Reyes (D-Waterbury) and Vice Chair, Representative Bobby Gibson (D-Bloomfield, Windsor) held a press conference today to announce a list of priorities for the 2022 legislative session called “Nine Pillars” and were joined by Speaker of the House Matt Ritter (D-Hartford) and House Majority Leader Jason Rojas (D-East Hartford/Manchester).
In determining the priorities, the BPRC, a legislative body, worked with advocates from health care, mental health, education, employment, housing, voting rights, the environment, police accountability and more. It also worked with local officials and leadership in Hartford to prioritize and advance critical issues affecting Black and Brown communities the most – through the legislative process.
The BPRC will not waiver in continuing its advocacy and championing legislation that ensures social, economic and environmental justice to the communities its members have been elected to serve.
“This year the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus continued an aggressive agenda that addresses various inequities, both existing and newfound,” said Rep. Reyes. “COVID-19 has not only exposed the long list of existing inequities in our communities, but it has also created new obstacles for marginalized groups that we are prepared to address.” “Last year, we identified eight legislative priorities that arose from the pandemic and these issues are still affecting communities of color one year later,” said Rep. Gibson. “The Black and Puerto Rican Caucus is determined to not only further address these issues but to include others that continue to plaque Black and Brown communities.”
- COVID-19 Health Equity
- Economic Development & Workforce
- Voting Rights
- Housing Equity
- Education Equity
- Transportation Expansion
- Environmental Justice
- Police Accountability
- Judicial Equity
COVID 19 HEALTH EQUITY
- The legislature expanded the nursing home patients’ bill of rights to include the right of residents to treat their living quarters as their own home, including purchasing and using virtual visitation and virtual monitoring technology
- Establishes related notification, use, and consent requirements for this technology
- Requires nursing homes to provide residents with free internet access, electricity, and a power source for this technology, under certain conditions (PA 21-55, effective October 1, 2021, except that the right to use technology is effective July 1, 2021)
- Provided new health care coverage to 40,000 low-income residents and families (SB 1202)
- Requires nursing homes to give their employees, or their contractor’s employees, access to a resident’s virtual monitoring or virtual visitation technology if the (1) employee is the subject of a proposed disciplinary action by the nursing home based on evidence obtained from the technology and (2) access is granted for the employee to defend him- or herself against the disciplinary action (PA 21-160, effective October 1, 2021)
- Reformed nursing home staffing, policies, and supply inventories in response to COVID-19 (SB 1030)
- The legislature passed several measures aimed at addressing the impact COVID-19 has had on children’s mental health
- Established the Connecticut Remote Learning Commission to analyze and report on remote learning’s impact on students’ educational attainment, physical and emotional development, and access to special services, as well as the quality of its instruction
- Develop a plan to create and implement a K-12 statewide remote learning school
- Conducted a comprehensive audit of the remote learning provided in public schools during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years due to the pandemic (SB 1202, JSS, as amended, §§ 423-425, effective July 1, 2021, for the commission, July 1, 2022, for the statewide remote school plan, and upon passage for the audit)
- A new law extends, to November 2, 2021, certain changes affecting absentee voting eligibility and procedures implemented for the 2020 state election as a result of COVID-19.
- A new law contains several provisions aimed at expanding access to broadband Internet service throughout the state
- A new law includes various provisions on racial disparities in public health, pandemic preparedness, and related topics
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & WORKFORCE
- Expanding the hemp industry in CT through licensed medical marijuana providers (PA 21-37)
- Fair reimbursements to mom and pop outdoor equipment dealers that perform warranty maintenance (SB 264)
- Allowed 16-year-olds to be eligible for more jobs at CT amusement parks (PA 21-38)
- Centralized state GIS mapping (the zoning and geographic maps of our towns) to help development, local government, and planning (HB 6647)
- House Democrats fought to expand the Small Business Express Program to help more local businesses grow [and expand minority-, women, veteran, and disabled-owned businesses (HB 6467)
- Leading the country with Equitable Broadband (HB 6442)
- Taking Care of CT’s Restaurants
VOTING RIGHTS
- SB 753 AN ACT CONCERNING THE COUNTING OF CERTAIN INCARCERATED INDIVIDUALS FOR PURPOSES OF DETERMINING STATE LEGISLATIVE AND MUNICIPAL VOTING DISTRICTS
- We ended the practice of denying meaningful representation in state government to people who are incarcerated. This new law ends “prison gerrymandering” and will now require people to be counted for representation at their last known address prior to their prison sentence for state legislative and municipal voting districts (PA 21-13).
- HB 6578 AN ACT CONCERNING PARTICPATION IN THE ELECTORAL PROCESS
- Believing that voting rights, as essential to participation in society, and should be restored at the end of incarceration, we passed a law mandating the restoration of those on parole, special parole, or in a community residence (HB 6578, Died in Senate).
- HJ 59 RESOLUTION APPROVING AN AMENDMENT TO THE STATE CONSTITUTITON TO ALLOW FOR EARLY VOTING
- We are putting before voters for a second time, in 2022, a proposed constitutional amendment to allow the state to provide for in-person, early voting before an election or referendum (PA 21-1).
- HJ 58 RESOLUTION PROPOSING A STATE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO ALLOW NO EXCUSE ABSENTEE VOTING
- We are putting before voters in 2024, a proposed constitutional amendment on whether to remove the required permissible reasons for voting by absentee and instead providing no-excuse absentee voting (PA 21-2).
HOUSING EQUITY
- The removal of restrictive covenants based on race and elimination of the race designation on marriage licenses
- Requiring housing authorities to provide voter registration applications to prospective tenants
- Walk-throughs of rental property prior to occupancy and late rental payments
- The right to council in eviction proceedings, the validity of inland wetlands permits in relation to certain other land use approvals, and extending the time of expiration of certain land use permits
- Established the Open Choice Voucher Program
- Established an energy retrofit grant program for affordable housing
EDUCATION EQUITY
Ensuring our kids recover from this pandemic (PA 21-46)
- Expanded youth suicide prevention training
- Created more outpatient services for kids
- Required social emotional learning as part of professional development for teachers
- Continued virtual parent teacher conferences
- Addressed absenteeism in virtual learning
- Ended lunch shaming when kids fall behind in paying for their school lunches
Education Funding (SB 1202)
- Restored ECS funding
- More resources for reading intervention and support
- Increased funding to charter schools and magnets
TRANSPORTATION EXPANSION
- A new law imposes regulatory requirements on “P2P car sharing”
- people share their vehicles for compensation through a platform operated by a P2P car sharing company (e.g., Turo and Getaround)
- insurance requirements, certain consumer protections, and airport operation agreements, among other things
- requires DRS to issue guidance on the sales tax treatment of P2P car sharing (PA 21-106, §§ 52-65, most provisions effective January 1, 2022)
- The legislature passed several laws addressing pedestrian and bicyclist safety, generally, and the safety of specific vulnerable road users
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
- Required more biodiesel in home heating oil and greater transparency for consumers (HB 6412)
- Created a competitive program for fuel cell projects that favors CT-made equipment and will redevelop brownfields and landfills (HB 6524)
- Created higher renewable energy standards for heat and electric utilities (6527)
- Helped approve more anaerobic digesters on farms to address storm water runoff and food waste (PA 21-16) [Anaerobic digesters produce methane energy from organic material]
- Balanced ecological and recreational needs while updating our plan for Long Island Sound (HJ 53)
- Raised bottle deposits to 10 cents, applied deposits to more products and provided more money to towns and redemption centers to ensure these products don’t wind up as litter or in a landfill (PA 21-58)
- Regulated the harmful chemical “PFAS” (SB 837)
- Improved clean-up procedures and notifications when there’s a sewage spill (PA 21-42)
- Empowered towns to better manage storm water on the local level (HB 6441)
POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY
- Civilian Police review boards, security guards, body-worn recording equipment, searches by police, limitations of offenses subject to automatic erasure, enticing a juvenile to commit a crime, lawful orders by police officers and notice to a victim concerning automatic erasure of criminal record history
- The Criminal Justice Commission, Division of Criminal Justice and the Office of the Inspector General
- Accreditation, reporting requirements, mental health, data storage services and training of law enforcement officers
- Provided better training and tools for police to respond to opioid overdoses (HB 1011)
JUDICIAL EQUITY
- The Board of Pardons and Paroles, erasure of criminal records for certain misdemeanor and felony offenses, prohibiting discrimination based on erased criminal history record information and concerning the recommendations of the Connecticut sentencing commission with respect to misdemeanor sentences
- Communication services in correctional and juvenile detention facilities (free phone calls from prison)
- The office of the Correction Ombuds, the use of isolated confinement, seclusion and restraints, social contacts for incarcerated persons and training and workers’ compensation benefits for correction officers
- The recommendations of the Jury Selection Task Force