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The Connecticut General Assembly has a unique committee structure. All of its committees are joint committees. Connecticut legislative committees consist of representatives and senators sitting together and the chairperson from each chamber alternating as the presiding officer.

The Standing Committees

*Group A committees meet on Monday, Wednesday and Friday

**Group B committees meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays

The Bulletin of the Connecticut General Assembly will list all the activities of the committees for the current day.  It will also have previous Bulletins.

The Committee Leadership

All legislative committees are joint committees with representatives and senators sitting together. The committees have a chairperson selected from each chamber, who will alternate presiding over meetings.

The Chair

Committee chairpersons exert considerable power over their committees. These powers include:

1. Scheduling and presiding over committee meetings and public hearings
2. Determining meeting agendas by choosing which bills to take up (and which not to)
3. Appoint chairs and members to subcommittees
4. Moving for passage of committee bills on the chamber floor
5. Leading the debate on the issue

Note: Committee members generally defer to their chairpersons, with the consequence that bills opposed by the chair are rejected, and those they favor are approved.

Preliminary Conference

The committee staff, under the direction of the Chairperson, organizes the bills assigned to the committee into subject matter categories.

The First Committee Meeting

Committee members will review the bills rapidly and vote on what bills they will request the Legislative Commissioners Office [LCO] to draft into statutory language and subject to a public hearing.  This is important because a bill must receive a favorable report by the committee to go on to final passage in either chamber.

The Public Hearing

The primary purpose of public hearings is to help committee members determine the worth of bills.  Committees will often group their bills by subject matter and schedule public hearings so that similar bills are heard at that time. 

Notice of the place, time, and subject matter of the hearing, together with a list of numbers and titles of each bill to be considered is published at least five calendar days in the Legislative Bulletin.  Copies of the bill must also be available to both the legislators and the public.  Copies of bills may be obtained from the Billroom located on the first floor of the Legislative Office Building Room 1400.  If the Connecticut General Assembly has adjourned patrons will have to make inquiries at the House Clerk's Office located in room 109 of the Capitol building.

Hearings are usually set up with the first hour devoted to testimony from legislators on other committees, representatives of state agencies, and municipal officials.  Then the public gets its chance.  Lobbyists will also marshal an outpouring of public support for the bills they support.  They will also give testimony tat will generate favorable media coverage. 

The committee members usually want information about the bill's practical consequences; its costs; where they will get the funds to implement the program.  In addition, they will inquire about alternative ways of achieving the bills objective and the number of other states that have enacted similar laws including reports of their experiences with them. 

Committee Decisions

After the public hearings the committees will meet to determine the final action on their bills.  Notice of these meetings must be given 24 hours in advance or announced on the chamber floor.  These meetings are open to the public and lobbyists are always present.  All committee members must be present to cast a vote on final action; proxy voting is not allowed.

The Connecticut Legislative Guide  provides deadlines for each committee to report out their bills.  The deadlines may also be met by consulting the session information section of the Connecticut General Assembly web site found here. Hence, the dynamics of the meeting depend on the proximity to the deadline.  Early on, committees will scrutinize every bill carefully and pick over every provision, but as the deadline approaches, tension mounts, and consideration of bills becomes more and more perfunctory.  At these meetings, members with differing views will attempt to negotiate compromises.  Legislators that can provide the language for a bill that the opposition will approve, play a key role.  In the end the committees must make one of five decisions:

1. To box the bill; to vote not to report the bill out of the committee.
2. To amend the bill and give it a favorable report.
3. To give the bill a favorable report.
4. To give the bill an unfavorable report.
5. To take no action and allow the bill to die without a committee vote taken on it.

The results of committee action may be found on the Committee Action Report that comes out on Mondays.  This report details the decisions of the committee for the previous week.

Committee Kill Points

1. If at the discretion of the chair, a bill does not get a public hearing, IT IS KILLED.
2. If the committee fails to meet the deadline for reporting out a favorable report, IT IS KILLED.
3. If the committee boxes the bill or takes not action, the bill is almost certainly KILLED.
4. Bills that are reported out of the committee with an unfavorable report are most certainly KILLED.

Petitioning a Bill Out of Committee

There are two methods to get the bill out of committee if the bill is boxed or the committee has taken no action.

1. Supporters of the bill can file a petition with the clerk of the originating chamber (House or Senate), signed by a majority of members of that chamber, requesting that the bill be reported out.  The committee then has two days after being presented the petition to make a favorable or unfavorable report.  If the committee fails to do so, the report is considered unfavorable
2. The Speaker of the House or the President Pro Tempore of the Senate may exercise the power of emergency certification by certifying in writing the facts that necessitate that the bill be acted on.  The bill will then come directly to the floor.

Transferring a Bill to Another Committee

When a bill gets assigned to a hostile committee or less desirable committee, it supporters may at that point attempt to get the bill transferred to a different more hospitable committee.

1. The supporters may be able to persuade the chair of the more favorable committee to request a change of reference.  This may be granted by the chair of the committee to which the bill was assigned.  [This is the most common transfer method]
2. If the first method does not work there is another escape valve in the system.  The supporters of the bill can ask the Speaker of the House or President Pro Tempore of the Senate to convene an ad hoc committee of reference that will have the power to make a final determination of the appropriate committee assignment.  [This rarely happens.]

Referrals

Due to the complexity of many bills, after they have been reported out of one committee favorably, they may have to go to another committee that shares jurisdiction.  In some instances referrals are mandatory.  Bills requiring expenditure of money must be sent to the Appropriation Committee; bills affecting revenue or bonding go to the Finance Committee; bills imposing criminal fines or penalties go to the Judiciary Committee; bills conveying state land and proposing a constructional amendment go to the Government Administration and Elections Committee. 

The subsequent committees go through the same power to approve, disapprove, box, or take no action on the bill. 

Committees will play games with referrals!!  Members of committees will often cater to their constituency by approving bills that they know are certain to die in another committee, especially Appropriations.  The largest cemetery for dead bills is the Appropriations Committee.  Referral to this committee may be avoided by not providing for funding in the bill, thus allowing it to move on to the next step, or by delaying is effective date until the next fiscal year, thereby becoming law and getting funded in subsequent sessions.  Furthermore, the leadership may callously cause the death of a bill through the process called death by referral.  This is achieved by referring a bill from committee to committee until it dies.