Bills are broken down into several types of bills listed below.  It is important to understand the different types of bills that are introduced.  Each type originates in a different stage of the process. 

Kinds of Bills

Proposed Bills: Bills submitted by individual legislators and state the purpose of the bill in simple language.

Proposed Drafts: Drafts submitted by individual legislators in formal statutory form and must be accepted by the Legislative Commissioners’ Office and the clerk’s office as written.

Committee Bills: These bills are a combination of several proposed bills that, at the request of the committee, have been drafted in statutory form by the Legislative Commissioners’ Office.

Raised Bills: Originate in the committees and drafted by the Legislative Commissioner's Office in statutory form.

Substitute Bill: These are proposed or committee bills amended after their submission. They retain the number of the original bill.

Bills: These are bills accompanying the governor’s budget or other messages to the legislature, and bills certified of an emergency nature by the Speaker and President Pro Tempore.

Governor’s Bills: These are bills that are introduced by the legislative leaders of the same political party as the Governor to implement gubernatorial suggestions, programs, or budgets, etc. [the Governor cannot introduce legislation as he/she is not a member of the legislature]

Bills submitted by senators are called Senate Bills (SB) and are numbered 1-4999; those submitted by representatives are called House Bills (HB) and are numbered from 5000.

You may track a bill by its number on the Connecticut General Assembly Website located at www.cga.ct.gov. You do not need to type in HB or SB in front of the bill just the number.

Resolutions and Joint Resolutions

House Resolutions (HR) and Senate Resolutions (SR) begin numbering at 1.  These resolutions are enacted by each chamber unilaterally.  The do not need to be passed by both chambers. 

House Joint Resolutions (HJ) and Senate Joint Resolutions (SJ) are passed by both chambers and begin numbering at 1.  The joint resolution number is assigned according to the chamber in which it was introduced. 

Resolutions are actions taken by the legislature that do not require the signature of the Governor.  If a legislator wants to amend the Connecticut State Constitution, he/she will propose a resolution in the House or the Senate.  Some of the actions taken by resolution include, but are not limited to:  confirming gubernatorial nominations of judges and cabinet members, resolutions expressing the sense of the chamber (to petition Congress to stop unfunded mandates), or a joint resolution congratulating a UConn team for winning the national title.  In many cases, resolutions have no force of law.

Bill Deadlines!!!!!

Connecticut is a part-time legislature that is broken into two sessions. A long session (from January—June in odd numbered years) and short session (February to May in even numbered years) The Joint rules of the House and Senate (HJ rule 8) state the deadlines for Proposed Bills and Proposed Drafts. For a long session it is usually within two weeks after the start of the session and for short sessions it is usually within one week after the start of the session. The deadline for filing Committee Bills is four weeks after the start of a long session and two weeks after the start of a short session. The deadline for filing Raised Bills is eight weeks for a long session and four weeks for a short session.