If anyone wonders if President Donald J. Trump’s crackdown on immigration has anything in common with the desire of UConn to begin recruiting the next class of basketball players with promises of cash, the answer can be found in House Bill 7066.
One of two emergency-certified measures assured of final passage Tuesday in the Senate, the bill illustrates the General Assembly’s opportunistic take on what constitutes an emergency and the degree to which Trump is shaping politics in state capitols far from Washington, D.C.
“E-certs,” as the emergency bills are known in legislative parlance, are the legislative equivalent of an express train. They bypass the time-consuming stops typical of legislating, including vetting at public hearings and by relevant committees.
They also tend to attract passengers with nothing in common but a desire for a quick ride through the House and Senate to the desk of Gov. Ned Lamont. And such is the case with House Bill 7066 and a travel companion, House Bill 7067, both of which cleared the House on Monday night.
The first bill cleared the Senate on a 25-9 vote after a heated debate, with every Republican except Sen. Tony Hwang of Fairfield opposed. Hwang did not speak on the floor, and he was not immediately available to comment.
HB 7066 has four sections: two that rebuke Trump over what Democrats see as his hostility to immigrants, refugees and gay, lesbian and transgender youth; one prohibiting the purchase of Chinese-made drones; and another that allows UConn to join the schools willing to pay some of its athletes.
The measure offers $2.8 million in grants to organizations that are being impacted by Trump administration policies, including Planned Parenthood and groups that serve refugees, immigrants, and an LGBT clientele, including persons seeking gender-affirming care.
“It’s Christmas for various entities that are aligned with the Democratic majority,” said Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott.
Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, said the groups are getting help as targets of Trump, not allies of Democrats.
“We believe that there is a time-sensitive nature to assist the groups that are itemized in this bill, because the services that they provide are being, we think, unfairly targeted,” Looney said. “It was a perception of emergency need because of the hostile attitude of the national government. So I think every section of this bill does qualify as something that is necessary and justifiable for emergency certification.”
The bill also would require every school district to designate at least one administrator at each school to be responsible for interacting with federal immigration authorities, which Republicans said was merely a pretext for symbolically defying Trump.
“This bill, to me, is symbolic of the majority party shaking their fist at the president of the United States,” Sampson said.
Republicans, who won only 11 of the 36 seats in the Senate last November, furiously objected the substance and motivation behind the proposed grants, as well the notion that any portion of either bill truly constituted a emergency as defined by Webster.
The day’s debate began with Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, making a parliamentary motion to halt the debate, arguing that the bills were improperly before the Senate.
“We’re forcing all of us in this chamber, without a proper public hearing, without proper discussion, without proper review, to be forced to vote on something that usurped the entire legislative process,” Harding said.
Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, responded that emergency-certified bills had the required the signatures of the House speaker and Senate president pro tem and that the legislative precedent offered a broad view of an emergency.
Harding’s motion was rejected by a ruling of Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz and then on a party-line vote when he appealed to the full Senate.
Tempers flared when Bysiewicz prematurely ended debate by calling a vote on final passage. Republicans yelled that one of their members still was standing, waiting to be recognized. Leaders and senior staff of both parties huddled and agreed to bring the bill back for further debate.
One of the few light moments came when Sen. Derek Slap, D-West Hartford, the co-chair of the Higher Education Committee, rose to explain the provision intended to allow UConn to begin offering pay to its athletes, as the NCAA is about to allow under the terms of an antitrust settlement.
“I would say, if you’re a basketball fan, this is an emergency,” Slap said. “Because right after March Madness, the recruiting season starts, and if we don’t pass this legislation today, as an example, UConn would begin the recruiting season severely handicapped and not be able to play by the same set of rules that all its competitors are going to be playing by.”
There was no partisan debate about UConn.
But Sampson led the Republican effort to unmask the bulk of the bill as a political exercise, not an effort to make serious policy changes. The language regarding how schools should respond to immigration efforts was a solution in search of a problem, he said.
“This is before us today as a so-called emergency, just because we’re trying to hype up the fact that Trump is supposedly trying to break down the doors of schools and churches to grab children,” Sampson said. “Can you, Mr. Chairman, cite for me a single example of a minor child being taken out of a school in the state of Connecticut?”
“The answer is no, I cannot,” said Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, co-chair of the Judiciary Committee. “But here’s the additional part of that: I don’t think that we should wait for that to happen. We have a responsibility to the folks in this state, including our children. And it’s not just about whether it’s dangerous in the way that we generally conceive of danger.”
The Trump administration has created an atmosphere of fear; the bill is one response, Winfield said.
House Bill 7066, the measure defying Trump on immigration and providing funding to groups at odds with his executive orders, passed the House on a 94-49 vote, with every Republican and two Democrats opposed.
The other measure, House Bill 7067, includes $40 million in supplemental special education funding for local school districts. It passed the House on a 140-5 vote and was expect to clear the Senate later Tuesday.