The Senate has voted to override Gov. Rell’s veto of HB-7065 along party lines, 24-12. The House voted to overturn earlier in the day, so the bill will now become law.
This is the first veto override since the Weicker administration.
The bill requires Medicare waivers to be reviewed by a legislative committee. This is now the prerogative of the governor. Is the bill a power grab by the legislature? You bet. But here’s an interesting fact:
Legislative records show Rell, as a state representative, voted for a bill in 1985 that required the state welfare commissioner to submit any waiver applications to a legislative committee for approval, denial or suggestions.
In 1985, Republicans held a (brief) majority in the House and Senate, and Democrat Bill O’Neill was governor.
Rell has vetoed bills in the past which she believed encroached on the authority of the executive, and vetoed a similar bill to this last session.
Source
“General Assembly overrides Rell veto.” Associated Press 22 May, 2007.
20 responses so far ↓
I actually agree with Jim Amann’s quote in today’s Courant: it’s democracy in action. The bill is a good one, and grandma Rell never should have vetoed it in the first place.
Now, let the torqued-up conservative windbags of Brad Davis, Jim Vicevich and Dan Lovallo get to work excoriating the “supermajority Democrats” and their “power grab.” What else would you expect from that trollish troika? Perspective, accuracy and insight? Hah!
Those in the know understand there is a lot of legislative work left to be done, and 99.999 percent of it is done in a bipartisan fashion.
please stick to issues. leave name calling to other sites. It’s not insight your providing its spinning.
The point is the majority has not done nothing with only two weeks left but had time to debate this bill twice. doesn’t the legislature have a veto session each year to handle this type of veto?
What process? Where bills die in committee and reappear as an amendment in another bill. Democracy is broken that is why more people are leaving both parties.
The lesson here for Republicans and Gov. Rell, as I see it, is pretty simple: elections matter and this is a consequence of the near absence of the Republican party statewide. In a way, this is total justice for Gov. Rell who chose to distance herself from the GOP legislative candidates last fall so she could win reelection by 24 points (!). Nice that she won so big, I guess, but perhaps if she had helped a few legislative candidates the Democrats wouldn’t have the votes to override her veto! Again, elections matter.
>> trollish troika
Wow. Anger expressed through alliteration. Are you trying to get a job with Colin McEnroe?
So they over – rode a veto. Big deal. They’re supposed to be able to with those numbers.
Where’s that energy bill? Is that part of the 99.999% of bills that those “in the know” know are crafted in a bipartisan fashion? Or is it in the 0.001% of partisan bills?
I got a Democrat campaign piece in the mail (not sure who put it out) with Jim Amann and Chris Donovan on it touting the Dems budget and urging support. Whatever group it was I guess doesn’t realize that the Dems can pass any budget they want since they can override a Gov’s veto.
[quote post="538"]The bill is a good one, and grandma Rell never should have vetoed it in the first place.[/quote]
No. The bill was and is crap. It tackled a problem that didn’t exist with a fix that made things worse. It created a bureaucratic backwater where DSS waivers could get lost and set up a laughably cumbersome system where members of the Human Services Committee or the Appropriations Committee could — on their own — derail the work of the entire legislature and the governor in writing a budget.
There’s an entire caucus of Democrats walking around this morning with sore arms and swirlies because of the way they got pushed around by their leadership yesterday.
Yesterday wasn’t about a good bill. Not even close.
Legislative records show Rell, as a state representative, voted for a bill in 1985 that required the state welfare commissioner to submit any waiver applications to a legislative committee for approval, denial or suggestions.
http://www.connpost.com/localnews/ci_5961860
Okay Toucan, I have no problem with the over-ride. I don’t know much about the bill to be honest…I expect 90% (if not more) of the public doesn’t know either. But back to my earlier post, if the Dems are so intent on flexing their muscle, why don’t they do it on one of the more important bills like the budget or energy…all the issues that they tout in their campaign literature. I know there are 2 weeks left and a lot of things can happen, but based upon what I read in the paper, I’m not so sure.
Spinning The Override/ Parties Debate Democrats’ Motivation And The Merits Of Undoing Rell’s Veto
May 23, 2007
By CHRISTOPHER KEATING, Capitol Bureau Chief
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ctveto.override0523.artmay23,0,6960932.story?coll=hc-headlines-local
Mr Reality, I have no opinion on the waivers bill myself as I said yesterday. My posting of a couple of links here with absolutley no comments on the subject whatsoever should not be construed as some kind of endoresement for the work anybody is doing in Hartford.
You see I am more concerned about the circling of the wagons at ConnDOT and the rest of the incompetence that pervades the executive branch that nither gramma or the kids (the G.A.) seem to want to do anything about.
http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18374617&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=31007&rfi=6
And just one more take on the override without comment again.
http://www.journalinquirer.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18377451&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=161556&rfi=6
Kudos to the State senate for moving to treat 16 and 17 year olds as j.v.’s. You see a few good things are getting done and even in a bi-partisan way, but admittedly they ain’t do enough all around.
http://www.journalinquirer.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18375832&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=161556&rfi=6
House Dems vote to PT a law enforcement bill so as to not vote on giving Connecticut a summer gas tax holiday!
For the latest in the ineptitude and cowardice of the Democratic supermajority, please visit The Caucus Room!
Toucan: The juvenile bill is horrible.
Our legislature is so screwed up with respect to how to treat 16 and 17 year olds. For example, a 16 year old can get an abortion without anyone knowing but cannot get her ears pierced without parental permission. (This is not meant to be a comment on our abortion laws; just an illustration of how differently the law treats 16 and 17 year olds depending on the circumstances.) I guess they are now saying that 16 and 17 year olds can never be of “adult mind” so as to be prosecuted? Sounds silly to me, especially when I see what some of these teens are doing these days.
See the operative word in bold italics, conncon, because there will even be a whole bunch of stuff still wrong with the CJ system when it comes to jv’s I just didn’t get into details like chnaging the parental control rules that will continue to give the cops fits: Kudos to the State senate for moving to treat 16 and 17 year olds as j.v.’s.
PS conncon; I beleive the bill excludes violent crimes…
For the latest in the ineptitude and cowardice of the Democratic supermajority as well as the Republican minority, please visit The Caucus Room!
“I actually agree with Jim Amann’s quote in today’s Courant: it’s democracy in action.”
Agreed. But bad for our state nonetheless.
Mr. I Will Crush Them finally gets to flex his supermajority muscles and uses it for something dumb. It’s from the ‘We haven’t had the Governor’s office in a really long time, so let’s pull this governor’s power away” legislative package. Yanking a needed check and balance in state government. Way to go!
“Those in the know understand there is a lot of legislative work left to be done, and 99.999 percent of it is done in a bipartisan fashion.”
Do those in the know also know how little time is left to get something positive done this year?
If this veto override is any indication of what’s to come, it will be much harder to peddle that 99.999 percent fantasy.
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