HARTFORD, Conn. — Senate President Martin Looney (D-New Haven) announced on Friday that the state Senate will hold a special legislative session Tuesday, June 15.
It is expected that legislators will vote on legalizing recreational marijuana for adults, which has caused controversy in the House of Representatives.
House Speaker Matt Ritter said there would not have been enough time for lawmakers to vote on it before the end of the legislative session, which ended at midnight on Wednesday. Ritter said Republicans planned to filibuster.
“They could've given us a vote. We offered them 16 hours and all 30 bills they wanted to call. Let me repeat that. They had 30 bills and all 30 bills they wanted to call, we offered to do 30 bills, none of ours, all we asked for was a vote,” he said.
Ritter said he is confident they will have enough votes to pass the bill.
“The tactic today used by the House Republicans, we picked up 5 votes today in our caucus. Five. Just because of the tactic they chose to use,” he said.
However, House Republican Leader Vincent Candelora said he has been saying for days that lawmakers did not have enough time to give the nearly 300-page bill the discussion it deserved.
“Moving forward I think there needs to be a little more conversation and dialogue. But I'm a little disappointed that Democrats seem to think that going into special session is going to be retribution for Republicans,” he said.
Due to special session rules, the Senate will have to vote on it again before the House.
The Associated Press reported that some remaining budget bills and possibly some other bills that didn’t survive in the first round, including Gov. Ned Lamont's proposed regional Transportation and Climate Initiative Program that Republicans consider to be a gas tax, will be voted on.
Editor's note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.
---
HERE ARE MORE WAYS TO GET FOX61 NEWS
Download the FOX61 News APP
iTunes: Click here to download
Google Play: Click here to download
Stream Live on ROKU: Add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching FOX61.