Learn About the Legislative Process
Come join us on Monday, May 19th for a free legislative training in our Rocky Hill office from 6:00 to 7:30 P.M. We are honored to have Katie Martin, a long time veteran of the legislative arena, talk with us about demystifying the legislative process, including the lifecycle of a bill. You will learn how to access legislative information and what you can do as an advocate. Registration is required. Please contact Wendy Sander at 860.258.3400 to sign up for this training. A light meal and beverages will be provided. We hope you join us for this informative, relaxed training that will get us off to a great start for the 2009 legislative session.

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Connecticut Commission on Children: Play Book for Prevention
The Connecticut Commission on Children has created a resource titled the “Play Book for Prevention”. This resource includes ten different sections to establish a plan “so that Connecticut’s children grow into healthy, productive adults”. The ten different sections are: 1)Introduction About Young Brains, 2) Home Visiting, 3) Vaccination and Health, 4) Food and Exercise, 5) Early Care and Education, 6) Safe Learning, 7) Early Reading, 8) After School, 9) Mentoring, and 10) Parent Involvement. The Access the Play Book for Prevention you can go to http://www.cga.ct.gov/coc/playbook_home.htm.


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Connecticut’s 2008 Legislative Session – Bills of Interest
Connecticut’s 2008 legislative session runs from February 6th – May 7th. This section will be a standing section in the CAFAP Conversation through out the session. You may refer to this section each week for new bills introduced that are pertinent to the foster and adoptive care community. You may also refer to the 2008 Bill Tracking Report for a list of all bills of importance that are being followed by the Association. When a bill is introduce, each bill is referred the appropriate joint standing committee* of the General Assembly. Keep in mind that every committee has a deadline that must be met. If a bill is not reported out of committee as “Joint Favorable” (JF), the bill is assumed dead. Also keep in mind that a bill can be referred to more than one committee. To view each of Connecticut’s 27 different legislative committees’ deadline schedule you can go to
http://www.cga.ct.gov/lco/XLS/Committee_Deadlines_Current_Year.pdf.
If you would like to track a particular bill on your own you can go to the Connecticut General Assembly (CGA) website at http://www.cga.ct.gov/ and enter the bill number into the quick search field at the top of the webpage.

*joint standing committee means that in the Connecticut legislature committees have both Senators and Representatives that are members.

Bills of Interest

• No new Bills to report.
  

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Bill Updates

H.B.5497, H.B.5498, H.B.5102 and S.B.159 have all been referred to the Appropriations Committee. The Appropriations Committee has a joint favorable deadline for 4/1/08. CAFAP supports these four bills and we urge you to contact the Appropriations Committee as well as your local state legislators with your views if you support any of the bills listed above. It is critical that they hear from you as soon as possible, as the Appropriations Committee may consider these bills between now and 4/1/08.

For Appropriations Committee Contact Information: http://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/menu/MemberList.asp?comm_code=APP&doc_type=

To Find Your Legislators’ Contact Information: http://www.cga.ct.gov/maps/townlist.asp

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2008 Bill Tracking Report
To access the full list of bills in the Bill Tracking Report you can go to http://www.cafap.com/documents/legBillsCafap08.pdf

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The Week Ahead…

The Connecticut General Assembly Bulletin
If you would like information on committee meeting and public hearing
times and locations you can go to the Connecticut General Assembly Bulletin at http://www.cga.ct.gov/2008/bul/2008BUL00207-R00-BUL.htm.

The bulletin also has a wealth of other information such as legislative
leadership, State Capitol offices/room numbers and phone numbers,
Legislative Office Building (LOB) rooms and phone numbers, Committee
room numbers and phone numbers, the Legislative Information Room
phone number and location, rules governing public use of the LOB and
Capitol, parking information and more.