| January 1, 2021 -- Happy New Year everyone. Here’s to hoping that this coming year will bring more normality back to our lives.
We are entering this year with many changes in both the state and national governments. We will have a new President later in January. Along with the new President most of the Federal politically appointed secretaries of the different agencies will be changing. We can also expect see many of the agencies priorities and directives change. So far, Biden has already nominated Tom Vilsack as the new Secretary of Agriculture. Vilsack is a former Secretary of Agriculture where he worked under Obama. The National Grange has already expressed support for the appointment of Vilsack and looks forward to working with him. Vilsack along with the other Biden nominees will still have to be confirmed by the Senate.
The Connecticut General Assembly convened early January with the swearing in of all the Representatives and Senators. With this session three of the four Legislative leadership positions have changed. We have new leadership in both Houses and the Republican side of the Senate. Martin Looney, Senate President Pro Tempore is
the only one who remained. The new Senate Republican Leader is Kevin Kelly of Stratford. The new House leaders are; Speaker of the House, Matt Ritter of Hartford and Minority Leader, Vincent Candelora of North Branford. This election cycle increased the Democratic numbers in both the House and Senate, increasing their majority in both chambers.
We still need to see what will be the priorities of the 2021 Legislative Session. We still don’t know how the General Assembly sessions will proceed. I suspect there will be many ZOOM sessions. The Legislative Committee will follow bills as they are proposed and send in testimony as needed.
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