As Presidential Priorities Shift to Billionaires, Senate Democrats Focus on Affordability

By Hugh McQuaid

January 22 @ 9:30 am

Highlighting the start of a presidential administration intent on prioritizing the interests of billionaires at the federal level, Connecticut Senate Democrats announced legislation Tuesday aimed at reducing the cost of essential goods for working families.

Leaders of the Senate’s Democratic majority outlined the bill during a late morning press conference just one day after President Donald Trump’s Monday inauguration, in which he surrounded himself with some of the world’s wealthiest men, according to the Associated Press.

Connecticut Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff said the proposal, aimed at making life more affordable for Connecticut families, was meant to underscore the working class priorities of the caucus.

“Yesterday, we saw an inauguration of a president that was of the billionaires, by the billionaires, and for billionaires,” Duff said. “Here in the state of Connecticut, we’re going to make sure that we continue to focus ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people,’ which is why we have these bills today and we will continue to roll out legislation that impacts working families and working people for the positive all across the state of Connecticut.”

The bill aims to reduce costs by enhancing the state’s ability to fight instances of price gouging — inflated prices that are passed down to consumers.

Although Connecticut currently has laws to prevent price gouging, Senate leaders said these policies had two critical limitations: they can only be enforced against retailers, and they only apply during major disasters or when an emergency has been declared. In other words, price gouging is essentially permitted in all but the most dire circumstances.

The bill, titled Senate Bill 3, seeks to target price gouging that drives up costs behind the scenes as manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers and suppliers artificially inflate prices to pad their bottom lines, legislative leaders said.

Senate President Martin Looney said the idea was to prevent price gouging that occurs before retailers receive a product. Retailers, Looney said, “are in some cases, not the source of the price gouging, but are merely passing along something that has been imposed on them within the supply chain of their suppliers.”

Sen. James Maroney, co-chair of the legislature’s General Law Committee, said the bill would also increase the ability of the attorney general to investigate price gouging that occurs when there has been no emergency declaration.

Maroney said the legislation was inspired by feedback senators heard from Connecticut residents while meeting with constituents during last year’s campaign season.

“So many times you’re hearing stories of the struggles that people are having, especially the senior citizens who are on fixed income where they’re choosing whether or not they’re going to pay for their groceries or their medicine or families who are struggling to put food on the table. What the price gouging statute will do is empower the attorney general to go up the supply chain. Often, it’s not the grocery store,” Maroney said. “We’ll also expand the times when this will be in effect. Not just a declared national emergency.”

The legislation will allow the attorney general to issue notices of abnormal economic disruption, Maroney said. These notices would apply to significant interferences in the production, distribution, supply, sale or availability of necessary consumer goods like diapers, baby formula, or prescription medications.

The bill includes other new consumer protection measures, like a disclosure requirement to address “shrinkflation,” a practice used by manufacturers to reduce a product’s contents without changing its packaging size or price, as well as new disclosure requirements meant to ensure that Connecticut residents are not caught off guard by junk fees.

Duff said Connecticut Democrats would continue to find ways to improve life for everyday people, even as the Trump administration set different priorities.

“I want to make sure that we are using all tools necessary, especially as we enter this new administration, that we use our voices, we use our bully pulpits, we use our power of changing laws,” he said. “We’re here to change things for the positive for the people to represent.”