Climate change, housing, vaccines: Democrats flex muscle on key bills

Democratic majorities in key legislative committees on Wednesday flexed their partisan muscle, approving bills that would make vaccinations mandatory for school kids, double the bottle-deposit law to 10 cents, promote more affordable housing and start to address regional needs to combat climate change.

It was a day for some of the year’s most controversial bills in a year when leading Republicans have urged the General Assembly to use the distanced session for COVID-19-related bills and only the most pressing issues that can’t wait.

The votes amounted to at least short-term victories toward goals that have been targeted for years by Democrats, who in 2020 saw the coronavirus pandemic end the legislative session two months early. But the bills still have a long way to go before the June 9 adjournment date, amid leadership acknowledgments that major changes to the bills could still occur before they reach the House and Senate floors.

And the parties remained far apart, deeply split as they eyed middle ground.

Republicans warned that the legislation would take away the power of parents to decide on their children’s health; make it more expensive for people to purchase beverages; take away the power of towns and cities to decide on their development and character; and raise gas prices at the pump by as much as 26 cents a gallon by the middle of the decade.

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