They are usually called “tech sessions,” but today’s brief gavel-in, technical recitation of pro forma legislative language, and gavel-out, was the sum and substance of the constitutionally required veto session of the General Assembly. It allowed retiring House Minority Leader Larry Cafero, R-Norwalk, to ask questions of majority Democrats in the near-empty House chamber. “Do we in fact adopt these rules at all times?” Cafero asked House Majority Leader Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, through Deputy Speaker Bob Godfrey, D-Danbury. Aresimowicz had described the rules as “typical.” Aresimowicz: “Typical, as in typical for this special session. They are not the exact rules we adopt every single time, Representative Cafero.”
Cafero, parsing words, suggested they are the “standard” rules. Aresimowicz: “…It is the exact word that I should have used. Standard is what I should have used.”
Cafero, in what might be the last words on the House floor of his 22-year legislative career: “I have absolutely nothing else, Mr. Speaker.”