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News 12 Staff

CTPP517B

I'm Mark Suddall. Welcome back to Power and Politics. The US and China have announced a 90 day rollback on trade tariffs between the two countries. US tariffs on Chinese goods will be reduced from 145% to 30%. Chinese officials will cut taxes on American imports from 125% to 10%. White House and Chinese officials released a joint statement Monday following weekend trade meetings in Geneva, Switzerland. The US and China will also establish a way to continue discussions about trade relations. Connecticut Democrats are proposing a law to promote direct trade between Connecticut and Puerto Rico. House Bill 5008 would establish a 23 member Connecticut Puerto Rico Trade Commission to advance bilateral trade and investment. That includes initiating joint action on policy issues, promoting business and academic exchanges, and encouraging support and infrastructure investment. Some state lawmakers say several small and large companies here in our state already have commercial relationships with Puerto Rico, resulting in several millions of dollars of investment back to our state. State rep Chris Rosario joins us now to talk more about this. Welcome. Thank you for having me on the program, Mark. All right, so this all started really with your trip to Puerto Rico back in 2023. Tell us about that. Yes, uh, back in 2023, uh, we had the inaugural flight, uh, from Tweed New Haven to Puerto Rico, uh, which was born out of a conversation I had with state rep, uh, Eddie Chabonnier from San Juan, Puerto Rico, the first district, and he said we're already doing a lot of work with the state of Connecticut. Is there any way we can kind of expand. On it and uh one conversation led to the next and next thing you know uh we started working on this piece of legislation to uh expand that uh commitment. Wow, I mean it is fantastic. Now what Connecticut companies are already doing business with Puerto Rico? Well, right now we have companies like Unilever, Henkel, uh, WWE World Wrestling Entertainment. Uh, we met with the Connecticut Airport Authority. We have JetBlue with numerous daily flights to Puerto Rico. I know Tweed New Haven has avelo has a direct flight as well, uh, so we're looking to. Expanded to other uh airlines here out of the state of Connecticut. It's this is gonna be an exponential partnership for both the island uh and the state of Connecticut, yeah, so what would this trade commission mean for both? It would mean for both it's an opportunity, uh, for the state of Connecticut to expand on those trade partnerships that we already have, uh, but also for the island, uh, right now they're really struggling, uh, with their electrical grid and their infrastructure, and we have a lot of expertise, uh. Here in the state of Connecticut that we'll be able to send experts uh from Eversource and you know United Illuminating and uh our fuel cell industry to to really help fix that grid down there and you still have family there absolutely I mean you know from personal experience about some of the devastating storms that came through there. Yes, uh, our family is from a central mountainous town called I Bonito and uh when the hurricanes happened it was so difficult to not only communicate but to navigate. And traverse uh through the uh mountainous region so uh um being that, um, state of Connecticut, we have a lot of folks that are experts in flooding, uh, and natural disasters and, and I know Governor Lamont, uh, is gonna probably be on your program later on today. uh, he has been a great partner to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico after the natural disasters, uh, has activated the National Guard, and they've gone down and helped out on the island, and I didn't know this until I spoke to you recently that the governor's mother is from Puerto. Yeah, she was born in Puerto Rico, so he has great ties to the island and, uh, as you, uh, as you know, the, the state of Connecticut has some of the high, the highest per capita Puerto Ricans in the nation, and, uh, Governor Lamont has been a great partner to our community. Now this just seems like such a great opportunity because the timing of this, when you consider, you know, the, the tariffs that the president is trying to impose on some other countries, yes, yeah, being that we're, we're a commonwealth, we're part of a part of this country and we're not too far away we're. Uh, a quick 2.5, uh, plane ride 2.5 hour plane ride away, uh, to Puerto Rico and there's a lot of opportunity. We are already are already partnership on education. I know the city of New Haven, the city of Bridgeport, city of Norwalk, as well as New Britain have a, a teacher exchange with the island of Puerto Rico. The University of Bridgeport just recently partnered up with the University of Ponce on a nursing program. So, uh, when it comes to health care, transportation, uh, the, the opportunities are limitless. And what I find so interesting about this too is, uh, because of how well this has gone so far you've heard from other states about this legislation yes, uh, the state of Massachusetts, uh, Representative Carlos Gonzalez immediately when he saw, uh, there was an uh a story in a in a. In a local newspaper and he says we have to do that give me the language so I immediately sent them the language, uh, looking at, um, New York and New Jersey have similar commissions but it was more for, uh, response to natural disasters they're looking to take our language and expand it to the economic portion of it as well so this is something that's that's growing it's catching momentum, uh, nationwide. Yeah, so this is going through the House and it still has to get through the state Senate. Yes, yes, the state Senate's in, and it's on the Senate calendar. I'm confident, uh, our Senate colleagues are gonna take it up and pass it, uh, in short order and get it to the governor for his signature. Now of course we've only got uh what a few weeks left of this uh legislative session um what else are you hoping is gonna come out of this session? Oh listen, uh, right now we're we're trying to tackle issues, especially in Bridgeport on education funds, um, we're, we're trying to help out our most vulnerable with our, you know, homelessness issue, housing issues, uh, so we're, we're trying to make sure that those, uh. Everyone in the state of Connecticut, uh, has that safety net to to live and grow here. What are your thoughts? We're gonna be talking about this in our next segment on the, the proposal to ban cell phones in schools? Well, I, I know for, uh, for instance, uh, my daughter actually attends a Connecticut technical school and they don't have access to cell phones and when I tell you, um. Her participation level has really increased and uh I I've seen that you know she's a lot more engaged uh when it comes to you know her studies so I can say so far so good uh I I for the Rosario household well I know that's something too that the governor has been pushing as well, yes, yeah right, Chris Rosario thank you so much for the time. No problem, glad to be here. And next, that call on a band on a ban for cell phones in schools.

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I'm Mark Suddall. Welcome back to Power and Politics at the state Capitol this week. Lawmakers are cracking down on smartphones in schools. Local districts would have a pass to policy restricting phones under a bill that passed the Connecticut House this week and now heads to the state Senate. Lawmakers now say they won't propose new rules on homeschooling, at least not this year. More than 2000 parents and children protested at the state Capitol last Monday. Connecticut is one of the few states that has virtually no oversight over homeschooling. It's a problem that came to light after a Waterbury man was allegedly held captive for 20 years. Now we're going to do the public and methodical work to explore all those places where kids are slipping through and see what we can do next session. I think at this point in time it doesn't make sense to go down that path, and we really should be focusing on obviously budgetary issues. The woman accused of holding her stepson captive claimed he was being homeschooled. The victim says that was a lie. A mother from Bethany is pushing for tougher rules on youth camps. Police say Amy Latinsky's daughter was sexually abused by a camp counselor employed by the town of Bethany. She's pushing for a bill requiring municipal camps to get a state license, including background checks for all workers. Suspected abuse would have to be reported. If our towns, parks, and rec program had been licensed and proper rules and guidelines had been in place and were followed, it is likely he would have immediately been removed from the program, and his removal would have alerted me of a problem. We are already overseen by a government agency. Why do we need a different government agency to be involved? But critics say the new rules could make summer camp up to 80% more expensive for parents. The bill passes the state Senate this week, but it faces an uphill battle in the Connecticut House. Well, that's all our time. I'm Mark Suddall. Thanks for watching.

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Gov. Ned Lamont and State Rep. Chris Rosario join the show.

Power & Politics: 1:1 with Gov. Lamont; promoting trade between Connecticut and Puerto Rico

Gov. Ned Lamont and State Rep. Chris Rosario join the show.

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