(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont today announced that he has signed a declaration that will enable the Connecticut General Assembly to adopt legislation allowing the recently created Emergency State Response Reserve to continue functioning through the end of the 2027 fiscal year.
Established in November 2025, this reserve was created by Governor Lamont in collaboration with the General Assembly to quickly respond to millions of dollars in ongoing cuts toward essential services that are being made by President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans. This includes through the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act and other federal legislation and federal administrative actions.
The approved legislation authorizing the reserve’s establishment, Special Act 25-1, appropriated $500 million in state surplus funding for this purpose and called for the reserve to expire on February 4, 2026. However, as instability and uncertainty continue to persist in Washington, D.C., Governor Lamont has requested the General Assembly to approve legislation authorizing the reserve’s extension and allowing its remaining $330.8 million to continue to be available through the end of the next fiscal year, should the state need to quickly respond to additional federal funding reductions.
“This emergency funding has been a collaborative process with the state legislature, and over the last several months it has been used judiciously and carefully to ensure that programs supporting basic needs – such as food and nutrition assistance, healthcare services, homelessness prevention and response, mental health services, and other health and human services programs – remain available and aren’t suddenly and cruelly terminated without warning,” Governor Lamont said. “Here in Connecticut, we will stand with our residents to ensure they have the basic assistance and support they need.”
As required in the legislation establishing the reserve, any time the governor wants to allocate funds from it, he must first submit a plan for its use to the bipartisan leaders of the General Assembly, who then have 24 hours to review and – if it is their will – disapprove of the proposed expenditures before the funds can be legally transferred.
To date, Governor Lamont has allocated two tranches of funding. The first plan, submitted on December 18, 2025, totaled $167.9 million, and the second plan, submitted on January 29, 2026, totaled $18.7 million. Both of those plans were reviewed by the bipartisan legislative leaders, and without objection the funds were subsequently approved.
It is expected that the General Assembly will consider legislation in the coming days on the governor’s request to extend the duration of the reserve through the end of the 2027 fiscal year.
**Download: Declaration of the Existence of Extraordinary Circumstances