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Read. Follow. Verify.Connecticut Expands State Ethics Code to Cover Nonstate Employers and Streamlines Financial Disclosures
Last action · May 5, 2026: On Consent CalendarSponsor: Rob Sampson
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What This Bill Proposed
Senate Bill 323 expands state conflict-of-interest rules to cover actions affecting a public official's or state employee's nonstate employer or spouse's nonstate employer, while reducing the Citizen's Ethics Advisory Board quorum from six to five members. Effective October 1, 2026, the measure also permits officials to list s instead of individual securities on their financial interest statements.
Public officials, state employees, and their spouses with outside employment face new restrictions and filing obligations regarding official actions that could impact their nonstate employers, with potential misdemeanor penalties for false statements.
- The Office of State Ethics administers and enforces the state's codes of ethics for public officials and state employees in Connecticut. context
- Statements of financial interests are annual filings required from top state officials and lawmakers to ensure transparency and prevent conflicts of interest. context
Who It Would Have Affected
Groups the bill's text would have affected, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
Public officials and state employees
Must comply with expanded conflict of interest rules regarding nonstate employers and file revised financial interest disclosures.
Citizen's Ethics Advisory Board
Operates under a reduced quorum requirement of five members instead of six.
Office of State Ethics
Receives ethics statements, financial disclosures, and written conflict explanations from state officials.
Key Facts
- The quorum requirement for the nine-member Citizen's Ethics Advisory Board is reduced from six members to five.
- Public officials and state employees must now evaluate potential and substantial conflicts of interest based on financial impacts to their own or their spouse's nonstate employer.
- Officials filing statements of financial interests are permitted to name a tax-sheltered annuity retirement plan (403(b) plan) instead of disclosing individual securities held within the plan.
- State-wide elected officers, General Assembly members, department heads, and quasi-public agency members must electronically file statements of financial interests with the Office of State Ethics by May first.
Show all 6 facts
- Public officials or employees with potential or substantial conflicts regarding a nonstate employer must either excuse themselves from the matter or file a signed written statement under penalty of false statement explaining why they can participate fairly.
- Each state agency, department, board, and commission must develop and implement an ethics statement in cooperation with the Office of State Ethics.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do officials still need to list every individual stock inside their retirement plans?
What is the new quorum for the Citizen's Ethics Advisory Board?
What else do you want to know?
News Coverage
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Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
This bill did not become law - Died at adjournment · passed the Senate.
Procedural history
11 actions- May 5, 2026Connecticut General AssemblyOn Consent Calendar
- May 5, 2026SenateFloorSenate Passed
- Apr 2, 2026Connecticut General AssemblyFile Number 349
- Apr 2, 2026SenateSenate Calendar Number 235
- Apr 2, 2026SenateFavorable Report, Tabled for the Calendar, Senate
- Apr 2, 2026Connecticut General AssemblyReported Out of Legislative Commissioners' Office
Show 5 earlier actions
- Mar 27, 2026Connecticut General AssemblyReferred to Office of Legislative Research and Office of Fiscal Analysis 04/01/26 5:00 PM
- Mar 17, 2026Connecticut General AssemblyFiled with Legislative Commissioners' Office
- Mar 17, 2026Connecticut General AssemblyJoint Favorable Substitute
- Feb 27, 2026Connecticut General AssemblyPublic Hearing 03/03
- Feb 26, 2026Connecticut General AssemblyCommitteeReferred to Joint Committee on Government Oversight
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Expansion of Conflict of Interest Scope
The legislation broadens the definition of conflict of interest to explicitly incorporate nonstate employers of public officials and their spouses.
Connected Entities
Sources
cga.ct.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance20Lowered because this bill did not pass (its text scored 65)
- Controversy15Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment5Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz25Current news / social attention level
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