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Read. Follow. Verify.Connecticut requires contracting board staffing minimums, expanded privatization business cases, and successor-contractor disqualifications
Last action · May 5, 2026: On Consent CalendarSponsors: Nicholas Menapace and 2 others
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What This Bill Proposed
Beginning July 1, 2026, the State Contracting Standards Board must employ at least five full-time staff, state agencies must include comprehensive risk and workforce impacts in privatization business cases, and agencies are barred from awarding contracts to successor entities sharing continuity with disqualified contractors.
State contracting agencies face new compliance and screening duties before awarding public contracts, and the Department of Administrative Services incurs an estimated $424,075 in first-year implementation costs.
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.
State Contracting Standards Board
The board receives a mandatory minimum staffing floor of five full-time employees and protection of its appropriations estimates and allotments from gubernatorial reduction.
Department of Administrative Services
The department incurs new fiscal and administrative responsibilities, including hiring two new employees, updating procurement systems, documenting bidding waivers, and posting them on the portal.
State contracting agencies
Agencies must revise privatization business cases to include extensive risk, workforce, and equity analyses, and must conduct background inquiries to screen out successor entities of disqualified contractors.
Prospective state contractors and bidders
Bidders are subject to expanded successor-disqualification screening and must receive notices of their rights under state contracting law.
Key Facts
- Beginning July 1, 2026, the State Contracting Standards Board must employ at least five full-time employees.
- The Governor is prohibited from reducing allotment requisitions or allotments in force concerning the State Contracting Standards Board.
- Agency procurement officers must include a notice of bidder rights under section 4e-36 in solicitations and advise contractors and unsuccessful bidders of these rights starting July 1, 2026.
- State agencies proposing a privatization contract must prepare a business case including risk assessments, transition plans, and impact analyses on protected classes and historical inequities.
Show all 8 facts
- The Department of Administrative Services must document in writing any waiver of competitive bidding for minor or emergency purchases of $10,000 or less and post it on the State Contracting Portal within five business days.
- State contracting agencies must screen bidders to determine if they are successor contractors that are 'substantially the same entity' as a disqualified contractor.
- The presence of two or more specified continuity factors creates a rebuttable presumption that an entity is substantially the same as a disqualified contractor.
- The Department of Administrative Services incurs a cost of $424,075 in fiscal year 2027 and $224,075 annually beginning in fiscal year 2028 to update systems and hire two new employees.
Frequently Asked Questions
What new requirements apply when a state agency considers privatizing a service?
How does the bill prevent disqualified contractors from winning state contracts by rebranding?
What are the rules regarding competitive bidding waivers for small purchases?
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 9, 2026Connecticut General AssemblyFile Number 574
- Apr 9, 2026SenateSenate Calendar Number 340
- Apr 9, 2026SenateFavorable Report, Tabled for the Calendar, Senate
- Apr 9, 2026Connecticut General AssemblyReported Out of Legislative Commissioners' Office
Show 5 earlier actions
- Apr 2, 2026Connecticut General AssemblyReferred to Office of Legislative Research and Office of Fiscal Analysis 04/08/26 5:00 PM
- Mar 23, 2026Connecticut General AssemblyFiled with Legislative Commissioners' Office
- Mar 23, 2026Connecticut General AssemblyJoint Favorable Substitute
- Mar 9, 2026Connecticut General AssemblyPublic Hearing 03/13
- Mar 6, 2026Connecticut General AssemblyCommitteeReferred to Joint Committee on Government Administration and Elections
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.
Expanded Scope of Disqualification Evasion Prevention
The bill establishes a codified multi-factor test ('substantially the same entity') to prevent disqualified contractors from circumventing bans via corporate restructuring, rebranding, or bankruptcy.
Connected Entities
Sources
cga.ct.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance20Lowered because this bill did not pass (its text scored 75)
- Controversy40Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment10Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz25Current news / social attention level
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