Rep. Mary Welander

Finished signing this batch of Derby, Hamden, and Orange new voter cards…and almost done with Woodbridge.
My hand hurts 😂
Great job new voters of the 114th of taking that first step to exercise your right to vote and make your voice heard!

Social Security website keeps crashing, as DOGE demands cuts to IT staff The worsening problems come as Elon Musk’s DOGE team pushes for more cuts at the agency, including in the department that oversees the website.

The Social Security system is crashing, locking senior citizens out for long stretches nearly every day. And Trump's solution is to lay off 1000 more workers and slash the IT budget by 50%.

Start asking if the purpose is to crash our economy and society. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Joined thousands of others at the ‘Hands Off’ protest on the New Haven Green today.
None of us will ever agree w/others 100%, but it was heartening to see so many who are committed to our country & constitution, and are willing to work for a better future for everyone.#handsoff#ctpolitics

We have a similar spread - the amount of emails alone from three schools was exhausting. Six consecutive years of middle school is no joke.

Had to change my plans for the week.

Trump to sign order to shut down Department of Education, White House says U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Thursday that aims to shut down the Department of Education, fulfilling a key campaign pledge, the White House said in a fact sheet on the measure.

There is something surreal about being in the 12th hour of an Education Committee public hearing and seeing a headline like this.

www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

This funding also supported local farms, reduced food waste - on top of making sure people (especially kids and seniors) had access to healthy food.
The intentional cruelty of this administration is mind blowing and infuriating.

CT child advocate bill reworked following Lamont opposition The bill, which wouldn’t take the power to appoint CT’s child advocate away from the governor, is a far cry from what had previously passed.

Sometimes it’s a sprint and others times a marathon - but movement forward is still progress. The Office of the Child Advocate is one of the most important in the state for keeping our kids safe and holding adults accountable. I will keep working to ensure OCA is in as strong a position as possible.

…that the federal government uses that as an excuse to divert any and all funds through voucher or choice or charter programs - almost ALL of which are FOR PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS.

If you also support our schools and our teachers then you should be just as angry as I am.

Linda McMahon didn’t need a Trump executive order to make big Education Department layoffs The layoffs, combined with recent staff buyouts, mean that the number of Education Department staff has dropped by nearly 50% in the last two weeks. President Donald Trump has expressed a desire to cl...

Let’s be honest about the real goal here: it is not about ‘cutting waste’ or making the dept ‘more efficient’.
*The real goal is to eliminate public education entirely and privitize it.*
How? You make public education so underfunded that the public loses enough confidence in our schools…

USDA cancels $1B in local food purchasing for schools, food banks States have been notified that they will not receive 2025 funding for schools to buy food from nearby farms.

This will hit CT schools and CT farmers. We all lose under these actions.

www.politico.com/news/2025/03...

Serving alongside these AMAZING women will forever be one of the proudest achievements in my life.
Thank you to all the women who supported all of to get to this point. I have to thank my Mom who led by the best example. I love you and miss you Mom.
#IWD25

Just going to leave this here… 💛💙

After 12 hours of listening in-person, I finished the last handful of testifiers on my drive home. Today was the ED version of the ‘library bill’, along w/other proposals that included supporting para-educators, & creating plans to combat the shocking rise of antisemitism in our schools.
#ctpolitics

Another long public hearing for the Children’s Committee. Despite only 40 people being signed up to testify, the hearing lasted 8 hours.
We heard a lot of passionate testimony and were able to eventually drill down on constructive feedback to improve some bills. #TeamKIDS

9 solid hours of testimony in the Children’s Committee that ended almost exactly at midnight. Today’s hearing was one of the most bizarre conglomerations of public input I have heard so far. Proud to support our libraries, librarians, and early childcare professionals.
#TeamKIDS

These woefully unqualified and dangerous cabinet choices will continue to pass.
Don’t let your members of Congress get a pass because ‘they asked tough questions’ or ‘had concerns’.
You don’t get points for *thinking* about doing the right thing.

This week, I visited Amity Regional High School—a school in a Title I district. As the students showed me their projects, Trump froze federal funding for their tech & teachers pay.

I’ll fight to ensure schools like Amity get the resources they need to help students thrive.

Today was a long, infuriating day full of unnecessary and intentional cruelty from the Trump administration and Republican elected officials who allow this to go unchallenged.

Following here is great, but you HAVE to pay attention to your local elections, local elected officials, and state legislatures.
We are the firewalls.
Follow, engage, support local Dems. I flipped a seat held for 22 years from red to blue because of *local* support.

"One day, our children and grandchildren may ask us, 'When it was all on the line, what did you do?' And the only acceptable answer is, everything we could," Richards said.

So sad to learn of the passing of Cecile Richards.

I have 3 kids in 8th, 10th, & 12th grades, & have been married to my husband Matt (a professor) for 20 years. We have 2 cats & a dog which means I always have a lint roller with me, & I *love* pizza. Since New Haven area has the best pizza in the world I am very lucky. Happy to answer any questions!

Introducing myself here: I just entered my 3rd term in the CT legislature serving the 114th district. I’ve been appointed Democratic Leader of Regulation Review Cmte, Vice Chair of Cmte on Children, & member of Education and Select Cmte on Special Education. Also Chairing Early Childhood Caucus.