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sHB5251 / File No. 317 1
General Assembly File No. 317
February Session, 2026 Substitute House Bill No. 5251
House of Representatives, April 1, 2026
The Committee on Government Oversight reported through
REP. DATHAN of the 142nd Dist., Chairperson of the
Committee on the part of the House, that the substitute bill
ought to pass.
AN ACT CONCERNING REPORTING ON IMPLEMENTATION OF
CERTAIN CONSULTANT REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. (NEW) (Effective from passage) (a) As used in this section: 1
(1) "Consultant" means any person who (A) (i) is a professional who 2
is registered or licensed to practice such profession in accordance with 3
the applicable provisions of the general statutes, or (ii) is a planner or an 4
environmental, management or financial specialist, and (B) provides 5
consultant services to a state agency pursuant to a contract with such 6
state agency, including, but not limited to, any architect, professional 7
engineer, accountant, planner or environmental, management or 8
financial specialist; 9
(2) "Consultant services" includes administrative, planning, analysis, 10
statistical or research services rendered by any consultant, as well as 11
incidental services that members of such consultant's profession and 12
those in their employ are authorized to perform, for purposes of 13
recommending a state agency course of action; 14
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(3) "Firm" means any individual, partnership, corporation, joint 15
venture, association or other legal entity authorized by law to offer 16
consultant services; and 17
(4) "State agency" means any office, department, board, council, 18
commission, institution, constituent unit of the state system of higher 19
education, technical education and career school or other agency in the 20
executive branch of state government. 21
(b) Any state agency that contracts with a firm to provide consultant 22
services at a cost of one hundred thousand dollars or more for purposes 23
of producing a study or other report with recommendations for future 24
actions for the state agency to undertake that is required to be 25
transmitted to a joint standing committee of the General Assembly 26
pursuant to the provisions of section 11-4a of the general statutes shall, 27
not later than one year after receipt of the results of such study or a final 28
report from such firm, also submit a report, in accordance with the 29
provisions of section 11 -4a of the general statutes, to the joint standing 30
committee of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters 31
relating to government oversight, (1) summarizing the findings of the 32
entity's report, (2) indicating whether any recommendations have been 33
implemented by the agency, and (3) indicating whether the state agency 34
intends to implement any such recommendations in the future and, if 35
applicable, by what date. 36
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 from passage New section
Statement of Legislative Commissioners:
Subsecs. (a)(1) and (2) were reworded to avoid duplication and for
clarity, and in Subsec. (b), "joint standing" was added before
"committee" for accuracy and Subdiv. designators (1) to (3) were added
for clarity.
GOS Joint Favorable Subst. -LCO
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The following Fiscal Impact Statement and Bill Analysis are prepared for the benefit of the members of
the General Assembly, solely for purposes of information, summarization and explanation and do not
represent the intent of the General Assembly or either chamber thereof for any purpose. In general,
fiscal impacts are based upon a variety of informational sources, including the analyst’s professional
knowledge. Whenever applicable, agency data is consulted as part of the analysis, however final
products do not necessarily reflect an assessment from any specific department.
OFA Fiscal Note
State Impact:
Agency Affected Fund-Effect FY 27 $ FY 28 $
Various State Agencies Various -
Potential Cost
See Below See Below
Note: Various=Various
Municipal Impact: None
Explanation
The bill requires any state agency that contracts for consultant
services that (1) are valued at least $100,000 and (2) provide
recommendations to submit a report to the legislative Government
Oversight Committee regarding implementation of the
recommendations, resulting in a potential cost to various state agencies
beginning in FY 27.
There is a potential cost to various state agencies1 beginning in FY 27,
to the extent that additional administrative burden will be created for
agencies that rely heavily on contracting, and a potential additional cost
to the extent that current contracts impacted by the bill would need to
be amended.
The Out Years
The annualized ongoing fiscal impact identified above would
continue into the future subject to inflation.
1 Potentially impacted agencies include the Department of Administrative Services
(DAS), State Department of Education (DOE), Department of Economic and
Community Development (DECD), Office of Early Childhood (OEC), Office of Policy
and Management (OPM), and Department of Social Services (DSS), among others.
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OLR Bill Analysis
sHB 5251
AN ACT CONCERNING REPORTING ON IMPLEMENTATION OF
CERTAIN CONSULTANT REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS.
SUMMARY
This bill requires any state agency that contracts for at least $100,000
in consulting services for a study with recommendations for the
agency’s future actions to submit a report to the Government Oversight
Committee if the law already required the report’s submis sion to
another legislative committee. The report must summarize the findings
of the consultant’s report and whether the agency has implemented or
intends to implement any of its recommendations, and if so, by what
date. The agency must submit the report to the committee within one
year after receiving the consulting service’s study results or final report.
The bill applies to contracts with any executive branch agency or
entity, including any office, department, board, council, commission,
institution, constituent unit of the state higher education system, or
technical education and career school.
Under the bill, a “consultant” is a professional who (1) is registered
or licensed to practice a profession, a planner, or any environmental,
management, or financial specialist, and (2) provides consultant services
to a state agency under a contract with the state agency, including
among others, architects, professional engineers, accountants, planners,
and environmental, management, or financial specialists.
“Consultant services” include administrative, planning, analysis,
statistical, or research services rendered by a consultant (including
incidental services that consultants and their employees are authorized
to perform) to recommend a state agency’s course of action.
EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage
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COMMITTEE ACTION
Government Oversight Committee
Joint Favorable
Yea 12 Nay 0 (03/17/2026)