Senate Democrats are attempting to preemptively pass legislation to soften the fallout of possible retaliatory cuts to federal health care spending, Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, said on Tuesday. Senate Bill 7 would set aside tens of millions of dollars to counteract any federal cuts and additional funds to ensure that Connecticut officials can set the record straight on health facts if the federal government spreads misinformation on issues like vaccines. “Some people may say, ‘Is this panic?’ No, it’s not a panic,” Anwar said. “We’re just listening to what people are saying and we’re preparing to make sure that we are ready to protect our citizens.” The bill, titled “An Act Concerning Protections for Access to Health Care and the Equitable Delivery of Heath Care Services in the State,” would also adjust legal language that ensures the fluoridation of much of the state’s drinking water. The bill seeks $30 million for an Emergency Public Health Safeguard Fund, which would be used to ease the blow should the Trump administration cut federal funding to Connecticut’s Department of Health, as well as $5 million to create a “Public Health Urgent Communication Fund” to provide clear, quick health information to the general public. That request is a reaction to the pandemic-era misinformation and ongoing erroneous health claims by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., President Trump’s pick for Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Those claims include misinformation about fluoridation, the practice of adding fluoride to public drinking water to prevent tooth decay, which is linked to improvements in overall health. Fluoride has been in use in much of Connecticut’s public drinking water since the 1960s. Currently, Connecticut law states that the fluoridation of the state’s drinking water should be closely aligned with the federal standard — within 0.15mg/l. But Kennedy has said that the Trump White House would advise water systems to remove it. If that happened and Connecticut’s law remained unchanged, Connecticut would be forced to drop its standard to an ineffectual level. Fluoridation is considered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to be among the top 10 public health achievements of the 20th century. Vaccination, of which Kennedy is also a skeptic, is No. 1. “All these years, this law has worked,” Anwar said. But if the law isn’t changed and the federal government changes its recommendation, the impact on public health could be “huge and significant, but it makes an impact much, much longer — you see this for generations before things can get fixed. So the stakes are very high.” Connecticut could also find itself at odds with the Trump administration’s position on abortion-inducing drugs. Trump has vacillated on his stance on the drugs. The bill seeks to amend general statutes to authorize the state to import ingredients of the drugs, which include mifepristone, misoprostol and levonorgestrel, so that the medications can be produced and distributed. On Tuesday, Senators Martin Looney, D-New Haven, James Maroney, D-Milford, and Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, also joined the press conference to discuss a consumer protection bill, Senate Bill 3, which includes a slew of proposed regulations. The bill would allow the attorney general to more easily take action in the event of price gouging, would require manufacturers to clearly label products when they put less of a product in a container — known as “shrinkflation” — and would require disclosures so that companies can’t charge hidden “junk fees.”