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| 📷 Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart (left), R-Presque Isle, and former House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, discuss Maine's workforce at a Bangor forum on Feb. 28, 2019. (BDN photo by Linda Coan O’Kresik) |
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💻 The top Senate Republican explains opposition to the heating aid deal.
◉ After his caucus voted down a heating aid package including $450 checks to most Mainers last week, the argument from Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart, R-Presque Isle, boiled down mostly to the lack of a public hearing in a column in the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel in which he cited transfers from health programs as a major reason for more input.
◉ He called for a hearing on the bill as soon as this week. But House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, whose caucus generally supported the measure, said last week that he expected a new version to pass in early January when lawmakers begin their work in earnest.
🚢 An extra Navy destroyer is in the House's defense spending bill.
◉ The chamber's version of the measure made headlines last week for repealing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for troops. But it also included Maine-specific items touted by Reps. Chellie Pingree of the 1st District and Jared Golden of the 2nd District, both Democrats.
◉ A third Navy destroyer that may be built at Bath Iron Works was added to the 2024 budget, along with a multi-year contract for 15 of those ships over five years as part of an increase in spending championed by Golden. Pingree also touted $45 million to address erosion at Camp Ellis in Saco, something that Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has also worked on in the upper chamber. The delegation has been united on these priorities.
◉ The House has passed several versions of the critical bill, but this one is the most likely to pass in the Senate, where Republicans were threatening to vote against the measure if it did not end the vaccine mandate. |
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What we're reading
💬 Many Maine lawmakers want Mills to govern like a centrist in her second term.
😞 Cuts at this Maine university leave students disappointed in their schooling.
🎄 Readers told us they are cutting back on holiday spending this year.
🚰 Most Penobscot County public water supplies look to be PFAS-free.
⚫ “We are in a great state of pain,” Maine Maritime Academy President Jerry Paul said after four students died in a weekend crash near the school. |
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