For families
 
Unemployment benefits

• An additional $600 unemployment benefit, on top of the current state maximum payment of $431 per week
• An additional 13 weeks of federally-funded unemployment benefits, on top of the 26 weeks already provided in Maine
• Expansion of unemployment program to part-time workers, self-employed workers, sole-proprietors, and gig economy workers to access unemployment benefits

 Direct cash payments

• $1,200 to anyone whose adjusted gross income is under $75,000 per year ($2,400 for married couples earning under $150,000), plus $500 per child under age 17
• Reduced payments for those earning between $75,000 and $99,000 per year
• Expected to sent by April 6

 Nutrition

• $15.5 billion in additional funding for supplemental nutrition programs to ensure seniors and children receive the food they need
• $8.8 billion in additional funding for child nutrition programs in order to ensure children receive meals while school is not in session
• $450 million to provide funds critical to food banks

 Daily life and housing

• $50 million for legal aid needs for low-income Americans facing job losses, eviction, domestic violence and consumer scams resulting from the coronavirus crisis
• $900 million to help lower income households heat their homes
• $200 million for shelter, food and supportive services to individuals and families in sudden economic crisis
• $425 million to increase access to mental health services in our communities through community behavioral health clinics, suicide prevention programs, and emergency response
• $4 billion for eviction prevention activities including rapid rehousing, housing counseling, and rental deposit assistance will mitigate the adverse impacts of the pandemic on working families and individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness
• $3 billion to help more than 4.5 million low-income households currently assisted by HUD to safely remain in their homes or access temporary housing assistance in response to economic and housing disruptions caused by COVID-19
• $1.935 billion to allow public housing agencies to keep over 3.2 million Section 8 voucher and public housing households stably housed
• $65 million for housing for the elderly and persons with disabilities for rental assistance, service coordinators, and support services
• $100 million to help ensure rural Americans have access to broadband to make telehealth and working from home more accessible
• $3.5 billion to allow child care programs to maintain critical operations, including meeting emergency staffing needs and ensuring first responders and health care workers can access child care while they respond to the pandemic

 
For small business owners
 
Direct assistance

• $14 billion for the Commodity Credit Corporation, which helps stabilize the price of agricultural products, like the Maine potato industry
• $9.5 billion to assist specialty crop producers; producers who support local food systems such as farmers markets, schools, and restaurants; and livestock producers, including dairy
• $1.5 billion to help rebuild impacted industries such as tourism and manufacturing supply chains
• $50 million to help small- and medium-sized manufacturers recover by finding value within the supply chain and expanding markets
• $300 million to help fishermen, including aquaculture, struggling due to disappearing economic markets caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic
• $17 billion for the SBA to cover six months of payments for small businesses with existing SBA loans. Rent, mortgage and utility costs now eligible for SBA loan forgiveness

Loan assistance

• $562 million to support loans to businesses that need financial support during this difficult time.  These loans will help businesses keep their doors open and pay their employees
• $10 billion in direct grants for businesses that do not qualify for SBA disaster loans, and $17 billion to have SBA step in and make six months of principle and interest payments for all SBA backed business loans.  All these measures combined will relieve financial stress from struggling businesses and inject much needed capital into the economy.

Assistance to retain employees

• Funding to help administer the new tax credits for paid leave, which allow employers to use money that otherwise would have been paid in payroll taxes to pay employees on sick leave or paid family leave related to COVID-19

  
For state-level recovery

• $1.25 billion to Maine in 2020 to use for expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to COVID-19 in the face of revenue declines
• $45 billion to provide for the immediate needs of state, local, and tribal governments to protect citizens and help recover from the overwhelming effects of COVID-19 by funding medical response, personal protective equipment, National Guard deployment, coordination of logistics, safety measures, and community services
• $100 million for personal protective equipment for our first responders
• $150 million to state arts and humanities agencies to provide grants and support arts organizations, museums, libraries, and other organizations during the coronavirus crisis
• $10 billion in Federal assistance is directed to help publicly-owned, commercial airports to address the COVID-19 crisis
• $25 billion is provided to public transit operators to protect public health and safety while ensuring transportation access to jobs, medical treatment, food, and other essential services remain available during the COVID-19 response
• $5 billion for the Community Development Block Grant program to enable states, counties, and cities to rapidly respond to COVID-19 and the economic and housing impacts caused by it, including by expanding community health facilities, child care centers, food banks, and senior services
• $453 million to provide aid to tribal governments through welfare assistance and social service programs, including assistance to tribal members affected by the coronavirus crisis and to expand public safety and emergency response capabilities

 
Workforce development

• $360 million to invest in programs that provide training and supportive services for dislocated workers, seniors, migrant farmworkers, and homeless veterans
• $1 billion in Community Services Block Grants to help communities address the consequences of increasing unemployment and economic disruption

 
Public safety

• $850 million for state and local police departments and jails to meet local needs, including purchase of personal protective equipment and other needed medical items and to support overtime for officers on the front lines
• $1.4 billion for deployments of the National Guard to sustain up to 20,000 members of the National Guard, under the direction of the governors of each state, for the next six months in order to support state and local response efforts

 
Elections

• $400 million for states to help prepare for the 2020 elections. Funding can be used, for example, to increase the ability to vote by mail, expand early voting and online registration, and increase the safety of voting in-person by providing additional voting facilities and more poll-workers

 
Education

• $30.750 billion for an Education Stabilization Fund for states, school districts and institutions of higher education for costs related to coronavirus
• $13.5 billion is available for formula-grants to states, which will then distribute 90 percent of funds to local educational agencies to use for coronavirus-response activities, such as planning for and coordinating during long-term school closures; purchasing educational technology to support online learning for all students served by the local educational agency
• Governors in each state will receive a share of $3 billion to allocate at their discretion for emergency support grants to local educational agencies to support the ability to continue to provide educational services to students, to support on-going operations, and to provide emergency support through grants to institutions of higher education serving students within the State
• $14.250 billion for higher education emergency relief for institutions of higher education to defray expenses for institutions of higher education, such as lost revenue, technology costs associated with a transition to distance education, and grants to students for food, housing, course materials, technology, health care, and child care

  
For health care
 
COVID-19 health care response

• $80 million for the Food and Drug Administration to address shortages of critical medicines, to conduct COVID-19 research, and to develop therapies and vaccines for COVID-19
• $75 million for the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support research at molecular, cellular, physiological and ecological levels to better understand coronavirus genetics, modes of action, transmission, virulence and population dynamics at research institutions like The Jackson Laboratory
• $200 million for the FCC Connected Care Pilot Program, which will support efforts of health care providers to address COVID-19 by using telehealth to connect with patients
• Over $1 billion in critically needed resources to support the tribal health system during the pandemic
• $1.5 billion to support States, locals, territories, and tribes in their efforts to conduct public health activities, including: purchase of personal protective equipment; laboratory testing to detect positive cases; and infection control and mitigation at the local level to prevent the spread of the virus
• $100 billion for grants to hospitals, public entities, not-for-profit entities, and Medicare and Medicaid enrolled suppliers and institutional providers to cover unreimbursed health care related expenses or lost revenues attributable to COVID-19
• At least $3.5 billion to advance construction, manufacturing, and purchase of vaccines and therapeutics
• Funding to support a U.S.-sourced supply chain of vaccines, therapeutics, and small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients
• $185 million to support rural critical access hospitals, rural tribal health and telehealth programs, and poison control centers
• $955 million to support nutrition programs, home and community based services, support for family caregivers, and expand oversight and protections for seniors and individuals with disabilities
• $200 million to assist nursing homes with infection control and support states’ efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus in nursing homes
• $25 million to help improve distance learning and telemedicine in rural areas
• $1 billion for the Department of Defense to invest in manufacturing capabilities that are key to increasing the production rate of personal protective equipment and medical equipment to meet the demand of healthcare workers
• $1.5 billion for expansion of military hospitals and expeditionary hospital packages to alleviate the anticipated strain on both the military and civilian healthcare systems

 
Veterans health care

• $15.85 billion in order to support an increase in demand for VA services specific to coronavirus
• $590 million for VA to devote to supporting veterans at an increased risk of contracting coronavirus
• $3.1 billion for VA to purchase, staff, and equip temporary sites of care and mobile treatment centers to deal with this pandemic. It further enhances the capability for telehealth visits, allowing more veterans to receive care from home, and for providers at home to continue to treat patients through technology
• To strengthen VA’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and enable them to best treat veterans across the country, the bill includes provisions which allow VA to:
  • Consider veterans and their families eligible for pensions and other income-dependent benefits, even if an emergency benefit paid by the government would have put them over the threshold
  • Ensure that home health care workers have personal protective equipment and necessary equipment to protect veterans and themselves
  • Continue providing payment to State Veterans Homes when residents are transferred to acute care due to COVID-19, regardless of their occupancy rate; and allow VA to provide any available personal protective equipment to state homes
  • Support veterans with limb loss seeking prosthetic assistance at community providers rather than going to VA facilities during a pandemic
  • Enter into agreements with telecommunications companies to provide broadband for veterans in support of providing telemental health care

AUGUSTA – The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is taking immediate steps to ensure access to critical services and benefits for Maine people while protecting the health of employees and the public in response to the 2019 novel coronavirus, or COVID-19.

"We are acting swiftly to maintain Maine people's access to health care coverage, nutritious food, and support for basic necessities in the face of COVID-19, while also safeguarding their health and the health of our valued employees," said DHHS Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew.

These steps include supporting MaineCare members through the implementation of emergency rules effective Wednesday, March 18 that will:

• Waive all copays for prescriptions, office visits, emergency department visits, radiology and lab services
• Allow early refills of prescriptions
• Allow providers to extend 34-day supply maximums on brand prescriptions (MaineCare already allows 90-day supplies of generic prescriptions)
• Waive initial prior authorization requirements for asthma and for immune-related drugs
• Lengthen the period that prior authorization applies for prescription medications
• Lengthen the period that prior authorization applies for certain durable medical equipment, such as home oxygen therapy, glucose test strips, and Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) supplies for individuals diagnosed with COVID-19, those with pending test results who are in self-isolation, and those in a high-risk category for infection
• Extend the amount of time that home health providers have to submit plans of care from within five business days to within 30 business days from the start of services
  ​

In addition to these changes, the Department made an immediate change Tuesday to our telehealth policy through emergency rule, to allow for prescribing through telehealth. This change is effective immediately.

MaineCare telehealth policy already allows providers and members to meet any face-to-face requirements for services through telehealth, when medically appropriate and when it will result in comparable quality of service. For services that traditionally have not been considered medically appropriate or of comparable quality via telehealth, such as Intensive Outpatient Treatment or Home and Community-Based Treatment, providers are encouraged to consider alternative treatment options that could be more appropriately delivered via telehealth (such as one-on-one counseling visits).

According to the Governor's Insurance Emergency Response Order:
​'First-Dollar Coverage of COVID-19 Screening and Testing: To ensure that cost does not create a barrier for consumers receiving medically necessary screening and testing for COVID-19, I direct all health insurance carriers to make these services available with no deductible, copayment, or other cost sharing of any kind, or any prior authorization requirement, including all associated costs such as processing fees and clinical evaluations. I appreciate the proactive measures taken by those carriers that are already doing so on their own initiative. Patients may be encouraged to visit their primary care practitioners or other network providers for screening visits, but the only situation in which carriers will be permitted to impose out-of-network charges is when the enrollee was offered the service in-network without additional delay but chose instead to visit an out-of-network provider or be tested by an out-of-network laboratory.'

​AUGUSTA —A new law has gone into effect that increases the ethics and transparency of how legislators use political action committees (PACs). 

Sen. Justin Chenette's bill LD 256, “An Act To Ban the Use of Leadership Political Action Committees for Personal Profit” passed the Senate and House of Representatives unanimously last year. The Governor signed the measure into law. 
 
This law will prevent legislators and candidates from profiting off political contributions by using PACs to loan their private business money. It will also bar individuals from commingling personal and PAC funds to avoid possible misuse.
 
“Every single Democrat, Republican, and Independent spoke loud and clear that closing this campaign finance loophole is the right thing to do,” said Sen. Chenette. “Mainers deserve a political system that benefits the public good rather than coating the lines of insiders’ pockets.”
 
After a Republican legislative leader had to step down from his leadership role due to ethics issues in 2017, Sen. Chenette knew we needed to look deeper at legislative-led PACs. It turns out, at that time, it wasn’t illegal for a legislator to use a PAC, which can accept unlimited amounts of money, as a personal or business slush fund. This new law limits the likelihood of further abuses of PACs.

This law is a part of Sen. Chenette’s successful campaign finance reform package, which includes LD 76, “An Act To Strengthen the Integrity of the Legislature by Extending the Waiting Period before Legislators May Engage in Any Amount of Compensated Lobbying,” that became law with the Governor's signature and LD 54, “An Act To Limit the Influence of Lobbyists by Expanding the Prohibition on Accepting Political Contributions,” which has since become law without the Governor’s signature. 

Sen. Chenette is Chair of the Government Oversight Committee and is a member of the Senate Ethics Committee. 

AUGUSTA — Legislation sponsored by Sen. Justin Chenette to end the revolving door of lawmakers becoming lobbyists became law after Governor Janet Mills signed the measure.
 
LD 76, “An Act To Strengthen the Integrity of the Legislature,” bans legislators from any compensated lobbying for a full year after their legislative service ends.
 
The bill passed both the Senate and House of Representatives unanimously last year.
 
“We must limit the undue influence lobbyists have over our government, and nothing speaks to this issue more than lawmakers and lobbyists swapping roles,” says Sen. Chenette. “Closing this loophole ensures former lawmakers will have to follow transparency and ethics rules and hopefully discourage them from getting a lucrative lobbying gig so soon after they leave elected office.”

Current law had allowed former legislators to immediately become lobbyists at the conclusion of their legislative service as long as it’s less than 8 hours a month. LD 76 closed this loophole by requiring a full year waiting period before any compensated lobbying could take place. The AP ran a story highlighting the issue here.
 
Back in 2017, the Maine Ethics Commission voted to recommend a similar solution to bar all lobbying by former legislators in the first year after their tenure ends. This bill is modeled on their suggestion. 
 
“Questions of fair access may be exacerbated when some lobbyists have easier access to lawmakers than others, especially for revolving door lobbyists — those former legislators or executive branch officials who leave the government to go into the private sector and work to influence their former colleagues,” said Ann Luther, Advocacy Chair of the Maine League of Women Voters, which endorsed the proposal.
 
This bill is part of larger campaign finance reform package from Sen. Chenette. LD 256, “An Act To Ensure Responsible Operation of Political Action Committees,” was signed into law by the governor, and LD 54, “An Act To Limit the Influence of Lobbyists by Expanding the Prohibition on Accepting Political Contributions,” has since become law without the Governor’s signature.
 
Sen. Chenette is Chair of the Governor Oversight Committee and is a member of the Senate Ethics Committee

AUGUSTA — Legislation sponsored by Sen. Justin Chenette, D-Saco, to reduce the outside influence of money in politics became law this weekend. LD 54, “An Act To Limit the Influence of Lobbyists by Expanding the Prohibition on Accepting Political Contributions,” puts restrictions on lobbyists using their money to influence electoral and policy outcomes.
 
“We have achieved another anti-corruption win,” said Sen. Chenette. “We are holding lobbyists more accountable now than ever before, and we’re preventing undue influence, to ensure we have a government that truly works for Maine people.”

SACO – Senator Justin Chenette has published a children’s coloring and activity book entitled, The Great Whoopie Pie Debate: How Your Idea Becomes Maine Law.

“The goal is to provide the next generation the tools necessary to understand how their own government works,” says Sen. Chenette, author of the book. “I wanted a fun and interactive way for kids to connect to the lessons being taught in the classroom on their path to become active and engaged citizens.”

Published by Bryson Taylor Publishing, the 32-page coloring book visually demonstrates how a law is made from start to finish with a real-life illustration of when Maine legislators debated the state dessert.

Included in the book is an educational activity section for children to solve puzzles, crosswords, and fill-in-the-blanks along with fun facts about the Pine Tree State.
​
This is Senator Chenette’s first book to be published. All proceeds from the book will benefit college scholarships for local high school students. For ordering information and behind the scenes video on the illustration process, visit www.WhoopiePie.org.