New laws championed by Sen. Lawrence take effect today

AUGUSTA — A number of new laws sponsored and supported by Sen. Mark Lawrence, D-Eliot, take effect today, Sept. 19. Maine people will begin to benefit from new laws working to take care of our families and make serious investments in protecting the environment.

“I’m proud of all we were able to accomplish this session,” said Sen. Lawrence. “Fighting for affordable health care, sending our kids to good and safe schools and safeguarding our environment are all issues that are very important to our community.”

Highlights of this past session include taking on “Big Pharma” and winning, passing $130 million in direct property tax relief in the state budget and adopting a first-in-the-nation earned paid time off policy. Special attention also was made to environmental and energy issues, which include promoting more sustainable daily practices and setting renewable energy goals. All non-emergency laws take effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns sine die, unless otherwise specified. An overview of laws sponsored and supported by Sen. Lawrence is available below:

TAKING ON BIG PHARMA

Senate Democrats introduced a suite of new laws to make medicine more affordable and more accessible, increase price transparency and hold corporate middlemen accountable:

• The first bill, sponsored by Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, allows Maine to wholesale import prescription drugs from Canada, which are both safe and more affordable. 

• The second bill, also sponsored by President Jackson, creates a Prescription Drug Affordability Board that will give consumers a voice in drug pricing, curb public spending and help drive down costs. 

• The third bill, sponsored by Sen. Heather Sanborn, D-Portland, holds accountable corporations, acting as middlemen that have pocketed prescription drug savings designed for consumers. 

• The final piece of this puzzle, sponsored by Sen. Vitelli,  requires drug companies to share information on costs related to drug production, marketing, advertising and consumer price so we can understand why prescription drugs cost so much. 

FOR AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE

• Supporting rural hospital and ambulance services. A proposal from President Jackson will help keep rural hospitals open and operating, and stabilize ambulance and neonatal transport services for all Mainers.

• Increasing access to telehealth services – Sen. Geoff Gratwick, D-Bangor. This law requires MaineCare to cover the costs of telehealth services, those provided via audio-video conferencing and remote monitoring, the same way it covers face-to-face office visits.

• Getting the insurance companies out of medical decisions – Sen. Gratwick. These two laws ensure medical decisions are being made by doctors and patients, not insurance company bureaucrats.

• Limiting “junk” health care plans. Lawmakers passed a law to safeguard Mainers from purchasing cheap, faulty health plans. Insurance companies shouldn’t be able to trick Mainers into purchasing cheap, faulty plans. 

FOR CHILDREN AND OUR FUTURE

• Developing pathways to success for all of our children – Sen. Rebecca Millett, D-Cape Elizabeth, Sen. Libby and Sen. Cathy Breen, D-Falmouth. New laws expand the community school model, ensure counselors and social workers spend most of their time with children and improve school attendance. Sen. Breen’s new law would support children with challenging behaviors, their teachers and their parents by creating an early childhood consultation program. The new law is part of an effort to reduce early childhood suspension and expulsion rates. Together, these new laws make sure children are getting the support they need at school to be successful later on.

• Review Maine’s anti-bullying laws – Sen. Justin Chenette, D-Saco. This lawdirects the Department of Education to create a stakeholder group to recommend improvements to Maine’s bullying laws for schools. The goal of this bill is to obtain data, analyze issues and report on solutions to address comprehensively how school districts across the state are responding to bullying in their schools.

• Banning vaping on school grounds – Sen. Millett. A new law bans the use or possession of all electronic smoking devices and tobacco products on school grounds, school buses and at any school-sponsored event. Sen. Millett introduced the bill after hearing from Maine teens about how worried they were about e-cigarette use among their peers.

• Preventing lead poisoning among children – Sen. Libby and Sen. Millett. Several new laws we passed this year, one of which is already in effect, aim to address the serious problem of lead poisoning in children. Sen. Libby’s bill expands lead testing in young children to help more families discover and remediate any lead contamination problems. Sen. Millett’s bill will help make sure more schools are testing for lead contamination in drinking water.

GREEN ENERGY JOBS, EFFICIENCY & ENVIRONMENT

• Lowering heating and cooling costs for Mainers – Sen. Mark Lawrence, D-Kittery. Lawmakers passed a law establishing the goal of installing 100,000 heat pumps in Maine by 2025. Another law we passed will boost Maine’s workforce training efforts in the renewable energy sector, support energy conservation and solar energy generation at Maine schools, in order to lower the energy burden on school districts.

• Affordable, efficient, clean energy goals. Sen. Vitelli sponsored a new law that expands Maine’s Renewable Portfolio Standard by increasing the proportion of electricity sold in Maine that comes from renewable sources, setting the goal of reaching 100 percent use of renewable sources by 2050. Another new law will incentivize more solar power projects in Maine, and make it easier for small- and medium-sized groups to move forward on solar projects.
  
  
• Offshore drilling ban. Lawmakers passed a law to ensure that big oil can’t come in and destroy Maine’s beautiful coast and working waterfront. 

FOR MAINE WORKERS

• Ensuring Maine workers get paid time off when they need it – Sen. Millett. Lawmakers passed a first-in-the-nation statewide earned paid time off policy. Under this new law, more Mainers won’t have to choose between their paycheck and dealing with an unexpected emergency. This includes caring for a sick kid, bringing an aging parent to a doctor’s appointment or dealing with a flat tire. This new law provides earned paid time off to 85 percent of all Maine workers while exempting more than 40,000 of Maine’s 50,792 businesses. 

• Equal pay for equal work – Sen. Cathy Breen, D-Falmouth. Lawmakers passed legislation to promote equal pay for equal work. The new law ensures one act of pay discrimination won’t hurt a worker throughout their entire career. 
  
  
  

FOR MAINE CONSUMERS

• Fighting predatory lenders – Sen. Vitelli. Lawmakers passed a Student Loan Bill of Rights to protect Mainers who invest in their education and career from predatory student loan servicers that have a history of taking advantage of and lying to consumers who are just trying to responsibly pay down their debt. 

• Oversight of for-profit colleges – Sen. Vitelli. Lawmakers passed a law that will hold for-profit colleges in Maine to the same standard as state and other private schools. 

• Ban robocalls – Sen. Chenette. A new law bans automated and prerecorded robocalls to residential numbers in Maine. The law gives the Attorney General’s office the authority to enforce a ban on automated and prerecorded voice robocalls as an unfair trade practice, specifically on the grounds that the telemarketer’s intent is to defraud, cause harm or wrongfully profit from the communication.

• Fighting for Maine homeowners – Sen. Ned Claxton, D-Auburn. Mainers deserve honest, straight-forward information from their mortgage lenders. Lawmakers passed a law to make sure mortgage companies negotiate in good faith with homeowners who might be facing foreclosure. 

• Protecting your online information – Sen. Shenna Bellows, D-Manchester. Lawmakers passed a new law requiring internet service providers to obtain the consent of a consumer before selling, sharing or giving away that consumer’s sensitive personal data or information. The law also ensures that internet service providers can’t coerce consumers into accepting the sharing of their sensitive data as terms for using an internet service provider.

FOR VETERANS

• Providing new opportunities to honor vets – President Jackson. A new law allows Maine people to donate moose-hunting permits to servicemen and women. 

• Creating veteran-friendly workplaces. A new law requires employers veterans to take time off from work to attend medical appointments.

• Working to reduce veteran homelessness. Lawmakers passed funding for organizations working in our communities to give veterans the tools they need to get back on their feet.