Sen. Bellows to chair Legislature’s Labor and Housing Committee

Posted: December 31, 2018 | Judiciary, Labor and Housing, Senator Bellows

AUGUSTA — Sen. Shenna Bellows, D-Manchester, has been appointed by Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, to chair the Joint Standing Committee on Labor and Housing for the 129th Legislative session. The Labor and Housing Committee will focus on work and safety standards, ensuring the needs of our workforce are well met, and that all Mainers have access to safe and affordable housing.

“So often when I talk with constituents, they tell me about their fears around having workplace protections, or how they don’t know how they’ll ensure their kids or their parents will have a safe and warm place to live, or how they’re scared they’ll lose their access to safe reproductive health care,” said Sen. Bellows. “The importance of the work these committees will do over the next two years cannot be overstated, and I’m honored and excited to be a part of it.”

Sen. Bellows also will serve on the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, which is responsible for issues covering the judicial branch, the Attorney General’s office, laws relating to Maine’s Native American Tribes, property rights, reproductive rights, and civil and human rights.

Sen. Bellows is executive director of The Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine. She has previously run her own nonprofit consulting business, worked as an economic analyst, volunteered with the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps VISTA, worked as a Subway sandwich artist in high school, and started babysitting at age 14 to help support her family. Growing up, her father was a self-employed carpenter. Sen. Bellows also has served as executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine. In that role, she worked to build bipartisan coalitions in order to pass groundbreaking privacy and civil rights laws.

Lawmakers are assigned to committees by the presiding officers based on their interests, experience and professional background. Joint standing committees are composed of three senators and ten representatives. The Legislature is set to reconvene Jan. 2.