House 89 Rep. Holly Stover will be sponsoring at least six bill requests and a wide range of cosponsored bills during the 130th session of the Maine State Legislature. Many bills have not yet been printed as members of the House and Senate continue to work on and submit legislative request (LR) drafts, Stover said. The LR’s will go through committee where some will eventually be passed onto the Senate Secretary and House Clerk and turn into legislative documents (LD).

“In general, we have a tremendous amount of work to do,” said Stover. “We've got the supplemental budget, items in the biennial budget.”

Stover also highlighted the legislature’s most recent victory, getting Gov. Janet Mills’ administration on board with alleviating most of the PPP tax plan. “The Mills administration listened to the legislature and the public and compromised on the tax plan … I mean, businesses and individuals are still trying to cope with heavy financial burdens brought on by the pandemic.”

Stover said her legislative requests largely push for departments to change or update language and figures. For example, the Rights of Recipients of Mental Health Services, enacted in 1984, was updated in 1986, 1989 and 1995. Stover said the document is in dire need of updated language, practice changes and institute and organization name changes. That is what LR 702 aims to do, she said. “It'll be 25, a quarter century … and some of the names of departments have changed, most notably Augusta Mental Health Institute's name change in 2004.”

LR 1009 is a push to ensure the will of a deceased victim of violence does not transfer any of their estate to the offender, said Stover. LR 1678 requests Maine Department of Health and Human Services seek a waiver from the U.S. DHHS to authorize the medication-assisted treatment for inmates 30 days before their release. Stover said this will enable the use of Sublocade, an extended release medication which lasts for one month. “What we know from doing this work, people who are released from jail or prison are some of the highest risk for potential overdoses without medication-assisted treatment. This is allowing that before release, so we reduce the risk of fatalities for that particular population.”

LR 1033 seeks to increase reimbursement rates for nursing services in home-based services such as benefits for the elderly and adults with disabilities and private duty nursing and personal care; LR 1235 requests an increase in reimbursement rates for short-term detoxification beds and long-term residential and rehabilitation beds. It also requests an increase in rates for substance use disorder, intensive outpatient and all substance use disorder residential treatment which includes detox and residential rehab, said Stover. The request for residential rehabilitation raises the maximum stay from 28 to 45 days, detoxification from 30 to 60 days and halfway house stays up to 180 days.

“It's extending the stays so people get longer and more intensive treatment and ideally a better outcome. The other piece of this bill is that it's requesting cost-based reimbursement versus fee-for-service reimbursement.”

LR 1951 prohibits students from harassing teachers online, a problem which continues to worsen, said Stover. “It came out of some discussions with teachers who have been targeted in cyberbullying by students in ways where they can't defend themselves or respond. This bill seeks to provide consequences to students who are found to be guilty of targeting school employees through use of social media. As it stands right now, there is nothing that prohibits students from doing that, too.”

Stover said she is also busy monitoring and contributing to bills relating to tax relief, revenue sharing, fishing and aquaculture, energy, transportation and education funding.