I hope you have had an excellent start to the new year! This newsletter includes a public health update, legislative updates from Beacon Hill, and selected news from the district from December and January.

As always, constituent service is our top priority. In February, I will host office hours online. If you cannot attend scheduled office hours, you are welcome to contact my staff to schedule a meeting.

Please stay safe and warm this weekend as we prepare for Saturday's storm! Check out these safety tips from the Red Cross of Massachusetts, and know that my office is always open to you as a resource should you find yourself in need of assistance.

Very truly yours, Joan

Every household in the U.S. is now eligible for free 4 at-home COVID-19 tests. After an order is placed, the test kits will ship between 7-12 days. Orders for the 4 free at-home COVID-19 tests can be placed on https://www.covidtests.gov.

If you need to place the order by phone, call the covidtests.gov helpline at 1-800-232-0233 (TTY 1-888-720-7489). Hours are between 8 am to 12 am Eastern time 7 days a week.

On January 21, 2022, Plymouth County Chair Sandy Wright notified Plymouth County legislators that approximately 400,000 COVID-19 antigen rapid tests have been allocated from the CARES Act to be distributed to Plymouth County municipalities. As demand for COVID-19 tests remains high, communities and residents in Hingham, Hull and Scituate will be able to obtain tests. For more information on the allocation of tests, view our press release here.

To find additional information on Tests, Boosters, and Vaccines in the 3rd Plymouth District Boosters, view our Special Edition Newsletter from mid-January here.

The Administration recently announced updated testing options for schools K-12 in order to keep in-person learning operational. Together with the Department of Public Health, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education announced that schools will be able to receive at-home rapid antigen tests for staff and students for weekly use while simultaneously discontinuing contact tracing and the “Test and Stay” program. Additionally, the Administration announced the expansion of the “Test and Stay” program to early childcare centers.

To view the announcement of these updates, visit this webpage.

In January, the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed legislation that calls for an increase the state’s capacity for testing, vaccination rates among children, and availability of high-quality masks. The $55 million COVID-19 spending bill tackles these issues by appropriating the following funds:

Legislators also added several provisions, including flexibility for retired teachers and other public employees to go back to work to ease staffing shortages as well as an extension for remote public meetings, representative town meetings, notarizations, and reverse-mortgage counseling. Under the new legislation, authorization for remote public meetings, set to expire April 1, 2022, would be extended through July 15, 2022.

Shortly after the House passed its version of the bill, the Senate passed its own version with additional appropriated funds and policies. Differences between the Senate and House bills must now be reconciled in conference committee before the final bill is sent to the Governor.

On Monday, December 13, 2021, Governor Baker signed An Act relative to immediate COVID-19 recovery needs (H.4269,) which allocates $2.55 billion in federal funding granted to the Commonwealth for COVID-19 relief from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and $1.45 billion in surplus tax dollars from fiscal year 2021. Advanced by the Massachusetts legislature in early December, the bill allocates $4 billion in critical investments to sectors including housing, health care, mental and behavioral health, climate preparedness, education, and workforce development.

The legislation includes several wins from my legislative agenda, including:

At MassAccess' Annual meeting on January 26, I received the organization's Legislator of the Year award for my work to support community media centers. I continue to advocate for H.130, An Act relative to a streaming entertainment operator’s use of the public rights-of-way, to be passed. H130 would assess a minor fee on streaming service providers to support local public programming. For more information on the legislation, you can our press release here.

Many thanks to MassAccess for the fantastic work that you do and for this wonderful honor!

On Saturday, January 22, I attended the Hull Lifesaving Museum’s successful veterans’ rowing event. Stay tuned for additional programming from the museum by visiting the museum's website.

This month, Mass Humanities announced that “Crossroads: Changes in Rural America,” a mobile exhibit by the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum on Main Street Program, will be coming to The Hull Lifesaving Museum from October 30 to December 10 of this year. As a host site, the museum will receive training from Smithsonian staff and a $10,000 grant from Mass Humanities for public events during the six weeks of the exhibit. Additional locations and more information on the exhibits can be found here.

Last month, I joined Captain Peter DeCola, Deputy Superintendent Ben Haskell, and SBNMS Advisory Council Member John Galluzzo for a tour of the Scituate Headquarters of SBNMS.

SBNMS covers an 842-square-mile marine protected area that stretches from 3 miles south of Cape Ann to 3 miles north of Cape Cod. Stellwagen Bank is one of 15 national marine sanctuaries that aim to conserve and enhance the wealth of biological diversity, natural resources, and cultural resources within each site.

To learn more about the sanctuary, visit this link.

Constituent services are our top priority. My Legislative Aides and I continue to work remotely. However, I have returned to hosting in-person office hours in the district.

If you would like to reserve a time slot for virtual office hours or outside of the times listed, please call the office at 617-722-2320 or email my legislative aide.

To learn more about our constituent services, please visit our website.