Rep. Stanley signs onto testimony to assist elders and people with disabilities
Rep. Stanley signed onto testimony supporting House Bill 2077/Senate Bill 2039, legislation to assist elders and people with disabilities in the Commonwealth. The bill was heard by the Joint Committee on Elder Affairs on Wednesday October 11th.
The bill would increase funding to the Emergency Aid to the Elderly, Disabled and Children (EAEDC) grant, a state-funded cash assistance and benefits program providing support to over 20,000 extremely low-income individuals, administered by the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA). It serves adults 65 years of age and older who are in the process of applying for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), adults of all ages with qualifying disabilities, and certain caretaker relatives. The grant has not seen an increase since 1988.
Rep. Stanley attends hearing on Health Mandates
Rep. Stanley attended a Joint Committee on Financial Services hearing on Health Mandates. The committee heard testimony on the Contraceptive Access bill (H.536/S.499) which Rep. Stanley cosponsored and supports. This bill has the support of reproductive rights advocates as well as the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans and Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA, and would ensure contraceptive access to all women in the Commonwealth without a copay. Rep. Stanley also signed onto joint testimony supporting the bill.
The bill, entitled An Act Relative to Advancing Contraceptive Coverage and Economic Security in Our State not only protects Massachusetts women from the ravages of the Trump presidency and a federal government intent on rolling back contraceptive access, but it also builds on the ACA by filling in the gaps in coverage to ensure that all women can access the form of birth control that works for them without a copay. This bill will give women far greater control over their lives by allowing them to directly choose the form of contraception they most prefer instead of being forced to try one form of contraception before moving onto another form. The legislation leaves the decision of which birth control is best for a woman up to her and her doctor, rather than insurance companies. Finally, this bill creates a mechanism that will allow women to access emergency contraception over-the-counter with no co-pay.
Rep. Stanley signs onto resolution recognizing October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month
Rep. Stanley signed onto a resolution to recognize October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month and acknowledge such violence to be a public health issue. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that in Massachusetts over one in four women and one in ten men have experienced victimization by an intimate partner in their lifetime. We must continue the work of our state agencies and community partners in addressing this violence and ensuring that victims have access to resources to escape this cycle of violence. By proclaiming October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Rep. Stanley and his colleagues hope to bring awareness and initiate dialogue on this conversation throughout the month and beyond.
Baker Administration Awards $8.5 Million in First Round of 2017 MassWorks Grants
Governor Baker, Lt. Governor Polito and Housing and Economic Development Secretary Jay Ash joined community leaders and legislators to announce over $8.5 million in MassWorks Program Infrastructure awards to 10 rural towns. These projects are the first of the MassWorks Infrastructure Grant Program's 2017 awards, spurring regional and local roadway improvements in Boxborough, Chester, Colrain, Monroe, Mount Washington, Oakham, Rowe, Southampton, Stockbridge and Warren.
The MassWorks Infrastructure Program makes grants to municipalities for public infrastructure projects that generate additional private sector investment. Each year, the MassWorks program allocates 10% of awarded funds to assist municipalities with populations of 7,000 or less in completing roadway safety and transportation improvement projects. The MassWorks Infrastructure Program provides a one-stop shop for municipalities and other eligible public entities seeking public infrastructure funding to support housing production, economic development, and job creation.
State Awards $7 Million to Support Advanced Manufacturing Initiatives and Job Creation
The Baker Administration awarded $7 million in funding to support growth in seven innovative advanced manufacturing projects across the Commonwealth through the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2). The funding supports critical research and development infrastructure at advanced manufacturing projects in leading sectors such as advanced functional fabrics, integrated photonics, robotics, & flexible-hybrid electronics. The awards announced will fund seven projects from four of the national manufacturing institutes, including those focused on flexible-hybrid electronics (NextFlex), advanced functional fabrics (AFFOA), integrated photonics (AIM Photonics), and robotics (ARM):
Under the Manufacturing USA program, Massachusetts is convening the national effort to develop revolutionary functional fibers and textiles, and participating in regional manufacturing innovation institutes in robotics, integrated photonics, flexible hybrid electronics, and biopharma manufacturing.
AG Healey Announces Updated Open Meeting Law Regulations
Attorney General Maura Healey announced that her office has finalized updates to the Open Meeting Law (OML) regulations to increase transparency and make the law easier to follow and enforce. The final regulations went into effect on Oct. 6, 2017.
Some of the updates to the OML regulations include: Meeting Notices: Requires that when a website goes down, a public body or a municipality will have a short window of time to restore website access before public bodies are required to cancel their meetings and post new notices;
Public Body Member Certification: Requires that new public body members receive a copy of each determination from the last five years where the AG's Office found the public body violated the OML; Resolution of Complaints: Requires public bodies that receive an order from the AG's Office to certify in writing its compliance with the order within 30 days; and Meeting Minutes: The OML currently requires that public bodies approve meeting minutes in a "timely manner." Public bodies that approve meeting minutes within the next three meetings, or 30 days, whichever occurs latest, will have approved minutes in a timely manner, unless a public body can show good cause for further delay.
The AG's Office is also making new educational materials available prior to the regulations going into effect, and will soon issue a new guidebook and certification form along with updated checklists and FAQs. Learn more.
RMV Launches Updated Motor Vehicle Inspection Program
The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) announced that its new public motor vehicle inspection system is operational across the Commonwealth and all service stations which completed their obligations for installing new equipment and participating in training for that equipment are now conducting public vehicle inspections using new state-of-the-art testing equipment that incorporates best inspection practices currently in place throughout the industry.
The requirements for motor vehicles to pass the annual state safety and combined safety/emissions inspection and the inspection process have not changed. Rather, the program has been enhanced by the use of still-photograph cameras, new wireless testing equipment, robust workstations that include two printers, new improved sticker technology to prevent fraud, tablets for RMV field staff to use for real-time reporting to ensure that each station and inspector are working in compliance with program requirements, and in several months will be enhanced with the use of video.
Effective now, service stations are using cameras to take still photographs of five things: the vehicle VIN number, vehicle odometer, vehicle front license plate, vehicle back license plate and of the staff member doing the inspection at the service station. The cameras will document the status of the vehicle being inspected to ensure the accuracy of the inspection and enable inspectors to initiate video conferencing during an inspection if they need technical support. The addition of video camera technology will be introduced in January 2018.
