Greetings,

Read on for an invitation to an April 26 Town Hall where we’ll look together to the future of our district, post-COVID.

The legislature jumped right into the 2021-2022 session. In addition to passing net zero 2050 climate and economic recovery legislation, which you can read about here, the Joint Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management has held two oversight hearings totaling 11 hours. We questioned Governor Baker and Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders twice, as well as the state’s top officials responsible for the Commonwealth’s vaccine rollout. You can find the videos from the most recent hearing here, or a news article summarizing the hearing, here. Our next oversight hearing is on April 13 focused on coronavirus variants.

I have linked arms with colleagues on behalf of regional public health collaboratives, for equitable vaccine allotments for Hampshire County, and more. We also continue to maintain a constituent vaccine guide which you can access here. And we’ll stay fully engaged until everyone in our region who wants the vaccine, gets it.

Priority Legislation

With this new session squarely underway, we’re starting to see priority legislative issues emerge. Right out of the gate I heard from hundreds of you about the bills you wanted to see me cosponsor. (Cosponsorship is a period at the start of the legislative session when legislators review the bills that their colleagues have filed and decide whether or not to “sign-on.”) You can see the bills I’ve cosponsored (so far) here. My team and I haven’t yet completed this work. If you don’t see a bill you care about on the list, please email jo.comerford@masenate.gov.
The People's Town Hall – looking forward to a post-COVID world
You are warmly invited to another People’s Town Hall on Monday, April 26 from 5:15 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

In addition to timely updates, we’re going to look forward – together – to a post-COVID world and the future of our district. I want to hear your ideas about the ways we must build back better, stronger, more equitably.

Registration is required. Please sign up here.

(English closed captions (available both in Zoom and here: bit.ly/ComerfordTownHall) and Spanish interpretation will be available.)
Sending our love to you,

Jo, Jared, Brian, Elena, Cameron, and Sam
P.S. Congratulations and thank you to all who organized to prevent a large-scale biomass facility from opening in the Springfield area. Last week, MassDEP (Department of Environmental Protection) revoked Palmer Renewable Energy's plan on environmental justice grounds, which was a decade-long, people-powered win. We need to continue pushing to ensure that biomass is not classified as renewable or green energy and to make sure that the plant never opens.
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