Religious Exemptions, PFAS on Wind and Solar and Stand Your Ground – Legislative Scouting Report for May 6

When the House gavels in on Tuesday, it is looking at a 60-page calendar with 20 divided reports, or bills on which their respective committees were divided in their recommendations whether or not they ought to pass. Most of these are big bills with the potential to impact Maine for years to come.

Expect intense debates on at least a few of these, including bills on religious exemptions for vaccines, PFAS testing on wind and solar and the ‘Stand Your Ground Law’.

Here are some of the divided reports that you need to know about:

LD 588 “An Act to Enact the Agricultural Employees Concerted Activity Protection Act” would create farmworker unions without saying it’s a bill to unionize farmworkers. While similar efforts have failed in the past, this bill skirts around language that would reveal its pro-unionization tone. If Senator Rachel Talbot-Ross (D-Cumberland), Senator Mike Tipping (D-Penobscot) and Representative Amy Roeder (D-Bangor) want to channel their inner Cesar Chavez they could at least have come up with a bill and be transparent about its intent.

LD 486 “An Act to Remove the Duty of an Individual Exercising Self-defense
to Safely Retreat or Abstain from Performing Certain Acts upon
Demand” would allow Mainers to defend themselves in their lives are in danger. It is a Republican bill that has failed the past few sessions on largely party line votes. It’s a safe bet that if majority Democrats want to delay your right to buy a firearm for 72 hours, they really don’t care about your ability to defend yourself. LD 486 may lead to good speeches in debate, but it most likely won’t pass.

LD 174 “An Act to Restore Religious Exemptions to Immunization
Requirements” would apply to students and employees of nursery schools. It also provides the same exemption to health care practitioners. This is one of those ‘My body, my choice’ bills that the majority Democrats hate to talk about. I’d be very surprised if this does not come down to an entirely party line vote.

LD 451 “An Act to Require Testing of Solar and Wind Energy Developments for Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances Contamination.” Sponsored by Rep. Reagan Paul (R-Winterport), LD 451 requires operators of solar or wind energy development to test for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS contaminating their sites. If their sites are found to be PFAS contaminated or causing contamination, they would no longer be be considered renewable resources or qualify as part of the Net Energy Billing program. Having come out of committee with a party-line split, it is likely though not assured it will get similar treatment on the floor.

LD 743 “An Act to Increase the Availability and Affordability of Health Care by Eliminating Certificate of Need Requirements,” is sponsored by Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn) and would repeal certificate of need (CON) requirements for building new healthcare facilities. CON laws pose an extra hurdle that must be met to create new healthcare facility infrastructure. This is a fairly complex 11-page bill, and it is a shame that Rep. Libby will not be allowed to explain on the floor how her bill works or the merits of it.

LD 53 “An Act to Establish the November General Election Day as a State Holiday”. The bill’s single sponsor is Representative Jennifer Poirier (R-Skowhegan). It is a pretty straight forward bill that would make election day a state holiday. The committee report of Ought to Pass is bipartisan with 3 Democrats and 6 Republicans supporting it. Of all the bills up for a vote tomorrow, LD 53 might have the best chance of passing outright.

These are some of the items on the House of Representatives’s Tuesday calendar. The Maine Wire will be tracking all of it and reporting on the major legislative happenings of the day.

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