Dear Friends and Neighbors,
The legislative session continues to move forward as we work remotely, with bills being considered in several committees as one of the first steps in the policymaking process. In the committees I serve on, we have been considering legislation to: improve transportation infrastructure and reduce gridlock, respond to the urgent health care needs related to the pandemic, and to support workers across the state as our economy recovers from the pandemic.
Bills I have sponsored are continuing to move through the committee process too. Last week, the Health Care and Wellness Committee held public hearings for two pieces of legislation I introduced to grow the substance use disorder professional workforce (HB 1311) and to provide diversion centers with on-site emergency medical personnel so patients may continue to receive the most appropriate care (HB 1276). In the Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee, I presented a bill to make sure public safety and rescue workers are better protected if they suffer an injury while in the line of duty (HB 1341).
Please watch this video to learn more about these bills and why they are important for our community.
Join us for a virtual town hall
I am thankful for all who were able to attend our 28th Legislative District listening session recently. If you couldn’t make it, hopefully you’ll be available to join my seatmates and me so we may have another opportunity to hear directly from you.
Please join us on Saturday, February 20 at 10am. RSVP here.
Urgently needed unemployment improvements
Because so many of you have contacted my office seeking help with unemployment, it is abundantly clear the hardships caused by delays and barriers that folks across the state have faced accessing unemployment benefits over the course of the pandemic. For many members of our community, unemployment is more than just a short-term benefit to see them through a rough patch. It is what will keep them in their homes, put food on their tables, and keep gas in their cars as they either seek new opportunities or wait for their industries to recover.
A bipartisan group of legislators have already taken action to pass a bill that lowers unemployment insurance rates for struggling businesses and provides greater relief to workers facing the most extreme need. You can read more about that here.
Additionally, I’ve partnered with my colleague Liz Berry, who is also a freshman state representative, in introducing legislation to address some of the glaring obstacles in the state’s unemployment system.
HB 1486—Allows workers to claim unemployment benefits if they “voluntarily quit” to care for a child or vulnerable adult. This is critical because the state Employment Security Department estimates that 30% of all voluntary quits annually are due to health or family issues.
HB 1487—Directs the Employment Security Department to create a program to cross-train qualified staff as claims adjudicators, who will be ready to process the immense numbers of claims in emergency economic conditions. They will fight fraud by implementing more stringent ID verifications, help to correct application errors, and more rapidly work through the claim backlog. Current filers for unemployment insurance can continue to wait up to ten weeks for their claims to be adjudicated.
Ask Dan
Hearing directly from you and responding to your needs is one of the most important parts of my job as your representative in the legislature. Each week I receive countless messages from folks in our community, so I took a moment to record this video message to respond to a couple questions my office has received recently. Please watch:
Thanks for taking the time to read this update,
