📠 The former House speaker has a new job in the governor's office.
â—‰ Former House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, was announced Tuesday as a new advisor on housing and economic issues. He will work under Hannah Pingree, the head of the governor's policy office, which cited his work on a 2022 housing reform measure as a reason for his hiring.
◉ The governor's office also announced the hiring of Elizabeth Gattine as coordinator of the state's Cabinet on Aging. She is a veteran of the state's Office of Aging and Disability Services, most recently worked as a policy associate at the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine and is the wife of Rep. Drew Gattine of Westbrook, the outgoing Maine Democratic Party chair.
â—‰ Both Fecteau and Gattine will start at an annual salary of just over $89,000, said Tony Ronzio, a spokesperson for the policy office. He also said that while Fecteau's job is a new one, he is filling a vacant advisory role.
👊 A Maine senator and her counterpart assured "regular order" on spending.
â—‰ The rocky start from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-California, raises questions about how the newly divided federal government will function, particularly on spending issues. On Wednesday, Sens. Patty Murray, D-Washington, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, who will run the Senate Appropriations Committee, outlined a commitment to funding the government.
â—‰ "As the incoming Chair and Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, we take our responsibility to govern seriously and look forward to working in a bipartisan way here in the Senate to find common ground and move our country forward," Murray and Collins said in a statement.
â—‰ They are committing to run the appropriations process through regular order, the traditional, committee-centered way of advancing measures. It has been eroded in recent years with leader-driven procedures to get bills passed.
â—‰ As Semafor noted, McCarthy was upset he was cut out of negotiations around the omnibus funding bill passed in December. His narrow majority may make spending talks harder, but bills should continue to hinge on bipartisan talks in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to pass most anything.
📌 We're expecting to see the full list of new legislative bill titles today.
â—‰ Around 2,000 bills are typically submitted at the beginning of a new legislative session. One of the most valuable documents to State House observers is the list of submitted bills by title, which shows lawmakers' intentions and previews the legislative efforts ahead. It will be here.
â—‰ We're expecting the release of that document today, coinciding with the governor's budget reveal. So far, we have only seen the text of 151 bills released from the revisor's office. Those will continue to stream out over the next few months. |
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