With window closing, lawmakers say lack of special session a missed opportunity

With the chance of a special session of the Maine Legislature dwindling each day, lawmakers are expressing frustration that they likely won’t be able to finish the work they started earlier this year before the session was cut short by the pandemic, saying time spent on a number of important bills will be wasted.

In Maine, bills can be carried over from a regular session to a special session of that legislature. But measures cannot be carried over from one regular session to the next. That means if no special session is called, over 400 bills that were still in process when the session was cut off earlier this year — covering topics such as racial justice, health care, broadband access and more — will die.

With the election drawing nearer and the next legislature set to be seated in early December, multiple Democratic lawmakers told Beacon that while they are in favor of a special session, the chances of it happening are now slim.  

State Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook) said a special session won’t be called before the election. While one could be called after the election, he said that’s “unlikely.” 

There are two ways a special session can be called. One is by the legislature itself when a majority of members of all political parties agree to come back. Efforts over the summer by Democrats to call a special session were blocked by all but two Republican lawmakers.  

The governor can also bring lawmakers into a special session, which is how most such sessions over the years have been called. 

Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, has so far declined to call a special session, even though members of her party in the legislature wanted to come back and a poll over the summer showed Mainers were overwhelmingly in favor of the legislature returning. 

At a media briefing on Oct. 20, Mills said she has not made a final decision on whether to call a special session.

“I haven’t ruled it in or ruled it out,” Mills said. “We’re in the middle of a political season, an election season. Our first priority obviously is continuing to fight this pandemic.” 

Mills said she told lawmakers when the session adjourned that she would call them back under certain conditions.

“What I told the leadership before they adjourned in March was that I committed to calling them back in when it was safe to do so,” she said. “We’re still in the middle of a pandemic, so if there is urgent business to tend to that requires that to be prioritized, then we’ll consider it.” 

Legislators thought they’d be back

While multiple Democratic legislators agreed that the expectation when they adjourned in March was that they would be called back for a special session, there is disagreement about the specifics of the plan at that point. 

State Rep. Michael Sylvester (D-Portland) said he recalls House Democrats being told by caucus leadership that the governor had guaranteed leaders she would call the legislature back for a special session. 

“Our vote to adjourn for everyone’s safety was based in large part on the fact that we would be allowed to come back and continue this work, that the governor would make an announcement,” he said. 

Other lawmakers didn’t recall being told by caucus leaders that Mills had promised to call them back — although they did say their expectation was that they’d be returning for a special session. 

“The discussion I remember with her was anything pressing, she would call us back,” said Jackson.

Jackson, who agreed with Sylvester and other Democratic lawmakers that a special session would be beneficial, said the governor seems to have decided there is nothing pressing enough to call back the legislature. 

“I guess it’s her opinion that she can handle whatever is out there. I mean look, I’m not very happy about that,” he said, adding that he wishes Mills had called legislators back after Republicans blocked Democratic lawmakers’ efforts to return this summer. 

Republicans a barrier to special session

Jackson directed most of the blame for the legislature not returning at Republican lawmakers, who refused multiple calls by Democratic leadership to return to work.

“The only thing they ever said was they wanted to strip the governor of her emergency powers and then go home, which was not a plan,” Jackson said. 

Senate President Troy Jackson speaking at a ‘Patients First’ press conference in early February. | Official photo

A Gideon spokesperson also pointed to Republicans as the reason the legislature hasn’t returned. In a statement provided to Beacon, communications director Mary-Erin Casale said, “Senate President Jackson and Speaker Gideon called on the Legislature to reconvene months ago. Unfortunately, when twice presented with that opportunity, nearly every Republican legislator chose not to even participate.”

Neither Senate Republican leader Dana Dow nor House Republican leader Kathleen Dillingham responded to a request for comment. 

State Sen. Justin Chenette (D-York) agreed that Republicans are largely responsible for the lack of a special session, which he said would have allowed the legislature to pass important bills, including measures to help Mainers deal with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. 

“People elected us to do this work for a full two-year term, and the reality is we’re not given a chance to do that because Republicans are not wanting us to go back to work, which is really, really sad to see,” Chenette said. 

State Rep. Ryan Tipping (D-Orono) added that Republicans’ refusal to come back is particularly aggravating given what they’ve been doing instead. 

“It was incredibly frustrating for the Republican caucus to either vote against or not participate in the polls to bring us back at the same time they were holding fundraisers, which they wouldn’t have been able to do if we were in session, and [at the same time] their party was attacking Sara Gideon for not pulling us back in when it was the Republicans preventing it,” said Tipping, who is the brother of Beacon director Mike Tipping. 

The legislature’s adjournment has indeed been one of Sen. Susan Collins’ favorite attacks against Gideon, who is challenging Collins in what is likely to be a close race. In those attacks, Collins has failed to mention that Gideon tried to bring lawmakers back, only to be blocked by Republicans. 

Jackson said Democratic leaders have tried to engage with Republicans on having a special session. But he said the GOP’s demands were unreasonable. 

“When your whole plan is [to] come in, strip the governor of her power and go home, there’s not a lot to talk about,” he said. “They never wanted to pass any legislation. They just wanted to throw the state wide open with no plan at all.” 

Safety of special session

One question that has emerged about a potential special session, as evidenced by the governor’s comments, is whether or not it would be safe amid the pandemic.

Jackson noted that other states, such as New Hampshire, have held legislative sessions during the pandemic. He said leaders could have examined what worked in other states and what didn’t when figuring out how to come back into session. 

“I think we definitely could have had a session that, while you couldn’t say with 100 percent certainty, could have been very safe for members to attend,” Jackson said, adding that because committees were still meeting, a special session could have been over in a matter of days. 

Rep. Mike Sylvester | Photo by Dan Neumann, Beacon

Sylvester added that the state Senate, with its smaller number of members, could have socially distanced during a special session. As for the House, he said the chamber could have come in and voted to go virtual, noting that other legislative bodies have conducted work online. 

State Sen. Rebecca Millett (D-Cumberland) agreed that a special session could have happened safely.

“I think there was a period of time when we could have done it,” she said. “There were folks who were figuring it out and coming up with some ideas. We all certainly were working toward that.” 

What will be lost without a special session? 

Reforming the Indian Claims Settlement Act to fully recognize tribal sovereignty, amending the bail code to make it less punitive for low-income individuals, creating universal public preschool and supporting universal health care systems in Maine, establishing emergency shelter access for people experiencing homelessness, restoring ownership and control of Maine’s power delivery systems to the local level and expanding rural Maine’s access to broadband internet are just some of the bills that will have to be reintroduced again next session, when the legislative process will start all over again.

The stymieing of those proposals, and a myriad other progressive priorities, are a big deal, Sylvester said. 

“Even the simplest bill takes a long time … so all of that work will be wasted,” he said. “It starts from scratch at the beginning. And that’s assuming that legislators who put them in are reelected.”

Sylvester added that, if they had reconvened for a special session, the legislature could have passed bills to help people better weather the pandemic. He cited a bill he sponsored along with Gideon and a number of other Democrats to establish paid family and medical leave benefits as an example.  

“If people were able to be sick and leave work and get a portion of their salary, they wouldn’t have had to make that decision of whether or not they had to go to work sick,” Sylvester said.

Millett said the legislature was working on a number of important items before it adjourned, including on issues related to education.

State Sen. Rebecca Millett in 2019 | Patricia McMurray

She noted that before the demonstrations over police brutality this summer, lawmakers were also considering criminal justice reform measures. 

“Ahead of the protests, we were already doing the work in the Maine Legislature around this. And there was a lot of good work that happened, and now it’s just sitting there,” she said.

Given that there will be a number of new members in the state House and Senate next session, Millett said it remains to be seen how many of the bills the legislature didn’t get to in the 129th session will be reintroduced and passed in the next session.  

Chenette agreed that the legislature not returning represents a missed opportunity, especially for lawmakers like him who are not seeking reelection or who are termed out. 

But more importantly, he said, the lack of a special session is a missed chance to better the lives of Mainers around the state, particularly in a time of crisis. 

“There’s so much need, not just from an economic standpoint but from a health standpoint,” he said. “People are really nervous about what’s happening. And rightfully so.”  

Top photo: Governor Janet Mills, Senate President Troy Jackson and House Speaker Sara Gideon at a press conference at the State House in January 2020. | Dan Neumann, Beacon