The Legislature has had a busy session ”“ and we’re still at it today. Last week we were able to wrap up much of our work, running late into the night to get as much done as possible.

Due to the nature of divided government, many bills this session have passed in the Republican-controlled Senate, but failed in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives. Such a result is known as “non-concurrence,” and results in the failure of legislation. Unfortunately, several of the measures that failed in this manner were welfare reform bills that I believe were good ideas.

Interestingly, many of the welfare reform bills that passed the Senate did so with bipartisan support, and I was pleased that happened. Among the bills that passed in the Senate, but did not in the House, ultimately resulting in their failure, are:

Ӣ LD 368, which prevents people from immediately collecting General Assistance benefits after they exhaust the five-year limit on TANF benefits;

Ӣ LD 1035, which creates a 9-month time limit on General Assistance benefits;

Ӣ LD 1036, which disallows people from refusing to accept other available help in order to qualify for General Assistance;

”¢ LD 1375, a governor’s bill sponsored by Senate President Michael Thibodeau, R-Waldo, which contains a number of reforms such as work application requirements for receipt of welfare benefits and restrictions on EBT use;

Ӣ LD 1407, which requires drug testing for certain TANF beneficiaries;

Ӣ LD 607, which requires that replacement EBT cards have a photo of the cardholder.

In some cases, a different version of a bill passed in one chamber but not the other. This still results in non-concurrence, and is what happened to LD 526, my colleague Senator Roger Katz’s bill to ban the purchase of junk food with EBT cards. The original bill, which I voted in favor of, would have directed the Department of Health and Human Services to request a waiver from the federal government to ban the purchase of junk food with food stamps.

An amendment was attached in the House to the bill which would have added a new government program rather than simply requesting a waiver from the federal government for the ban on junk food purchases. The Senate rejected the addition of the amendment, as it was an unnecessarily complicating factor, and this bill also died in non-concurrence.

If you are interested in looking at the roll call votes for any of these bills, you can do so on the Legislature’s website at: www.legislature.maine.gov and typing the LD number listed above into the search bar that is on the home page, and then clicking on the option to view roll calls on the next page.

I’m happy to discuss any of the above issues or any other legislative matter you are interested in with you. Please don’t hesitate to contact me at: [email protected] or 432-5643.

— Sen. David Woodsome represents Senate District 33, which includes Cornish, Limerick, Newfield, Parsonsfield, Sanford, Shapleigh, and Waterboro.