BOSTON– Senator Sal DiDomenico has joined forces this legislative session with Representative Adrian Madaro of East Boston and a coalition of immigrant and civil rights advocates from across the Commonwealth to introduce new legislation that would ensure equal access to government services, programs, and activities for people with limited English proficiency. DiDomenico and Madaro have filed S.2040/H.3199, An Act relative to language access and inclusion, to standardize, and provide enforcement mechanisms for, language access at public-facing state agencies. 

Massachusetts is one of the most linguistically diverse states in the country, with 1 in 10 residents having limited English proficiency. However, there is currently no comprehensive language access statute in Massachusetts to ensure that non-English speaking residents have a fair and equitable opportunity to obtain an education, apply for benefits, receive housing assistance, or represent themselves in court. While Massachusetts has long needed to build the capacity of public-facing state agencies to meet the language access needs of an increasingly diverse population, the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically exposed the incapacity of state agencies to provide consistent services in other languages.

Last week, DiDomenico and Madaro hosted a virtual State House briefing in conjunction with Massachusetts Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, Mass Law Reform Institute, and South Coast Counties Legal Services to educate legislators and staff on the crucial and timely need for this new piece of legislation. 

“This bill is truly a matter of equity and justice for so many people living in this Commonwealth, especially the residents of my district,” said DiDomenico. “Non-English speaking residents absolutely deserve to have equal access to public health information, education, unemployment assistance, healthcare, housing, and other crucial services, especially those related to the COVID-19 pandemic. I am very proud to partner with the Language Access For All Coalition on this critical piece of legislation and look forward to working with them to get this bill across the finish line this legislative session.”

An Act relative to language access and inclusion would mandate, standardize, and enforce language requirements for state-funded programs by requiring agencies to translate websites and documents and provide oral interpretation services into non-English languages spoken in the state, including American Sign Language. A Language Access Advisory Board would provide oversight, technical assistance, and relief mechanisms to those who haven't received adequate language access under the proposed legislation.   

In addition to DiDomenico and Madaro, speakers at the legislative briefing included Dawn Sauma, co-Executive Director of the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence, Pastor Dieufort Fleurissaint of Haitian-Americans United, Inc., and Dr. Neenah Estrella-Luna, Northeastern University professor and community advocate focused on community and institutional equity, inclusion and belonging. 

This legislation is currently pending before the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight. 

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BOSTON– In celebration of Project Bread’s 53rd Annual Walk for Hunger event, Senator Sal DiDomenico participated in a live panel discussion on his Universal School Meals legislation. Each year, Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger gathers people, organizations, and businesses together as a community to make the statement that hunger in Massachusetts is unacceptable. In addition to raising funds to support Project Bread’s anti-hunger work, this year’s Walk for Hunger helped to raise awareness on the new Feed Kids Campaign, an initiative led by Project Bread in support of SD519/HD1161, An Act relative to universal school meals, filed by Senator DiDomenico and Representative Andy Vargas.

An Act relative to universal school meals would allow every student who wants or needs a school breakfast or lunch to receive it—at no cost to their family and with no requirement to sign up or provide income or other information. Just as no student is required to pay fees at public schools when they enter the classroom, there would be no financial barrier in the school cafeteria.

“It was a pleasure to joining Jen Lemmerman of Project Bread and my House partner Representative Vargas in this fantastic panel discussion on our Universal School Meals bill. Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, too many in our Commonwealth were struggling to meet their most basic needs. Today, the COVID crisis has shed a stark light on the state of hunger in Massachusetts, especially for kids, ” said DiDomenico. “We have a moral responsibility to take immediate action to end childhood hunger in Massachusetts, and we simply cannot do so without providing universal school meals to every child, free of charge. I am so grateful for all that Project Bread does to fight hunger here in Massachusetts, and I am very proud to partner with them once again on this critical legislation.”

Right now, 1 in 5 Massachusetts families with kids is hungry, and 27 percent of children experiencing food insecurity in Massachusetts are not eligible for free or reduced-price school meals. However, as a result of flexibilities granted in response to the pandemic, every student in Massachusetts currently has access to free school meals. The barrier presented by cost and paperwork was temporarily removed at the federal level because this crisis put a spotlight on the need to ensure the right to the most basic of necessities—food—for all kids. Consequently, thousands more Massachusetts children and teens have been able to get free breakfast and lunch at hundreds of meal sites across the Commonwealth.

Despite this important step forward, without state-level legislation in place, there is a possibility that barriers to school meals will return once the waivers expire post-pandemic. To keep school meals accessible for all students, Senator DiDomenico, Representative Vargas, and the Feed Kids Coalition joined forces seeking a bold solution to end childhood hunger by ensuring that every student receives the nutrition they need while they are in school. 

This is the first legislative session this bill has been filed. More information about the bill and the Feed Kids Campaign can be found at the FeedKidsMa.org. 

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BOSTON- On April 15th, Senator DiDomenico joined with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and labor leaders from across the Greater Boston Area to take part in Boston Tax Fraud Day of Action. Together, they called for urgent action on legislation to crack down on the rampant epidemic of wage theft here in Massachusetts. Senator DiDomenico is the lead sponsor of S.1179, An Act to prevent wage theft, promote employer accountability, and enhance public enforcement, which would give the state greater power to go after corrupt employers and provide additional tools for the Attorney General’s Office to hold violators fully accountable.

”Each year that goes by without action on this bill means that more and more workers—many of whom are immigrants—fall victim to wage theft and thousands of dollars are stolen from our economy,” said Senator DiDomenico, speaking at the rally. “Wage theft takes many different forms, but they all have the common denominator of hurting hard working men and women and our tax payers. Enough is enough. We must take action by passing S.1179 to crack down on corrupt employers and ensure our workers get the pay they rightfully deserve.”

 Wage theft- the illegal practice of not paying employees for all of their work– has become a pervasive problem throughout the Massachusetts economy. One of the most prevalent of these practices is payroll fraud, via misclassifying employees as independent contractors or paying workers “off-the-books” in cash-only arrangements. As a result, some employers avoid paying taxes and into critical safety nets for workers– like unemployment insurance, workers compensation, Social Security and Medicare benefits–putting an unfair burden on Massachusetts tax payers and the Commonwealth when employees have a legitimate right to utilize these programs. Wage theft also hurts legitimate businesses by putting law-abiding companies at a competitive disadvantage when they lose contracts to companies that charge less for their work by cheating their workers out of their pay.

To increase accountability in labor contracting and subcontracting, the bill holds lead contractors accountable for the wage theft violations of their subcontractors if there is a significant connection to their business activities or operations and enhances the enforcement power of the Attorney General’s Office by allowing it to bring wage theft cases directly to civil court. The Attorney General would also gain the ability to issue a stop work order in response to a wage theft violation.

 To protect employees affected by a stop work order, the bill requires that employees be paid for the period that the stop work order is in effect or the first 10 days the employee was scheduled to work had the stop order not been issued.

 The Massachusetts Senate has twice passed Senator DiDomenico’s wage theft bill during previous legislative sessions with nearly unanimous and bipartisan support. Today, the bill is currently pending before the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce development where is awaits a favorable report.

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