BOSTON– During the Massachusetts Senate’s recent debate of its $3.82B ARPA spending bill, Senator Sal DiDomenico successfully negotiated the inclusion of nursing facility representation on the Essential Employee Premium Pay advisory panel proposed under the Senate bill. This massive spending package includes $500M for bonuses for Essential Employees who served during the pandemic and tasks an advisory panel with determining who would be eligible for these bonuses. Recognizing that there was inadequate representation of elder-care providers on the proposed Premium Pay panel, Senator DiDomenico filed an amendment to the Senate bill that added a member of the Mass Senior Care Association to represent nursing facility employees on the advisory panel.

The overwhelming majority of staff within the nursing facility community worked overtime to ensure adequate care coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic to protect their residents. The nursing facility community’s perspective on the establishment of the Essential Employee Pay program is necessary to reflect the key role of these workers. 

“Massachusetts elder-care nurses have been working overtime on the frontlines all throughout the COVID-19 pandemic”, said Senator DiDomenico. “The adoption of this amendment is crucial to providing the nursing facility community with a voice on this panel, especially given all of their hard work and dedication to keeping their residents safe and healthy.” 

This $3.82B bill was unanimously passed by the Massachusetts State Senate on November 10th and directs federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to assist the Commonwealth’s ongoing recovery. It particularly focuses on making equitable investments and ensuring that communities disproportionately impact by the COVID-19 pandemic are prioritized. Using this framework, the bill delivers targeted, transformational supports to critical sectors such as health care, mental and behavioral health, housing security, environment, and workforce development.  

The Senate version of An Act relative to immediate COVID-19 recovery will be reconciled with a similar version passed by the Massachusetts House of Representatives and sent to the Governor for his signature.

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BOSTON– Senator DiDomenico is proud to report out the adoption of his amendment, #254, which directs a $2 Million reserve for vendors of Early Intervention (EI) programs. Early Intervention programs are for children birth to three who have developmental delays or are at risk of a developmental delay. The services provided by such programs are meant to help support families and caregivers and to enhance the development of infants and toddlers through individualized, developmentally appropriate activities within the child’s and family’s everyday life.

This targeted investment of $2M helps EI programs by infusing immediate funding to address the staffing crisis and address unreimbursed costs associated with the workforce shortage. The funding will be distributed based on the number of children served by each provider, so EI programs serving more children will receive more funding for their workforce needs. In summary, this amendment will provide immediate relief to the 59 Early Intervention programs in Massachusetts by helping providers stabilize and begin rebuilding their workforce to support vital services for children and families across the Commonwealth. 

“Early Intervention has been one of my top priorities since I entered the Legislature”, said Senator DiDomenico. “Early Intervention is a critical service the Commonwealth provides to 40,000 children statewide and over 1,000 families in my district alone. Through the four EI programs in my district, I have seen its effectiveness and the tremendous difference it has made in the lives of the children who need extra help early in their lives. It is my sincere hope this additional $2M go a long way towards supporting our incredible EI providers and families.”

This amendment was part of $3.82 billion bill, unanimously passed by the Massachusetts State Senate on November 10th , that directs federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to assist the Commonwealth’s ongoing recovery, with a particular focus on making equitable investments and ensuring that communities disproportionately impact by the COVID-19 pandemic are prioritized. Using this framework, the bill delivers targeted, transformational supports to critical sectors such as health care, mental and behavioral health, housing security, environment, and workforce development. 

The Senate version of An Act relative to immediate COVID-19 recovery now needs to be reconciled with a similar version passed by the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

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BOSTON– Senator DiDomenico is proud to co-sponsor and join his colleagues in passing S.2573, An Act allowing humane transportation of K9 partners, also known as Nero’s Law. This legislation ensures that law enforcement officers’ K-9 partners receive life-saving medical attention and transport if injured in the line of duty. First proposed by Senator Mark Montigny, this bill comes in response to the tragic events that took the life of New Bedford-native and Yarmouth Police K-9 Sergeant Sean Gannon and severely injured his K-9 partner, Nero.  

In April 2018, Sergeant Gannon was shot and killed while serving a warrant in the Town of Barnstable. Despite the multiple empty ambulances on site, Nero had to be rushed to the animal hospital in the back of a police cruiser. Current Massachusetts law prohibits emergency medical personnel from treating and transporting animals. Fortunately, Nero survived his injuries, but the inability to transport him showed that reform was needed to honor working dogs who risk their lives every day to serve the Commonwealth. 

A dog owner himself, Senator DiDomenico proudly co-sponsored Nero’s Law. “Like our law enforcement officers, police dogs are constantly in harm’s way. Police K-9s are valuable members of our police forces, so it is essential that they be treated as such and protected. I was proud to support this bill and I am pleased the Senate has taken action on this legislation this session.” Nero’s situation is not an isolated incident, seeing as other police K-9s throughout the Commonwealth have been injured or killed while on duty. 

Nero’s Law authorizes emergency medical service personnel to provide emergency treatment and transport of K-9 partners. This includes basic first aid, CPR, and administering life-saving interventions such as naloxone.  

Nero’s Law now advances to the Massachusetts House of Representatives for consideration. 

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