Bromley-Heath and teamed up with Councilor Josh Zakim for softball in Mission Hill. I also participated in several national conferences on health care. I hope you enjoy this update and find it informative. I look forward to continuing to represent you in the State House. Yours in Service, Jeffrey Sánchez State Representative Happy end of Summer! As the barbecues wind down and school starts again, I wanted to provide an update from the past 3 months. Formal legislative session finished in July, wrapping up the 2-year legislative cycle where we passed monumental legislation on transgender non-discrimination, clean energy, pay equity, and substance abuse. I was equally busy in the neighborhoods this summer. I hosted the 11th annual Back to School Jam in Bromley-Heath, High Street Veterans housing in Brookline, and Mission Main, to help kick off the upcoming school year. With the help of many community partners and the Department of Conservation and Recreation, we continued our weekly family night cookouts in July 31 marked the end of the 2015-2016 legislative session, where we were able to pass key legislation that will make our neighborhoods stronger and healthier. Below is a high-light of the key bills we were able to pass in the past 3 months. Although our formal session is over, I will continue to advocate for the people of Jamaica Plain, Mission Hill, Roslindale, and Brookline in the State House. Please con-tinue to call, email, write, and tweet me with your thoughts and opinions.
LOOK
My legislation, Language Op-portunities for Our Kids (LOOK), passed in both the House and Senate for the very first time after 10+ years of advocacy. The legislation increases flexibility and ac-countability to improve the educational system for English Language Learner students.
We’ve gone through a gener-
ation and a half of kids that have been underperforming in school districts across the Commonwealth but with this step, we can begin to turn things around. Since the House and Senate versions of the bill are different, the next few months will be spent working out the differences to create meaningful legisla-tion.
Gender Pay Equity
One of my proudest votes of the legislative session was in favor of gender pay equity. Our bill, now signed into law, is the result of over 20 years of tireless advocacy and is
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Friends and Neighbors:
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Committee Update
2
Legislator of the Year Award
2
Updates from the State House
2
Student State House Visits
3
WGBH Panel
3
Budget Highlights
4
Back to School Jam
4
Updates from the State House
Jeffrey Sánchez
SUMMER | 2016
State Representative
PAGE 2
Updates from the State House
Committee Update: Health Care Financing
Provider Price Commission
In May, I was named co-chair of a Special Commission on Provider Price Variation. The Commission will examine the difference in health care prices for the same services between medical providers within Massachusetts. This Commission was created as part of Chapter 115 of the Acts of 2016,
An Act Relative to Equitable Health Care Pricing
. There are 23 members including members of the legislature, government agencies, hospitals, and employers. Our first meeting was held at the beginning of September and a report on our discussions and recommendations, if appropriate, is due on March 15, 2017.
Protecting Patients with HIV
Patients suffering from disfigurements due to early HIV treatments will now have their health plans pay for treatment. This is due to another bill that the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing reported favorably and was passed into law this year. This new law will impact a small number of individuals who took early stage HIV medications, but will have a profound impact to improve their quality of life.
Immunizations Bill
I’m proud to report that on August
10th, Governor Baker signed into law a bill I sponsored that will allow certified medical assistants to administer immunizations within primary care settings. This will free-up doctors, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners to see more patients and focus on more complex medical needs, while increasing the number of clinicians able to administer immunizations. duction on college savings.
Ride-Sharing
I voted in favor a bill creating reg-ulations for ride-sharing compa-nies like Lyft, Fasten, and Uber. Named the most innovative state in America by
Bloomberg
in Janu-ary, Massachusetts continues this reputation by striking a careful balance of protecting public safety while promoting innovative tech-nologies. The final legislation, now signed into law, creates a new division to write regulations, man-dates two-tier background checks, and requires cars to display a de-cal noting them as a ride for hire. It does not ban pickups at Logan Airport or the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
Clean Energy
A clear priority from the start of session, a clean energy bill was passed in order to authorize the largest procurement of renewable energy in the history of the Com-monwealth of Massachusetts. Once contracted, one-third of Massachu-
setts’ energy will come from clean,
sustainable offshore wind and hy-dropower sources. It will create the largest off-shore wind farm in the country and also require gas leaks be fixed during road repair. This is all in addition to the laws we created earlier in the session, including substance abuse legisla-tion to help those suffering from opioid addiction, campaign finance reform, and public records reform. among the strongest legislation in the nation. For many women who have to feed and support a family, sometimes on one income, it is a struggle to survive. This law en-sures that the hardest working women in the Commonwealth are paid what they deserve.
Economic Development
We passed an economic develop-ment package that will spur the construction of smart growth af-fordable housing and improve technical education in schools across Massachusetts. It funds programs that have been integral to the development of affordable housing in Jackson Square and Mission Hill, as well as proven job training programs in Boston Public Schools. It also established a col-lege savings tax credit that would allow families to claim a tax de-
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Rep. Sánchez receives the PACE Legislator of the Year Award in the State House for his work supporting a healthcare bill that would help seniors
Summer Events
PAGE 3 SUMMER | 2016
Summer is the best time of year
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the days get longer and there’s always something fun to do. I had a blast hosting family
night cookouts in Bromley-Heath, softball games in Mission Hill, and my annual Back to School Jam in JP, Brookline, and Mission Hill. Thank you to our many community partners who helped make these events possible. My office was always full with visiting students and summer camps. I even had the chance to fly to Chicago for the National Conference of State Legislatures, where I participated in panels on prescription drug costs and early education. Check out some of the photos
from the summer of fun. If we didn’t connect this summer, I hope to see you this fall!
Summer Camp State House Visits Sánchez/Zakim Softball NALEO Health Care Panel
Students from ABCD and Phillips Brooks House Association visited the State House to learn about government, how a bill becomes a law, and how they can be a voice for their community. As leaders of the next generation, it is important that they understand how they can get involved in the State House, I enjoyed hearing their ideas. Boston City Councilor Josh Zakim and I hosted our bi-weekly softball games in Mission Hill
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complete with a barbecue! Thank you to the New England Baptist Hospital, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and the Tobin Community Center for your generous donations to make our games possible! I participated in a panel at the annual meeting of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials. The panel was on health care cost containment in Massachusetts. Also on the panel were (left to right): Michael Caljouw (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts), David Seltz (Health Policy Commission), and Carl Schmid (The AIDS Institute).
WGBH Panel
I participated in a panel on English Language Learners (ELL) hosted by WGBH. The panel discussed the struggles ELL students and teachers face in Massachusetts and how my Language Opportunities for Our Kids bill can provide solutions to struggling schools and students.
Ice Cream Social at María Sánchez House
Thank you to the María Sánchez House for a fun ice cream social and the chance to meet new neighbors! I look forward to your participation in the active civic life of Mission Hill!