Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

Days after the tragedy in Lewiston last October, I announced my intention to formally establish an independent commission of experts to determine the facts surrounding the shootings, including the months preceding those events and the police response to it.

So, in early November, Attorney General Aaron Frey and I announced the establishment of that commission and its members, who are seven nonpartisan experts with extensive legal, investigative, and mental health backgrounds.

In our letter to the members of that Independent Commission, Attorney General Frey and I asked them to determine the full and complete scope of their work and to request any resources and any additional investigative powers that they might need to complete that work.

In response, the Independent Commission requested they have subpoena power to obtain documents and perhaps to compel witness testimony as it conducts its work.  

That would take statutory authority. So, this week, Attorney General Frey and I introduced bipartisan emergency legislation to grant that request and to ensure that the Independent Commission has all the tools it needs to fully determine the facts of the tragedy in Lewiston.

This emergency bill, which was sponsored by all four Republican and Democratic leaders of the Legislature, would enable the Independent Commission to issue subpoenas to compel the production of documents and or the testimony of witnesses upon a majority vote of the Commission.

If an individual or an entity does not comply, the Independent Commission could ask the Maine Superior Court to compel compliance with a subpoena. Witnesses, of course, will have the right to have counsel present and other fundamental rights.

The families of the victims, and those who were injured, and the people of Maine and the nation deserve to know the complete facts and circumstances, including any failures or omissions, that led to the tragedy in Lewiston. They deserve to have those answers uncovered in an independent and nonpartisan manner.

I know that the Legislature shares that belief, and I am grateful for the support of all four legislative leaders – Democrats and Republicans – on this emergency measure to give the Independent Commission the power it needs to uncover those facts.

I hope that the full Legislature will quickly approve this measure with the support it needs to take effect immediately after I sign it into law, and the Commission can complete its work expeditiously and thoroughly.

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

WHEREAS, Maine is required to be carbon neutral by 2045, and has committed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 45% below 1990 levels by 2030 and at least 80% by 2050;

WHEREAS, a changing climate, and the need for new, more efficient technologies offers tremendous opportunities for Maine’s wood products sector, and Maine is poised to be a leader in innovative construction products;

WHEREAS, American history is an essential component of a complete and well-rounded education; and

WHEREAS, the study of history provides us a deeper understanding of our culture and traditions and connects us with events, people, places, and ideas of our country’s past; and

WHEREAS, understanding our shared history allows us to make better decisions about our future, and to prevent repeating mistakes of the past; and

WHEREAS, Saturday, January 27, 2024 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which marks the seventy-ninth anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp; and

WHEREAS, this is a day of remembrance for the six million Jews who were murdered by Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945; and

WHEREAS, on this anniversary, the State of Maine recommits itself to combating the global rise in anti-Semitism; and

This past December, as you all know, a powerful rain and wind storm brought severe flooding, power outages, and extensive damage to central and western Maine.

Then, in January, two more powerful storms brought rain, wind, and flooding that once again ravaged our state, damaging coastal communities and working waterfronts, and altered the very landscape of our iconic coast.

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

So, this week, I wrote a letter to President Biden, and I formally requested a Major Disaster Declaration to help ten Maine counties recover from the severe December storm, which caused an estimated $20 million in public infrastructure damage alone. Most of that damage was in Androscoggin, Franklin, Hancock, Oxford, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset, Waldo, and Washington Counties.

So, if the President approves my request, we can then use federal funding to repair damaged roads and bridges, as well as public buildings and other public infrastructure in those counties.

In addition to public assistance, I also asked for help for individual families hit hardest by the storm. In my letter, I told President Biden that families who are trying to recover from the December storm are having a hard time finding local, skilled contractors and affordable housing alternatives while they make repairs. And they’re struggling to pay the high cost of replacing major household items or removing mold caused by the flooding.

So, to help those families, I asked the President to make assistance available to eligible people who experienced property damage in Androscoggin, Franklin, Kennebec, Oxford, and Somerset Counties – because those are the counties the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, verified as reaching the federal government’s threshold for individual assistance.

In addition to my letter to President Biden requesting both public and private assistance for December’s storm, I also requested FEMA conduct a damage assessment of last week’s storms which brought historic flooding to the Maine coast, destroying homes, roads, buildings, docks, and iconic landmarks.

If FEMA agrees that the costs resulting from the back-to-back storms in January are beyond our ability to address, as they did after the December storm, I will formally request another Major Disaster Declaration from President Biden.

Look, if you experienced storm or flood damage in these most recent storms, I ask you to report it by dialing 2-1-1 or visit my Administration’s Flood Resources & Assistance Hub at maine.gov/governor/mills.

Your information will help us as we prepare to seek the maximum amount of federal assistance available. My Administration is working closely with local officials to assess and repair damage as quickly as possible and to seek any and all available Federal support.

Unfortunately, extreme weather events like these are becoming more and more common, and our state is certainly not immune.

By burning fossil fuels – like gasoline, oil, or natural gas – we are pumping harmful greenhouses gases into our environment. Those gases in turn envelop our planet like a blanket, trapping in heat and raising global temperatures.

In Maine, we are feeling the effects of climate change in many ways — the Gulf of Maine is getting warmer, faster than any other ocean waters on the planet. Storms are wilder, becoming more powerful and more frequent. They pick up energy over the ocean before they slam into our coast. Our growing seasons are more unpredictable, threatened by both droughts and downpours. Our farmers, our fishermen, and our coastal families are all feeling the impacts of climate change.

Over the past five years, we’ve been working on addressing the effects of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and investing significant resources to make our communities more resilient.

So, in the wake of these storms, and in anticipation of those to come, we must have a serious conversation as a state about what we can all do to make sure our state and communities are prepared for the impact of these weather events and climate change in general.

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

Powerful rain, wind, and flooding have once again ravaged our state – this time our small communities up and down the coast.

The damage we are seeing is devastating to working waterfronts, small businesses, public roadways. And more storms ahead could make matters worse. 

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

Following the severe rain, wind, and tidal flooding that battered Maine Tuesday night into Wednesday, I have declared a State of Civil Emergency for all of Maine’s coastal counties. That declaration formalizes our all-hands-on-deck response and it ensures that every State resource will be available to towns across Maine, and it puts Maine in the best position to seek Federal disaster support in the coming weeks.

The Maine Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), the Maine Department of Marine Resources, and the Maine Forest Service are working with local partners to assess the damage caused by the storm along the coast.

That review is one of the first steps we have to take on the way to requesting a Major Disaster Declaration from the President of the United States. If that Declaration is granted by President Biden, it will make available critical Federal financial assistance to help our state recover from this storm.

Maine people can help us document the damage from the storm. So, if you’re experiencing property damage because of the storm, please report it by calling 2-1-1.

Sharing your information will help us estimate the full impact of the storm and help us request the maximum amount of Federal aid available to support our recovery.

Now, it’s important to know that reporting damage is not the same as applying for personal assistance or reimbursement, or filing an insurance claim, and I certainly encourage you also to file claims with your homeowner’s insurance or your auto insurance if you’re experiencing property damage.

My Administration has also created a central online resource that contains up-to-date information from the Maine Bureau of Insurance on flooding and storm-related insurance claims, as well as directions on how to report storm damage to the state, and up-to-date road closures, and information about how to safely deal with tree debris, for instance. That website is maine.gov/governor/mills/flood -- all lowercase.

My Administration will do what we can to support the swift recovery of coastal communities that were hit so hard by the storm this week. And we will closely monitor and prepare for another storm forecast for this weekend.

As always, I strongly urge Maine people to follow the direction of local emergency officials to protect themselves and their property to the greatest extent possible. Please remember, it is never safe to walk through flowing water, or to drive through flooded areas, or to drive around road barriers – and never, never touch a downed wire.

Extreme weather events are becoming more and more common, and our state is not immune. That’s why, as part of our Climate Action Plan, we want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and we’re investing significant resources to make our communities more resilient to the effects of climate change and the intensity of these recent storms.

In the wake of these storms, and in anticipation of those to come, it’s time for us all to recognize as a state that we must prepare for the impacts of these weather events and other effects of climate change.

We need to build back our working waterfronts in the short-term and preserve our dunes and beaches and keep all people safe.

In the meantime, thank you for listening, and please stay safe this weekend.  This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

WHEREAS, the State of Maine has experienced a severe winter storm with heavy rains and high winds causing widespread coastal flooding and damage to infrastructure including to roads, utilities, piers, wharves, floats, boathouses, vessels, fishing infrastructure, businesses and residences;

WHEREAS, extensive road damage, including to Maine’s federal-aid highways, caused by high winds and flooding will require both immediate and on-going road repairs, constituting an emergency within the meaning of 23 U.S.C. §§ 120(e) and 125; and

WHEREAS, it is critical that all Maine students are afforded the opportunity to receive a quality education in our public schools; and

WHEREAS, a strong and effective public school system is essential for Maine's workforce and ensures that we continue to make social, technological, and scientific advancements; and

From day one, my Administration has been guided by the belief that to grow our economy, we have to invest in our greatest asset: the people of Maine.

Recently, we got some new data that shows that our strategy is working.

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

The United States Bureau of Economic Analysis released data recently that shows that Maine is leading New England in economic growth and that we’ve experienced stronger growth in recent years than even larger states like New York and California.

Before I took office, Maine was frequently at the bottom of the list of states regarding economic growth.

This improvement didn’t happen by accident. For the last five years now, my Administration has been making investments in Maine people – investments that have helped create robust economic growth.

In my first year in office, I released a strategic economic development plan – the first one in decades –  to improve the lives of Maine people and families, to support business, to create good-paying jobs, and to build an economy that is poised for future prosperity.

Just a few months later, of course, the pandemic brought the global economy to a halt. During that very rough time, I brought together economists, and business leaders, and citizens to recommend ways that we could sustain our economy in the short term and strengthen it in the long term to make us less vulnerable to future crises.

Based on those expert recommendations by hundreds of people and experts, we created and released the Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan. That plan had three goals: first to achieve immediate economic recovery from the pandemic; second, achieving long-term economic growth for our state; and thirdly, to revitalize our infrastructure.

Then, when Maine was fortunate to receive nearly $1 billion in federal American Rescue Plan funds from President Biden and Congress, we were ready. More quickly than most states in the nation, we deployed those federal funds across the state of Maine to put our Jobs & Recovery Plan into action.

Since the Jobs & Recovery Plan went into law October 18, 2021, we’ve delivered $175 million to thousands of Maine businesses, we’ve created workforce opportunities for 25,000 people, and invested in more than 400 infrastructure projects statewide to bolster broadband, childcare, energy efficiency and weatherization, and housing.

These are all critical things we need to support our people and to bolster our economy.

Now, don’t get me wrong — we still have challenges, including a lack of affordable housing. And we are working on all of that right now, but this recent federal GDP data is really an encouraging sign that our investments in Maine people are working.

I am excited about the direction we are heading. Small businesses are expanding their operations; people are moving here to work and raise their families; graduates are staying in Maine to pursue rewarding, life-long careers here at home — our economy, and our state, are getting stronger every day.

We’ll continue to work hard to address the challenges we face to ensure that Maine remains the best place to live, work, and raise a family.

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

WHEREAS, radon is a colorless, odorless, radioactive gas that may threaten the health of our citizens and their families; and

WHEREAS, radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States; and

WHEREAS, radon is the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers; and

WHEREAS, the National Academy of Sciences estimates that radon is responsible for up to 21,000 lung cancer deaths in the United States each year; and