 Welcome. I'm James Milan. This is a talk of the town legislative update with our state senator Cindy Friedman, who really, we always appreciate Cindy, you taking the time to join us. But in December of this crazy, crazy year, you must be running on fumes at this point. So particular appreciation for your being here today. Thank you. Thank you, James. Well, it's always, it's always a pleasure to come and talk to you. And I'm happy to be here. And yes, I am running on fumes as probably 98% of the state is as well. Well, we appreciate your kind words. We don't expect it to be a pleasure, but we do. We do appreciate your, your, your just, you know, your understanding that it's important to share what's been going on with our audience. And you're the best person to do it with. Speaking of which, I'd like to start with something right top of everybody's minds at the moment. And that is the fact that yesterday, the FDA gave approval for the first of, you know, hopefully several vaccines coming available soon. And then we'll start the very long process of vaccinating the population. I know that you have been intrinsically involved as part of the COVID-19 advisory committee to give, you know, advice and counsel to the governor about how to roll out the vaccine. So can you tell us, first of all, how did that happen? How'd you come to be on that in a group and then give us an update about what has come out of your efforts? Sure. So I think it was about six weeks ago, maybe eight weeks ago, I was asked to be part of the COVID-19 vaccine advisory committee. Not sure how I got on it, but I did. And I was quite honored to be asked. I and the leader, majority leader from the house, Rep Mariano was also asked to be on it. So we were the two legislators. And we met for, yeah, six to eight weeks. It met at one point, it was twice a week. And then it was once a week for two hours. And it was a group of epidemiologists, infectious disease experts, doctors, hospital folks, long-term care was on it. The community leaders, Reverend Walker was one of those, Michael Curry, who did such a phenomenal job in Arlington and now is the lead head of Mass League of Community Health Centers was there. So it was a quite a diverse group of people. And our task was to develop a rollout plan for the vaccines, which is what we did. We did a report which came out on, I think it was the ninth. It was a couple of days ago, and that was given to the governor. And then I think the governor came out with his, so maybe we did it a little earlier, maybe whatever. And so they used that to develop a plan, which a lot of people heard about, I think it was Wednesday. Did he roll it out on Wednesday or Thursday? I think it was on Wednesday. Yeah. So that's what, that was the process. And the number one goal for the committee was to maximize life and minimize harm and support the most vulnerable and to preserve our healthcare system. So that's, that was kind of the ethos. And we moved within that framework and came up with the different phases. The phases are important because we are not getting, the vaccine itself is going to be rolled out. So starting, hopefully Monday, we may see about 60,000 doses. And hopefully by the end of the year, we're looking at 300,000. But that is not going to, in any way shape or form, going to cover everybody. And so it's really important for us to know exactly how we're going to roll that out, who's going to be in those different phases. And then make sure that we can track that that's happening. And this is a very complicated rollout because there are a number of factors, including the Pfizer vaccine has to be kept at minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit. And you don't find that at, you know, you can't buy a refrigerator Costco for that. And also you need two doses. And they have to be, depending on what the vaccine is, somewhere between 21 and 28 days apart. So you get your first dose, but then you have to come back. For Pfizer, I think it's 21 days later or around, you know, you can't get it before 21 days. So there's lots of logistics and, and lots of challenges to make sure that people who need it imminently get it, and that we can keep track of who has it and where so we can make sure that they can get their second dose. We want to make sure it's equitable across the state. And we want to make sure that the most vulnerable and people get it first. Yeah, I think, you know, I just had a recent conversation with the director of our local Health and Human Services. And she was reminding me as you are right now, all of us need to stay mindful of the fact that we have been anticipating this moment for a long time with great hope, and understandably so. However, in many ways, the hardest work is just starting right now. And you've just done a good job of, of describing, you know, you know, in still relatively general terms without getting too far into the weeds, describing just how complicated and interlocking so many different kind of components that need to work together and work well, in order for all of this to unfold in a way that I think many, many people out here in the, you know, in the public just kind of waiting, oh, vaccines here. Oh, good. Everything's going to be fine now. No, lots and lots of challenges coming up here. Yeah, yeah. Can I ask you one question, one more question about that and then we will move on. And that is, I know there is great concern on a national level for one of the things that people are most concerned about is how much compliance or how much people are going to be willing to take the vaccine, even if they are among those populations who are considered most vulnerable, first in line, etc. Is that much, is that a big concern here in Massachusetts? My sense would be not so much that people, if they would qualify, they would take it. You wouldn't have to worry about overcoming their resistance, but I may be wrong about that. It is a huge issue and it is actually something that the advisory committee has also been tasked with, which is how to, you know, what needs to be done on the state level to engage people in getting a vaccine. I think SCIU 1199, which represents a lot of health care workers, did a poll and they came up with some very alarming numbers around how many people said they wouldn't take the vaccine. Now, that's not necessarily uncommon when something first comes out. It is very, very important that community leaders are engaged in helping their communities to feel more comfortable about the vaccine. That's why on the advisory committee, there were community leaders like Reverend Elizabeth Walker and Michael Curry and others who represent communities where there is a high level of concern about whether to trust the vaccine. That's why they are on this committee so that they can help to inform the governor about how to go about this, but also become spokespeople. What we found is that as people take the vaccine, so the first group of people are healthcare workers. They are people in direct contact with people who have COVID. For instance, doctors, nurses, environmental service people, food people, people in hospitals who deal directly, everybody. It doesn't matter who you are. They get first shot at the vaccine. What we find is that as people take it, more people take it. Right now, the hospitals are reporting that their healthcare workers across the board are signing up to get it. It's a big concern, especially when you're fighting the internet and all of the noise that goes out around different theories and people's personal opinions. I think we've acknowledged that and we have work to do, but I think we'll be able to do it. I think it is a safe vaccine. I think we have to be vaccinated. We're not going to get rid of this pandemic unless we get vaccinated. I realize I could talk to you a lot more about this very topic and we need to move on. We will hold that for another day. We are talking to you in mid-December now. It's an appropriate moment, I think, for us to ask you to look back on what everybody acknowledges has been an infernal year and one that we'd all like to blot off our calendars forever. However, accomplishments were made nonetheless. If you wouldn't mind just giving us a kind of a run through the stuff that you guys have been able to do in the state house over the course and specifically in the Senate over the course of 2020. Sure. Well, maybe it's a little more than 2020. It's more the session because things went from one year to the next, but I think it actually, in some ways, was an extraordinary year. We passed a couple really important pieces of legislation. One of them was breakfast after the bell, where is that children will get breakfast. All children will get breakfast in schools if they're part of a community that has a certain number of low-income students. What's really fascinating, James, is, and I think I said this the last time we were together, that one of the most profound learnings that have come out of COVID is that schools feed our children and when they don't go to school, they don't get food. That is, I'm not sure what to say about that, but whether or not at what level you think that that is, it's the truth and so we need to make sure that when children are in school that everybody gets access to good food while we address the problem of food insecurity for families. That was one of the things that we passed that was signed in the law. The Senate did a patient's first act which addressed telehealth, scope of practice for licensing out of network. It was a great bill. Also had something in there to analyze the effect of COVID-19 on our healthcare system and where we have gaps. These are just a couple of the things that were in it. The House passed their own version and I have been in conference with the House on that bill and hope that we will have something out soon. I'm hopeful for that. I think we're going to get there. We passed this Senate, passed a step therapy reform bill which step therapy is the practice where insurers insist that people take certain levels of drugs or treatment before they can take the one that their doctor believes will be the most effective. It's a pretty harsh policy and the Senate passed a reform for that. Basically, if you are somebody who needs a medication because your doctor believes it's in the best interest of your health, that you will get that. This is especially true for people who have chronic illnesses. Multiple sclerosis is one of the illnesses that's affected. If you change it and ensure they make you start from the beginning, you end up having to take medication that you know won't help you. It often has an adverse effect. That's something that we passed. We also passed an economic development recovery bill that addresses small businesses, communities and really the economic devastation that's caused by the pandemic. That is also something that is in conference and hopefully that's where we will come to an agreement and that is where we're going to see support for small businesses, for renters, for landlords, for money and money to help with economic impacts of the pandemic which have been profound. We did a clock walker day resolution which was brought to us by the town of Lexington and it is an important part of Black history and that we were asked, can we acknowledge this along with, it's an emancipation proclamation and we passed that and so we're looking forward to a clock walker day. I bring it up because it was really spurred on by one of my constituents in Lexington and so we're very grateful. We did a maternal health bill, we did a female genital mutilation bill. Those are some of the things that we did in the Senate. We did a mental health bill, the ABC Act which one of the things that I'm quite proud of in that is that we have a big piece on mental health parity requiring there be parity between the way we treat behavioral health and the way we treat men's surge. Hopefully our audience takes away from that extensive list the sense that you know of the kinds of things that did get done but also the priorities that underlie those bills that have either been passed or are currently in conference committee and on their way to being passed. I know and I'm going to stop saying this because I'm sure I could at every five-minute interval in our conversation but I will say one more time that everything you said deserves more unpacking and I personally am curious to know more of the details but for our purposes today and within the time constraints that we have we're just going to have to keep moving on. Okay and just to tell you there is quite a bit of detail on my website so really he can go there and you can click on these and it'll give you a much in-depth overview of what each of these bills have done. That is I'm very very glad you mentioned that because of course people's curiosity I'm sure will be piqued by various things you mentioned if they can find out more simply by going to your website great. All right so that brings us up to the current moment and there are several things that I want to ask you about just different topic areas basically and just get either your thoughts or an update about what's going on in those areas. The first is that the budget has been hanging over your heads for I know you and I talk every couple of months every few months and I believe we have talked about this will be the third time so probably at least six months back if not more that we have talked about the budget and it's not yet it is on the governor's desk I believe is that right. So let's just assume it's going to get passed and what are the impacts that Arlingtonians in particular should take note of? It's a really good budget and what the budget really focuses on the budget focuses on is ensuring that certain basic services basic needs are met by the common people of the Congo during this pandemic and that's in housing, education, food, healthcare and one of the things that we really made sure of was that we do as much as we can to mitigate any of the impacts on our local community so we did not cut we met our commitment for local aid which is unrestricted government funding and chapter 70 plus a small increase in cost of living or inflation which there wasn't very much of but so those two things for everybody is education funding I apologize so those were held harmless and so the communities the municipalities got what they were expecting and the governor hasn't signed it but I would bet anybody a lot of dollars that he will keep that whole I know he will because I think there's been an agreement so I think Arlington can depend on that has depended on it and I think that that's good news for all the municipalities in addition we've done a lot of work around housing security trying to make sure that people can stay in their homes didn't do as much as the Senate wanted but I think we did some good work around that there's an enormous investment in the rental assistance for people and we've raised the cap we've also done some work around ensuring that as you go through an eviction process there are times early on in that process where we can basically put a hold on it while people try and get the support that they need we've made it clear for people that who get in an early eviction notice which is called a forced to quit that they know they don't have to leave their rental it is just an initial notice you should not leave your house if you get a notice to quit we've made that clear and there's some more money we put in for rapid rehousing for people who are homeless so we've done a lot around the housing again we need to do more but we did it was a good start we have to put an enormous amount of money into food security food programs have been not only were they funded in the sub budget but they've also been funded in in this particular in the fy 90 sub budget is a small budget that comes out during the year to make whole certain accounts we've added money we added money to those accounts and we'll continue we did it in the in the fy 21 budget too um we um so there was the housing stability um education um we did a we put in a lot of money and this is something that I worked very hard on on mental health and behavioral health to make sure that those programs and money was not cut um we got an additional 10 million dollars in the budget to help uh hospitals and acute care centers add more behavioral health beds this is really important because what we're seeing in the emergency rooms people coming in a vast number of people coming into emergencies rooms right now have serious significant mental health um conditions and they have no place to go there's no bed for them anywhere so this is this is really important for the hospitals as well as for people coming in and seeking care so that's some of the things that are in the budget I think I'm also very pleased that I um that I got money for Arlington Youth Counseling Center um so that they can continue the really important work that they do um for Arlington for children and families that is in the budget as well so those are some of the things that I can think of at the moment but well you know there's a lot of reassuring news and what you just said both for Arlington and for other towns and municipalities in Massachusetts no doubt but to me I have to say it begs the question a little bit um given the um economic circumstances and the public health and economic emergency that we are have been in for a long time now surely something must have been sacrificed or need to be sacrificed in this budget as well you have just outlined a bunch of things that are either going to stay as they've been uh and that we rely on or that you've even you know invested more uh in order to be able to help vulnerable populations of different sorts all great news what's the bad news is there bad news um so the the the bad news and where where do we get this from well a big portion of where we uh there are a couple things actually first one is we took a significant amount of money out of the rainy day fund also known as the stabilization fund this is money that we put the state puts in every year um to hold for a rainy day and I think you could argue that it's not only raining it's pouring there's thunder there's lightning and possibly a tornado coming so um I think about we had a three million dollar I think three billion dollar gap I think which was much lower than we thought was going to be in part because of what the federal government did in terms of unemployment insurance so we took over a billion and a half dollars out of the rainy day fund and that really helped to mitigate some of these issues some of the the uh spending um we didn't spend on on some things that I think were really important um we didn't spend we were unable to get money for emergency paid sick leave which was a would have costed quite a bit of money um we weren't able to get that into the budget we're not done fighting um so that's something that I can point to that say we weren't successful um and I wish we were so be between um things that weren't money that wasn't spent because of the budget uh because certain programs there weren't people there uh to use the programs and because of the rainy day fund we were able to put together a package that really allowed us to do spending in the areas that I talked about so it was kind of a mixed of um spending more money taking money out of the rainy day fund um safe having saved some money because some programs weren't being used so we had money left over um and other things you can do you know to move money around so that you keep people whole well um interesting to note from for me um that uh in our previous conversation uh back a few months ago again um you know we had touched on the rainy day fund but you hadn't made that decision to to dip into it at that point so just interesting to know that that is one of the things that's happened over these last months it was a big piece of it and the right thing to do I believe um moving on Cindy uh one um of the many systems that have been profoundly disrupted by the pandemic is our education system and that is affecting it's reaching into every household with school age children um in the Commonwealth and there are any number of concerns that we could talk about but I was specifically wanting to ask you uh about the situation with the MCAS for you know students who are who would be taking it at different points but especially those who are seniors and for whom the MCAS represents the ability to move on or not um this has been an insane um school year um and so what kind of accommodations are is the government considering making uh to acknowledge these crazy circumstances and not penalize students if possible? Right now the Department of Education has been very clear that there will be high stakes MCAS and for seniors and I think this is something that a number of us are very very concerned about and there is a lot of active discussion going on um I I I I think there may be reasons why um good and thoughtful people want to have this happen my uh concern is that we don't have a standardized system across the Commonwealth everybody is not learning the same thing remotely everybody is not all remote or all in uh person we don't have access to the same level of technology in terms of internet and computers and who is with you at home who isn't with you at home if you're remote um what your remote learning is like versus what somebody in Pittsfield's remote learning is like I mean there's just there there's so many um unknowns and so many discrepancies between when you look when you want to look across a standardized system is everybody getting the same access and the same substance we know they're not um this has really been going on for numbers of students since March when we closed schools in late March right and so I don't understand how we um how we can um expect that we're going to give a high stakes test to seniors who for many of them have been out now for almost a year and that's somehow fair or is going to give us a good metric of whether these students have learned or not um there's lots of controversy around them Kesta start with I fundamentally believe in some form of standardized testing because we need to understand that we're delivering an education system that's equal for everybody um but in this and we can have that argument with people and but um but this one it really has my head scratch I'm really scratching my head on this one I don't understand how this is equitable or fair for students it's a huge it's a very high stake it means you don't get um a uh you know you don't get a diploma it's a diploma right it's like don't get any higher uh for you know an 18 year old uh you know in the Commonwealth um we have people in the Commonwealth who don't have internet access they're talking about taking the these MCAS tests in a in a uh parking lot because they can't get you know we don't even have equity about around technology across our state so I'm really scratching my head on this one and I think there's going to be a lot of discussion and I really have to understand what the thinking is to go ahead so okay um um one uh huge thing that uh has been in the headlines recently uh a huge piece of legislation new piece of legislation um yet to come to total fruition it's going back and forth between the governor and the legislature as we speak um and that is the police reform bill that I know you didn't have your fingers on directly but I can't not ask you about um given its high profile and the fact that it is seems to be you know things seem to be unfolding as as I said as we speak well the governor sent it back um I haven't read his letter in detail the letter is what he sends back where he says I I don't like these sections I you know I would veto the bill if these don't get fixed I think is what he's saying um so I think we have to see I you know I I again I'm not um I'm not really uh I haven't done the homework of exactly what the issues are so I can't really speak more than that he did he came back yesterday and I haven't had a chance but um it's certainly something that we're going to have to take up I know that there were parts of the bill that he really liked and um so I think we have to figure out as a body how we're how we're going to move ahead and I know that the people who have been you know the the sponsors and the people have been leading this um bill through the bodies are are working on it that's really the best I can tell you right now fair enough um as I said couldn't not ask even though I figured you might not have um too much to say about it and um let me let me wrap things up because we've taken up a lot of your time already by asking you about something you and I have talked about uh before um during the pandemic and in general and that is the relationship fiscal and otherwise between the federal government and what the federal government is or isn't doing and what we need here in Massachusetts so um right now there are negotiations going on in Washington as there seem to always be um in which one of the real sticking points between Democrats from Republicans has to do with the amount of aid to be provided to states like Massachusetts um please make it clear for our audience uh just how significant this is uh for us here in Massachusetts the resolution and hopefully the resolution in favor of providing more aid uh to state governments um why does why does that matter so much to us we have managed to get through this year and have a budget that goes to um june july of 2021 because um of help from the federal government through the CARES Act and um some other mechanisms and through unemployment um we have been able to get through um without excuse me without um you know but somewhat whole okay it's been an enormous impact on our businesses and our communities I don't question that for a minute but we can't go on anymore we are not allowed to run a deficit as a state we can't just spend money to keep people whole and we need to keep people whole not only for their economic stability but for their health and if we don't have help from the federal government we can't do that and it's also a philosophy between whether or not you believe in government and I think what we're seeing here is at the federal level there are people who are in our government who are elected officials who don't believe in government and they are happy to starve our states and our municipalities who pay for our police who pay for our fire who take care of our streets who um educate our children who keep our libraries open right do all the things that we as a community of mass people from massachusetts probably really care about right and that's what they're putting at stake they want to say forget the government don't fund it fire everybody we'll be okay and that is not how you run a business and not how you run a government and if you don't believe how important it is look at what's happening when we don't have a federal government who is competent enough to take care of us in the middle of a pandemic we as the state have been left on our own and the federal government has just said we're we don't care we don't care and so we need we need the federal government to step up and help all of us whether you care about you know your schools whether you care whether you're a republican or whether you're a democrat we are in a crisis and we have to get help from our federal government that is their job and so we have done everything we can and you know i am a democrat through and through but i think our our state government has done an enormous amount of work to keep us safe and try in the worst of situations to keep our economy going it's not perfect it you know there's lots of good bad decisions that you have to make and we've done what we can and now it's time for our federal government to say forget who you are whether you're republican or democrat and let's take care of our people and that's why it is so critical we can't go on without that help we just can't our economy will crash in in massachusetts i believe that so that's i don't know how else to say it well i'm not sure if you need to say anything else about that in that that's a very forceful and to my ears persuasive argument for some clear and constructive federal action fingers crossed yes um okay we had you and i had spoken before we went on camera just about how tired we are all of us are and yet you have provided us with a good 40 or 45 minutes of substantive content as always i asked i told you we appreciated your time at the beginning i will just reiterate one more time before we go that really this is valuable for our audience and for for me personally i appreciate it of course um and we know that it takes a toll on you so thank you well thank you it's a great forum to i love talking to you and also it's great that i get an opportunity to do this so people can my constituents can know what's going on all right i hope it's sincerely that you can find some time in the next few weeks to get some r and r before you're right back in the battle and with that happy holidays indy happy new year let us all hope that 2021 brings a completely different tone and flavor to our lives and i'm sure that with you going forward yes thank you and you be safe too and your family and i hope we can all find some joy and satisfaction in the coming year thank you very much i have been speaking with our state senator cindy freedman at length and again appreciatively i'm james malan this is talk of the town appreciate your being here and we'll see you next time