DiDomenico's Essential Employee Premium Pay Amendment Included in Senate ARPA Spending Bill
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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