Maine House Democrats: Fay Testifies Before Congress on Long-term Care Workforce Issues

AUGUSTA, Maine, July 21 -- The Maine House Democrats issued the following news release:

Rep. Jessica Fay, D-Raymond, testified before the U.S. Congress on long-term workforce issues Tuesday. In her testimony, Fay discussed the urgency of addressing this workforce shortage and outlined ways to improve the recruitment, retention, training and professional development of long-term care workers. She spoke during a joint subcommittee hearing with the Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee and the Higher Education and Workforce Investment Subcommittee.

Congressman Bobby Scott, D-Virginia, chair of the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor, invited Fay to participate in the hearing based on her extensive experience working on long-term care workforce issues in the Maine Legislature. She was joined by the manager of an agency that provides care, a home care provider and an expert on training and technology issues in the home care field.

"It was an interesting experience to testify before Congress," said Fay. "It is exciting that long-term care workforce issues are gaining traction at the federal level. Additional federal action can be a big help in finding a solution to the long-term care workforce problem."

Fay served as co-chair of Maine's Commission to Study Long-term Care Workforce Issues, and has sponsored several pieces of legislation to address the shortage of essential support workers in Maine. Serving on the Legislature's budget-writing committee, Fay led efforts to increase the reimbursement rates for essential support workers in the biennial budget and create a statewide campaign promoting direct care worker jobs as a career choice with federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

The shortage of workers is so severe that people can wait months for services, not only because of a lack of funding, but also because there is often no one available to provide their care, said Fay.

Fay's written testimony is available here (https://edlabor.house.gov/imo/media/doc/FayJessicaTestimony072021.pdf), and the entire hearing can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_UJxjWM0Tw

Fay is serving her third term in the Maine House and represents part of Casco, part of Poland and part of Raymond. She serves on the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee.