Rep. John Velis
Hello Westfield! I hope you all had a great week and are enjoying your Saturday morning.
These past few weeks have been very exciting. About two weeks ago, we officially received our Committee assignments for this session. I’m very proud to have been named the Vice Chair of the Joint Committee on Veterans’ and Federal Affairs and to represent the large veteran population of Western MA. Issues affecting veterans are especially important to me, and I am honored to be chosen to work on behalf our brave veterans and members of the armed services across the Commonwealth.
I have also been named to several other committees, as well, including the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture, Marijuana Policy and Health Care Financing.
The Joint Committee on Marijuana Policy is a new committee that was formed to sort through the many bills filed to regulate the new legal marijuana trade. With the new law, I have many concerns around public safety that I am eager to address with my fellow committee members. Most importantly, I am concerned about children having access to edible marijuana products made to look like sweets, such as lollipops or brownies. We need to work to keep our children from mistaking edibles for candy by child-proofing them in some way- can’t say how quite yet, but this is just one of many issues we will work to legislate in the near future. I am also interested in working on laws surrounding driving under the influence of Marijuana, as there are currently no comparable devices that function like breathalyzers do for alcohol. Currently, driving under the influence cases for drugs are already difficult to prosecute, and I’m concerned about the increased availability of marijuana and the effect it will have on safe driving practices.
With the state budget being consumed more and more by rising health care costs, I think that the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing will also be especially important in the coming years. The Health Care Financing committee works to sort through and recommend laws that affect the amount of money spent on health care in Massachusetts. Having met with several hospitals in the region, one of the most pressing issues affecting Western Mass is the reimbursement rates for Medicaid patients in our hospitals- some of our local health centers are reimbursed as low as $.68 on the dollar, whereas hospitals in Boston and the Islands have rates nearing $2 for every $1 spent. There have been several bills written to right the ship, and I am interested to see how it all plays out this session.
As always, if anyone has any questions about these committees, or any other state legislative concern, I encourage you to call my office at 413-572-3920 or [email protected] I love hearing from and visiting with constituents, so please don’t hesitate to reach out. I will be at Army Drill for most of next week, but will do my best to stay in touch. Have a great week!
