WHEREAS, sexual assault affects people of all races, genders, and economic backgrounds in every Maine community; and

WHEREAS, more than 19,000 people in Maine will experience sexual violence this year, and one in five Mainers will be impacted in their lifetime; and

WHEREAS, sexual violence has far-reaching public health and societal costs, with impacts on survivors, their loved ones and their communities, often resulting in mental health struggles, substance use, housing insecurity, lost wages, and healthcare costs; and

WHEREAS, forests cover over eighty-nine percent of Maine's land, defining our environment and contributing to our high quality of life; and

WHEREAS, these healthy, productive forests provide employment and sustain the state's two leading industries, forest products and tourism; and

WHEREAS, for more than a century, the State of Maine has been a national leader in forest fire control and prevention, and in 1891 established the Maine Forest Service to combat forest fires; and

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

In the depths of the Great Depression, about half of all elderly people in the United States fell into poverty. With no savings to cushion the blow, some of them were able to rely on family or friends to provide their most basic needs. Seniors without a support system were forced to wait in long bread lines at a soup kitchen, a symbol of hardship we still remember today. 

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Social Security Act of 1935, he said “We can never insure one hundred percent of the population against one hundred percent of the hazards…of life, but we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age.” 

The Social Security Act was based on a simple promise: workers who paid into the program would receive their wages back in the form of retirement benefits. This is nothing more than a covenant between a government and its people. Now, 90 years later, I'm growing more concerned that this promise to the American people will be broken. 

Over the past few months, I've heard Elon Musk suggest that his Department of Government Efficiency should cut up to half of Social Security Administration staff, reduce services available over the phone, and shutter field offices that serve rural areas. 

Well, we know that Maine is the oldest state and the most rural state in the nation – so let's look at the facts. One out of four households in Maine rely on Social Security, and 95% of Maine people over the age of 65 are on Social Security benefits, and they rely on them to pay their bills. 

Many of those people live in rural communities: 43% of households in Aroostook County, 45% of households in Washington County, 43% in Piscataquis County, and 35% in Androscoggin County receive Social Security benefits today. So cuts to Social Security staff, services, and offices would force many Maine people to drive for hours to visit in person offices and fix problems with their benefits, and then stand in line outside those offices. 

To me, this is just plain wrong. The government should not be making it harder for seniors to access critical benefits they've earned over a lifetime of working. 

To justify these cuts, Elon Musk has claimed that there is “immense waste” in the Social Security Administration. Well, like most people, we can always do better, I think, making government programs run smoother – but rushed and reckless cuts only put at risk those earned benefits people have for food, and medicine, and housing. 

This doesn't make sense to me or to Maine people wondering what those proposed cuts to Social Security will mean for them. Kathy Davis, a 73-year-old woman from Lewiston, said that after paying into the system for 46 years, she is completely dependent on the less than $2,000 a month she receives from Social Security. That pays her bills, including medications. “I'm very nervous about it, very scared,” she said. “It's not just what my retirement year should be. I should be relaxing, enjoying myself, not sitting on pins and needles waiting for the axe to drop on my life." 

Seniors like Kathy should not be afraid of losing their Social Security benefits, or having to drive hours to talk to someone about them because there's nobody there to answer the phone. 

I urge the administration in Washington to keep the promise that America made to its seniors 90 years ago by protecting their earned benefits and ending this troubling uncertainty around Social Security. 

Maine seniors earned these benefits. We as a nation should stand by our commitments to them. 

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

WHEREAS, there exists in the State of Maine an extraordinary occasion arising out of the need to resolve many legislative matters pending at the time of the adjournment of the First Regular Session of the 132nd Legislature of the State of Maine; and