Gov. Janet Mills has high praise for legislative members of both parties who have come together on an emergency spending bill of $73 million. The measure changes a variety of state laws to address the coronavirus pandemic.

Gov. Mills says the spending bill is important to the state’s response to COVID-19.

But another broad reaching piece of legislation makes needed changes in Maine law to ease the state's response to the pandemic: “One basic bill that will encompass a number of things that we think are necessary in order to get through the next few weeks and months to respond to the coronavirus threat,” Mills says.

Mills says one major part of that bill establishes a new category of unemployment assistance for workers who have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus. She says other parts of the legislation clarify various emergency powers and will help the state maintain needed services during the crisis.