Jaime Foster

Last week, I had a meeting with Bonding staff to talk about Ellington and East Windsor projects. We mainly focused on with particular emphasis on the Windermere school which has a crumbling foundation. Today I received collateral from the district to advocate in conjunction with Colleagues in the senate to get bonding.

You may recall that I lead an effort along with Senate Colleagues Saud Anwar and Dan Champagne to fund testing of municipal buildings. Hopefully this is the only impacted building in our town, but if not, we will know!

Click here to read more about the bill. 

I had a meeting with school finance folks about Economic Cost Sharing. The needs budgetarily of Ellington and East Windsor Schools are pretty disparate and it is often challenging to advocate in a way that is concretely good for both schools. For example, funding that favors increasing student population is good for Ellington, bad for East Windsor; funding that favors alliance districts is great for East Windsor but not helpful to Ellington. Click here to learn more. 

I had a meeting with the Vice Chair of the public health committee on laws protecting parents who undergo fertility treatment and have stored genetic material. Click here to learn more.

I spoke with the chair of public health on my 2022 legislative agenda and all bills I plan to introduce and support are coming before the public health committee. These include but are not limited to mental health, opioids, well water contamination and a Food as Medicine state plan! Click here to learn more.

I had a long and productive meeting with a large number of my colleagues on legislative issues particularly impacting seniors.

I visited some of our elderly residents last year.

I helped my colleagues in East Windsor including Social Services Director Melissa Maltese and First Selectman Jason Bowsza hand out masks and COVID test kits. It was a chilly day but we were incredibly touched by the kind Samaritan who brought us all hot coffee to thank us! I know I speak for all who volunteered and worked at the event that it is a pleasure to help keep the community healthy and help however we can!

This week, like most, I spent several hours following up on issues constituents are having with the department of labor, particularly unemployment claims and recently employers who are laying off employees during off seasons. If you need help with a DOL issue, please reach out - Jaime.Foster@cga.ct.gov

I try to stay in regular contact with the hospitals, particularly related to the pandemic. As the Governor’s emergency powers lapse, the stop gap measures that are keeping our hospitals running and safe need to be maintained.

Thanks to constituent Liz Cole for the invite! I am hopeful I will find a few interns from this visit! Many bright and energetic future farmers!

My colleagues in the General Assembly met with NAMI Connecticut and mental health advocates across the state to talk about mental illness and legislative option in the upcoming session.