On the Issues

COVID-19

As the Coronavirus is having an enormous impact on our community and daily lives, I feel that legislators must support those who are most vulnerable. For this reason, I support legislation to guarantee housing stability during the COVID-19 emergency and recovery. Since COVID-19 has impacted the Commonwealth’s economy and closed businesses, it is necessary to protect families from losing their homes. I believe that providing small business relief is essential to helping our local economies grow since many small businesses have not received sufficient aid from the federal government. It is also imperative in these times of crisis that necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) is made available. That is why I am advocating to ensure eldercare and healthcare providers have access to appropriate PPE.

As the country gears up to end the lockdown and works toward getting more people back to work, my primary concern as a lawmaker is to ensure the transition process is safe and smart. To further combat the pandemic and the effects it has had on our economy, I have introduced a 21st Century Mass Works Progress Administration Bill. The WPA Bill was inspired by President Roosevelt’s Great Depression-era Works Progress Administration. The passage of this bill would stimulate the economy through the creation of jobs, serving local communities. The bill could enable efforts including contact tracing for COVID-19, infrastructure projects, and environmental conservation. To recover from the effects of COVID-19 on our economy, I believe it is imperative to invest in local businesses and people to help rebuild communities.

Medicare For All

Everyone needs access to healthcare, and I believe that healthcare is a human right. In my work as District Director for Senator Jamie Eldridge, I helped constituents on a regular basis with their healthcare crises, from helping families apply for MassHealth, challenge health insurance companies’ denial of coverage, and assist residents navigate the Health Connector. I support Medicare for All, through a single-payer system. My wife is a pharmacist and has seen people leave her pharmacy due to the skyrocketing prices of prescription drugs. We must work to lower prescription drug prices and a single payer system would facilitate this, as well as reduce the cost of healthcare in general, address racial and ethnic health disparities. Finally, a Medicare For All system would be much more successful in addressing social epidemics in our communities, from the opioid crisis to suicides to mental health challenges.

Immigration Rights, Social and Racial Justice

As a Brazilian immigrant, this issue is close to my heart. In my youth, I advocated for immigrant rights with Student Immigration Movement (SIM) at the US Senate in Washington DC. In my work as District Director for the past 6 years, I have been responsible for writing letters for people seeking to become U.S. citizens, stood with Senator Eldridge in federal immigration courts to oppose the deportation of hard-working residents, and connected Senator Eldridge to the struggles of the region’s many immigrant communities, most especially the Brazilian and Latino communities. I have advocated for the Work and Family Mobility Act, to allow undocumented immigrants to receive a driver’s license, and the Safe Communities Act, to ensure that Massachusetts law enforcemment, court personnel, and taxpayer dollars are not collaborating with Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

100% Renewable Energy

I support the Commonwealth moving towards and reaching the goal of 100% Renewable Energy by 2045, to combat climate change. With the IPCC report stating that the world really only has 10 years to reverse the permanent impact of global warming, Massachusetts needs to be a bold leader in combating climate change. A 100% Renewable Energy goal will not also end the state’s reliance on fossil fuels, it will also embrace environmental justice, by ensuring that dirty power plants, incinerators, and gas compressor stations are not continued to be sited in poor communities of color. Finally, such a bold goal has the potential to create tens of thousands of jobs that are accessible to people of all education levels.

Public Transportation

Our state is in a transportation crisis. I believe that the Legislature needs to pass a progressive tax package, in order to properly invest in public transportation, including the commuter rail system, MBTA subways, Regional Transit Authorities (RTAs), intercommunity shuttles, as well as fix our roads and bridges, and expand rail trails, multimodal transportation facilities, and bike paths and lanes. I support passing the Millionaires Tax, but we need to take stronger action by passing a transportation revenue package this year. Over the past 6 years, I have served as the public transportation liaison for State Senator Jamie Eldridge, including advocating for the new South Acton train station, expanding the CrossTown Connect shuttle service, and building more rail trails. We need to make it more feasible for people to live in the 37th Middlesex and commute to Cambridge or Boston in a much more reasonable amount of time, while working towards addressing the climate crisis.

Transparency in our Government

The Legislature is desperately in need of more transparency. Whether it’s the lack of knowledge the public has about how their legislators vote, the lack of time that State Representatives receive before voting on bills, or limited access to testimony on bills, committee deliberations on legislation, or underwhelming vidoe or audio coverage of debate on Beacon Hill, more transparency in government is critical to the public knowing what the Legislature is working on, and therefore having a greater ability to influence their elected officials.

I have signed the Act On Mass Pledge on transparency. I will fight to make all my committee votes publicly available upon request, including electronic polls and study orders. I will move to make public all votes and testimony of committees of which I am Chair, including electronic polls and study orders. If the committee rules prevent me from doing this, I will motion to amend the rules to make all votes and testimony public, and ask for a roll call vote on that motion. I will stand for roll calls when a member asks for a recorded vote on any bill or amendment which I have co-sponsored or which deals with substantively the same issue as a bill I have co-sponsored.

Reproductive Rights

I fully support a person’s reproductive rights, and believe that abortion is healthcare, and that the Legislature must guarantee a person’s right to an abortion. We must strive towards a future where there is support for the right of each person to manage their own sexual and reproductive health. We need to pass the ROE Act in Massachusetts as well as the Healthy Youth Act. If the Federal Government takes away a woman’s right to choose an abortion, Massachusetts government needs to take action.

My support for abortion and reproductive rights is a key reason why I am such a strong supporter of making healthcare a right. Last session, the Legislature had to pass the ACCESS bill, to require health insurance companies to provide free birth control to their members, and the PATCH Act, to protect the health information of young people on their parents’ health insurance plans. These two bills were only necessary because of our broken private health insurance system. If healthcare was a right, every Massachusetts resident would have healthcare, including reproductive healthcare.

Election Reform

Massachusetts has fairly regressive voting laws, where we should be a leader in making voting accessible to all voters. Voting is of course critical to a vibrant democracy. I support Same Day Voter Registration and lowering the voting age to 16 or 17 in municipal elections. We need to get big money out of politics, which is why I support legislation to restore publicly-financed elections for Massachusetts elections. I also common sense electoral reforms including Ranked Choice Voting in our primaries, general elections and in municipal elections, voting by mail, and increasing investments in our election systems, to prevent fraud or the hacking of election machines in every Massachusetts community.

Progressive Taxation

I support the Millionaire’s Tax and ensuring corporations are paying their fair share. I also support closing corporate tax loopholes, including repealing the single sales factor tax cut for the mutual fund industry, including Fidelity Investments. I support raising taxes on investment income for wealthy residents, and increasing the minimum corporate tax rate, so that companies like Amazon, GE, and Liberty Mutual are paying their fair share. By passing progressive taxation, then we can reduce the tax burden for working people, small businesses, and low-income residents, in a state with a very regressive tax system.

LGBTQ Rights

We must remove discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics. We live in dark times where hate crimes are happening in our district and on our school grounds. I will stand up and fight for equality for all at the State House to protect the marginalized and the vulnerable. Massachusetts has strong LGBTQ rights, but we must do more. I believe we need to invest more in the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD), so that more discrimination cases can be reviewed, more programing and curricula in our schools to reduce the rise in homophobic, racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic incidents. In addition, given the disturbing allegations of homophobia in our state prisons, I believe there needs to be more training efforts with the Department of Correction, to reduce attacks on LGBTQ prisoners.

Affordable Housing

As someone who has never owned a home, and paid rent during my 20 years in America, this issue is personal to me. In addition, during my years working in the State House, I have received calls from constituents in the Commonwealth who are living in their cars and looking for a place to stay. I have connected them with shelters and vouchers for affordable housing. The housing market in Boston is one of the most expensive in the country and I will support legislation for more affordable housing in our district. This includes supporting a luxury housing tax, increasing the deeds excise tax to fund Affordable Housing Trusts in every community, and pass comprehensive housing production and zoning reform legislation, to ensure that every community is building affordable housing. Finally, I will be a strong advocate for increasing state public housing, and state housing vouchers, including MRVP, AHVP, and DMH housing programs.

Free Universal Pre-K

Although I am a father of two young children with a successful working spouse, I am still overwhelmed by the price of daycare. While at the State House I have helped constituents to secure childcare vouchers. I will fight for Universal Pre-K to support our young families. With the passage of the Student Opportunity Act, it’s now time for the Legislature to shift its energies to universal pre-K and universal childcare, which can be funded through progressive taxation.

Protecting the environment

We need to improve state protections of our environment, as the federal government under the Trump administration walks away from protecting the quality and safety of our air and water. I support protecting more open space, which also protects our air, and combats climate change. I support the Public Lands Preservation Act (PLPA), increasing state funding of the Community Preservation Act (CPA), and increasing the budget of the DEP, to allow our state government to enforce our environmental laws. Finally, I support a Nature-Based Solutions approach to combating climate change, so that communities are actually rewarded for maintaining their forests, reducing tree cutting, and adding more vegetation to take in more carbon.

Thank you for your support!

Campaigning in the time of COVID was uncharted territory for us all, but with the support of our amazing volunteers and the voters of the 37th Middesex, Dan Sena has been elected!