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Legislative Coma Sets in........

Well, not quite a coma, but there's some extreme exhaustion here as I spent 9 hours straight today working on my Responsible Recycling bill, mostly from my couch and computer.  I think if they worked out a Maine State Legislator's pay rate, over the year, it would be about five cents an hour, so it's a good thing I enjoy this so much!  I am gearing up for the public hearing on my bill, which will be on January 22nd.  It's a somewhat sweeping environmental bill, so I'm working with a bunch of folks to get this passed with the least amount of changes possible (i.e. who wants an exemption?  EVERYONE!).....Anyway, it's on Extended Producer Responsibility, and if you'd like to read the full text, shoot me an e-mail and I'll send it to you (it's LD 1631, and for those who know how to look it up, here's the link: http://www.mainelegislature.org/LawMakerWeb/search.asp.).  I'll continue to update here as to how the bill moves along.  Tomorrow I will meet with an NGO and DEP (codespeak for a non-governmental organization and the Department of Environmental Protection) to see what changes we may need to make on the bill just from my work today.  Tomorrow I will be talking with one of the industries to discuss how they can get out of the whole thing scotfree (I mean with an exemption), so I'll send that update tomorrow.