AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine Democrats used procedural moves to grind the Legislature to a halt on Wednesday and kill a bipartisan child welfare bill that was opposed by Gov. Janet Mills.
It was a loud and eventful final day of the 2026 legislative session, framed by dueling Democratic and Republican news conferences aimed at burnishing their opposite views of Maine’s economy and political leadership after eight years of Mills and her party in full control of state government.
Lawmakers were back in Augusta mostly to uphold the governor’s vetoes of a first-in-the-nation data center ban and criminal justice bill. But the main topic of debate was a long-debated proposal that would allow members of the Legislature’s watchdog committee to see confidential files when investigating the deaths of children involved in the state’s embattled welfare system.
Mills and her administration have opposed the measure that seeks to overturn a 2024 decision by Maine’s high court. Yet the bill from Sen. Craig Hickman, D-Winthrop, stayed alive until the final day of the legislative session and prompted a rally led by Reps. David Boyer, R-Poland, and Adam Lee, D-Auburn, urging leaders to take up the bill.
It passed easily in the House in the morning. The Senate then voted 22-9 to pass it. After it came back to the lower chamber, a few Democrats voted with Republicans against an effort from House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, to adjourn for the year.
The Senate came back three hours later, and Democrats there moved to adjourn. Republicans protested, noting the years of scrutiny of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services over child deaths.
“We’re fighting for not only the people of the state of Maine, but for the children who are under DHHS control,” Sen. Jeff Timberlake, R-Turner, a member of the watchdog committee, said.
With seven senators absent, the chamber voted 16-12 to adjourn. All Democrats present except Hickman and Sens. Donna Bailey of Saco and Tim Nangle of Windham voted with their party. Independent state Sen. Rick Bennett, a gubernatorial candidate from Oxford who backed the bill, voted with Democrats to adjourn.
Mills’ top lawyer, Jerry Reid, testified against Hickman’s bill and a similar one last year, telling lawmakers that it contained no safeguards against disclosure of confidential information and could jeopardize federal funding to the state. But those calling for wider reforms to the child welfare system embraced the bill, and Boyer said its death will make the issue linger.
“I think it’s an issue that transcends party lines and just gets people right in the heart and the gut, and I wouldn’t want to be on the other side of this vote,” he said.
