AUGUSTA, Maine - The majority leader of the Maine House of Representatives is criticizing the LePage administration for not working with a federal team seeking to develop a plan to assist the state's ailing forest products industry.
Representative Jeff McCabe, a Democrat, said the governor should not stand on the sidelines while the industry continues to struggle.
"This is an all-hands on deck approach, you know, the fact that the federal delegation is here is something that we all should be watching, we should be communicating with them and we should all be working together," McCabe said.
The visit from the Economic Assessment Development Team, or EDAT, ends Friday. It was sent here at the request of Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins, who asked the federal government for assistance following a string of paper mill closures and ongoing challenges of the once-dominant forest products industry. The visit comes with a $7.7 million grant.
LePage officials have declined to participate in the assessment and instead have criticized the visit and accompanying grant as a flawed response. The administration has also said the federal government has not adequately addressed tariffs on Canadian imports that are having negative effects on the Maine forest products industry.
