Day One Executive Orders

State government cannot be a place where urgent problems go to wait. Across Maine, families are being squeezed by a housing crisis that is pricing young people out of the communities they grew up in, rural hospitals are cutting services or closing altogether, electricity bills are rising on a grid that still fails too often, and basic rights are under threat from a federal administration willing to ignore state law, public health, privacy, and constitutional limits. These are the crises Mainers have told me about in dozens of town halls and that they are living through every day.

That is why I am proposing this series of Day One executive orders. They make clear to every Mainer that my administration will be ready to act immediately, whether on housing, health care, reproductive freedom, energy costs, federal overreach, or Maine’s relationship with the Wabanaki Nations.

Executive orders cannot fix every challenge overnight. They cannot build every home, save every hospital, modernize every mile of the grid, or repair generations of broken trust on its own. But they can set the direction of an administration and put the full force of state government behind urgent priorities. They can make clear that on Day One, Maine will have a Governor who is ready to defend our people, lower costs, protect our rights, respect Tribal sovereignty, and treat every crisis facing this state with the urgency it deserves. The test of leadership is not whether we can name the problem – the test is whether we can organize state government to solve it.

-Dr. Nirav Shah

An Order Establishing Emergency Mobilization on Housing

Maine is short at least 84,000 homes. That is not just a number. It is the reason our kids leave for jobs in other states. It is the reason nurses drive an hour each way to their shifts. It is the reason parents can’t downsize and stay in the town they raised their families in. Today, almost two out of three Maine households can’t afford a median-priced home.

For too long, state government has treated this like a study to commission instead of an emergency to solve. That ends on Day One.

This Executive Order Will:

1. Treat housing affordability like the emergency it is. I will put every agency in the state government on notice that housing is now a first-order priority. No more treating it as someone else’s job. 
2. Put one person in charge. I will name a State Housing Officer who reports straight to me, and whose only job is getting Maine to 84,000+ homes. Right now housing is spread across so many agencies that it belongs to everyone and therefore no one. 
3. Open up state land for homes. Within 90 days, the state will publish a full inventory of public land and buildings that are sitting empty, underused, or ready to be converted. If the state owns land we can build homes on, we will try to build homes on it.
4. Cut the red tape the state controls. Within 60 days, every agency that touches a housing approval has to find the delays it controls and start fixing them. And they have to publish their wait times, so Mainers can watch them get faster instead of taking our word for it.
5. Keep people in their homes right now. While we build new supply, we need to use every tool we already have to keep families housed. That means rental assistance, eviction prevention, and emergency help work as fast as the law allows.
6. Help towns say yes. Most housing decisions are made locally, and that is how it should be. So the state will help towns with a simple scorecard and hands-on help to put the reforms Maine has already passed into practice. 
7. Protect the affordable homes we already have. The cheapest housing to keep is the housing we already have. We will protect Maine’s mobile-home communities and the families who live in them, so we are not losing affordable homes out the back door while we build new ones out the front.
8. Show the results. We will put the work on a public dashboard: homes permitted, state land opened up, permitting wait times, affordable homes preserved, and how close we are to reaching 84,000+ homes. Mainers do not need another report. They need somewhere to live, and a way to see that their government is actually getting it done.

An Order to Address and Stabilize The Rural Health Care Emergency

In the last year alone, four Maine hospitals shut down their maternity wards. Inland Hospital in Waterville closed its doors entirely. Independent analysts now list 11 of Maine’s 24 rural hospitals at risk of closing, with five at immediate risk in the next two to three years. Mothers are driving an hour or more to give birth. Heart attack patients are losing minutes that matter. And the federal Medicaid cuts now moving through Washington are projected to pull billions more out of Maine’s hospital system this decade.

On top of all of that, Maine families are about to pay 24 percent more for their health insurance in 2026, and small businesses are about to pay 17 percent more.

This is not a slow moving problem. Maine is losing its rural health care system in real time, and we cannot wait for Washington to fix it. I spent my career in public health. I ran the Maine CDC through the worst public health crisis in a century. I know what happens when a community loses its hospital, and I am not going to stand by and let it happen.

This Executive Order Will:

1. Stand up a Rural Health Stabilization Team on the first day in office. A standing team across MaineCare, Maine CDC, the Bureau of Insurance, and the Governor’s office, with one job: keep rural hospitals open and keep essential services from being cut. 
2. Use every MaineCare lever Maine already has. We know federal cuts are coming. I will direct MaineCare to evaluate emergency rate adjustments for the rural hospitals and providers most at risk, within the authority the state already holds. 
3. Hold insurance companies accountable for what families pay. Maine already reviews health insurance rates, but families deserve a fuller picture of what they are paying for and what they are getting in return. This order directs the Bureau of Insurance to conduct a review of rate filings, deductibles, copays, network adequacy, and prior authorization delays. If insurance companies are charging Mainers more and standing between them and their doctors, the state and the public will know about it.
4. Confront the behavioral health workforce shortage directly. The bottleneck in most rural counties is not beds. It is people. The order directs immediate action on credentialing, reciprocity, and pipeline programs for behavioral health workers, which is among the largest unmet workforce needs in rural Maine.

An Order to Establish the Maine Federal Threat Response and Protection Team

A Maine governor used to be able to assume that the federal government would respect state law, protect basic rights, and behave within the bounds of the Constitution. Under Donald Trump, that is no longer the case.

Maine has to be ready: to defend our laws, our schools, our hospitals, our elections, and our people from Trump’s federal overreach. Ready to protect Mainers’ data, their privacy, and their rights. Ready on the first day in office, because if we are not ready then, we will be too late.

Every Mainer, regardless of party, should expect their state government to be prepared to defend their rights when Donald Trump or anyone in the federal government tries to come after them. I have stood up to Donald Trump before, and as Governor, I will do it again.

This Executive Order Will:

1. Audit every data-sharing agreement Maine has with the federal government. The state holds enormous amounts of personal data on Mainers through DMV, DHHS (including MaineCare), schools, and other agencies. Every federal data-sharing agreement gets reviewed for whether it could be weaponized by the Trump administration to harm the people whose data we hold. Anything Maine is not required to share, Maine will not share.
2. Extend Maine’s sensitive-location protections to courthouses and shelters. Maine has already acted to protect schools, colleges, health care facilities, child care centers, and public libraries from civil immigration enforcement in nonpublic areas without a judicial warrant. But those protections have not yet been clearly extended to courthouses, shelters, and other places where vulnerable Mainers turn for safety, justice, and help. This order directs state agencies to establish clear protocols for those facilities wherever state authority allows, require judicial warrants for nonpublic areas, train frontline staff, and end voluntary cooperation with Trump’s civil immigration enforcement beyond what federal law requires.
3. Protect Maine’s public health guidance from federal political interference. Mainers need to be able to trust that state health guidance is based on science, not Trump’s politics. This order directs Maine’s health and human services agencies to ensure that Maine’s vaccine, medical, and epidemiological guidance is grounded in peer-reviewed evidence and the judgment of independent Maine scientific and medical experts. When the Trump administration tries to distort public health guidance for political purposes, Maine will follow the science and protect the health of our people.
4. Coordinate legal defense with the Attorney General. I will work with the Attorney General to be ready with legal strategies the day any Trump administration action threatens Mainers’ reproductive care, vaccines, schools, environment, elections, or rural hospitals.

An Order to Safeguard Reproductive Health Care and Patient Privacy in Maine

Maine has some of the strongest reproductive freedom laws in the country. We passed a shield law. We removed criminal penalties tied to abortion. We protected providers from out of state interference. But a law on the books is not the same as a right a person can actually use. Providers need clarity. Patients need privacy. Pharmacies need guidance. And when threats come, whether from another state, another agency, or another administration, Maine has to be able to respond swiftly.

As a public health leader, I believe that decisions about your body, your health, and your future belong to you, and not to politicians. And as Governor, I will make these protections real.

This Executive Order Will:

1. Fully enforce Maine’s shield law and close any gaps in protection. Maine has already passed strong protections for reproductive and gender-affirming care that is legal in our state. This order directs every relevant state agency to fully implement those protections, end any voluntary cooperation with hostile out-of-state investigations beyond what the law requires, and make clear that Maine will not help other states punish patients, providers, pharmacists, insurers, or anyone who aids lawful care in Maine.
2. Issue clear guidance to providers, pharmacies, hospitals, and insurers. Within 60 days, DHHS, the Bureau of Insurance, and the relevant licensing boards will publish plain English guidance on Maine’s shield law and reproductive privacy laws so that doctors, nurses, and pharmacists know exactly what they can and cannot do, and where Maine has their back.
3. Protect reproductive health data. Maine law already protects certain medical information related to reproductive and gender-affirming care, but the threat is broader than medical records. This Order will direct state agencies to limit the collection, retention, and sharing of reproductive health data to the minimum necessary and to review vulnerabilities involving prescription histories, location data near clinics, consumer apps, period-tracking data, and other sensitive information. It will also direct coordination with the Attorney General on consumer protection options against companies that collect, sell, or exploit reproductive health data.
4. Set up a rapid response protocol for federal threats. A named, on-call team to respond within hours to any federal threat to abortion access, contraception, medication abortion, miscarriage care, IVF, or any reproductive health provider in Maine. 
5. Publish a public reproductive health access guide. A clear, up-to-date, plain English, and multi-lingual guide that any Mainer or visitor can use to find care, understand their rights, and know what is and is not covered by insurance. 
6. Review insurance barriers to reproductive care. The Bureau of Insurance will review prior authorization, network adequacy, cost sharing, and pharmacy access for reproductive care, contraception, fertility treatment, and IVF, and report back on what needs to change.

An Order to Modernize Maine’s Grid and Lower Energy Costs

Mainers pay among the highest electricity rates in the country on a grid that goes dark in a storm. In January, the typical CMP customer’s bill went up another 11 dollars a month. Versant customers in northern Maine went up $16. 

The 2023 and 2024 winter storms cost ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars. And every delay in connecting a new home, a new business, or a new clean energy project gets paid for by the same families and businesses who are already paying too much.

The grid Maine has today is too expensive, too fragile, and too slow. Mainers deserve a grid that is not just more resilient, but one that also lowers long-term ratepayer costs. As Governor I am going to deliver it.

This Executive Order Will:

1. Identify the grid bottlenecks holding Maine back. The state will inventory the specific grid bottlenecks delaying housing projects, business expansions, and clean energy projects, and publish them. If a 40 home subdivision cannot get built because a substation upgrade is two years out, Mainers should know that, and the state should be working to fix it.
2. Build on the storm resilience work Maine has already started. The Infrastructure Rebuilding and Resilience Commission finished its work in 2025. The administration will implement its recommendations and direct DEP, MEMA, DOT, DACF, and DMR to prioritize resilience for roads, culverts, working waterfronts, and storm vulnerable infrastructure.
3. Publish a public utility scoreboard. Reliability. Interconnection times. Major investments. Ratepayer impact. Updated quarterly. If the utilities are performing, Mainers will see it. If they are not, Mainers will see that too.

An Order to Establish Government-to-Government Consultation and Partnership with the Wabanaki Nations

Maine’s relationship with the Wabanaki Nations should be grounded in respect, honesty, and recognition that the Passamaquoddy Tribe, Penobscot Nation, Mi’kmaq Nation, and Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians are not interest groups. They are sovereign Tribal Nations with governments, citizens, cultures, histories, and rights. And as Governor, I will sign legislation recognizing the sovereignty of Maine’s Tribal Nations as soon as possible.

For far too long, Maine has treated Tribal Nations as stakeholders to be managed instead of governments to be respected. That insulting approach has caused harm, deepened mistrust, and held Maine back. As Governor, I will not pretend an executive order can fix every injustice or rewrite state and federal law on its own. But it can change how the state government acts on Day One. 

This Executive Order Will:

1. Establish a formal government-to-government consultation policy. Every state agency will be required to engage in timely, meaningful, and documented consultation with Wabanaki Tribal governments before taking actions that may affect Tribal lands, waters, resources, programs, rights, or citizens.
2. Create a Wabanaki-State Partnership Council. A standing council with representatives from the Governor’s Office, relevant agencies, and each Wabanaki Nation that chooses to participate will meet regularly to identify shared priorities, resolve disputes early, and coordinate on health care, housing, education, economic development, natural resources, public safety, and emergency preparedness.
3. Review state rules and practices that create unnecessary barriers. Within 180 days, state agencies will identify regulations, grant rules, contracting practices, data-sharing requirements, and administrative policies that make it harder for Wabanaki governments to access state programs, federal pass-through funding, or economic development opportunities.
4. Support access to federal resources and self-governance opportunities. State agencies will coordinate with Wabanaki governments to identify federal funding and program opportunities in public health, infrastructure, energy, housing, education, and public safety that Maine can help unlock rather than block.
5. Protect culturally significant lands, waters, and resources. Agencies will consult with Wabanaki governments before major state actions affecting culturally significant sites, fisheries, waterways, forests, burial grounds, or natural resources. Consultation should happen early enough to make a difference.

1. Commit the administration to supporting legislative progress on Wabanaki self-determination. The Governor’s Office will work with Wabanaki leaders, legislative leaders, and the Attorney General to identify statutory changes needed to strengthen Tribal self-governance and modernize Maine’s relationship with the Wabanaki Nations.