Maine House votes to override governor’s veto of ‘right to repair’ law amendments
Maine’s House of Representatives voted 96-44 Tuesday to override Gov. Janet Mills’s veto of LD 1228 — a bill meant to amend the state’s new “automotive right to repair” law while also protecting consumer data privacy.
LD 1228 — “An Act to Clarify Certain Terms in the Automotive Right to Repair Laws,” moved forward out of a package of five introduced in the 2025 legislative session to amend the new law, which was passed by referendum in 2023. Under the new law, effective Jan. 5, 2025, all automakers are required to provide access to vehicle data via a standardized and owner-authorized platform.
The Senate must also support overriding the veto for it to take effect, which could be voted on next week.
Mills vetoed the bill last week. In her veto letter, she stated that she threw out the bill because she believes it harms local Maine auto repair shops and strays too far from the will of Maine voters expressed through the “right to repair” referendum approved in 2023.
LD 1228 sponsor Rep. Tiffany Roberts (D-District 149) noted during the Jan. 13 session that the House overwhelmingly passed the bill, and the Senate concurred, following three years of work, public testimony, stakeholder meetings, and deliberations of a working group created by legislation.
“The legislature understood this bill,” she said. “The question before us today is whether the veto reflects that same understanding, or rests on something else entirely. For nearly three years, through the working group process — drafting, committee, floor debate — the administration raised no formal objection to this bill; no alternative language, no legal concerns, no warning that the bill was unworkable or problematic.”
Roberts added that, following the passage of the bill in spring 2025, Mills told her she would sign the bill into law. Roberts then told the House that Mills’s veto letter lacks citation to statutory language that is unenforceable, the name of the federal law that the bill allegedly conflicts with, and an explanation of how the bill fails as a matter of law.
“Those are the hallmarks of a legal veto, especially from an administration led by a former attorney general,” she said. “Instead, the veto relies on predictions, characterizations, and generalized fears about what the bill might do without tethering those claims to the text of the bill itself. That’s not a legal analysis.
“The veto asserts that LD 1228 would allow automobile manufacturers to decide how vehicle data is accessed and then extrapolates from that premise that the independent repair shops will be able to perform routine maintenance… This bill does not remove access. It does not eliminate owner authorization. It does not bar diagnostics or routine repair… Arguing against a power that the bill does not grant is not a substantive objection.”
Rep. Marc Malon II (D-District 133) also spoke in support of overriding the veto, calling right to repair “a full employment program for the lobbying industry” for the auto and aftermarket parts industries.
“Maine consumers need a voice,” he said. “Consumers are tired of anti-competitive practices from all kinds of industry, and the auto industry is right up there… How many of us have been frustrated by constant changes to our cars and how they work in the name of so-called innovation? And how many of us have been frustrated when the auto repair person of our choice has not been able to fix our car based on those changes?
“Mainers in 2023 spoke these frustrations clearly, and they resoundingly said that they want to be able to get their cars repaired wherever they darn well please. But they didn’t sign up for a money grab from another multi-billion-dollar industry either… LD 1228 is not perfect, no bill is, but it helps us carry out the voters’ will. Without it, this will continue to be over-lobbied by all sides, and consumers will be the ones to lose out.”
Only one legislator, Kenneth Fredette (R-District 33), spoke in favor of sustaining the veto.
“Common sense tells me, in rural Maine, where we have the ‘Mom and Pop’ garages, that they probably need access to information in order to be able to fix cars,” he said. “Whatever I can do to try to keep the ‘Mom and Pop’ garage shops open and provide the people in my district with affordable repairs, that’s what I’m going to do.”
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Featured image: House of Representatives chamber in the Maine State House. (Credit: gnagel/iStock)