Maine lawmakers signed off Wednesday on emergency funding for the state’s public defense agency amid a critical funding shortfall for private lawyers who represent low-income criminal defendants and parents in court.

A measure from Sen. Anne Carney, D-Cape Elizabeth, that gives the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services $13 million this year and $9 million next year passed unanimously in the Senate on Wednesday. The vote came a week after the commission said it would stop paying lawyers later this month.

The emergency funding proposal, which aims to help fix a stubborn issue in Maine, is now on its way to Gov. Janet Mills. If she signs off, the funding will take effect immediately. Wednesday’s vote in the Senate came after the House also approved it without a roll call last week — though House Republicans had withheld initial support for the measure earlier in March.

The minority members had unsuccessfully pushed for a separate proposal that would have rescinded collective bargaining rights for the state’s nearly three dozen public defenders who are overseen by the commission.

Carney and her colleagues pointed out that the emergency funding measure is only for private lawyers whom the commission contracts with amid a severe public defense backlog. Maine hired its first defenders in 2022, after exclusively relying in the past on private, court-appointed counsel.

The ACLU of Maine is suing the state over the backlog, saying it is failing to provide continuous legal representation to criminal defendants who can’t afford their own.

Carney, who previously provided free legal representation to low-income Mainers, noted Maine’s public defense commission has worked to sharply reduce the number of defendants awaiting legal representation, but said the need still “looms large.”

“Despite recent progress, Maine’s capacity to uphold its Sixth Amendment obligation will again be threatened” without the emergency money, Carney said Wednesday.

Sen. David Haggan, R-Hampden, who serves with Carney on the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, rose to agree Wednesday, and added it is time to “get these folks funded.”

Mills, a Democrat, had included $25 million for the commission in her supplemental budget to cover the shortfall. She now has 10 days to act on the emergency proposal.