Progressives asked state leaders to act with "urgency" against Trump. Yet compared to other NE states, we're months behind

In last week’s Saturday Scoop, you heard from Scotia about how Massachusetts state legislators still haven't received their committee assignments, despite being in legislative session since January 1st! We thought this sounded unique, to say the least, so we took a close look at our New England peer states to see how Massachusetts measures up. We compared committee assignment dates and hearings start dates, as well as when the first bill was passed in each state. You might not be surprised to hear that Massachusetts lags woefully behind in every single measure. 

First, let’s take a look at committee assignments and hearings. Committees are essential to the legislative process: each bill must pass through committee in order to reach the floor, meaning that for anything to get done, committee assignments must be made and hearings must take place. We found that in every other New England state, committee assignments were made before the legislative session began (New Hampshire), on the first day of the session (Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island), or within the first week (Maine). Along with delegating committee assignments, all of our peer states also already began committee hearings in January, with Maine coming in last with its first hearing on January 21st. 

Massachusetts, on the other hand, has yet to make committee assignments nor to begin hearings. According to the Massachusetts Bar Association, public committee hearings usually begin in late February, an already late start date in comparison with our neighbors. However, since assignments have yet to be made this year, a February start date seems optimistic. Instead we’ll likely have to wait until March for committee hearings. This means nearly 2 months of legislative session down the drain with no progress on legislation. 

We also took a look at what other New England legislators have been up to over the two past months. We found that not only have they made committee assignments and begun hearings, but they’ve also gone on to pass bills. Each of our five peer states have passed at least one bill already, while Massachusetts legislators twiddle their thumbs in full session. While the early bills passed tend to be procedural or ceremonial— such as the declaration of February as “American Heart Month” in Rhode Island— others have been more substantive. New Hampshire legislators, for example, have already passed a bill on a clean energy and resilience program, while Vermont legislators have passed bills on both health insurance and local election ballot systems. 

This comparison presents a disappointing, but not surprising, indictment of the Massachusetts General Court, which lags exceptionally behind New England peers in early-session productivity. So, why is it like this?

Some might be inclined to point to the fact that Massachusetts is a full-time legislature, and thus has time in the year to get things done, so a bit of a delay is acceptable. Indeed, Massachusetts is unique in New England as the only full-time legislature. This means that legislators are paid enough to make a living without outside income and they are in session year-round. In other New England states, the legislative session runs from early January to either May or June, between 4 and 6 months, meaning much less time to get things done. However, if we’re paying our Massachusetts legislators a full-time salary, shouldn’t we expect full-time results?

Unfortunately, if we look to past years, we can see that the Massachusetts General Court does not deliver the effectiveness we’d expect of a full time legislature. 

In 2023, FiscalNote reported that Massachusetts was the least effective state legislature among all 50 states, enacting the fewest total number of bills, as well as the smallest percent enacted bills of total bills introduced. We saw similar results in 2024, with Massachusetts again ranking among the least effective state legislatures:  7th lowest number of bills enacted and 4th least effective in terms of percent enacted bills of total bills introduced. Of all the nine full time legislatures, only Alaska was less effective, while states with similar size democratic majorities, like Hawaii and California, passed more than four times as many bills as Massachusetts.  

This leads us to the same conclusion that drives all of our work here at Act on Mass: the lack of transparency and disclosure in our state legislative processes allows for legislators to shirk their democratic duties to constituents. They can delay important proceedings, such as committee assignments and hearings, and even kill key bills behind closed doors. This fosters a system which is not responsive to the constituents who foot the bill, instead prioritizing party loyalty, as demonstrated through the committee assignment process and delays.  

Blog post by Sallie Bestul, member of Act on Mass Volunteer Research Team