Happy Satuday,

Glorious September weather always puts me in a back-to-school mood. Suddenly, I have to hold myself back in the notebook aisle of my local supermarket. I’m subject to sudden cravings for peanut butter & jelly. 

 With transition in mind, it’s also been a great opportunity to reflect on the summer, our travels with Transparency on Tour, and the State House 101 workshops we’ve been hosting. We took some feedback from volunteers and workshop attendees and are excited to announce a brand new workshop: State House 201, on October 9th !

Building on the basics of our State House 101 workshops, this workshop will focus on the nuts and bolts of your interaction with the state house: how and where to find information about bills you care about on the website, where to find your member’s votes, identifying where your representative stands within the state house’s murky power dynamics, and best practices for formulating communication with your legislator, including hard asks! 

No previous experience required. All it should take is a determination to use the tools at our disposal to follow what’s happening in the state house– and a sharpened pencil or two. Hope to see you on October 9!

SIGN UP FOR STATE HOUSE 201>>

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State House Scoop

After a slow start to September, legislative action picked up this week. Both House and Senate met in formal session and advanced a handful of bills. 

One of the bills finalized was a $234 million “supplemental budget” to close key funding gaps for Massachusetts hospitals. Proponents pitched this bill as necessary due to federal funding cuts with President Trump’s “big beautiful bill.” With no debate (paywall), the bill passed 148-1 in the House on Wednesday, with only one Republican rep voting against. As is the case for all budget bills, it then moved to the Senate for approval, where there was slightly more debate. Minority Leader Bruce Tarr raised some concerns (paywall) about long-term stability in the face of the ballooning cost of healthcare in the state, prompting out-of-budget spending like this bill. Ultimately, the bill passed unanimously and was sent off to the governor to sign. 

Another thing our legislators got done this week: voting to move their primary for next year’s election two weeks earlier, to September 1st. In a state where our elections are already the least competitive in the country, moving the primary date to a day that most leases in the Boston area turn over is unlikely to boost turnout. And that’s just how our legislators like it. All in a week’s work! 

This session is slow– but how slow? 

**Disclaimer: two days after this Scoop was sent, the Legislature's record of session laws was updated to show 11 more laws had been passed. The correct number of bills passed since January is now 32. Each of the new laws either applied to a single state employee or a single municipality, leaving the number of policy change laws this session still at two (2!).****

Including these two, the Senate’s Thursday session ended with 5 bills being sent to the governor– the last step that bills reach before becoming law in Massachusetts. If Governor Healey signs these, that will bump the session’s record-low (paywall) legislative output from 21 new laws to 26. To do the math: that means, after 9 months of full-time lawmaking, lawmakers will have done 20% of this year's work on Thursday! Progress? I guess?? 

At this point, I’m a bit tired about writing about how little the legislature is doing. Remember: this is still my first full legislative session as the writer of the Saturday Scoop! I’ve been asking myself: was it always this way? So, I decided to take a look at just how anomalous this session is. Using the “Session Laws” feature on the legislature’s website, I pulled the number of laws passed in the first year of the past several sessions, by this same date. And… well, take a look:

Short answer: no. We’re not only proceeding at about half the speed of last year’s session, which ended with procrastination chaos, but we are passing laws at roughly ¼ of the rate we were a decade ago. Not to mention that this session has coincided with the new Trump administration undermining civil liberties and targeting Massachusetts. You'd think that might prompt some urgency! 

On that note, it also matters what we’re passing. Of the 21 laws passed so far this year, only 2 of them were standalone policy changes. Even that’s being generous: one of those two simply extended COVID-era meeting policies past an expiring deadline. The other was the state house's only official "Trump response" law enacted so far, the updated Shield Law. Here’s the full breakdown of new laws: 

Legislators might point out that these numbers don’t show the whole picture, as many policy changes are now made by being tucked into budget bills. That practice was certainly alive and well this year, as amendments to the Fiscal Year 2026 budget reached a record-high number(1655!). Indeed, one of the state house’s most significant policy changes this year, banning the practice of tenant paid broker fees, was tucked in as a few lines of language in the 417-page FY2026 budget. 

Here’s the thing: the legislature’s main job is making laws. If they’re only able to do that every few months when a budget bill rolls around, it’s a sign of dysfunction. 

Furthermore, passing major policy changes as add-ons to big spending bills is done at the cost of transparency. When policy changes are passed on their own, they get a public hearing and specific votes that demonstrate our representative’s policy positions. When leadership tacks them on to a giant backroom budget bill, it’s a whole lot murkier. For more on this issue, read our Scoopfrom last year: “The Disappearance of the Standalone Bill in Mass.” 

Look, even in 2015, we were passing a lot of bills pertaining to a single town or employee. That’s part of the work of the legislature, especially in a state like ours, where municipalities often have to get state approval for basic policy changes. Working at snail pace doesn’t only impact progressive issues (and boy does it!) but also prevents needed updates on basic things like plumbing regulation. And interior design licensing. Running a state of 7 million people requires a lot of little updates to law, and we pay our legislators a full-time salary to do it, all year. They’ve got Democratic supermajorities in both chambers– unlike the U.S. Congress, we can’t blame partisan gridlock! So why are they moving so slow? 

Speaker Ron Mariano: "to end logjam, give me less power" (paraphrase)

Allow me to kick this question to the big guy in charge, Speaker Ron Mariano. At the beginning of the legislative session, he gave a big speech about wanting to improve legislative efficiency. (I'll be diplomatic and offer no comment about how that's going!) When rules were released a few months later, he gave an interview where he got specific about how they intended to “stop the logjam”: by addressing the centralization of power in each chamber. I’m serious!!!!!!! 

Here’s Mariano: “We want our chairmen to make decisions [about] what bills are going to come up, what bills are important. This is to empower the members and have them involved in the decision-making, rather than taking it all out of the speaker’s office.” 

That was February. Despite these words, there’s no evidence that this has actually changed, seeing as we’re now moving even slower than last session. But it was pretty remarkable to hear the Speaker himself diagnosing the “logjam” problem as one of concentrated power. In fact, his take aligns with findings on the movement of legislation from a Brown University report entitled "Who's Delaying Climate Action in Massachusetts." When the Speaker’s approval is needed for every bill before it moves through the process, things get stuck! Even plumbing regulations. 

Since Speaker Mariano’s plan to empower members doesn’t seem to be working that well, we’ve got another idea for something that could decrease concentration of power in the legislature and free up members to act on bills without fear of retribution! By now, I’m sure you know what I’m going to say… Support stipend reform!

HELP US GET STIPEND REFORM ON THE BALLOT>>

Lastly, I'll never miss a chance to tell you to contact your legislator! Let your representatives know that you're paying attention to how slow the legislative session is going and ask for their explanation. Let us know if you get an interesting response! 

ASK YOUR LEGISLATOR: WHY SO SLOW??>>

Worth reading: more stories from this week

Some stories from local, regional, and national news about issues of note Bay State

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Syd's Sprinkles: New Blog Post

5 years in, when will Massachusetts update qualified immunity laws?

Read a new blog post from Lily– an examination of the multi-year push to reform qualified immunity for police officers in Massachusetts

Since the murder of George Floyd by police in 2020 sparked a national reckoning, there has been a resurgence in calls to end qualified immunity, the legal doctrine that shields law enforcement officers from legal liability in civil lawsuits. Members of the Joint Committee of the Judiciary are in the midst of considering a bill filed this session by Representative Michael Day that would make significant changes to qualified immunity in Massachusetts. 

In 2020, the legislature passed a landmark policing reform law. Among other changes, this law established a special legislative commission chaired by Senator Jamie Eldridge and Representative Michael S. Day to examine the origins and implementation of qualified immunity in Massachusetts. 

First, it’s important to define exactly what we mean by qualified immunity. The legal doctrine is enshrined in federal law, meaning that lawsuits brought against law enforcement in federal court (e.g., violations of the United States Constitution) will almost always be blocked by qualified immunity. Limiting qualified immunity at the state level (which is what Rep. Day’s legislation seeks to do) would only apply to cases brought against law enforcement in state courts. You can read more about the history of qualified immunity and its function in federal courts here.

Back to the special commission. Their findings, published in a 2022 report, did not propose significant changes to qualified immunity in Massachusetts, but did recommend removing the requirement to prove “threats, intimidation or coercion” in lawsuits against law enforcement. This recognizes police officers can commit serious civil rights violations without making specific threats, and allows victims their day in court. 

Since the commission’s lukewarm recommendations, the legislature has been reluctant to take further action. In fact, no significant criminal justice reform legislation has been passed since the 2020 “Reform, Shift + Build Act.” Day’s bill would codify the 2021 commission’s recommendation to remove “threats, intimidation or coercion” language, and would require courts to identify what exactly constitutes a civil rights violation. This does not go so far as to abolish qualified immunity in Massachusetts completely, but it would make it significantly easier to file lawsuits against police officers. For the last two legislative sessions, Representative Day introduced legislation with the same language. Both died without a vote at the end of session...  

CLICK THE BLOG POST TO READ ON>>

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Missed a Scoop or two? You can find a full archive of all past Saturday Scoops on our blog.

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Take Action

The Climate for Climate Policy under a Hostile Regime - Policy forum by Progressive Mass, 9/30 at 7 pm 

Join our friends at Progressive Mass for a forum on what we can do at the city and state level to fight against federal crackdowns on climate policy! 

SIGN UP FOR MA FIGHTS BACK: CLIMATE>>

Help us support a documentary about Beacon Hill dysfunction

Shadows on the Hill is a documentary about the real reason popular bills don’t pass: leadership decides which ones live, which ones die, and who gets punished for speaking out. The film is fundraising now to finish production.** Watch the trailer (featuring a familiar face!) and help amplify the campaign.** 

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That's a wrap, enjoy the fall weather, and hope to see you on October 9th! 

In solidarity,

Scotia

Scotia Hille (she/her)

Executive Director, Act on Mass