It’s the season of giving! 

With Hanukkah in full swing and Christmas only a few days away, merry gift-givers around the Commonwealth are making lists and checking them twice. We’re considering our loved ones’ likes and dislikes… taking a last look at end-of-year budgets… donating to our favorite scrappy nonprofits so they can continue their mission of pushing for a transparent and accountable state legislature in 2026… 

...Wait a second.

Here’s where we’re at: thanks to your generosity, Act on Mass only needs to raise $3,000 more to reach our end-of-year goal of $10,000! And this is our last Scoop of the year. If everyone who receives this email gave us just $1, we could reach our goal tonight. 

SUPPORT ACT ON MASS IN 2026>>

Just this week, we had a fantastic State House 201 workshop, where over 60 attendees learned the ins-and-outs of holding their own representatives accountable (link to the recording here!). We published an op-ed in the Commonwealth Beacon urging the legislature to follow their own rules. We had two interviews with reporters about state house efficiency. And last but not least, we wrote this Saturday Scoop, getting news and analysis about Beacon Hill straight to your inbox. 

Help us keep doing this work in 2026! Please consider supporting Act on Mass.

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At more than a year into my job by now, this is my second time doing an end-of-year Scoop. The good news is that this year’s close will not be nearly as chaotic on Beacon Hill as last year’s, when two years worth of procrastination crashed up against the official end of the 193rd session. In case you’ve forgotten, a few members of leadership stuck around to pass 95 new laws on the final day of the year, ending past 1 A.M. on December 31st. Their efforts constituted 20% of the total legislative output of the 2023-2024 session. 

Now a full year into the 194th session, it’s not clear that the pace of lawmaking has improved significantly. Despite the legislature’s full-time status, only 6 bills with statewide policy changes have been passed this year. Major issues such as energy affordability and Boston’s tax shift policy were bumped to next year. 

But you’ve heard this before! As a watchdog organization, we at Act on Mass naturally spend a lot of time pointing out how much more our elected officials could be doing with their time. I’ve complained before that I get “tired of writing about inaction.” 

So, for an end of year gift to our dear legislators, let’s talk about a few things they got right this year. To bring about the transparent, democratic, and accountable legislature we want to see, it’s just as important to praise and reinforce positive actions as to condemn bad ones. 

State House Scoop

1. New joint rules (including public committee votes) were a major win for accountability & transparency 

It’s impossible to understate how huge this win was for our movement, especially for those who have supported Act on Mass' mission over the years. 

When it was announced in February that leadership was planning to finalize new rules including public committee votes, I “nearly fell off my chair.” As I wrote in that week’s Scoop, my own Act on Mass story began about 5 years ago, as a young organizer helping constituents set up meetings with their representatives to push them to support public committee votes. My fellow organizers and I listened firsthand as legislator after legislator told their constituents that this small step for accountability was impossible. Five years later, it was incredibly exciting to hear that our collective work and determination had paid off. 

And not only did we win public committee votes, but legislators incorporated a number of other transparency changes that our movement has pushed for for years, including expanding required notice for hearings from 3 to 10 full days, allowing written testimony to be published, and including plain-language bill summaries for every bill– among other changes. 

Unfortunately, the legislature has been spotty with following these new rules. For more details, check out an op-ed I co-wrote with Progressive Mass’ Jonathan Cohn this week: “Beacon Hill’s new rules are good. They should follow them”. As I wrote in July, this rule-breaking is also evidence of a lack of support for the legislative staff who make public information available. 

Nevertheless, these rules became new tools for accountability and demanding transparent behavior from legislators. The 10-day rule for hearing notice increased hearing notice dramatically for almost every committee– expanding opportunities for public participation. Just a few weeks ago, a regressive climate bill was blocked thanks to the power of a public committee vote. As legislators get more used to having their votes public, we can hope to see more instances of rank-and-file members voting their convictions– not just leadership's line. 

When we fight, we win. When we win, the public has more of a say in the policies that control our lives. And although we had to push for years to get this win, I’ll give them credit for doing the right thing. 

2. Although Trump response was muted, it will have impact 

Another common theme in Saturday Scoop’s this year: where is the sense of urgency? As the Trump administration targeted our state for devastating federal cuts, cruel immigration raids, and rollbacks of key social programs, Beacon Hill seemed to take a back seat. Despite a public call in December 2024 from Act on Mass and other progressives to act with urgency to protect our state’s most vulnerable, the Senate’s “Response 2025” initiative was not launched until April 2025. It has resulted in only one full bill being passed into law. While blue states from Maine to California have put their Democratic majorities to good use pumping out policy, our supermajority state leaders have been slow to act.  

Yet, even if it wasn’t with the speed or magnitude we might like, our state legislature made a few quiet changes to state law that will shore up protections for vulnerable groups. Here are a few:  

  • The updated Shield Act was the only full law passed via the Response 2025 initiative. Strengthening a law passed in 2022, the updated Shield Act protects providers of reproductive and gender-affirming care in Massachusetts from out-of-state scrutiny and provides additional protections for abortion care. 
  • In a small section tacked into a November supplemental budget, legislators removed a requirement that people seeking legal name-changes publicize their new name in a public newspaper. This change was seen as boosting protections for transgender people and survivors of domestic violence. 
  • Tacked on to the same supplemental budget, legislators authorized the state’s Department of Public Health authority to set routine childhood vaccine standards separately from national CDC recommendations– insulating Bay Staters from the dangerous anti-science rhetoric that has overtaken the federal government 
  • The Fiscal Year 2026 budget provided $5 million for a fund for immigrant legal defense, at a time when immigration lawyers are in high demand and many communities are struggling to pay for their services. 
  • In preparation for the cuts to SNAP and Medicaid eligibility passed with Trump’s “Big B***tiful Bill,” the legislature allocated $10 million for each program to educate and prepare residents.

With the exception of the SHIELD Act, all of these changes were tacked onto big budget bills, rather than moving through the traditional legislative process as an individual bill. Proponents of this style of policy-making, increasingly in use on Beacon Hill, would point to the fact that it enables legislators to move more quickly. Yet, it also meant that each of these policy changes was moved without a public hearing or vote on their individual contents. This leaves the public in the dark even about good things the legislature is up to. 

I could point out that this system also allows them to move quickly and in silence about things likea $25 million earmark for a parking garage in the Speaker’s district, but hey– we’re keeping it positive. 

In addition to these finalized laws, there were a handful of positive policy actions taken by either House or Senate which we can hope to see move towards passage next year. You can count on Act on Mass to keep our eye out! 

3. Budget passed (sort of) on time for the first time in 9 years 

Although Massachusetts’ fiscal year did start without an annual budget in place for the 15th year in a row, this was the first year since 2016 that legislators finished their part of the bargain before the start of the fiscal year. The governor signed it 4 days later, meaning that the state only spent a few days on supplemental funds. Progress is progress. Go team! 

One interesting budget takeaway from this year: in-depth reporting from State House News showed that the legislature’s increased tendency to pass supplemental spending bills outside of the traditional budget process have meant that the annual budget is now little more than a “starting point.” For example, supplemental budgets expanded last year’s spending by more than 10% from the original budget passed, to a total of $64.02 billion for Fiscal Year 2025. Yet, the Fiscal Year 2026 budget passed (on time!) this year accounts for an austere $60.90 billion in spending. This discrepancy all but ensures that the legislature will have to pass a steady pace of supplemental budgets this year, providing plenty of opportunities for policy riders and secret earmarks.

We’ll be keeping track as they do! In the meantime, and in the spirit of the holidays, feel free to reach out to your legislator to thank them for their role in the small victories we got this year. Tell them that you’re excited for the definitive action they’ll take to protect Massachusetts residents and further our progressive vision in 2026 (for some ideas, keep scrolling!). And feel free to tell them Act on Mass sent you.

TELL YOUR LEGISLATOR: THANKS FOR 2025 WINS>>

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Give us feedback!  

Although our legislators may not be big fans of accountability, Act on Mass is. As we make our plans for next year, we wanted to get some feedback from our community on how our year at Act on Mass was for you. Whether you joined us at an event, volunteered with us in person, read the Saturday Scoop, or any other ways of engaging our work, we want to hear from you! Please fill out our short feedback form here:

FILL OUT OUR FEEDBACK FORM>>

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Syd's Sprinkles: What can Massachusetts do about ICE?

According to a recent piece by WBUR, ICE arrests in Massachusetts courts have tripled since Trump entered office in January. This means ICE agents are staking out courthouses and detaining those who come for trials – no matter the verdict. And this is not just factoring in federal courts: ICE has been present in our state’s district courthouses too. 

ICE can only conduct these arrests at courthouses in accordance with the laws of the state that they are operating in. Due to this, advocates across the state have made calls for better legal protections against ICE at Massachusetts courthouses, but so far the state’s legislature hasn’t taken action. 

But what can states do to protect their residents from being targeted?

Recently, Governor Pritzker signed a bill that protects immigrants in the state of Illinois from being targeted by ICE agents at courthouses. More specifically, this law dictates that “all people attending court are considered ‘privileged from civil arrest’ inside state courthouses and within a 1,000-foot buffer zone outside of the buildings.”

While there will most likely be backlash against this law in the near future, it is still an important action that the governor and lawmakers of Illinois have taken to protect their constituents. 

With Massachusetts being a target on the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security’s radar, Bay Staters are looking to legislators on Beacon Hill to take action and protect our communities. 

So why don’t our legislators take a page out of Illinois’ book and pass meaningful legislation to limit the power of ICE in our communities?

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What we're reading this week

Some other stories from local and regional news: 

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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

Tell your legislators: take action to protect Massachusetts' tax code from Trump cuts!

The Big Beautiful Bill passed by Congress this year makes devastating cuts to SNAP and Medicaid benefits to pay for massive tax cuts to Trump's billionaire friends. If Massachusetts doesn't act to "decouple" our state tax code from these federal changes, they will cost the state as much as $1 billion in annual tax revenue. Legislators need to act now to protect state programs. Tell them today!

TELL YOUR STATE REPS: NO BBB FOR MA>>

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That's all for this year. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for taking the time to read our Saturday Scoops this year: we could not, and would not, do this work without you! Wishing you a joyous holiday season, we'll be back in January! 

In solidarity,

Scotia

Scotia Hille (she/her)

Executive Director, Act on Mass