ACTION ALERT: The House aims to undercut the audit in a surprise vote TOMORROW

There's a crucial vote happening in the Massachusetts House tomorrow that you should know about. 

 URGENT: Your state rep votes tomorrow on a brand-new bill that would kneecap the voter-backed audit. Contact them tonight!

TELL YOUR REP: DON'T GUT THE AUDIT>>

This morning, House leadership released a "transparency bill" (H.5469) that   that would modify the legislative audit backed by voters in 2024 and the legislature’s current exemption from the state’s public records law. The provisions in the 19-page bill were not subject to public hearing, yet are set to be voted on by representatives tomorrow. This is an unfortunately common tactic of the state House: moving quickly on controversial legislation before advocates or the public has time to respond. 

When 72% of Massachusetts voters approved the audit in 2024, we affirmed that the same audit authority that all state entities are subject to also applies to the legislature. When the legislature failed to comply and the audit faced stonewalling, the auditor was finally able to make progress by petitioning the Supreme Judicial Court. 

Instead, H.5469 would:

  • Restrict the auditor's audit function to only four types of documents approved by the legislature
  • Prevent the public and the auditor from seeking remedy through the courts, stating explicitly: "no court shall have jurisdiction to compel the production of records to enforce any interview request or to adjudicate any dispute arising under an audit." 
  • Require the auditor submit any audit report to the Legislature before making the report public and give legislators 60 days to produce a rebuttal—delaying accountability 

As we’ve learned over and over in the last 1.5 years of confronting the Trump administration, our nation’s courts are an essential safeguard against abuses of power. That this bill would explicitly remove court jurisdiction from a matter of extreme importance to the public—the legislative audit—is a major red flag for any individuals concerned about the health of our democracy in Massachusetts.

 Without serious modifications, this bill is a poison pill. We're recommending representatives to vote NO.

TELL YOUR REP: DON'T GUT THE AUDIT>>

The second piece of the bill appears to be an attempt to forestall the public records law initiative that Act on Mass has supported for the ballot this November. Although legislative leaders claim to have consulted transparency experts in crafting this legislation, nobody from the public records law ballot campaign was contacted or even made aware that this policy was moving. 

Although the public records law provisions contain some things we like, there are also some major areas of concern. H.5469 would: 

  • Limit "legislative records" requests to a list of 17 named document types, almost all of which are already public. This would exclude all legislator communications, which are a major subject of public records law for all other public officials 
  • Process appeals in-house and give two legislative committees broad authority to modify or reverse decisions on “legislative records” requests 
  • Apply public records law to the governor’s office only, but only for records after January 7th, 2027 (?) 

We think the public should decide what "public records" are, not the politicians who have exempted themselves for years. 

Legislators will vote on this issue tomorrow—please contact them tonight to let them know: the public decides what transparency looks like! No transparency without public process! 

TELL YOUR REP: THE PUBLIC DECIDES>>

We'll follow up with more info in this week's Scoop. Thank you for taking action.

In solidarity,

 Scotia Hille (she/her)

Act on Mass Executive Director