MA State Legislature Downshifts Into Holiday Mode After Short Burst of Activity
Some items make it to the Governor's desk; most must wait until 2026 to see more action.
IT’LL BE A FEW more weeks until the icicle lights go up, but the holiday season has already begun atop Beacon Hill.
Lawmakers on Wednesday concluded their final formal sessions for the year, kicking off a break of six weeks or longer. The House and Senate will continue to meet twice per week in that span, though those gatherings will be lightly attended informal sessions where only minor, uncontroversial business can be considered.
All of the big stuff that did not get addressed before the final gavel rang out Wednesday night is now, essentially, on hold until 2026.
So what happened with the legislation that was on the move this week?
On the governor’s desk
Other than half a dozen local bills or land transfers, the only significant measure to get all the way to Gov. Maura Healey on Wednesday was a $2.3 billion spending bill needed to close the state’s financial books for the fiscal year that ended June 30.
Lawmakers were, once again, late getting to the matter. State law technically requires the comptroller to file a financial report by October 31, which cannot happen until the Legislature and governor agree on a so-called closeout budget.
For the sixth time in the past seven years, the final legislative action on the annual bill did not come until after the Halloween deadline. Comptroller William McNamara warned two weeks ago that the tardiness could prompt the federal government to “slow or withhold federal funds,” according to the State House News Service.
Healey will get 10 days to review the measure, which injects more than $1.6 billion into MassHealth, all but $303 million of which is poised to be reimbursed by Washington, DC.
Senate budget chief Michael Rodrigues said spending on the state’s Medicaid program — which could be upended in coming years by already-approved federal cuts — has been “growing exponentially.”
“It’s growing much higher than predicted, much higher than the health care benchmarks that were established,” Rodrigues told reporters Monday. “That’s something that certainly has us concerned.”
The bill also transfers $50 million toward rental housing support, provides another $12 million for free K-12 school meals, and makes $10 million in state funding available for the 2026 World Cup, as long as event organizers secure private matching dollars.
Legislative negotiators settled on providing just $27 million for county sheriffs, withholding the majority of the funding law enforcement officials sought until after a proposed inspector general review of their spending habits.
It’s not clear if Healey will agree with that approach or will instead push for the full appropriation she originally proposed. A Healey spokesperson said last month only that the governor would review whatever legislation she receives.
The closeout budget has some notable policy riders, too, including language opening up access to some patient records at current and former state-run facilities and provisions decoupling vaccination schedules from the recommendations of a federal panel whose approach has created concerns among scientists.
Approved in both chambers, but not yet to the governor
After working through dozens of amendments, the Senate voted in favor of a major marijuana industry reform bill just after 9 p.m. Wednesday.
The House already approved its own version of the bill back in June, and now Democrats in each chamber will need to reconcile differences between the measures before they can send a final version to Healey.
Both bills would overhaul the Cannabis Control Commission, which has been marked by a series of controversies, and shrink its membership from five to three. They would also increase the number of cannabis licenses a single retailer could hold and boost the purchase and possession limit for recreational users.
“This legislation is not about starting over,” Sen. Adam Gomez, who co-chairs the Legislature’s Cannabis Policy Committee, said Wednesday. “It’s about building on what we’ve learned. It’s about making sure that our laws keep pace with the current industry while protecting consumers, supporting small businesses, and advancing equity.”
Lawmakers have not yet appointed a so-called conference committee of representatives and senators that would be tasked with ironing out a compromise version. They could do that next week, or legislative leaders could instead work more informally to come to an agreement on what to ship to the governor.
Headed to DC
Both branches were in alignment on action they say will protect the country from potential overreach by the Trump administration.
Article V of the US Constitution allows constitutional amendments to be considered at a convention if two-thirds of state Legislatures request such a summit.
Massachusetts previously transmitted requests for an Article V convention to Congress that technically remain pending, including one sent in 1977 seeking a constitutional ban on abortion, according to House Speaker Ron Mariano’s office.
An Article V convention has never happened, but Democrats are concerned that leaving those resolutions in place could push the nation closer to the critical mass required for one, where President Donald Trump and Republicans could pursue sweeping changes to the Constitution.
The House and Senate voted Wednesday to rescind all previous Article V resolutions adopted in Massachusetts, which legislative leaders say makes Massachusetts the 17th state to do so — putting the two-thirds majority out of reach for those who want a convention.
“Without clear boundaries, an Article V convention could open the door to rewriting the very foundations of our democracy,” said House Assistant Majority Leader Alice Peisch. “It could jeopardize the principles that generations of Americans have fought and sacrificed to preserve.”
The newly approved resolutions will now be transmitted to the clerk of the US House and the secretary of the US Senate.
Through one branch, but not the other
The Legislature operates on two-year cycles, and bills do not expire in between years one and two. So for legislative leaders in either chamber, the final flurry of activity was a chance to get a couple of priorities done and officially shift the onus to their counterparts across the hall.
On Tuesday, the penultimate day for major business this year, the House approved a nearly $3.3 billion rewrite of Healey’s borrowing bill designed to fund campus infrastructure improvements at public colleges and universities.
The House on Wednesday also advanced legislation aiming to rein in violence that health care professionals face at work by establishing new preventative standards and boosting reporting requirements.
Neither measure has emerged yet in the Senate, which will almost certainly wait until the new year to act, if it does.
Never came up
For more than a week, it seemed like House Democrats would push for a vote on sweeping energy legislation that sought to rein in utility prices while also defanging the state’s 2030 decarbonization requirements.
Rep. Mark Cusack, the architect of the dramatic rewrite to Healey’s energy affordability bill, said he hoped for a vote before the holiday break and that he had the backing of the speaker.
But the proposal did not get to the House floor after all. Following immense blowback from environmental groups, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Aaron Michlewitz — a top Mariano deputy — said his panel still has “a lot of work to do” before any bill on the topic is ready for action.
“We are probably going to have to have to have a conversation at some point related to whether we can meet our goals for 2030,” Michlewitz said Monday. “I think that’s a real challenge that we’re facing, particularly when you have a federal government that is trying to thwart us at every possible turn in relation to trying to get to those goals. Having that conversation is certainly coming to a head at some point, but I do not think it will be in this vehicle as we move forward.”
The retreat delays any action on Healey’s energy affordability until 2026.
This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
