Massachusetts House and Senate agree on transparency reforms

BOSTON — For the first time since 2019, House and Senate Democrats have reached an agreement on joint rules to guide their work in the legislative session that began six months ago, a package of changes that could significantly reprogram the rhythms of the Legislature. Reforms will include publishing all committee votes online, livestreaming all hearings, and giving the public a 10-day notice before joint committee hearings. 

House Speaker Ronald Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka said late Monday morning that negotiators had come to terms on a new set of rules focused on making the Legislature more efficient and transparent, after a particularly chaotic end of session last year. The conference report could be adopted as soon as Thursday, when both branches are in session.

“We heard loud and clear that the people want us in the Legislature to move bills more efficiently, more transparently, and give more access to the public,” Spilka told reporters Monday afternoon after a meeting with Mariano, Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll.

Last year saw critical news coverage of the state legislature’s effectiveness and a growing political movement for transparency reforms, The Light has previously reported. Advocates on the left and right have said the Legislature’s rules allow too many bills to die without explanation.

Last summer, lawmakers failed to finish significant work by the usual July 31 deadline, but eventually got many priorities across the finish line during a time of year that had been off-limits for major lawmaking for decades. One of the most significant changes to the rules is allowing lawmakers to continue work on major bills into campaign season, as they needed to last year. 

The rules package will allow the Legislature to reconvene formal sessions past July 31 in the second year of the two-year session to act on reports from conference committees formed before that date, and on gubernatorial amendments, veto overrides and new spending bills. 

Almost two hours after Mariano and Spilka announced the agreement, lead negotiators Senate Majority Leader Cindy Creem and House Majority Leader Michael Moran provided greater details of their accord.

“Among the reforms are longer public notice periods for hearings, mandatory committee hearing livestreaming and archiving, an earlier reporting deadline for joint committees, the recording and posting of committee votes, new requirements for bill summaries, and rules ensuring more timely public access to conference committee reports,” a fact sheet provided by Creem’s office said.

Public hearings of joint legislative committees must be announced 10 days in advance, up from the current three days, and those committees will be required to produce a complete schedule of hearings within three weeks of committee appointments. All committee votes are to be publicly posted online.

Once bills are in committee and get a hearing, Senate and House committee members will vote only on bills filed in their respective branch. That has been the practice so far this session, and the change has given senators (who are outnumbered on joint committees) a greater ability to advance legislation without necessarily getting buy-in from representatives.

Mariano told reporters that the new rules would help “everyone get to identify their priority and move their priority.” 

“Now, with that comes an opportunity for debate and discussion, and we’re hoping that things get resolved a lot faster and easier than they have in the past,” he said. “We’re looking forward to implementing these; we think it’s going to make a big difference.” 

A reporter followed up, asking how having each branch vote on its own bills will make the process more efficient. The reporter said it seemed bills could get to the floor of each chamber faster, but not necessarily resolved between the branches and to the governor more quickly. 

“Well, the first step is getting to the floor,” Mariano replied, “and getting the vote, the bill moved off the floor. So right away, you’re picking up speed. You just admitted that we’re picking up speed.”

Both House and Senate committee members will continue to vote on bills filed by someone other than a member of the Legislature (the governor, for example), so-called money bills that get filed in the Senate, and amendments to the state Constitution filed in the House.

Joint committees will be required under the proposed rules accord to act on legislation by the first Wednesday of December of the first year of the two-year session, moving the bill-reporting deadline about two months earlier than its current place on the calendar, in February of the second year. 

Under House rules, committees must act on bills filed in the House no later than 60 days after the bill’s hearing, with an additional 30-day extension available at the discretion of the chair.

Spilka said earlier reporting deadlines will “move things faster, more efficiently, more transparently, and increase access for the public tremendously.” 

Joint committees will also be required to post a summary of every bill that gets a hearing before their panel on the Legislature’s website prior to the hearing. Some committees currently post summaries for House bills, as do senators for many of the bills they file, though not all are posted before the bill’s hearing.

The rules also set out to regulate committee participation — the subject of a recent spat between the branches. 

House rules require in-person attendance for representatives at hearings of committees they serve on. Senate rules do not require the same, however, and it is a common occurrence for the only senator at a hearing to be the chairperson. The Senate argues that there are far fewer senators than representatives, which means they serve on more committees, which frequently have overlapping hearings.

At a Consumer Protection Committee hearing in May, House chair Rep. Tackey Chan barred Sen. Jacob Oliveira from testifying remotely on his liquor-license reform bill before the committee (which Oliveira is also a member of) while he was in his district in western Massachusetts. The procedural spat that resulted between the branches led Spilka to release a statement that said, “the notion that one branch’s rules can bind the operations of joint committees is without merit.”

The compromise package released Monday allows lawmakers to participate in hearings remotely “unless prohibited by the rules of their respective branch,” according to the fact sheet provided by Creem’s office. Attendance will be taken and posted on the Legislature’s website. 

The conference report effectively allows senators to continue their remote participation, and authorizes House leadership to require its members to attend. 

A reporter asked Mariano on Monday why it was important to the House that attendance be taken at committee hearings.

“It was one of the priorities,” he said. 

When pushed on why it was a priority, Mariano just responded, “A lot of different reasons.”

The Light contributed reporting to this story.