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BOSTON — Senators in the Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities advanced a sweeping bill aimed at reducing the state’s poverty rate, with just about three weeks left before lawmakers face a July 31 deadline to get bills shuttled into conference committee.
Sen. Sal DiDomenico said his proposal “is a compilation of many bills that have already been filed” and expressed hope that “some iteration of this bill will get done between now and the end of July.” The omnibus bill cleared the committee with five senators in support and none opposed.
According to DiDomenico’s office, the bill, as originally filed, included provisions that would increase the Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children cash benefits for pregnant people, families and caregivers; increase Emergency Aid to the Elderly, Disabled and Children cash benefits; codify related benefits and allowances; and bar the government from taking any amount of child support payments from low-income parents.
“The good thing about having a bill like this is that many of the components have been vetted already through the committee process, and many of these bills have been filed multiple sessions,” the Everett Democrat said. “That was the strategy on our part too, to bring those bills that have already been kind of looked at in the past to a larger omnibus bill to put them all together as one unit. So while it may look big, and it is big, there’s not a lot of new components to this bill that have not already been seen by both chambers.”
The version of DiDomenico’s bill that was voted on by the Committee on Children and Families was not immediately available Monday. Chairwoman Robyn Kennedy’s office referred questions to the Senate clerk’s office, which was processing the committee’s action Monday.
The bill has been sitting on Beacon Hill for months; it was filed in May 2025 and received a committee assignment in May 2026. The committee held a hearing for the bill on July 1, at which advocates said it would boost the quality of life for children and families facing poverty.
Asked if movement this late in the legislative session means it’s realistically on the Senate’s agenda for the remainder of July, DiDomenico said, “This is kind of the standard practice of how things are moving this time of the year.”
His office said the bill would direct the state to replace Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program cash benefits “stolen by criminal rings through skimming or phishing”; ensure access to free menstrual products in public schools, homeless shelters, prisons and county jails; raise farmworker wages to at least the state’s minimum wage; establish a “baby bonds program”; and “enhance” the attorney general’s ability to “ensure companies pay their employees the wages they deserve and hold employers accountable when they steal workers’ wages.”
“In light of what’s happening at the federal level and the cuts to many of the similar programs and the attack on low-income folks and immigrants, and people that really depend on services to help them live each day and don’t have really much of a choice otherwise, putting cash in people’s hands is really something that I’ve been focused on,” DiDomenico said.
Putting increased cash assistance grants in place would help provide families “with opportunities for economic mobility to escape deep poverty,” according to Brianna Silva, senior manager of membership and advocacy for the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.
“Our members who work with people in poverty have reported the experiences of an almost constant chronic crisis where families are fighting for their most basic needs,” Silva said at the July 1 hearing. “It causes stress, emotional and mental distress, housing instability, physical and mental health problems, and worse outcomes in school.”
During July 1 testimony, Hopewell Associate Director of Policy and Advocacy Catherine Quirion flagged a policy within the bill that would create a cash stipend of $1,000 per month for five years to young people transitioning out of foster care. Quirion said the policy “would provide young people who have experienced foster care with critical support at a pivotal moment in their transition to adulthood,” and could be “life-altering for the more than 600 young people who age out of foster care in Massachusetts each year. “
Sen. Jamie Eldridge also testified in favor of the bill, touting its “comprehensive approach” to poverty reduction and a provision that would establish a state-funded match savings program for people who are below 80% area median income.
