House and Senate hustle through the last day of the (old) session — with much more to come

Coming off a beautiful summer weekend and perhaps still recovering from a legislative orgy they orchestrated last Thursday while turning an economic development bill into an all-encompassing kitchen-sink bill, the Senate meets for about 10 minutes, appointing negotiators to work with the House on a consensus pets bill and legislation addressing home care standards.  The House does even less, meeting for five minutes. A light start for both branches but the action would pick up significantly. 

In remarks that turned out to be prescient, Sen. Cindy Friedman tells the News Service that the Senate is "working on" an abortion-related bill and that she is "hopeful" the House was looking at primary care legislation. After surfacing a bill that few saw coming, the House on Thursday, July 22 had voted to loosen restrictions on abortions that can be performed after 24 weeks of gestation, scrapping the four types of exemptions outlined in statute for life-threatening situations for the mother or fetus and instead giving deference to doctors' professional judgment.

The Legislature takes Tuesday off, but there are preparations underway to get ready for Wednesday. The House Ways and Means Committee, a graveyard for bills and a panel with more than 1,100 bills before it, releases a few of them, including legislation addressing Alzheimer's and dementia care and training, and home care services for people with ALS. Michlewitz and House Speaker Ron Mariano release statements supporting the bill and forecasting passage Wednesday, which did indeed occur. The committee notably does not on Tuesday produce the primary care bill that Friedman was hoping for.

Alas, after Speaker Mariano had downplayed the potential for primary care reform, Speaker Mariano and Chairman Michlewitz are again out with fresh statements of support for a reform bill that popped from House Ways and Means and called for major new investments in primary care by 2036, compared to 2030 in the Senate-approved bill. 

The House, as forecast, approves the Alzheimer's and dementia care bill, and the ALS home care bill during a roughly five-hour session. "This work began eight years ago with the passage of landmark Alzheimer's legislation that made Massachusetts a national leader. Despite that work, dementia diagnoses are becoming more frequent and patients and their caregivers need more help," bill sponsor Rep. Danielle Gregoire says.

More bills are going into conference committee negotiating panels than are coming out, but a major proposal surfaces in an attempt to address federal immigration law enforcement efforts that critics say are overzealous and unnecessary. More joint statements, this time from chief PROTECT Act negotiators Friedman and Rep. Dan Cahill who proclaim their final work product "will make Massachusetts’ immigrant protections among the strongest in the nation."

Home care licensing negotiators meet for the first time and suggest they are on the verge of an agreement. Again, prescient as it would arrive the next day. The road will not be as easy for energy affordability negotiators. Their inaugural meetup does not generate the same can-do vibe as the home care conferees. The stakes are literally high. Ratepayers are fed up with soaring utility bills but House and Senate Democrats have very different ideas about what to do about it. One thing is certain: both sides say their proposals will save ratepayers billions of dollars in the long run. Short-term savings? The timing of a final agreement? They have more trouble with those questions.   

The Senate holds a light-duty 15-minute session and doesn't debate anything. Two key items did pop up on the short agenda. The aforementioned abortion care bill is being shot to the Senate floor by Sen. Joan Lovely's Rules Committee, averting a stop that major bills usually make in the Senate Ways and Means Committee. And legislation gaining momentum to salvage Norwood Hospital, which remains entangled in the Steward Health Care drama, through eminent domain bubbles up to the floor as a Sen. Michael Rush amendment. The legislation positions the state for a unique approach -- taking property that hosts a hospital by eminent domain with the possibility of then launching a search for a new hospital operator. 

Rep. Thomas Stanley and Sen. Will Brownsberger declare an "agreement in principle" on the home care bill. The accord creates a licensure process for home care workers, setting annual training and competency requirements, enables the Executive Office of Health and Human Services to fine any person or entity that represents themselves as a home care agency without proper licensure or that violates regulations, addresses workforce protections, and creates a panel and two commissions related to advisory and future home care work. 

The House and Senate each appoint conferees to negotiate an economic development bill (H 5576, S 3228). Both bills are packed with policy riders. The House's $561 million proposal authorizes a five-year psychedelics pilot program, $1 million to reimburse businesses within "clean zones" created at Gillette Stadium for the FIFA World Cup, and authorization for racing licensees to take wagers on "historical horse races." The Senate's $575 million package includes policies authorizing local option happy hour, allowing cities and towns to install cameras in school zones, safety zones and active construction areas to enforce speeding violations, automating the process of sealing criminal records, regulating AI, and changing a voter-approved tax rebate law. 

Mariano tells reporters after a noon House Democrat caucus that his "head is mush" when asked which bills he's waiting on the Senate to pass that have already made their way through the House. He forecasts that July 31 this year will "look more like a regular business day" compared to two and four years ago when the Legislature remained in session for almost 24 hours and still failed to reach agreements on several priorities. Whether the "pressure" alleviated by the new rules this year will get kicked down to the end of the road in January, Mariano says "remains to be seen."

After keeping everyone guessing for the better part of 18 months, the House without much discussion rubber-stamps a primary care bill that was unveiled a day earlier. After dispensing with more than 100 amendments in the usual way -- backroom talks followed by the presentation of a mega amendment -- it's a unanimous vote for a bill that many reps were not really sure would even emerge. Both branches vote to accept a compromise laying out new protections for immigrants in the face of ongoing federal immigration sweeps that are part of President Trump's deportation agenda. The Senate approves a public records bill that supporters framed as opening up access to the workings of the Legislature and the governor's office, and critics said barely moves the needle compared to the status quo. The House meets for about 11 hours and the Senate meets for about nine hours, during which they agree with the House on a version of legislation designed to ensure access to library materials and prevent book bans. Spotted: overflow post-session crowd at the 21st Amendment.

Before even introducing the bill on the floor, the Senate releases an agenda ahead of Friday's session signaling plans to send all the way to the governor's desk legislation approved last week by the House changing the standards for later-term abortions. The House opens its session by quickly steering into a conference committee controversial changes to public records access that critics like Auditor Diana DiZoglio say are intended to undermine more substantial reforms that are set to go before voters in the form of Question 1. The Senate also within minutes of gaveling in names its negotiators. For political reasons, this is a negotiation that may not be settled until after the election. "We'll move this along. I think the biggest issue probably is just that it's summertime and people are going to be in and out. And so yeah, it might take longer than we want, but it's not because I have any concern that we're going to be at odds. It's just that we're going to have to figure out schedules," Sen. Cynthia Friedman says as she and others launch those talks Friday afternoon.

Friday seems to be about two things: finalizing work on select bills and moving them to the governor and setting up new conference committees and illustrating, before the August recess, that those negotiators can sit together and start talking. Lawmakers stamp deals on home care licensure and child welfare law changes before sending them to Healey. They send her a bill that cleared both branches within a week addressing abortions beyond 24 weeks, legislation laying out standards for the availability and appropriateness of library materials, and one enabling Massachusetts to take the land occupied by the under-construction Norwood Hospital by eminent domain. They open up talks on several bills, including one that would give thousands of teachers a second chance to opt into enhanced retirement benefits, another addressing pet sales and ownership, one that would bolster financial disclosures rules for statewide ballot question campaigns and install guardrails around paid signature gatherers, and one on the public records bill that received negotiators in the morning. Lawmakers are also named to a primary care bill conference committee, with House Health Care Financing Chair John Lawn not among those called to serve on the negotiating team. The sessions ran late into the night to take up land taking bills. The Senate gaveled in at noon and out at 11:20 p.m. The House began at 11 a.m. and banged out at 11:22 a.m., with Rep. Donato wishing his colleagues a "happy summer" before bringing the gavel down on a long week.