Veto-less budget signed, eco-dev bill grows, and Senate clicks on social media guardrails

Healthcare workers continue to suffer assaults and other incidents of workplace violence. The Massachusetts Nurses Association, the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, the Massachusetts Division of 1199SEIU, the Massachusetts Emergency Nursing Association and the Massachusetts College of Emergency Physicians have come together to support meaningful, measurable and enforceable legislation addressing workplace violence in our healthcare facilities. Pass H.4767.

As thousands of nurses boisterously picketed outside Brigham and Women's Hospital this week with handmade posters, lawmakers focused on the digital world and the social media apps wreaking havoc on Bay Staters' mental well-being.

Gov. Maura Healey — who, at least publicly, had a muted schedule in between blockbuster summer tourist events — was unable to avert the one-day strike or smooth over what's transforming into a five-day work stoppage. But plenty of politicians turned the picket line into a photo op, with others turning to, er, social media to show solidarity with the nurses and call on Mass General Brigham to reach a fair contract.

But on the same day that France beat Morocco in Foxborough, Healey scored a victory Thursday, signing the fiscal year 2027 budget only nine days late and with no new taxes. She solidified policies to talk up on the campaign trail like extended access to heavily subsidized health insurance, wrong-way driving prevention efforts and strengthened child sex abuse protections.

Healey also lightened lawmakers' workload in the race to July 31. She did not veto a single policy provision or line item in the $63.4 billion budget for fiscal 2027.

"Not enacting a single spending veto in a budget this large is not fiscal discipline, it is a sign she has checked out," Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Executive Director Paul Craney said Friday. "Does the Governor really believe there is not one dollar of waste, excess, or lower-priority spending anywhere in this budget?"

The House was not as minimalist with its economic development bill Wednesday, which started at $425 million before absorbing an additional $136 million in earmarks and dozens of policy ideas. The House Ways and Means Committee also cut out Healey's signature "GlobalMass" initiative to attract global investment and help international companies get a foothold in the commonwealth.

Leading healthcare, education, labor, and child advocacy organizations support H.2554 because strong vaccine laws protect every community. Passing this bill would close the non-medical exemption loophole, help prevent outbreaks, and keep Massachusetts children safer in school and child care.

The House's finalized eco-dev package morphed into a housing-heavy bill, including enabling multifamily zoning as of right on property owned by religious institutions, supporting the conversion of commercial buildings into residential units and granting a controversial local-option tenant right of first refusal when multifamily property owners sell their buildings. Other policies that might be short-lived — depending on the Senate's approach — include a pilot program allowing some psychedelic substance use, an expansion of horse race betting that could steer more money into the Health Safety Net Fund and a new mandatory retirement program.

Maybe like Brigham nurses, House and Senate leaders could use a few cowbells or bullhorns to express their ideological differences around consumer data privacy protections and youth social media regulations.

Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, co-chair of the Advanced Information Technology, the Internet and Cybersecurity Committee, has described data privacy as the "underpinning of all future tech bills," insisting the Legislature must lock down the topic before other forays, such as into social media. Both topics are in active play, though the data privacy conference committee got a head start Tuesday.

The six-member panel must resolve just how narrowly it wants to limit the collection of personal data. The Senate wants to prohibit companies from selling sensitive data outright, including health information and biometric identifiers, while the House would allow the practice to largely continue pending consumer approval. Big Tech companies could face private lawsuits under the House version, but not the Senate's.

The differences are starker when it comes to how the branches prefer to rein in social media usage.

Jobs continue below the fold — post a job

In an unexpectedly quick session Thursday, the Senate passed legislation requiring social media companies to embrace settings for minors that disable addictive feeds, autoplay and infinite scroll — features all users could have if they forgo an age verification process. The guardrails hearken back to the early days of Facebook, as Sen. Julian Cyr put it, when you could possibly learn about a crush or stay in touch with high school friends.

"It wasn't an endless loop of algorithmic doomscrolling of self-doubt and a misinformation trap," said Cyr, who called himself a "geriatric millennial."

Senate Majority Leader Cindy Creem, 83, sponsored the baseline bill and said "unregulated social media platforms are robbing young people" of core experiences like first kisses, band performances and teen mischief.

Wary of guardrails interfering with First Amendment rights and giving away too much personal information for the sake of age assurance, digital rights advocates have cautiously embraced the Senate's approach. Meanwhile enmeshed in a student cellphone ban, the House bill prohibits children under age 14 from using social media altogether.

The Senate extended a healthcare olive branch to the House on Thursday, teeing up legislation to prevent violence against healthcare workers and create a licensure framework for home care workers. The House passed both measures in November.

The Senate's prized primary care reform bill may be a tough pill for House Speaker Ron Mariano to swallow. The Quincy Democrat said Wednesday he's "not sure yet" whether the measure will reach the House floor, pointing out the Senate passed its bill "without any idea of how much it was going to cost."

The more acute healthcare crisis this week unfolded outside a major Boston hospital and MGB Home Care offices throughout the state, with 4,500 nurses and clinicians on strike. The Massachusetts Nurses Association called it the largest nurse and healthcare professional strike in state history.

Summoned to the State House for a private meeting, members of the MNA Brigham Bargaining Committee exited Healey's office Wednesday evening looking visibly frustrated without any breakthrough. Chair Kelly Morgan said the nurses discussed their "grave concerns."

"The governor heard us, and we reiterated to Mass General that we are ready, willing and able to bargain at any point in time," Morgan said.

In a pointed media update Friday morning, MGB included an infographic titled, "A 5% year raise is not 0%". Nurses say MGB has offered no cost-of-living increases, while MGB says Brigham nurses automatically receive a 5% pay increase annually as they move through a 20-step scale and that the system has proposed a 2.5% increase for those at the top step.

"Union claims that hospital leaders have not been willing to come to the bargaining table are not true," MGB said. "Since negotiations began in November 2025, we have participated in more than 20 sessions with the Massachusetts Nurses Association, including with a federal mediator."

Join us for our fourth annual Meet the Media event, a timely gathering that brings together journalists and professionals in communications and government affairs for a morning of connection, conversation, and community. Hear from Boston Globe Power Play co-authors Shirley Leung and Jon Chesto, MASSterList columnist Jon Keller, Axios Boston’s Mike Deehan, GBH News Rooted host Paris Alston, CommonWealth Beacon editor Laura Colarusso, NBC10 Boston politics reporter Matt Prichard, and MASSterList editor Katie Lannan.

Do you have an open role you'd like to feature here? Click here to place a job board order, or email Dylan Rossiter, Vice President of Affiliated News Services, at [email protected].

Constituent Services Representative, Office of Congressman Jake Auchincloss, MA-04

VP Program and Grantmaking, Atrius Health Equity Foundation

Senior Associate General Counsel (Counsel II), Division of Capital Asset Management & Maintenance

Director of Donor Engagement, Charles River Watershed Association

District Press Assistant, Congressman James P. McGovern

VIEW ALL JOBS