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.
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 and that the final compromise language would be made available later Monday.
“At the beginning of this session, we committed our respective chambers to deliver a transparent and efficient legislative process that meets the moment,” Mariano and Spilka said in a statement. “This agreement draws on key provisions from each chamber’s original proposals, and represents our shared commitment to creating an accessible and productive Legislature that responds to the concerns of our constituents and delivers for Massachusetts.”
Democrat negotiators have failed to agree on a final package of joint rules in each of the prior two sessions, leaving the House and Senate operating under 2019-era policies extended on what was supposed to be a temporary basis.
This year, Democrats in both branches moved to enact significant changes to the way they work together, saying they want to increase legislative transparency and efficiency after a particularly chaotic summer last year. 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.
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.
“This bipartisan effort reflects a shared commitment to enhancing transparency, improving legislative efficiency, and ensuring accessible and accountable lawmaking for the people of the Commonwealth,” a fact sheet provided by Creem’s office said. “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.”
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.
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 Constitution filed in the House will continue to be voted on by both House and Senate committee members.
Joint committees will be required under the proposed rules accord to act on legislation no later than 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 on the first Wednesday in February of the second year of the session. 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.
The proposed joint rules agreement would also allow the Legislature to meet in formal sessions after its traditional end date of July 31 in the second year of the session, but only to take up reports from conference committees formed on or before July 31, appropriations bills filed after July 31, and gubernatorial vetoes or amendments.