EVEN AS THE leaders of the House and Senate snipe at each other over late-breaking bills, saying their members have been given little time to consider legislation passed by the other chamber, the mad-dash sprint to plow through a backlog of bills in the closing hours of the session didn’t seem to bother Gov. Maura Healey, who suggested that the legislative process is working fine.

The flood of bills facing votes on the last day of the cycle is “the product of a lot of work over the course of the year,” Healey told GBH radio’s Jim Braude and Margery Eagan on Wednesday morning, brushing aside critiques of the Legislature’s usual end-of-session marathon. “I don’t think things are getting rammed through, because they’ve actually been considered, debated, discussed,” she said. “But there’s a lot to decide and work through in the next 24 hours, and I’m hopeful and optimistic.”

The governor’s rosy characterization of things proceeding in civics book how-a-bill-becomes-a-law fashion did not exactly align with the view from the Legislature’s own leaders.

Asked on Tuesday about a proposal to revise Boston’s property tax formula that sped through the House earlier that day, Senate President Karen Spilka said, “We haven’t debated, discussed or even seen the bill, the new complex bill. And as you know, any time you release a bill the day before session ends, it’s a very difficult expectation for us to hear it, especially when it has new proposals, major proposals that haven’t had the opportunity to be debated or voted on. It sort of tells you that they’re not really serious about passing the bill to begin with.”

If Spilka’s sharp jab at the House sounded familiar, it was no coincidence. She delivered it by unfolding and reading from a piece of paper that directed back at House Speaker Ron Mariano his own words from the day before. 

On Monday, after Senators passed legislation allowing supervised drug injection sites as an opioid overdose prevention measure. Mariano took to the State House hallway, telling reporters: “Anytime you release a bill the day before the session ends, it’s a very difficult expectation for us to hear it, especially when it has proposals, major proposals, that we haven’t even had the opportunity to debate or vote on. It sort of tells me you’re not really serious about passing the bill to begin with.”

The last-minute rush to pass major legislation that has been pending for months, with lawmakers given little time to weigh or debate bills, has become a regular rite on Beacon Hill. The Legislature officially ends formal sessions for the year at midnight on July 31, though lawmakers are almost certain to take a procedural vote that lets them extend the last-minute scramble into the wee hours of August 1. 

Legislators have also been under fire for their out-of-sight budget negotiations, which led to a slew of earmarks from both the Senate and House, according to Boston Globe reporting. 

Eagan expressed visceral exasperation with the legislative secrecy, asking the governor for her take.

“I’m the one who signed that budget the other day, so I’m comfortable with the earmarks made,” Healey said, “because they’re important investments in local economic development projects, and infrastructure, and housing, and programs on a lot of fronts. So having looked at all of that, I’m personally very comfortable with all of that.”

Shouldn’t the earmark process be done in the light of day, Braude asked.

“I think it is done in the light of day,” Healey said. “There’s hearings, and of course they’ve got to go take everything back [to consider], but look, having been in the State House the last couple days, there’s a lot of people, there’s a lot of activity, and people have the means to make their voices heard on things.”

With Democratic supermajorities and tight control over their chambers, legislative leadership can function not as a check on the governor but the final word. Public disagreement within the ranks is risky and results in odd legislative theater like the habit of lawmakers withdrawing amendments after delivering heartfelt speeches about their necessity. 

On Tuesday night, lawmakers still had almost a dozen major bills to power through, including veto overrides on the late fiscal year 2025 state budget that are currently underway, economic development, clean energy, and a host of health care bills ranging from measures dealing with prescription drugs to long-term care. 

Among the pileup of unfinished business – Healey’s showpiece housing bond bill. It would be an essential step to address a 200,000-unit shortage, Healey told a man still on a years-long wait list of Section 8 housing who called into the GBH studio. 

A conference committee is still at work reconciling the $6.2 billion housing bond bill proposed by the House and the $5.1 billion Senate version. 

“I’m hopeful,” Healey said, with 12 hours before the legislative session was set to close, “that we’re gonna get that legislation done.”