FOR THE FIRST TIME since 2020, lawmakers finished their formal work on the even-year July 31 traditional deadline before the sun came up the next morning. This time around, they were done even before the clock reached midnight.

Legislative leaders had been arguing for weeks that the end of the month, which marks the cutoff for major new legislative business, would feel different than it did during chaotic all-nighters in 2022 and 2024. House Speaker Ron Mariano even suggested the key date would feel “more like a regular business day.”

Their expectation-setting exercises turned out to be successful, but that’s not to say Beacon Hill was idle. The week leading into July 31, and the day itself, still featured a flurry of action that put some major proposals on Gov. Maura Healey’s desk and teed up a dozen bills for ongoing House-Senate negotiations.

In a special bonus episode of The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon senior reporters Jennifer Smith and Chris Lisinski recap what happened, what didn’t, and what the next five months might look like with the Legislature still able to tackle some topics.

The significance of July 31 stems from internal legislative rules that the House and Senate adopt to govern their operations. For decades, the rules prohibited any formal sessions after July in the second year of the two-year term — designed to prevent lawmakers from tackling controversial measures during campaign season or in lame-duck, post-election activity.

This time around, with an eye toward averting the upheaval of the past two terms, lawmakers tweaked the deadline. Under updated rules, as long as the House and Senate each approve initial versions of bills by July 31, they can continue to negotiate compromises in the ensuing months, and return in a formal session to approve any final deal before the term officially ends on January 7, 2027.

A dozen bills are now in conference committee talks, where lawmakers will work to hammer out final agreements:

– A sweeping economic development package
– Controversial public records reforms
– An effort to ramp up investment in primary care
– Data privacy protections
– Measures banning cell phones in schools, and perhaps also limiting social media use by minors
– High-profile energy affordability legislation
– A bill dealing with pet safety
– A bill enhancing teacher retirement benefits
– A bill aiming to prevent violence against health care workers
– A bill requiring more frequent campaign finance disclosures by ballot question campaigns
– A borrowing bill to fund environmental investments
– A measure funding higher education infrastructure

The only hard deadline moving forward is the end of the term in January, though Election Day might provide some motivation. Legislators might reach a deal on any of those measures in a week, or in four and a half months.

And the contours of negotiations carry big stakes. In their economic development bills, for example, the House and Senate took different approaches to artificial intelligence regulation, zoning requirements, happy hour, gambling, and more.

“It could be just a jobs bill. It could also be a housing bill and an AI bill and a tax policy bill and a juvenile jurisdiction bill,” Lisinski said. “We’ll find out.”

Two of the measures in conference committee might impact questions voters are already set to decide through the ballot in November.

The House and Senate each included language in their public records reform bills that seems designed to supersede any changes voters make when they weigh the same topic, and the Senate added language to its economic development bill tweaking the tax cap law that is already targeted in a ballot question.

It’s a contrast from prior cycles, when lawmakers have negotiated with proponents of ballot questions to find a compromise before the measure is put before the voters.

“These are independent legislative attempts to end-run, possibly, around those ballot questions,” Smith said.

On this episode, Smith and Lisinski discuss bills that made it all the way to Gov. Maura Healey’s desk by July 31 (10:20), the complicated negotiations lawmakers will undertake (14:00), and proposals that appear doomed in the final five months of the term (25:00).