by Dean Briggs
The Massachusetts Legislature is still smarting from being named the least efficient state legislature in the country, as well as one of the least transparent. This is against the backdrop of a question on last year’s ballot for the state auditor to conduct an audit of the Legislature. It passed in every city and town in the commonwealth, collectively gathering over 70% of the vote, and which the Legislature has continued to stonewall.
This legislative inertia and opacity also comes at a time when the state needs swift action to protect citizens against a rapacious federal government — yet as of last week, the Legislature had voted on only 11 bills this session. Recently, Jonathan Cohn and Scotia Hille from Indivisible allies Progressive Mass and Act on Mass co-led an update call on new rules the Legislature recently adopted: what they mean, and how they’re being followed (or not) so far.
The heat is on the legislature for transparency rules.
The state Senate and House recently passed new joint rules (download summary here), touting their “more efficient, accessible lawmaking.” These apply for the entire two-year legislative cycle, which began January 1, 2025.
This is important, since the joint rules govern the committees where both chambers — including Democrats and Republicans — work together to review legislation.
Highlights:
- Joint committees must make their votes public, and they must act on bills within 60 days of holding a hearing, unless they request a 30-day extension.
- Committees must make testimony public, although the means and location are not specified.
- Bill summaries in plain English must be posted before committee hearings. This is extremely important, as it allows readers to understand the law or the change to existing law that is being proposed and the history behind the legislation.
- The notice period for hearings on bills increased from 72 hours to 10 days. This ensures that legislators — and advocates — will have sufficient time to study the bills and arrange their schedules to be able to attend.
- The rules require committees to take attendance starting October 1, 2025. Low attendance — as few as two or three legislators at committee hearings, has been an issue.This provision, combined with the increased notice period, should improve attendance.
- All committees must report out bills by the first Wednesday in December. This will make more bills available for voting by both chambers late in the first year or early in the second year of the two-year legislative cycle, rather than at the very end.
- Conference committees — composed of two Democrats and one Republican from each of the chambers — negotiate a bill together when the two chambers pass different versions of the same bill. Conference committees must post their results at least 24 hours before a bill goes to a vote. This rule now gives lawmakers time to read bills before they vote. It also provides the public, media and other state legislators some visibility into the decision process, since the first meeting of a conference committee must be public.
How closely are these new rules being followed?
Scotia Hille reports mixed results based on an analysis done in conjunction with Progressive Mass.
As of last week, three committees have posted voting results, but some have buried the results deeply within their pages on the Legislature’s website. The joint rules don’t specify where results should be posted, so expect more inconsistency in where committee staff put them. Hille notes that ideally, all testimony (except for redacted personal testimony) should be posted on the Legislature’s website. This will be extremely valuable to legislators and advocates. Only the Joint Committee on Aging and Independence is automatically posting all its testimony. Other committees are releasing varying policies about posting voting results and making testimony available on request.
The highly valued bill summaries are not all being posted before the hearing, as is required.
The reporting deadline? Hille notes that this is the most broken new rule so far. Not a single committee has posted its results within 60 days or requested an extension to 90 days. Of 15 committees that have passed the deadline, only six have reported on the bills. That said, some committees are reporting results faster than they usually do, reflecting some process improvement.
What about the 24-hour rule for conference committees? The biggest bill of the year, the FY2026 budget, did not follow the notice period requirement before the vote.
What can activists do?
The team from Progressive Mass, Act on Mass, 350 Mass, Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts, and the Sierra Club recommend the following:
- Find out which committees your state rep and senator are on here. Call them and ask what their committees are doing. It’s possible that they are unaware of noncompliance, since their (overworked) staff are handling it
- Ask where, specifically, their committees are posting the votes on bills. Ask what the committee’s policy is for posting public testimony.
- Have you looked for bill summaries prior to committee hearings and not found them? Tell your legislator.
- Help the Act on Mass/Progressive Mass Rules Compliance Committee. This committee needs volunteers to help check to see if the new rules are being followed. It’s a group effort. You can sign up to work with the committee here.
Thanks to Act on Mass, Progressive Mass, 350 Mass, Progressive Democrats and the Sierra Club for their work on this topic and for some of the source documents used in this post. Special thanks to Jonathan Cohn (PM) and Scotia Hille (AoM).
Dean Briggs is a member of Indivisible Boros and Beyond and the Indivisible Mass Coalition Communications Team.
