The Massachusetts Legislature’s end-of-session agenda is about to get a bit busier after key House Democrats teased timelines earlier this week for proposals around veterans affairs and healthcare.
Lawmakers on Beacon Hill already have a packed plate with only three months of formal lawmaking remain in the 2023-2024 legislative session. Bills covering revenge porn, federal matching funds, gun laws, and wage transparency are all in active negotiations.
House Speaker Ron Mariano wants to add a little more to the legislative buffet before formal sessions — where most major policy-making occurs — are scheduled to end on July 31.
Speaking to reporters after shuttling the House’s fiscal year 2025 budget to the Senate, Mariano said that “by the calendar” he has to release a healthcare bill this coming week. He floated an interest earlier this month in reforming hospital property transfers.
“Then we have housing, which obviously we heard a lot over these past three days about housing and what the needs are out in the communities and the issues out there. So we’re gonna have to work through some of those and so whatever else comes up along the way,” he said.
Gov. Maura Healey’s massive $4 billion housing bond bill, often described by supporters as the largest of its kind filed in Massachusetts, has meandered its way through the House this year after a January hearing.
It cleared the Bonding, Capital Expenditures, and State Assets Committee without changes before landing in the House’s budget writing committee earlier this month, where lawmakers may choose to redraft the proposal.
The House also appears to be preparing a push to tackle veterans benefits months after Healey filed legislation that touches on a range of services for those who previously served, including expanded access to behavioral health treatment and increasing the disabled veteran annuity.
Veterans Affairs Committee co-chair Rep. Gerard Cassidy, a Brockton Democrat, said the House has a veterans “bill coming out next month.”
“The programs that we have are benefits extensions, modernization, (and) inclusiveness. So this bill that will be coming out is more in tune to what we’re doing,” he said during the House’s budget debate on Friday.
It is not clear how closely the House will hew to Healey’s proposal, with Mariano suggesting the branch has two options — sticking close to the governor’s proposal or crafting a bill that “will be a lot different.”
“I can’t go into the details right now. It’s all about chapter 115,” he said, referring to a portion of state law covering veterans’ benefits.
Both of the House healthcare and veterans packages will ultimately need buy-in from the Senate, where its top Democrat, Sen. Karen Spilka, has signaled an interest in pursuing a “comprehensive” climate plan that tackles transportation and energy.
So what’s the TL;DR of all this?
If anyone was hoping for a smooth and peaceful end to the second year of the legislative session, forget about it. The sprint to the end of July is going to be stressful on all counts.
The hunt for gold at the end of the Irish rainbow…
Massachusetts lawmakers in the House want to boost trade with Ireland, and they’re looking to put ink to paper this year to figure out how.
Nearly a year after Healey’s $83,000-trade trip to the Emerald Isle, representatives tucked away the creation of a commission to evaluate Massachusetts-Ireland trade in their fiscal year 2025 budget without much fanfare.
The 15-person group would not be paid for their work under the proposal but the House pitched reimbursing members “for necessary traveling expenses incurred in the performance of their duties,” according to the text measure.
It’s unclear right now if that would cover potential airfare to Ireland. The commission is charged with holding “meetings at places it designates throughout the commonwealth, including diverse geographic locations.”
Healey, a granddaughter and great-granddaughter of Irish immigrants, has taken a keen interest in what Ireland may have to offer to Massachusetts.
During a speech to the Irish Senate in June 2023, Healey said the country is a “powerful and necessary” resource for advancing Massachusetts interests. She pointed to work on clean energy as one example.
“In Massachusetts, we’re leaning into offshore wind, embracing that as a technology where we know Ireland is also a leader in embracing what we need to do to address our climate situation,” she said.