Heather Ford, “LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Legislators Should Finish Their Work on Bills that Can’t Wait,” Westwood Minute, August 18, 2024.

To the Editor:

Massachusetts has a Democratic governing trifecta (Governor, Senate, and House) again. However, when seeing the productive legislative sessions in other new Democratic trifectas like Michigan or Minnesota, I am disappointed.

As has become the unfortunate norm on Beacon Hill, the House and Senate ran out the clock on many important priorities, adjourning on July 31st (well, the morning of August 1st) with a long list of unfinished business. We’re experiencing the hottest summer on record, and they passed no climate bill. Several other bills are stuck in dead-end negotiations, and that’s not to mention all the bills that never even made it that far.

Our Legislature’s over-centralization of power, inertia, and complacency will require deep cultural change (or the shocks of election losses). But in the near term, the Legislature should do something simple: come back into session and finish their work. The economic development bill has important policy components, such as keeping high school seniors out of adult prisons and strengthening our public health infrastructure (both in the Senate bill), and we shouldn’t have to wait until next year to start all over again. The same for climate legislation: Mother Nature doesn’t wait, and neither should the Legislature. We need robust legislation that centers environmental justice and includes a clear plan to transition away from gas.

The Legislature struggled to pass bills that had wide support in the last legislative session. The SAPHE 2.0 bill, which would strengthen our public health infrastructure, passed both chambers unanimously in 2022 before being vetoed by our former Republican governor. A moratorium on new prison and jail construction was passed with wide support before the same fate. It would only be rational to think that the Legislature would prioritize such bills and take care of them at the start of the legislative session. Instead, the prison moratorium has yet to see a vote, and the SAPHE 2.0 bill is stuck in the conference committee for the economic development bill (with clear support only from the Senate).

Going back into session will mean the Legislature will do what it is supposed to: deliberate, legislative, and vote.

Sincerely,

Heather T. Ford

Westwood, MA