Yesterday, when Governor Charlie Baker testified before the Legislature about his administration’s vaccine rollout, there was a stunning degree of disconnect on display.
Baker refused to take any ownership for the failures to date and denied the lack of planning and equity that has been seen and documented across the commonwealth.
As Sen. Jo Comerford said, “This is where we were in two worlds. The committee was in one world. The Baker administration was in another.”
Fortunately, the Legislature can do something about it: they can pass laws.
The Vaccine Equity bill (SD.699 / HD.1283), filed by Senators Becca Rausch and Sonia Chang-Diaz and Representatives Liz Miranda and Mindy Domb, would ensure that equity is prioritized in the vaccine rollout in Massachusetts, recognizing that we can only have a successful recovery if it is an equitable one.
Can you write to your state legislators today about the urgency of passing the Vaccine Equity bill?
Playing by the Best Rules
If the Legislature is going to start diving into the work of the new legislative session in earnest, they need to pass a set of Joint Rules. These Joint Rules govern how committees operate and how bills can proceed.
But due to opposition to basic transparency measures from the MA House, there is no agreement yet on these basic operating procedures.
The transparency measures embraced by the Senate are both essential and non-controversial:
- Publishing committee roll call votes online
- Making testimony accessible to the public with appropriate redactions (as with any other public record)
- Extending the notice period for hearings to one week
All of these steps will help legislators do their own jobs better and strengthen the participatory nature of our democracy.
A Conference Committee of three senators and three representatives is currently negotiating what that final set of Joint Rules will look like.
Can you email the Conference Committee today in support of an open and transparent process?
(If the auto-fill email above doesn’t appear, you can use the template here.)
