PM in the News: “With Mass. House set to vote on its rules, is transparency a priority or a talking point?”

Abigail Pritchard, “With Mass. House set to vote on its rules, is transparency a priority or a talking point?,” New Bedford Light, February 24, 2025.

Jonathan Cohn, the policy director at Progressive Massachusetts, said that this reform would increase efficiency and help supporters of bills know whether their bills are dead or still up for discussion. Most bills die in committee on an unclear timeline, Cohn said.

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At an action hour on government transparency that Progressive Massachusetts and other organizations hosted Feb. 19, Cohn suggested that the public should have as much time to prepare for a hearing as they need to request time off from work — at least two weeks.

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Hille and Cohn, of Progressive Massachusetts, credit the growing political movement for transparency with increasing pressure for the proposed rules reforms. Both are hopeful about the House and Senate adopting reforms, but said those can only go so far.

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Cohn also credits Cambridge’s Evan MacKay with pushing the legislature toward rules reforms. MacKay ran against long-time incumbent Rep. Marjorie Decker last year, losing narrowly after a campaign that criticized the legislature for lack of transparency and consolidation of power. 

“I think that they’re mindful of not wanting to give challengers talking points against them,” Cohn said, “and if that means doing the things that we’re criticizing you for not doing and not making public, I take that as a win.”

PM in the News: “Spill of the Hill: Healey hears it from both sides”

Mike Deehan, “Spill of the Hill: Healey hears it from both sides,” Axios Boston, January 22, 2025.

“What they’re saying: “Governor Maura Healey is using this moment to sound Trumpian in her approach to emergency shelter,” Progressive Massachusetts policy director Jonathan Cohn wrote in response to Healey’s proposed shelter changes.

He called Healey’s move “straight out of the playbook of the soon-to-be-president and the right-wing Republicans in Congress.””

PM in the News: “Reformists sense momentum as new state legislative session begins”

Alexi Cohan and Adam Reilly, “Reformists sense momentum as new state legislative session begins,” WGBH, January 2, 2025.

“I appreciate that Spilka and Mariano both seem to be getting the message of the larger Question 1 victory last fall — that voters expect a greater degree of transparency from the Legislature,” Jonathan Cohn, the political director of the group Progressive Mass, told GBH News.

“Reforms like making committee votes and testimony public, which Spilka named, are long overdue and should just be the start,” he added. “Our Legislature really is an outlier among states in its lack of transparency, and we need the Democrats in the Legislature to model what good blue-state governance looks like — that it can be open and ambitious.”

PM in the News: “Progressive groups urge Beacon Hill to make anti-Trump push before year’s end”

Adam Reilly, “Progressive groups urge Beacon Hill to make anti-Trump push before year’s end,” WGBH, December 11, 2024.

Jonathan Cohn, the political director of the group Progressive Mass, told GBH News that given the way the Legislature usually operates, waiting until the start of a new session next year to begin initiating safeguards would be a mistake.

“Our legislature moves very slowly,” Cohn said. “What we often see, session after session, is that little in the way of legislation beyond the state budget will happen for the first half of the year in a new session … Things so often just get pushed back later and later and later , creating that bottleneck that [then] exists in July of an even-numbered year.

“With Trump 2.0 coming in January, we can’t wait until July of 2026 to be preparing our state for what’ll be happening,” he added. “It’s also far too late, and not nearly as proactive as we should be … to be even waiting until the middle ofnext year.”

PM in the News: Progressives Urge Action Before Trump Takes Office

Chris Lisinski, “Progressives Urge Action Before Trump Takes Office,” State House News Service, December 11, 2024.

Calling on Democrats to “be proactive, and not merely be reactive,” progressive groups urged Beacon Hill to take significant action on immigration, civil rights and reproductive health care before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

More than a dozen groups wrote to top legislative Democrats and Gov. Maura Healey on Tuesday with a series of requests, including eleventh-hour formal sessions to muscle through legislation they believe would better safeguard Bay Staters from the policies of Trump, who scored a convincing win last month over Kamala Harris.

In their letter, authors including representatives from Progressive Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition pointed to California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom called a special session to reinforce state laws that could be affected by Trump’s second term.

“If old patterns hold, then the Legislature will reconvene in January, committees will be assigned in February, hearings will continue for the next year, and little if any legislation will be passed and signed into law in the first half of 2025,” the groups said in their letter to House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka. “We saw the damage of the first Trump administration, and we cannot afford that wait.”

They praised the Legislature for prior efforts to “proactively respond to right-wing federal action,” including enactment of a law shielding abortion providers and out-of-state patients from legal action originating elsewhere following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The groups also asked Healey to create a state-funded legal defense fund to support court fights over topics such as reproductive health care, form compacts with other “like-minded states,” and prioritize state contracts and investments for “companies that align with progressive values.”

Legislative leaders, who preside over Democrat supermajorities and are working with a Democrat in the corner office, have signaled no plans to take up any Trump-inspired legislation before the new term starts Jan. 1.

They also displayed little to no appetite earlier in the term for tackling the specific proposals progressive groups highlighted, including the so-called Safe Communities Act, which has long been a source of debate but for several straight terms never moved forward for a House or Senate vote.

PM in the News: Progressives Push for Preemptive Action on Trump 2.0

Kelly Garrity, “Progressives push for preemptive action on Trump 2.0,” POLITICO, December 11, 2024.

NOW NOT LATER — With just over a month until Donald Trump returns to the White House, more than a dozen progressive and grassroots groups are urging the state’s Democratic leaders not to wait to strengthen state laws for rights they say are likely to come under fire in the next administration.

In letters sent to Gov. Maura Healey and top legislative leaders, the coalition calls on Beacon Hill’s Big Three to get the ball rolling now, before the current legislative session ends on Dec. 31.

“States like Massachusetts have a responsibility to lead and push back: we must refuse to comply everywhere we can, we must shore up protections for marginalized communities in the Commonwealth, and we must chart a clear course for what accountable progressive governance looks like and how it delivers for us all,” the letter to Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano reads.

The organizations backing the push: Signatories include groups like Indivisible Massachusetts Coalition, Progressive Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition, Act On Mass and Our Revolution Massachusetts.

What they want: The groups are asking Healey to call the Legislature back for a formal session “as soon as possible.”

They’re also calling on the governor to create a “legal defense fund” that would support civil rights litigation, and are urging Healey to join Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’ “Governors Safeguarding Democracy” group.

And they want to see the Legislature pass bills that would ensure no state resources are used in assisting federal immigration enforcement and end ICE detention in the state.

PM in the News: “With Ballot Question 1, A Test of Trust in the Massachusetts State Legislature”

Jack Trapanick, “With Ballot Question 1, A Test of Trust in the Massachusetts State Legislature,” Harvard Crimson, October 22, 2024.

Jonathan Cohn, policy director at Progressive Mass, pointed out that it was difficult to get any internal information about the legislature’s workings. Neither its committee votes nor hearing testimony are available to the public.

“We hold the status of being the only state where the governor’s office, the legislature, and the judiciary, all claim full exemption from the public records law,” he said.

The legislature, Cohn added, “doesn’t view information, in general, as the public good” — though he conceded that the measure was likely to face a lawsuit if it passes.

PM in the News: “Federal funds go to migrant support in Boston shelters”

Sarah Betancourt, “Federal funds go to migrant support in Boston shelters,” WGBH, November 25, 2024.

I do think that having that money come in now is especially important because supportive money on that front might not be there once the Republicans in D.C. get their hands on the budget,” said Jonathan Cohn, policy director for Progressive Massachusetts.

Boston also has the Trust Act, an ordinance that prohibits police from asking people about their immigration status, sharing information with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, making arrests as a result of ICE warrants, and transferring people to immigration custody.

“We shouldn’t put ourselves in a situation where we don’t have funding because the federal government says ‘We’ll only give you this funding if you repeal this Trust Act,”’ said Cohn. He recommends the city do everything it can to boost resources before January.

“So we continue to be a welcoming space to refugees coming here and can give them a place to stay while they eventually can get a work permit or can get safe housing elsewhere,” he said.

Cohn also said that while other cities and towns have similar language to the Trust Act, this could be an opportunity for the state to pass something that is a “statewide provision,” that standardizes rules around cooperating with immigration enforcement across communities.

PM in the News: “Playing the Trump Card on Shelter Limits”

Kelly Garrity, “Playing the Trump Card on Shelter Limits,” Politico, November 25, 2024.

“Next year, as Trump is president, some of the imagery around the state kicking out families — that happening under a Trump presidency will definitely increase a certain emotional reaction,” Jonathan Cohn, the policy director at Progressive Massachusetts, told Playbook.

In an interview on MSNBC shortly after the election, Healey said that Massachusetts State Police would “absolutely not” assist if asked by Trump’s administration to help execute mass deportations. That, Cohn said, is “a clear disconnect” from the message her office is sending at home.