Letter: Beacon Hill’s legislative process is broken

Al Blake, “Letter: Beacon Hill’s Legislative Process Is Broken,” Berkshire Eagle, August 6, 2014.

To the editor: Thank you for your Aug. 3 editorial “This is (still) no way to legislate.”

This session was a missed opportunity to make the commonwealth a climate leader. The Legislature’s inaction is a grave disappointment to anyone who cares about saving our planet.

This session was a chance to make serious progress slowing the expansion of our dirty and expensive methane gas system, but instead legislative leadership got tied up in political spats and chose not to extend the session and finish the job.

This comes after a year and a half of advocacy that included hundreds of meetings and thousands of calls and signatures to legislators. Many of the most popular policy proposals received vast majorities of legislative co-sponsors, yet House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka did not allow them to come for a vote.

Many policies “died in committee,” where politicians take secret votes that their constituents are not able to see. Many more died in the backroom process where amendments to bills were withdrawn before they had a chance to receive a vote.

The legislative process is broken, and undue influence from corporations routinely blocks popular and effective legislation in favor of utility and developer profits.

We can do better, and we must.

Al Blake, Becket

Missed Our Legislative Update? You Can Still Watch (And Take Action)

On Monday, we hosted an update to go over what happened this legislative session and what still could happen if we make our voices heard.

Watch the video here.

One point we underscored is that even though the Legislature adjourned on July 31 (well, technically, the morning of August 1), the full legislative session doesn’t end until next January. That means that they could come back into session at any point to finish important business, especially passing a robust and equitable climate bill that centers environmental justice and includes a transition away from gas.

But they are not likely to do that unless they hear from you, their constituents. So take a minute today to email your legislators.

Protect the Right to Shelter

Massachusetts prides itself on being a welcoming state, but Governor Healey’s cruel and unnecessary restrictions on emergency shelter run afoul of that.

Join the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless and the Mass Law Reform Institute tonight at 7 pm in front of the State House for a candlelight vigil in support of children and families experiencing homelessness.

For more information, head to https://mahomeless.org/protect-access-to-shelter/.

Letter: “Beacon Hill’s two-bosses problem”

Jonathan Cohn, “Beacon Hill’s two-bosses problem (Letter),” Boston Globe, August 10, 2024.

When talking about the dysfunction and over-centralization of the Massachusetts State House, I often describe the building as having a “two-bosses problem.” In most jobs, the person who decides whether to hire and fire you and the person who controls your pay are the same person: what we call a boss. However, in the Legislature, there’s a split: The people who hire and fire you are your constituents, who can exert that power every election, and the people who decide your pay are the legislative leadership, who can dole out the perks with chairs, vice chairs, and other positions (something that’s been sharply detailed in Globe reporting).

Massachusetts is notorious for having among the least competitive elections in the country (in recent years, we’ve ranked dead last), and most legislators will skate by uncontested year after year, never having to meaningfully defend a record to their constituents. Next month’s primary is but the latest example. Whether through more competitive elections or more vocal advocacy, the collective boss of “we the people” needs to do more to remind legislators whom they ultimately serve.

Jonathan Cohn

Policy director

Progressive Mass

Boston

PM in the News: “Beacon Hill faces calls for culture change after chaotic end of session”

Chris Van Buskirk, “Beacon Hill faces calls for culture change after chaotic end of session,” Boston Herald, August 4, 2024.

“Jonathan Cohn, the policy director at Progressive Massachusetts, said there is a “real downside” to having a permanent supermajority in both branches “that never feels the urgency of any issues.”

“For them to change, I think ultimately, some people will have to lose their seats because of it. I think that too often, the House and Senate operate like incumbent protection rackets,” he told the Herald.”

Eagle Tribune: “Mass. legislative process is out of whack”

The Editorial Board, “Mass. legislative process is out of whack,” The Eagle Tribune, August 3, 2024.

“The Legislature ran out the clock on passing meaningful legislation on climate change, despite our living through a summer that continues to break heat records,” said Progressive Massachusetts policy director Jonathan Cohn.

“The Legislature whittled away at the policy components of Gov. Healey’s housing bond bill, caving to real estate interests and ignoring public opinion. We have a housing crisis and a climate crisis, and our Legislature is in clear denial about both,” he said.

WGBH: “Why does the Massachusetts Legislature wait so long to do so much?”

Adam Reilly, “Why does the Massachusetts Legislature wait so long to do so much?,” WGBH, August 2, 2024.

“Jonathan Cohn, the political directorof the group Progressive Massachusetts, argues that this dynamic creates a structural problem that naturally leads to a slowed-down pace.

“In any system … if you have too few people in charge of too many decisions, you get a bottleneck effect,” Cohn said. “And you have that with the Legislature, where you know that the decision making is ultimately Ron Mariano’s decision about what’s in the bill, Karen Spilka’s decision about what’s in the bill … If it’s all just coming through one person, that just slows everything down even more.”

But Cohn also believes there’s a tactical consideration at play. By finalizing key legislation at the last minute, he says — and packing individual bills with a sprawling array of provisions on a particular topic — the House and Senate pave the way for marathon negotiating sessions just prior to the session’s end, in which each side defers to its counterpart in some areas and has the favor returned in others.

“Almost to a person, they’ll just all be back in January,” Cohn, of Progressive Mass, said of state lawmakers. “A handful of retirements. Maybe somebody might lose a seat in a primary or general. But they’ll all be back. And there’s often a way in which they just see it as, ‘Well, we didn’t finish now. We’ll come back in a few months and maybe we’ll pass it then.’ … It flattens the sense of time, because if it happens now, if it happens next year, it’s all the same.”

The Eagle Tribune: “Lawmakers recess, leaving many loose ends”

Christian Wade, “Lawmakers recess, leaving many loose ends,” The Eagle Tribune, August 2, 2024.

“Rather than advancing a robust, shared legislative agenda throughout the past year and a half, our Legislature pushed so many important priorities off to the very end of the session, creating bottlenecks and setting themselves up for failure,” said Jonathan Cohn, policy director at the group Progressive Massachusetts. “It does not have to be this way.”

Statement about Beacon Hill’s Adjournment after a Dysfunctional, Unproductive Session

Jonathan Cohn, policy director of Progressive Massachusetts, released the following statement from the organization about the Legislature’s adjournment with key work left undone

“We are disappointed and appalled to see the ostensibly full-time House and Senate adjourn this morning after failing to take decisive action on so many key issues. 

Rather than advancing a robust shared legislative agenda throughout the past year and a half, our Legislature pushed so many important priorities off to the very end of the session, creating bottlenecks and setting themselves up for failure. 

It does not have to be this way. Why is it? Because of a State House Leadership that is overly deferential to corporate interests and lacking in vision, an autocratic internal structure, and the learned helplessness of too much of the rank-and-file. 

The Legislature ran out the clock on passing meaningful legislation on climate change, despite our living through a summer that continues to break heat records. The Legislature whittled away at the policy components of Governor Healey’s housing bond bill, caving to real estate interests and ignoring public opinion. We have a housing crisis and a climate crisis, and our Legislature is in clear denial about both. 

The list of bills left stalled or defeated through inaction is long and includes legislation that one or both chambers have passed overwhelmingly in past sessions. Next year, we fully expect many of these bills to be refiled, and the Legislature will hold hearings on them in which they will pretend to hear about them for the first time, an insult to the public’s intelligence and their own. 

Advocates have worked hard this session to build momentum for legislation on housing, climate, criminal legal reform, maternal health justice, health care reform, and countless other issues. Their voices, backed by robust public support for action, should be heard. 

The ongoing Veepstakes has highlighted the prolific legislating of narrowly held Democratic majorities in Michigan and Minnesota. When Democrats finally achieved governing trifectas, they immediately went to work to pass long lists of held-up priorities, showing what can be done when the government prioritizes the well-being of the public. Massachusetts likewise finally achieved a Democratic governing trifecta (despite long having the third largest Democratic supermajority in the country) and instead demonstrated dysfunction and lack of ambition. As Vice President Kamala Harris is trying to make the case to the American public that voters should give Democrats a trifecta in DC this November, our Legislature isn’t just failing the people of the commonwealth; they continue to fail the whole country.” 

The 193rd legislative session of the Massachusetts General Court has been historically unproductive. As of July 29, fewer than 230 bills had been signed into law across the two years of the session. By contrast, the last several legislative sessions saw 564 (2021-2022), 539 (2019-2020), 626 (2017-2018), 635 (2015-2016), and 701 (2013-2014) bills signed into law. 

Of the 227 bills signed into law this session as of Monday, 203 were about one city, one town, one person, or a combination of several towns. 

Progressive Massachusetts is a statewide, multi-issue, membership-based advocacy organization focused on shared prosperity, racial and social justice, strong democracy, and environmental sustainability. The organization was founded in 2013 and has 21 chapters across the Commonwealth. 

CommonWealth Beacon: “Why are so many amendments being withdrawn on Beacon Hill?”

Gintautas Dumcius, “Why are so many amendments being withdrawn on Beacon Hill?,” CommonWealth Beacon, July 30, 2024.

“It’s an idiosyncrasy that drives some crazy, while others say it’s just pols being pols. The quirk isn’t limited to the Senate. Progressive Massachusetts noted that the House’s version of a climate bill drew 107 amendments, and 91 ended up withdrawn. “Our great deliberative body,” the advocacy group sarcastically posted last month to X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.

According to Jonathan Cohn, the group’s policy director, the strategic case for moving a policy issue forward by taking to the floor via an amendment, even if it gets withdrawn, rests on the idea that enough people see or hear the speeches. “I don’t mean to burst the bubble of legislators, but people don’t watch it,” he said. Writing an opinion piece has more impact than a floor speech, which he likened to “fan service.”

“Filing an amendment, getting a handful of supporters and then saying, ‘I’m done, I’m withdrawing it,’ doesn’t move the ball forward,” Cohn added.

It also highlights the decline of debates. As the State House News Service summary of the Senate’s passage of a housing bill noted, “There was little disagreement and few divided votes.”

Beacon Hill observers say some lawmakers would prefer not to be put on the record about a topic that could cost them support, or even worse, reelection. That amounts to an “incumbent protection racket,” Cohn said.”