Did you know that there is only two weeks left in this current legislative session (legislative sessions last 18 months in total and are kicked off after an election every two years).

So now you are thinking “well thanks for the update Drew, but why does this matter?”…well it matters because it will bring to light how the ongoing procrastination of our legislature, over the past 18 months, ultimately hurts you the residents of the commonwealth and leads to rushed and incomplete bills that are not fully reviewed / understood by the majority.

There are currently 24 bills that would be classified as “major” legislation that have been proposed during this 18 month session. Of those 24 bills…only ONE is currently scheduled to be on the Governors desk as of today. As a refresher, a bill has to pass the House, the Senate, and then needs to be approved by a joint Conference Committee that reconciles the differences between the two legislative bodies all BEFORE it goes to the governors desk for potential signature.

Out of the 24;

• 1 is scheduled for the Governors desk
• 2 have made it past the House/Senate Conference Committee
• 8 are currently in the House/Senate Conference Committee
• And the remaining 14 have not passed either the House or the Senate

Remember…this is the progress they have made after 18 MONTHS. Now back to these two weeks. Knowing these poor performance metrics…our legislators are actually spending more than the standard two days they are usually present up on Beacon Hill trying to accelerate the movement of these bills.

However, as you can imagen this rush leads to a hectic and chaotic atmosphere. An atmosphere which leads to the inability for our representatives who vote on these bills to at times have an actual understanding of the final form of the bill looks like.
Many of these bills are currently being negotiated in closed private meetings with senior leadership, away from the general voting base. Per reporting from the State House News Service…many of these bills come out of these private negotiations with in a few hours, and even at times minutes, before they are due for a vote on the floor. There is ZERO chance that a few hours or even a few minutes allows for the time needed for the legislators to fully review, digest or even comment on the “final” product…

And lets not even forget that it also leads almost ZERO time for you the public to even understand what your elected officials ae even voting on.
Even worse at times, there is the practice of bundling multiple bills into one “omnibus” bill…thereby allowing one speedy vote to be taken on legislation that may actually encompass many different issues. This forces legislators to potentially vote “yes” on a bill they would have voted no on had it been put on the floor as a one off.

This is broken process is a regular occurrence year after year on Beacon Hill, one that the average resident of the Commonwealth has NO idea is taking place…that is until the impacts of these rushed and uninformed decisions trickle down to their everyday lives which they ultimately do.
These significant pieces of legislation, that will have significant impacts on our state, deserve time, attention to detail, and most importantly transparency. There have been corrective measures that have been proposed session after session…measures to improve review timelines and public disclosure of legislation…and these corrective measures have been voted down each time by not only our current supermajority…but also our current Rep…Paul McMurtry.