Following the recent Joint Rule 10 deadline by which most Joint Committees must issue their recommendations for the next steps of bills under their review, I am looking forward to continuing to pursue much of my legislative agenda.

Four bills I filed received favorable reports and will continue to move forward in the legislative process. Highlighting these successes is the Joint Committee on Housing’s favorable report of H.3838, An Act to create and implement a Massachusetts Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool Program to address the medically complex needs of disabled men, women, and children experiencing homelessness. This legislation will braid public and private funding to meet the needs of homeless individuals, families, and unaccompanied youth across the continuum of care.

Two of my bills before the Joint Committee on Children, Families, and Persons with Disabilities also received favorable reports. An Act to provide notice to counsel of changes in a child’s or a young adult’s placement and other events (H.253) requires the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to provide notice to legal counsel in advance of proposed non-emergency placement changes and to provide prompt notice immediately following an emergency placement, and An Act relative to basing dispositional orders on a child’s best interest (H.3776) eliminates the requirement that a probation officer’s report is filed for every decision regarding placement orders. An Act relative to condominiums (H.3008), which would close a loophole that exempts from assessment land slated to be developed into condominiums, received a favorable report from the Joint Committee on Revenue.

Three of my priority bills received extension orders, allowing the Joint Committees extra time to review bills further before issuing their report. These include An Act to create access to justice (H.1792), which empowers individuals to seek redress against discrimination by government policies; An Act relative to a streaming entertainment operator’s use of the public rights-of-way (H.130), which ensures that local cable and community media centers continue to be financially sustainable by including streaming services among those entities assessed a fee for their use of the municipal public rights-of-way; and An Act relative to waivers for non-fault overpayments (H.4202), which expands and shapes the current criteria to evaluate a repayment waiver application and alleviates burdens on the Commonwealth’s residents and the department of unemployment assistance (DUA).  

For more updates on the rest of my legislative agenda, view our press release on the topic here.

In an effort to ensure greater accountability on behalf of our veterans and their families, the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed legislation on February 10 that makes key reforms to the governance structure of the veterans’ homes. These include provisions that will ensure homes are federally licensed as health care facilities, mandate increased state management, and provide independent oversight and accountability of veterans’ homes management.

“An Act relative to the governance, structure and care of veterans at the Commonwealth veterans’ homes” (H.4441):

The legislation is now before the Senate.