Yesterday, the Massachusetts House and Senate adopted for the first time since 2019 major structural adjustments to how the House and Senate will work together. The new rules reshape legislative timelines, the flow of bills through committees and what information is publicly available.
Below is a summary of the rules package changes detailed in S. 2545:
JOINT COMMITTEE CHANGES:
- Public hearings will receive 10 days of notice instead of the current 72-hours.
- Bill summaries and written testimony submitted will be publicly available.
- Committee votes will be recorded and posted online, as will lawmakers’ attendance at hearings.
- Senators will vote on Senate bills and Representatives will vote on House bills coming out of joint committees.
- Bills must be reported on by joint committees by the first Wednesday in December of the first year of a session.
- Representatives will have just 60 days to report House bills out after the public hearing date, with an optional 30-day extension.
EXCEPTIONS TO JULY 31 END OF SESSION:
The legislature can now meet in formal sessions after its traditional July 31 end-of-formal-sessions deadline in the second year of a term if they are taking up (1) new compromise text that results from conference committee negotiations already underway, (2) appropriation bills filed after July 31, or (3) gubernatorial vetoes or amendments.
AKC Government Relations (GR) will continue to provide updates on Massachusetts legislation as developments warrant. For more information on this or other legislative issues in Massachusetts, contact AKC GR at 919-816-3720 or doglaw@akc.org; or the Massachusetts Federation of Dog Clubs and Responsible Dog Owners at info@massfeddogs.org.