IT WAS SEVERAL DAYS before the end of the 2018 legislative session, and Ron Mariano and Jim Welch were in difficult negotiations over a health care bill. Mariano, the House majority leader, and Welch, then-Senate chair of the Health Care Financing Committee, were the lead negotiators in a conference committee trying to reach agreement on how to stabilize community hospitals. Mariano made a […]
Massachusetts House of Representatives
Posted inOpinion
Don’t expect change for the better under Mariano
ALL SIGNS POINT to House Majority Leader Ron Mariano being elected the next speaker of the Massachusetts House. What does a Mariano speakership mean for a progressive policy agenda in Massachusetts? As Reps. Denise Provost and Jonathan Hecht remind us, he shares the same top-down leadership style as Speaker Bob DeLeo, with an even more […]
Posted inUncategorized
Massachusetts House holds first remote session
A MASK-WEARING House Speaker Robert DeLeo on Wednesday presided over what he called a “historic day” – the first time the Massachusetts House has voted on a bill remotely. “It’s not lost on us the significance of what we’re trying to attempt to do — the first remote session in the 400-year history of the […]
Posted inPolitics
House Democrats, Republicans reach rules compromise
AFTER A TESTY battle that lasted for several days, Republicans and Democrats in the Massachusetts House have agreed to a compromise on rules that will allow them to debate bills and vote remotely. The House on Monday adopted the temporary emergency rules and planned to meet Wednesday in a full formal session, with remote participation, […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Republicans allege power grab in rules debate
THE NORMALLY CONGENIAL dealings of the Massachusetts House of Representatives turned into a scene of vituperative charges and countercharges being hurled across the partisan divide on Wednesday as lawmakers struggled to devise a plan for how to conduct business amidst the coronavirus pandemic. House Speaker Robert DeLeo accused House Republicans of putting House members and […]