The Codcast: Rules reform battle in House not over
By 
Two first-term legislators who tried unsuccessfully last week to change the way the speaker is selected say the fight for rules reform in the House is far from over.
Rep. Maria Robinson of Framingham and Rep. Patrick Kearney of Scituate said on the Codcast that a broader rules reform package is in the works, and one of their chief concerns is with the way rules are routinely suspended in the House.
“We can spend all the time in the world creating the best rules, but if they continue to be suspended then there’s nothing we can actually do to enforce that,” Robinson said. “There are lots of people who have concerns about that and who are looking at some larger rules reform for this upcoming session.”
Kearney said the House’s output is trending in the wrong direction. He said the House spent 1,200 hours in formal session during the 1985-1986 legislative session, but the chamber spent only 230 hours in formal session during the 2017-2018 session. Out of 5,000 bills filed during the last session, he said, only 500 made it to a floor vote and only 98 passed.
“I’m not saying nothing is getting done. I’m saying more needs to be done,” he said.
Robinson is an energy expert with a degree in chemical engineering from MIT and a masters in energy law from the University of Tulsa. Kearney, 23, is a graduate of Mass Maritime Academy and a licensed, certified Coast Guard captain.
Last week, Robinson filed a motion to have the Democratic caucus vote by secret ballot the next time it nominates a speaker. Her motion was backed by Kearney and a handful of other lawmakers, but it was rejected overwhelmingly on a voice vote even though the current rules required a roll call. Most of the lawmakers who spoke in opposition to the rules change said it would lessen transparency in the House by concealing how lawmakers vote for speaker.
Kearney said the rules change wouldn’t have reduced transparency because it would have only applied to the nomination process in the Democratic caucus; lawmakers still would have been required to take a public vote for speaker in the House chamber. “So there is nothing that is not transparent about it,” Kearney said. “It would eliminate some of the punishment, the retaliation structure in the House and it would also prevent some of these grudges that are held over decades.”
George Bachrach, a former state senator and Democratic pundit, commended Robinson and Kearney for their courage in pushing for change. He said the big problem on Beacon Hill is the concentration of power in the hands of the speaker and Senate president, who appoint all the leaders in their respective branches, determine how much they get paid through the dispensation of leadership stipends, and have total control over the flow of legislation.
“That much power has a chilling effect on democracy in the Legislature,” said Bachrach, who added that one way of dealing with the concentration of power is to impose term limits on legislative leaders and elected officials in general. House rules limited a speaker’s reign to eight years until early 2017, when Speaker Robert DeLeo successfully changed the rules to allow him to continue serving.
Once an opponent of term limits, Bachrach said he has come to see the restriction on time in office as necessary. “In the public domain, staying too long disconnects you from the real world,” he said. “Power engenders to some degree intellectual corruption and term limits can help with that.”
Both Kearney and Robinson said rules reform in the House wasn’t a big issue in their campaigns for election. But they both said they will continue to push for changes in the way the House operates. “Nothing is going to change in the House if someone doesn’t ask for it,” Kearney said.
“I am, perhaps unlike many other legislators, less concerned about my reelection and more concerned about my effectiveness as a legislator,” Robinson said. “I’ve said this from the very beginning. I took a 50 percent pay cut to be a full-time legislator and this is my No. 1 priority. Making sure that we actually implement small-d democracy in the House is a very big priority for me.”
BRUCE MOHL
BEACON HILL
Newcomers to Beacon Hill seeking to change the culture there aren’t getting a lot of support so far from their colleagues, but they are getting a lot of press attention. Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa of Northampton is profiled by Western Mass Politics and Insight and WGBH talks to Rep. Nika Elugardo of Jamaica Plain. The Berkshire Eagle, meanwhile, sizes up the House and Senate in an editorial and likes what it sees from Senate President Karen Spilka.
State tax collections were off $542 million from target levels in December. (State House News)
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh will ask legislators to allow him to raise the linkage fees assessed to developers to fund housing and job training programs. (Boston Globe) Joe Battenfeld says the laundry list of legislation being filed by Mayor Marty Walsh looks like something out of the liberal “Elizabeth Warren playbook.” (Boston Herald)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
US Rep. Ayanna Pressley wants furloughed federal workers to be given back pay for any paychecks they miss during the federal government shutdown. (Boston Globe) The Globe profiles new US Rep. Lori Trahan.
National security advisor John Bolton contradicts President Trump’s declaration and says US troops will remain in Syria until ISIS is eradicated there. (Washington Post)
For the first time since 1914, every state legislature but one is controlled by one party. The one exception is Minnesota. (Governing)
Boston Herald columnist Adriana Cohen says Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is “clueless” about tax policy. New York Times columnist (and Nobel Prize-winning economist) Paul Krugman says her call for 70 percent marginal tax rates on top earners puts the newly-elected New York congresswoman in line with 35 years of post-World War II tax policy that coincided with the largest economic growth in US history.
George Bachrach condemns the Trump administration’s push for a border wall, saying it is an affront to America’s creed. (CommonWealth)
A Herald editorial urges Democrats to chill any talk of impeachment and focus on “pressing issues instead of lingering grudges.”
ELECTIONS
Iowa voters shopping for a 2020 presidential candidate to take on Donald Trump got a glimpse of one, Elizabeth Warren, who made an early trip to the state this weekend. (New York Times) WGBH’s Adam Reilly takes stock of Warren’s foray, concluding among other things that she’s a better retail campaigner than people may appreciate and the issue of her Native American ancestry has not gone away.
UMass President Marty Meehan praises Niki Tsongas and the dying art of bipartisanship. (CommonWealth)
With businesses taking their appeal of the Massachusetts ban on corporate campaign contributions to the US Supreme Court, Paul Craney of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance runs the numbers on the “union loophole.” (CommonWealth)
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Hosts are scrambling to figure out how to comply with new regulations governing home-share rentals like Airbnb. (Boston Globe)
Biotech industry leaders are nervous about the year ahead. (Boston Globe)
A MetroWest Daily News editorial calls for a special teen minimum wage
EDUCATION
There’s a substitute teacher shortage in Massachusetts. (WBUR)
A Globe editorial says Boston should make allowances for students to remain in its high schools when they turn 22 — and the state should step in to fund the English as Second Language programs many of these students need.
Northeastern University president Joseph Aoun says Boston can be a global hub for artificial intelligence research and development. (Boston Globe)
HEALTH/HEALTH CARE
Is marijuana legalization a big mistake that will drive up violent crime and mental health illness rates? Former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson sounds a warning. (New York Times)
Boston Marathon bombing survivor Adrianne Haslet is hospitalized after being hit by a car not far from the site of the bombings. (Boston Globe)
TRANSPORTATION
A tunnel connecting the commuter rail and the subway at North Station opens. (Boston Globe)
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
The state’s Appellate Tax Board approves a tax exemption for big solar farms across the state, which could crimp the finances of many of the farms’ hometowns. (Telegram & Gazette)
Cameron Peterson and Patrick Roche of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council say electricity aggregation success extends beyond Newton. (CommonWealth)
CASINOS/MARIJUANA
A Nevada judge continued to bar the Massachusetts Gaming Commission from releasing a report on Steve Wynn and Wynn Resorts that contains disputed documents. (Boston Herald)
Boston City Councilor Lydia Edwards says marijuana entrepreneurs should come from the city’s neighborhoods. (CommonWealth)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
Actor Kevin Spacey, who faces arraignment today on Nantucket on sexual assault charges, had a “show-cause” hearing last month at which his lawyers tried, but failed, to end the case against him. (Boston Globe)
The Supreme Judicial Court will hear arguments tomorrow from the Department of Correction on why convicted sex offender Wayne Chapman should be kept behind bars despite a finding by two court-approved examiners that he is no longer dangerous. (Boston Herald)
MEDIA
Susan Zirinsky is named president of CBS News. (CNN)
Leona Benoit, a committed Stoughton peace activist, died at age 105. (The Enterprise)