Senate President Karen Spilka has criticized the months-long delay in addressing major legislation, calling the lack of progress “unacceptable.” In a statement provided to CommonWealth Beacon, Spilka said lawmakers must act on unfinished bills as residents face rising energy bills and an ongoing housing crisis. She also indicated she may want to reverse the extension of the legislative deadline in the next two-year term.
“Prolonged inaction on many of the major bills currently in conference as residents face rising energy bills and an ongoing housing crisis is unacceptable,” Spilka said. “Unless we see movement soon, I cannot support extending the time for conference negotiations again in our joint rules next session.” Spilka said the Senate stands ready to resolve the many conference reports still pending.
Spilka issued her statement in response to a CommonWealth Beacon inquiry about the state of play on Beacon Hill for the eight remaining weeks of the term. When asked how she plans to manage more than 40 discrete policy decisions still pending across a dozen conference committees, she said, “If the recent midterms taught us anything, it’s that voters expect their elected officials to take meaningful action to reduce costs and improve lives. I agree. The Legislature must act with a sense of urgency to lower energy costs, make primary care more accessible, make schools cell phone free and increase transparency in government, among other things.”
House Speaker Ron Mariano offered a different perspective, stating, “It’s important to understand that these are complex policy decisions that take time, and often many conversations and meetings to resolve. That being said, the new rules have allowed the Legislature more time to work diligently to reach the best possible policy outcomes – understanding that the content of the final product is far more important than reaching an agreement quickly solely for the sake of doing so.” Mariano’s office did not immediately respond to a CommonWealth Beacon inquiry Monday morning about Spilka’s newly expressed dissatisfaction.
This is the first term in which lawmakers granted themselves codified authority to continue their talks over significant proposals this late in the cycle. For more than 30 years, legislative rules held that no formal sessions could take place after July 31 in the second year of the two-year term, meaning the only bills that could be touched in those five-plus months were uncontroversial measures that had unanimous support. But lawmakers are prone to procrastination, and even though Democrats dominate both chambers, the House and Senate often struggle to get on the same page.
This time around, legislative leaders agreed to a new approach: As long as both chambers each approved their version of a bill by July 31, they can reconvene in a formal session to approve a final compromise any time before the term ends on January 5, 2027. House and Senate Democrats both endorsed codifying the idea early last year after using an ad-hoc version of it in the 2023-2024 term. In fact, Spilka herself used her inaugural speech on the first day of t
