By Bob Katzen
The House 128-23, adopted joint House-Senate rules on how the Legislature operates for the 2025-2026 session. The Senate has already approved its own version of joint rules and the House version now goes to the Senate for consideration.
The vote was strictly along party lines with all Democrats voting for the package and all Republicans voting against it.
Provisions include requiring joint committees to provide and then post online plain-language summaries of all bills in time for their hearings; requiring committees, when reporting a bill favorably, to provide a document showing any changes made by the committee to the underlying bill and any changes the bill makes to existing law; and requiring all testimony given to committees to be made publicly available in a manner to be determined by each committee.
Other provisions include prohibiting committee members from participating in a hearing remotely and requiring that they be physically present at a hearing in order to participate; allowing the public to testify remotely at a hearing; requiring how each individual member votes on polls conducted by the committees to be posted online; and extending the time allowed for formal sessions in the first year of the session from the current third Wednesday in November to the third Wednesday in December.
The second year of formal sessions will continue to end on July 31, but under the new rules, the House and Senate would be allowed to return to a formal session to act on reports of conference committees formed by July 31, budget bills and gubernatorial actions including vetoes of items in conference reports.
“There are many things in our rules package that align closely with the Senate proposals,” said Majority Leader Rep. Mike Moran (D-Boston). “The House went even further to alleviate the logjam of bills at the end of the session by requiring that bills be voted out of committee in a timely manner after a public hearing. And our constituents will know exactly how the members of a committee handle the bill process when we post hearing attendance and committee votes online. These are meaningful reforms.”
“I opposed the Joint Rules package because it did not go far enough in reforming the legislative process to improve transparency and public access,” said Rep. Steven Xiarhos (R-Barnstable). “We need stronger measures to prevent last-minute legislating behind closed doors and to guarantee a more open, deliberative process.”
(A “Yes” vote is for the new joint rules. A “No” vote is against them.)
Rep. Christine Barber Yes Rep. Mike Connolly Yes Rep. Paul Donato Yes Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven Yes