No date circled for special mop-up session with legislative leaders

The lights were off outside House Speaker Ron Mariano’s third-floor State House office at around 11 p.m. on July 31.

The lights were off outside House Speaker Ron Mariano’s third-floor State House office at around 11 p.m. on July 31. CHRIS LISINSKI/STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

By CHRIS LISINSKI

State House News Service

Published: 08-06-2024 2:16 PM

Legislative leaders have few specifics ironed out for a potential return to formal business after they failed to find agreement last week on a major jobs bill and several other popular proposals.

With Beacon Hill now fully ensconced in summer vacation mode, House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka signaled late Friday they are open to calling lawmakers back to the building for a special session to take up a stalled economic development bill, whose billions of dollars in bond authorizations cannot pass without a roll call vote.

Democrats would need to venture into unusual territory to do that, and for now, they’re leaving the details for a later date.

Aides for both Mariano and Spilka declined Monday to offer a clear timeline for a possible late-term formal session, saying instead that it depends on when House-Senate negotiators — who could not iron out their differences last week under the pressure of a July 31 deadline — strike a deal.

“The Senate is ready to convene a formal session to pass a version of this bill as soon as the conferees reach an agreement,” Spilka said in a statement Monday.

Mariano similarly said he’s prepared to bring members back “for a special session when such an agreement is reached” in the process. The House remains focused, he said, on an economic development bill “that fully invests in the life sciences sector.”

That’s likely a reference to one of the chief disputes that sank negotiations in the first place. The Senate sought a shorter-term renewal of funding for the life sciences industry than both the House and Gov. Maura Healey sought.

Legislative leaders left a host of bills unfinished beyond economic development, including eight others that won approval in both branches but never emerged from private conference committee negotiations. They face growing pressure from Healey to check more items off the list.

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A Healey spokesperson announced Monday that the governor met with Mariano “to discuss completing important legislation that was not resolved at the close of the formal session.”

“The speaker conveyed his continued commitment to working with the governor to deliver on the important economic development bill needed to drive growth and keep Massachusetts competitive,” Healey spokesperson Jillian Fennimore said. “She looks forward to discussing next steps with the Senate president as well.”

Mariano and Spilka have both signaled they think the rest of the proposals can sail to Healey’s desk during informal sessions, though some of the bills did not win unanimous support, which could complicate that path.

“Of the remaining matters in conference committees, the only items that require a roll call vote are the borrowing authorizations contained in the economic development bill,” Spilka said Monday.

Massachusetts lawmakers serve two-year terms, but under a joint House-Senate rule codified in 1995, they are supposed to meet only in informal sessions, where only minor business occurs, after the third Wednesday in November in the first year and after July 31 in the second year.

That provision was designed to give legislators time to focus on campaign season, and also to prevent lame-duck lawmakers from ramming through unpopular or self-enriching policies after Election Day has already passed. It exists only in legislative rules, which are suspended when lawmakers agree it’s advantageous to do so, and not in state law or the Constitution.

During the informal sessions that now loom for the remainder of the 2023-2024 term, a single objection can stall a bill’s progress and lawmakers cannot take roll call votes, which are needed for the bond authorizations that anchor the economic development bill.

Tackling major business after the deadline is a rare, but not unprecedented, step.

Top Democrats would likely need to get buy-in from every single member to suspend the rule on a voice vote during informal sessions, or call in enough lawmakers to constitute a quorum.

One top Republican, Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, expressed concern about the road ahead. Tarr said in a statement that although he understands the “desire to overcome the major failure” on the economic development bond bill, “there is nothing yet to indicate that the causes of its failure have been remediated.”

“A bill of this significance should never have been placed in the jeopardy of being finalized and debated in the waning hours of the formal legislative session,” Tarr said. “Setting a new date for that to happen again won’t solve the problem.

“Before we continue returning to a formal session to consider such a bill, we need to be on a procedural path that is transparent, inclusive and collaborative in the development of that bill,” he added. “And the product of that process should be made available to all of the members of the Legislature and the public with enough time to read it, digest it and communicate about it well in advance of any session where it could be considered.”

Another potential wrinkle in the timing of a special session this term is work underway to renovate the House Chamber. Crews are expected to continue work to upgrade the chamber’s audio system, roll call machine and voting boards into October, leaving the House to meet in the meantime in a first-floor hearing room that does not have the same infrastructure.