Mass. Legislature finalizes rules providing greater transparency and public access to the Legislature

Special to The Advocate

State Senator Jason Lewis and State Representatives Paul Donato, Steve Ultrino and Kate Lipper-Garabedian joined their colleagues in the Massachusetts Legislature to adopt new legislative rules to make lawmaking more transparent, efficient and accessible to the public. These rules will govern the legislative process, joint committees and interactions between the House of Representatives and the Senate for the 2025-2026 legislative session.

To increase public accessibility, legislative committees will now post “plain language” bill summaries online; the public will have more advance notice of hearings; and committee votes and attendance will be made public. To increase legislative efficiency, the legislative calendar has been adjusted to allow more time to get meaningful policy accomplished; committees are allowed to act independently on bills from their respective chambers; and formal lawmaking will continue for the full two-year session.

“Building greater trust and confidence in government by improving transparency and accountability is critical for a healthy democracy,” said Senator Lewis. “I have long championed efforts to improve the transparency of state and local government, including being the lead Senate sponsor of the last major update to the state’s public records law. These new rules will further open up the legislative process and make it easier for the public to see how we operate and to hold us accountable.”

“I am pleased that the House and Senate have reached an agreement on the Joint Rules,” said House Second Assistant Majority Leader Donato. “This package strengthens transparency, a key priority, and ensures we continue taking attendance and making important information available to our constituents.”

“This Joint Rules package helps ensure that the legislative process reflects the openness and integrity our constituents expect and deserve,” said House Chair Ultrino. “This legislation is a significant step forward in building a more transparent and responsive Legislature, reflecting our commitment to doing the people’s business out in the open, not behind closed doors.”

“I was proud to join my colleagues in voting for the new legislative rules,” said House Chair Lipper-Garabedian. “Public participation is an integral component of the democratic process, and these new rules allow for greater accessibility and transparency for our constituents. Increasing civic engagement fuels and strengthens our system of democracy, and we as legislators serve better when more voices have the opportunity to be heard.”

Key provisions of the new joint rules:

• Increasing public notice of joint committee hearings from a minimum of three days to 10 days and requiring a schedule of hearing dates to be posted each session
• Instructing House and Senate chairs of joint committees to poll members of the committee from their respective branch on bills that were filed in that branch before returning bills to their respective branches, with certain exceptions, including for budgets and constitutional amendments
• Allowing the public to participate either in person or remotely in joint committee hearings
• Requiring joint committee votes and attendance to be posted on the Legislature’s website
• Moving up the bill reporting deadline for joint committees by two months to the first Wednesday of December in the first year of the two-year legislative session to give the chambers more time to consider bills
• Requiring “plain language” summaries of all bills to be posted on the Legislature’s website in time for their public hearings and requiring written testimony on bills to be made publicly available after their hearings
• Requiring the first meeting of conference committees to be open to the public and ensuring a minimum of 24 hours between a conference committee report filing and a legislative vote
• Updating the Legislature’s formal lawmaking calendar to allow the Legislature to meet in formal session after July 31 in the second year of the legislative session to take up reports of conference committees formed on or before July 31, appropriation bills filed after July 31 and gubernatorial vetoes or amendments
• Instructing the Joint Committee on Rules to conduct a comprehensive review of the joint rules at the end of each two-year session, including a public hearing to solicit feedback from the public

In addition to these new joint rules, in February, the House and Senate had approved their own rules to govern their internal operations.