Massachusetts voters pick their presidential candidates, a major wind energy conference blows through Boston, and Congressman Stephen Lynch holds a summit Monday on the security of the rail system. The Senate plans to tackle bills affecting individuals with disabilities and to revisit legislation promoting the confidentiality of patient records and a resolution urging the US Senate to swiftly hold a hearing on any Supreme Court nominee recommended by President Barack Obama. House Speaker Robert DeLeo also has a major speaking engagement in Boston, but the House does not have a formal session scheduled.
The pace of legislative activity on Beacon Hill heading into month 15 of the 2015-2016 session points to two themes. Democrats who run the House and Senate either can’t or don’t yet want to reach agreements on high-profile bills that passed each branch with overwhelming support. If the former is true, it underscores the raw philosophical or political differences that are dividing the branches. If the latter is true, it points to the grand bargain governing style that’s been prevalent in recent years in which major bills are stockpiled and various policy measures become bargaining chips in deals hashed out privately at the highest levels on Beacon Hill.
The opioid crisis continues to take a deadly toll in Massachusetts, fueling a theory that legislation targeting that problem will be dislodges from conference committee soon, but the proof is in the pudding as they say and so far this has been a mostly pudding-less gathering of Massachusetts’s Great and General Court. Drafts of major energy, drive industry and transgender rights bills said to be priorities have yet to emerge, while conference committees have custody of public records reform, solar industry regulation, opioid abuse, and legislation aimed at ensuring that some criminal offenders have access to their driver’s licenses after they are released from jail.
For Henry Epp’s conversation with Matt Murphy about the week ahead on Beacon Hill, click the audio player above.