Governor Charlie Baker remains in Gloucester Sunday where he has been vacationing with family for the past several days, but as the Legislature convened for its final formal gathering of the two-year session the governor has been in constant contact with aides and legislative leaders, according to senior staff.
Baker has been participating in conference calls every few hours with Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, senior staff and Cabinet secretaries to process the latest information about how conference committees trying to negotiate last-minutes deals on four remaining top priorities are progressing.
As many as 20 senior administration officials have been participating on the calls.
Baker has also spoken directly more than once with Senate President Stanley Rosenberg and House Speaker Robert DeLeo, and aims to check in with both leaders againSunday, according to senior advisor Tim Buckley.
There were no breakthroughs overnight in House-Senate negotiations on bills dealing with economic development and renewable energy generation, as well as legislation regulating the ride-hailing industry and limiting the terms of non-compete agreements between employers and employees.
Baker has identified all of those bills as among his priorities.
The House and Senate gavelled back into session at noon Sunday with just 12 hours remaining to conclude its substantial work for the two-year session, though informal sessions where non-controversial bills stand a chance of passage will continue for the year.
Baker does plan to be back at the State House Monday for his regular weekly meeting with DeLeo and Rosenberg where the leaders can start to sift through the rubble of the final days of the session and to sign a gender pay equity bill approved by the Legislature last Saturday.
