In weeks like this, with an MBTA in crisis, extreme weather, and legislators who have had two years to work out bills instead rushing them through the final hours of the session, it’s easy to throw up your hands and ask what the heck they’re up to on Beacon Hill.
I thought about doing that myself today. In the face of our massive challenges, it’s maddening to see legislative leaders who have had months to move laws instead leave a crush of them until the wee hours of the session’s final day, too late for meaningful scrutiny, let alone debate. And it’s beyond frustrating to see worthy measures like free prison calls for inmates, or a massive economic development package, falling prey to last-minute horse-trading, exhaustion, and a deadline everybody knew was coming.
But hey, it’s August, and who needs another screed? Instead, let’s look at some of the big, spectacular things these lawmakers have managed to get done lately.
Take the VOTES Act, signed in June, that expands ballot access even as other states strip some of their citizens’ hard-fought rights away. Now every voter in the state can cast ballots by mail, no excuse necessary; the law also expanded early voting and made it easier for eligible incarcerated people to vote. Though House lawmakers’ enraging refusal to allow election-day registration takes some of the shine off, this is a big deal.
We also got new legislation further protecting abortion rights in Massachusetts in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v Wade: The legislation Governor Charlie Baker signed last week protects abortion providers here and expands access to emergency contraception, medication abortion, and later abortion. Its passage also shows just how quickly the Legislature can act when it wants to.
And, after endless failures, we will finally allow drivers’ licenses for undocumented immigrants. For years, immigrant advocates, police, and insurance companies have argued, to no avail, that we are all better off when everyone on the roads must prove they know how to drive safely. This year, however, House Speaker Ron Mariano put his weight behind the measure, marshaling enough support to override the governor’s veto.
This glass-half-full thing feels good, eh?
There is plenty to cheer us in the $52.7 billion budget Baker and legislators (mostly) agreed upon last week. There’s surely plenty to infuriate in there, too, but let’s keep this going. The budget steps up antipoverty measures, beefing up housing assistance for poor renters and others, ramping up funding for addiction treatment and behavioral health care, and for early education and child care.
A bunch of legislators have also long been on a crusade to improve services for people with behavioral and mental health issues, and they’ve gotten awfully close to transformative change. In one of those eleventh-hour packages sent to the governor’s desk on Monday morning are measures to prevent children with mental illness from languishing in emergency rooms; better services in schools for kids with mental illness; and much more. Anybody who knows somebody struggling with mental illness – and how difficult it is to find care – knows how welcome these changes would be.
There are other bills in that giant pile on Baker’s desk that would also be life-changing for some of us: measures to insulate our sensible gun safety laws from the US Supreme Court’s efforts to undermine them; funding and reforms for veterans homes designed to prevent a tragedy like we saw at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, where so many died of COVID; and that big ‘ol climate bill, which would get us to zero-emissions faster by speeding adoption of electric vehicles and allowing some cities to limit gas hookups for new construction, among other measures.
If Baker rejects that bill, it will probably be too late for legislators to override his veto. It’ll be kicked over into the next session, which starts under a new governor in 2023. Lucky this climate change thing isn’t urgent!
But let us think happy thoughts. If all, or even most, of these bills become law we are looking at serious progress in this state. Enough, even, to make you forget the chaotic marathon of the last couple of weeks.
Until it happens again next session.
Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham can be reached at yvonne.abraham@globe.com.