In November 2023, the Massachusetts Senate passed a 100-page bill aimed at lowering prescription drug costs through myriad policy changes. The House sat on the bill for eight months before releasing its own attempt at making drugs more affordable with a 58-page bill released July 22.
Lowering drug prices and bringing transparency to the opaque pharmaceutical industry are important issues with real ramifications for patients struggling to afford medicine. They are also complex issues with powerful national and local lobbying interests. While the House and Senate are on the same page directionally, House leaders’ decision to release their bill nine days before the end of this year’s formal legislative session makes it enormously challenging to reach an agreement.
But don’t just blame the House if significant health care legislation falls through the cracks. Also in November 2023, the House passed a bill aimed at shoring up staffing at struggling nursing homes while holding homes accountable for care quality. The Senate didn’t release its version of the bill — with significant differences — until July 22.
To be sure, lawmakers need time to talk to industry groups and carefully consider these complicated policies before releasing legislation. But they also need time to negotiate a final compromise. By waiting until days before the formal session ends on July 31, lawmakers are giving themselves a Herculean task and vastly increasing their chances of failing to pass a bill or passing a hastily drafted compromise that lacks the thoughtful consideration these policies deserve.
The Legislature’s historic penchant for procrastination means that for the first year of a two-year session very little gets done. Lawmakers seeking bargaining leverage don’t pass bills — even those with enormous support — until they are up against a deadline. That leads to a flurry of last-minute lawmaking usually culminating in an all-night session July 31. Important bills run the risk of getting lost in the shuffle as time runs out. And must-pass bills, like the state budget or an economic development bill, get loaded up like Christmas trees with unrelated policies that should ideally be considered separately on their own merits.
For example, the Senate version of the economic development bill would raise the age at which someone is subject to the juvenile justice system from 17 to 18. While this board supports that policy, it has nothing to do with economic development.
Of course the biggest lingering issue is a multibillion-dollar housing bond bill, which remains in conference committee and is badly needed to address one of the state’s biggest problems, the lack of housing.
Many bills awaiting action involve issues that have been studied for years. Two years ago, a special committee on racial inequities in mental health issued recommendations for improving maternal mortality rates among Black women. The House in June adopted a comprehensive bill that builds on these recommendations and could improve outcomes for all birthing women through policies like licensing midwives and modernizing regulations for freestanding birth centers. The Senate hasn’t voted yet.
Also two years ago, an interagency task force recommended banning the sale of certain products with PFAS, so-called “forever chemicals” with harmful health and environmental effects. Lawmakers proposed a bill to ban certain consumer products, and the legislative committee process narrowed the bill to make it easier to implement. A majority of lawmakers are cosponsoring the bill, which still hasn’t been voted on by the House or Senate.
Of course, late-breaking events can require action late in the legislative session. The House passed a 100-plus page health care oversight bill in May prompted by the Steward Health Care bankruptcy, and a similar-length bill was voted on by the Senate last week. But it’s far harder to devote sufficient attention to late-breaking events when lawmakers leave a raft of other business to the last minute. Did they really need to wait to July to decide whether they will act on bills requiring faster action on wheelchair repairs, modernizing parentage laws to protect families who use assisted reproduction, or regulating doggie day cares? Those bills could easily have been resolved earlier in the session, with some political will.
As any college student can report, it’s easier and more productive to do the work throughout the semester than to pull an all-nighter cramming the night before a final. The Legislature should learn that lesson.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the status of the Senate’s health care oversight bill. It was voted on last week.
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