For the second time in less than a week, the Massachusetts House’s top Republican blocked a sweeping climate bill from advancing Monday, forcing Democrats to table a vote until as yet-unscheduled formal session.
State Representative Bradley Jones, the House’s minority leader, stymied Democrats’ plans to move the legislation through an near-empty chamber Monday by using the same procedural move he did last week to halt the House’s informal session and the climate bill.
The legislative package includes a series of changes negotiated by Democratic legislative leaders that are intended to address the climate crisis and promote more clean energy adoption.
Jones told reporters he believes in the science of climate change, and said he’s backed previous efforts to address it. But he said members of his 25-person caucus — all of whom voted against a version of the bill in July — have a “very strong preference that this should be done with the recorded vote” in a formal session. During informal sessions, like the one held Monday, lawmakers do not take roll call votes, and typically only a handful are present in the chamber.
The North Reading Republican said lawmakers are widely expecting to come back for a formal session at some point to pass a stalled economic development bill. Democratic leaders have yet to announce a deal on that legislation, but bills allowing the state to borrow billions of dollars, as the expected economic development package does, require a roll call vote to pass.
“So just say, ‘Pair them up and do a day,” Jones said. “Spend an hour on climate and an hour on [the economic development bill] and go have dinner.”
It appears Jones is getting his wish. Hours after the climate bill stalled, House Speaker Ron Mariano said in a statement that because of the GOP blockage, the House will take it up “when we convene in a formal session to pass the economic development bill.” The timing of a formal session depends on when legislative leaders reach an agreement on the latter.
“While it’s disappointing that House Republicans continue to use procedural tools to delay the passage of the clean energy bill, House Democrats remain committed to sending this critical legislation to the Governor’s desk for her signature,” said Mariano, a Quincy Democrat.
Shortly after Monday’s session started, Jones used a parliamentary maneuver in which he doubted the presence of a quorum, or whether there was more than half of the chamber’s 158 representatives present for a vote. Just seven other representatives were in the chamber, effectively ending the session. The House has an informal session scheduled for Wednesday.
The bill has already cleared the Senate by a 38-to-2 vote, though it would need it to also move through the House before the Senate can vote to send it to Governor Maura Healey’s desk.
Democratic leaders negotiated the current climate bill over months. At the centerpiece of the legislation is a sweeping change to the way energy infrastructure is sited and permitted, to speed the clean energy transition to renewable sources such as solar and wind in the state. The bill also includes provisions to boost battery storage, improve electric vehicle charging, and constrain the growth of natural gas infrastructure.
The Senate gave the bill initial approval only after Democratic and Republican leaders agreed on an unusual order that effectively reopened formal sessions in the chamber. The Senate’s one-sentence order allows the Senate to take roll call votes through Dec. 31 — the last day of its current two-year legislative session — but only on bills known as conference committee reports. Those are deals reached by legislative leaders in closed-door negotiations that are designed to reconcile differences between similar bills passed by the House and Senate.
The move marked an unusual bit of rule-bending, even for a Legislature that’s increasingly swerved from its normal ways of doing business. The Legislature has operated under a rule first established in the mid-1990s that calls for lawmakers to wrap up formal sessions at the end of July in the second year of its two-year session. Its intent was to avoid lawmakers formally debating bills as they campaigned for reelection or conducting lame-duck legislating after Election Day.
To outright suspend that rule, both chambers need to take a vote. But the Senate’s order takes a different approach by allowing for roll call votes only in certain circumstances. Senators called Thursday’s measure an “uncomfortable” but temporary end-around to ensure voters know where they individually stand on bills they pass, even though the climate bill does not require a roll call.
Jones has filed a similar order in the House, but it’s yet to emerge on the House floor. Mariano has not indicated any plans to vote on it, though he said the Legislature’s joint rules and “legislative timeline are both due for updates” — echoing comments his budget chair made earlier this month.
“That, however, is a discussion for the 194th General Court after the New Year,” Mariano said.
A spokesperson for Mariano criticized Jones last week, saying his initial move stalling a vote on the climate was “consistent with the national GOP playbook that includes denying climate change and opposing all efforts to transition away from fossil fuels.”
Jones on Monday called that “ridiculous.” The ranking minority member on the House’s energy committee, Jones has backed previous bills to address energy issues, including a landmark bill in 2021, and said he believes the current legislation is “better than some” in dealing with grid modernization and other issues.
“Sadly, they didn’t do their homework,” he said of Mariano’s office.
The standoff has echoes of a dispute late last year, when House Republicans repeatedly blocked a multibillion-dollar spending bill that included funds for the state’s shelter system from moving. Democrats eventually broke the logjam after more than 100 lawmakers showed up for session, establishing a rare quorum for an informal session.
House Democrats could again push the climate bill should dozens more show up Wednesday, but it now appears that Democrats intend to wait until a formal session.
State Representative Tommy Vitolo, a Brookline Democrat who attended Monday’s session, said some of his fellow Democrats face challenges in next week’s election, and are not in the State House because they “are working hard in their district.” (In reality, the Massachusetts Legislature ranks as the least competitive in the country, by one metric.)
“When the path is ready, my colleagues will be here,” Vitolo said of the climate bill.
Sabrina Shankman of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Matt Stout can be reached at matt.stout@globe.com. Follow him @mattpstout.