Date: 4/13/2021
Despite our state's reputation as a progressive stronghold, the Massachusetts State House is broken and doesn’t pass valuable legislation that’s supported by a majority of the people. Conservatives in the House (including some long-term Democrats) use a “secret weapon” to block progress – that weapon is secrecy itself. The MA State House is one of the least transparent in the country, and it’s time for a change.
Hugely popular bills disappear into committees in the House and die there, without any votes being made public. Many state residents don’t realize that most votes in the House aren’t recorded (shocking, but true). Often it’s a “voice vote” on the floor or in committees, meaning there is no way to hold our representatives accountable. This lack of transparency stands in the way of getting progressive bills passed and allows the conservative House leadership to completely control the outcome, in secret.
We want the rules changed for the House and for joint House/Senate committees to report their votes publicly. We have a right to know this information. Since the Senate already has these transparency rules in place, we know they work well. In fact, the Senate offered their much better rules to the House for joint committees, but the House rejected them. Now the vote on rules for joint committees is being decided in a House/Senate committee, again without transparency.
Since these rules are being decided soon, please contact your representative and urge them to support rules changes for greater transparency and real democracy in our State House. It is time to ensure that good bills have a fair chance of being passed, to make a better future for us all.
Deb Friedman
Statewide Action Group of Indivisible Northampton
