Recap and analysis of the past week in state government
Sal DiMasi, before his fall from grace, had the life sciences and health care. Bob DeLeo left his mark with an expansion of gaming. And whether his speakership ends in a year or 10, House Speaker Ron Mariano seems to want to be remembered as the wind whisperer.
The Quincy Democrat took 23 House colleagues on a boat ride to Block Island on Tuesday to view the wind turbines that spin off the coast of Rhode Island.
The three-hour tour (no, not kidding) allowed the House Skipper and other lawmakers to get an up-close look at the industry that they are staking their economic development and clean energy hopes on.
Under blue skies and with a microphone in his hand, Mariano harkened back to the $1 billion the state committed in 2008 to grow the life sciences over the next decade, and how it had worked.
“We must pursue the same strategy to make Massachusetts the leader of our clean energy future,” he said.
The Rhode Island trip coincided this week with developments in the state’s third big solicitation for offshore wind power, resulting in just two companies – Vineyard Wind and Mayflower Wind – submitting bids. The trip’s host, Danish power company Orsted, was actually one of the developers who took a pass on the latest round, and the lack of competition disappointed Mariano.
That’s why the speaker announced the House this session will look to pass a major bill aimed at restoring the state’s competitive edge.
The price of offshore wind power has consistently been more economical than anyone thought when the state began going down the road of developing offshore energy. With that and a desire to see more competition among bidders in mind, Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy Chairman Jeff Roy said the bill he is putting together would reconsider the price caps in place that require bids in each solicitation to be cheaper than the last.
Roy said the bill will also make investments in port infrastructure and consider the grid modernization and transmission infrastructure that will be necessary to accommodate more and more power arriving from the sea.
But as representatives mingled on the aft deck in the early fall sunshine, clouds were gathering above Beacon Hill where the House’s State House reopening plan was not going over smoothly with all lawmakers.
The House’s reopening working group produced a blueprint, albeit one without timelines attached, to reopen the State House to the public in four phases, beginning by fully welcoming back members and staff once they’re vaccinated.
That proposal, and the order that followed to implement the vaccine mandate, triggered days of comments in the press by disaffected Republicans, building up to a heated, and at times emotional debate on Thursday.
There were process arguments made against the mandate and appeals for personal freedom. Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, as someone battling cancer, said her life could literally depend on a policy like this, while Rep. Peter Durant suggested she and anyone else at severe risk from COVID-19 could simply stay home.
“I thought my colleagues would join together and unite behind an order that says the protection of the least among us has to be first and on the forefront,” said Ferrante, who predictably came out on the winning side of the argument.
Democrats carried the day on a strict party-line vote of 131-28, with only one Republican – Rep. Sheila Harrington – crossing the aisle to support the order. It’s expected that legislators and staff will be given until Nov. 1 to get vaccinated, otherwise they will be allowed to continue to participate remotely after the House also declared an indefinite state of emergency in the chamber due to COVID-19.
The push to mandate vaccines for state employees also got a boost in court when a Superior Court judge refused to block Gov. Charlie Baker’s mandate taking effect on Oct. 17 for the 1,800 members of the State Police Association of Massachusetts. It seems Senate President Karen Spilka is the only leader not getting hassled about the decision to require shots.
Even without Thursday’s vote, Rep. Maria Robinson, a second-term Democrat, had to be thinking about getting her vaccination documentation in order because it’s required to work for the Biden administration as well.
President Joe Biden this week nominated Robinson, of Framingham, to serve as assistant secretary of energy in the Office of Electricity. She becomes the latest in a growing line of Massachusetts officials to be tapped for roles in Washington, D.C. and the second member of the House.
The other House member is Majority Leader Claire Cronin, who is still waiting to be confirmed as ambassador to Ireland.
And speaking of waiting, Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins will have to wait another week for her nomination to become U.S. attorney for Massachusetts to get considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The committee recommended seven other U.S. attorney nominees to the full Senate, but Rollins’s was put on hold by Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas who has vowed to try to block her confirmation over her progressive prosecutorial approach.
Democrats will look to overcome Cotton’s objection, just as the state Senate hopes to finally break down the wall in the House that has blocked passage of sex education legislation three previous times.
The Senate this week again passed a bill designed to make sure sex education taught in schools is medically accurate and age-appropriate. Senate leaders paired action on the sex ed bill with its version of a school nutrition bill and another that would make sure residents can choose X as their gender on certain official forms, including birth certificates.
The Registry of Motor Vehicles has already been offering the “Gender X” marker on licenses for years, but the bill, if passed and signed into law, would make sure the option is never taken away.
Unrelated, some parents this week said they wish the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education had never taken away remote learning as an option this fall for students and families who don’t want to risk a return to the classroom.
The Delta variant has made COVID-19 conditions in many communities more severe than many anticipated in the spring when the proliferation of vaccines was driving down case counts to all-time lows and the decision was made to fully return to in-person schooling.
Vaccines continue to be effective at preventing serious illness, but cases have been climbing, and some parents showed up to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meeting to call on Gov. Baker and Education Commissioner Jeff Riley to allow districts to again offer remote learning as an alternative to in-person schooling.
Baker has shown no impulse toward reconsidering his position on in-person learning this school year, just as the Legislature has not heeded his calls to move more quickly to spend American Rescue Plan Act funding.
This week it was the needs of the health care and human services sectors invited to make their requests for a piece of the $5 billion ARPA pie.
Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders urged the Legislature to look at the rates paid to providers to begin to address a workforce shortage that is impacting access to care and threatening to force nursing homes and other facilities to close.
Lawmakers and advocates also called for $250 million to be injected into the state’s “dangerously inadequate” local public health system. Next up on Friday is the second-to-last planned hearing on how to spend ARPA funds, focused on education, social equity and safety-net programs.
STORY OF THE WEEK: At the State House, it’s vax to work.
SONG OF THE WEEK: If you know, you know.
