Beacon Hill Update from Mass Access – July 8, 2020
July 8, 2020David Gauthier
WINCAM
Wednesday, July 8, 2020
As of Tuesday night, DPH reported a total of 104,799 cases of COVID-19.
The state has now confirmed a total of 8,213 deaths from the virus.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said Tuesday that the city asked Governor Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito to give the state’s largest city until Monday, July 13 to prepare its own industry-specific guidelines for reopening because of Boston’s size, density and its “unique needs.”
State and federal leaders will unveil a landmark agreement Tuesday to demolish the two aging bridges spanning the Cape Cod Canal and transfer ownership of their replacements to Massachusetts.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, will partner with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to plan the multi-year project, leaving the new structures in the department’s hands.
Both bridges were deemed functionally obsolete and require increasingly frequent and costly maintenance.
Under a memorandum of understanding set to be signed Tuesday, the federal government will maintain responsibility for covering the costs of the project.
When the Corps recommended replacing both bridges last year, it projected the cost to range between $1.45 billion and $1.6 billion.
MassDOT will be the “lead agency to deliver the bridges,” according to a summary sent to local officials.
Legislation imposing new reporting requirements to hold the state Department of Children and Families accountable emerged in the House on Tuesday as the chamber prepares to sent it along to the Senate later this week.
The House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday advanced a 33-page rewrite of the bill (H 4163), which mandates DCF to submit more frequent and detailed accountability reports to the Legislature and creates a team within the office of the state child advocate to review deaths of children in state care.
According to a copy of the bill text circulated by the committee, the bill would also convene a task force to outline additional steps toward ensuring vulnerable children in the department’s care are safe and receiving services they need.
Another section of the bill instructs DCF to submit a special report on the impacts of virtual and video technology used for services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The House also agreed to extend the Elder Affairs Committee’s deadline to act on 14 bills until Aug. 15, two weeks after the scheduled July 31 end of formal legislative sessions.
One bill was added to the initial extension order: a petition filed by Sen. Mark Montigny (S 2731) that aims to prevent COVID-19 deaths in senior living places and would institute new COVID-19 screening and testing requirements for assisted living residences and long-term care facilities.
Linking the bill to inequities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, supporters of long-stalled legislation expanding access to abortion launched a new push for its passage Tuesday.
A handful of elected officials, including lawmakers who endorsed the bill (H 3320 / S 1209), joined reproductive rights activists to describe the legislation as “more important now than ever” amid growing awareness about widespread gaps in health care.
Rep. Tram Nguyen said during a Tuesday virtual press conference that existing state law requiring minors to get either parental consent or go before a judge to access abortion services disproportionately impacts people of color and low-income households.
The proposed legislation would eliminate that restriction.
The bill would also allow for abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy to protect parental health in cases of a lethal fetal diagnosis.
Under current law, Massachusetts families who find themselves in those cases must either travel out-of-state to terminate a pregnancy or deliver a child who will not survive.
Three Baker administration revenue officials and the House co-chairman of the Joint Committee on Revenue are scheduled to testify Wednesday when a new House recovery committee gavels in for its second hearing.
Majority Leader Ron Mariano and the Commonwealth Resilience and Recovery Special Committee also plan to hear from labor, business and municipal officials when they meet at 1 p.m. Wednesday, a gathering that will be streamed on malegislature.gov.
Those invited to testify: Committee on Revenue Co-chair Rep. Mark Cusack; Department of Revenue Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder and senior DOR officials Kazim Ozyurt and Rebecca Forter; Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development Acting Chair Rep. Stephan Hay; Associated Industries of Massachusetts President John Regan; SEIU Political Director Chris Condon; Emily Whiteway of Greater Boston Legal Services and John Robertson of the Mass. Municipal Association.
And by the end of this week, legislation granting the administration new powers to run a statewide mosquito control response when the threat of EEE or other mosquito-related diseases is high could be one step closer to the governor’s desk, House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s office said.
Disagreements over funding to mail ballot applications for the upcoming election cycle spilled into the public eye Tuesday after the state’s top election official and election reform advocates differed on the permissible use of federal money.
Pam Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts, said the secretary of state’s office could turn to an $8.2 million portion of Massachusetts’ CARES Act allocation to mail applications by July 15.
The secretary of state does not believe CARES Act funds can be used to mail applications to all registered voters, as a result of guidance from the Election Assistance Commission.
According to the secretary’s office can use the money to send the ballots themselves.
A new federal immigration policy ordering international students to leave the country if their colleges or universities offer online-only classes this fall has prompted an outcry from educators and campus officials in Massachusetts, who slammed the move as “cruel” and likely to cause massive economic damage.
Many higher education institutions are planning to embrace remote learning for almost all courses next semester as a precaution against lingering COVID-19 risks.
However, thousands of international students, many of whom are already enrolled and several years into progress toward a degree, would be barred from legally participating under a rule change the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency announced Monday.
Attorney General Maura Healey is preparing a lawsuit to stop federal regulations that would force international college students to leave the country unless they take courses in-person.
Since announcing in late May it was targeted by a nationwide scam, the Massachusetts unemployment systems received at least 58,000 fraudulent claims, nearly losing $158 million.
Ernst & Young, who was contracted by the state Department of Unemployment Assistance to conduct a forensic accounting investigation, detected 58,616 fraudulent claims between the traditional unemployment system and the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.”
Beacon Hill Democrats are preparing legislation that would create a commission to broadly investigate the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, including the disproportionate impact on people of color and Governor Baker’s decisions to close schools, businesses, and other sectors of Massachusetts’s economy.
The bill, which state Senator Eric P. Lesser and Representative Jon Santiago plan to file Tuesday, models the seven-person panel after the federal 9/11 commission formed to examine the 2001 terrorist attacks, which killed about 3,000 people.”
