Beacon Hill Update from Mass Access – July 9, 2020
July 9, 2020Thursday, July 9, 2020
David Gauthier
WINCAM
- As of Wednesday night, DPH reported a total of 104,961 cases of COVID-19.
- The state has now confirmed a total of 8,028 deaths from the virus.
- The House is scheduled to have a formal session on Thursday.
- They are expected to take up legislation dealing with increasing DCF accountability and management of EEE.
- 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.
- 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 Senate is scheduled to have a formal session on Thursday where they are scheduled to take up police reform legislation.
- The bill (S 2800) that Senate leaders outlined Monday includes a suite of reforms including the creation of a certification and de-certification process for law enforcement officers.
- Its goals, according to senators, include bolstering police accountability, reducing the risk of misconduct, fighting racism and promoting de-escalation techniques.
- Three Baker administration revenue officials and the House co-chairman of the Joint Committee on Revenue testified Wednesday before the House recovery committee gavels in for its second hearing.
- House Majority Leader Ron Mariano and the Commonwealth Resilience and Recovery Special Committee heard from labor, business and municipal officials.
- 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.
- A new super PAC formed by environmental advocates backing U.S. Sen. Edward Markey’s reelection campaign plans to spend $900,000 on a new television and digital ad campaign in July that will cast the incumbent as a progressive leader who recognized the challenges of the times, climate change, opioid abuse and access to health care.
- Investigators have so far detected more than 58,000 fraudulent unemployment claims in Massachusetts amid an alleged national criminal scheme, but state officials still have not disclosed how much money paid out in error.
- The state Department of Unemployment Assistance announced Monday that it verified 58,616 fraudulent claims through June 20, the first insight into the scale of the false applications since officials announced the problem in May.
- Through the same span, the department recovered $158 million in fraudulent claims, it announced Monday.
- Ernst & Young has been hired by the state to conduct a forensic accounting as part of the fraud investigation.
- Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have asked a court to step in and block a new federal policy that would prohibit international students from staying in the United States if they take online-only courses this fall.
- The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, is the latest escalation in a national fight over what higher education leaders, many of whom are preparing to embrace mostly or exclusively remote learning as a precaution against COVID-19 transmission, described as a “cruel” rule change the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency unveiled Monday.
- In their legal filing, Harvard and MIT argued that the new federal guidance creates “immediate and severe” impacts on universities and students without regard for the challenging circumstances they face or the ongoing public health crisis.
- Attorney General Maura Healey indicated Tuesday that she’s pursuing a lawsuit against ICE, while Governor Baker on Wednesday called the policy “a premature decision.”
- Governor Baker said the federal government should work with state and education officials to develop collaborative plans driven by local needs and public health outlooks.
- Governor Baker said Wednesday his administration has “no tolerance for intolerance,” but said it was too soon to decide whether Steven Florio, the commissioner of the state’s Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, should lose his job over a report that he dressed in Ku Klux Klan robes and made Nazi salutes while a member of fraternity in college.
- The Boston Globe reported this week that Florio informed his staff of his racially insensitive behavior last month following Gallaudet University’s suspension of the Kappa Gamma fraternity after photos surfaced of members wearing robes with pointed hoods that resembled those worn by the Ku Klux Klan and performing Nazi salutes.
- The Baker administration rolled out a new summer testing initiative targeting eight hotspots from Lawrence to Fall River where cases and positive test rates far exceed the statewide average, and where the volume of testing being done has declined significantly over the past two months.
- The increased testing will be available at new brick-and-mortar sites, as well as in mobile testing vans that will be deployed to Chelsea, Everett, Fall River, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Marlborough, and New Bedford.
- The governor did not rule out expanding the initiative to other communities, or shifting resources as dictated by the public health data.
- The eight communities were selected based on elevated cases in those cities, higher rates over spread over the past two weeks, high positive test rates over the past two weeks and declining test volume since the end of April.
- Residents of the eight communities represent 9 percent of the state’s population, but account for 27 percent of the positive cases detected over the past two weeks.
- The positive test rate of 8 percent in those cities also far exceeds the statewide rate of 1.9 percent, and testing is down 40 percent in these communities since the end of April.
- Opponents of a proposed ballot question that would increase access to automobile data formally objected to its eligibility Wednesday, echoing an argument that blocked a congressional candidate from making the ballot in a separate case.
- The Coalition for Safe and Secure Data, a manufacturer-backed group organized to fight the question, submitted a legal challenge Wednesday that will prompt a state panel to decide whether the proposal may appear before voters on Nov. 3.
- In their challenge, the Coalition argued that the third-party company used by the campaign disobeyed electronic signature-gathering requirements outlined by the Supreme Judicial Court by storing signatures in a separate file and tracking personal data without notification.
