Beacon Hill Update: Wednesday, June 16th, 2021
June 16, 2021Wednesday, June 16, 2021:
- As of Tuesday night, DPH reported a total of 662,910 cases of COVID-19.
- The state reported 55 new confirmed cases.
- The state has now confirmed a total of 17,586 deaths from the virus.
- Hours after the COVID-19 state of emergency drew to a close, legislation was approved that would keep several popular pandemic-era policies, including measures such as authorization for remote public meetings that expired when the calendar flipped to Tuesday, in place for several months longer.
- Tuesday’s session stretched into the evening while both branches waited for a conference committee, appointed earlier in the afternoon to hash out differences between the House and Senate extension bills, to find a compromise.
- Representatives voted 146-14 in favor of the House’s original version of the bill early in the afternoon, then voted 150-10 to advance the final conference committee version, which landed on Governor Baker’s desk shortly before 9 p.m.
- Governor Baker, who announced in mid-May that he would lift the state of emergency on June 15, said Tuesday that hoped to get a bill by the end of the week to limit the impact on municipal governments, businesses and restaurants who wanted to see some COVID-19 policies stay in effect
- The Senate convened Tuesday about 14 hours after the governor’s state of emergency declaration expired, taking with it a slate of pandemic-era policies like authorization for remote public meetings, allowing restaurants to sell cocktails to go, and offering tenants eviction protections.
- The Senate last week passed a bill to extend several of the popular pandemic policies and the House passed its own extension bill Tuesday.
- The Senate will be back in action Thursday at 11 a.m.
- Speaker Mariano’s office confirmed Tuesday that the speaker voted remotely during last week’s Constitutional Convention on Wednesday and during a Thursday formal session, utilizing COVID-19 emergency rules that allow legislators to participate in House business remotely without being in the State House.
- Speaker Mariano returned to Massachusetts on Monday after being fitted for a pacemaker and remaining in a Florida hospital for a period of time while doctors monitored his condition and adjusted the device.
- He said he planned to see his own doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital upon returning to Boston, but on Tuesday he was also back to work taking part in a Democratic caucus call at 10 a.m. and voting in the afternoon on a bill to restore pandemic policies that expired at midnight when the state of emergency in Massachusetts lifted.
- While his office said the speaker worked remotely while in Florida, aides declined to disclose when he initially traveled to the state, where he had been hospitalized and for how long.
- The Baker administration has announced that the COVID command center, a cross-agency structure formed in March 2020 to respond to the coronavirus, would soon be disbanding.
- With the governor’s emergency declaration about to lapse, the Cannabis Control Commission issued a string of regulatory orders Monday to keep in place a handful of pandemic-era policies for the cannabis industry.
- Executive Director Shawn Collins issued administrative orders to allow medical marijuana dispensaries and recreational shops to continue to offer curbside pick-up and for license applicants to hold their required community outreach meetings virtually.
- He also issued a bulletin to allow providers to certify or renew patients for medical marijuana cards via telehealth.
- The commission’s extended allowances are to remain in place until Sept. 1 or until the commission revokes or amends them, whichever happens first.
- Non-medical marijuana shops were ordered to close as part of the essential work order Governor Baker put in place to control the spread of COVID-19 last spring.
- After two months, non-medical sales resumed in late May 2020 with curbside operations only.
- Retailers have since resumed mostly normal operations, though the curbside option remains available to them.
- The Baker administration will partner with Treasurer Deborah Goldberg and the Massachusetts Lottery to launch a “VaxMillions” giveaway in July, offering $1 million prizes to five adults 18 and older and $300,000 college scholarships to five adolescents between 12 and 17.
- All Massachusetts residents who are fully vaccinated are eligible to enter the drawing, including those who have been immunized for months, so long as they received their doses in the Bay State.
- Registration for the contest will start on July 1 and remain open through Aug. 20.
- Residents will need to submit their personal information online or via a soon-to-launch call center, and state officials will conduct one drawing for each prize per week between July 26 and Aug. 27.
- Anyone who signs up in the process consents to the Department of Public Health accessing their vaccination records to verify they are indeed fully vaccinated, and those selected as winners may also be asked to provide their Centers for Disease Control-issued record cards or other information.
- A legislative push to amend the once-every-decade process for redrawing political boundaries will not emerge in the Senate until at least later in the week, and the chamber’s top redistricting official said senators will need to have a “conversation” after the proposal drew criticism from municipalities and Secretary of State William Galvin.
- Sen. William Brownsberger, who co-chairs the Special Joint Committee on Redistricting, said that he supports legislation the House approved last week that pushes back the June 15 deadline for municipalities to draw local voting precincts until after the Legislature crafts state and federal districts, a reversal of the typical order of operations deployed in prior decennial redistricting processes.
- He was not certain when it might hit the Senate floor, but said he hopes it is soon.
- With the Biden administration reportedly seeking to reinstate the death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Governor Baker on Tuesday voiced his support for the push.
- According to multiple reports, the Department of Justice filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that the court should respect a jury’s decision to sentence Tsarnaev to death.
- Tsarnaev helped place two bombs along the Boston Marathon route in 2013 with his deceased brother Tamerlan, killing three and injuring hundreds more.
- The brothers killed an MIT police officer days later.
- In 2015, a U.S. District Court jury found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty on all 30 counts brought against him and sentenced him to die by lethal injection, but a federal appeals court overturned the death penalty sentence last year.
- Biden’s administration is now pushing to reinstate capital punishment for Tsarnaev despite the Democrat himself saying he opposes the death penalty.
- Baker, a Republican, said in 2015 that he supports the death penalty, which was outlawed at the state level by the Supreme Judicial Court three decades ago, in the Tsarnaev case.
- He has also backed capital punishment for those who kill police officers.
- Saying retirement accounts and other investment earnings are at risk, Attorney General Maura Healey and her counterparts from other states are calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission to require U.S. companies to disclose the financial risks they face from climate change.
- In a letter dated Monday to SEC Chair Gary Gensler, the attorneys general said they believe the SEC has the authority to require such disclosures, which they described as “essential” to protect investors and to “ensure efficient capital formation and allocation.”
- Specifically, the officials are demanding that the SEC mandate disclosures by companies of greenhouse gas emissions, plans to address emissions and potential impacts of climate change and climate change regulation, as well as corporate risk management strategies. The request comes as states and the federal government advance stricter climate and renewable energy policies.
- Democrat Danielle Allen officially launched her gubernatorial campaign Tuesday during a press conference where she critiqued the Baker administration’s handling of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
- With her official announcement out of the way, Allen becomes the first Black woman to seek the governorship as a major party candidate and, if elected, would become the first Black woman governor.
by David Gauthier
