Update from Massachusetts State House via MassAccess
July 14, 2022David Gauthier
MassAccess
Monday, July 11, 2022:
• As of Thursday night, DPH reported a total of 1,776,091 cases of COVID-19.
• The state reported 1,850 new confirmed cases and 19 new deaths.
• The state now has 19,787 deaths from the virus.
• Friday was the last day that the Department of Public Health provides a daily update on COVID-19 metrics in Massachusetts
• The agency announced that it is moving to once-a-week reporting of coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, deaths and more.
• DPH is also removing higher education-specific data sections from the dashboard “due to the decrease in surveillance testing being conducted in those settings,” and is removing tabs on contact tracing and case clusters because “due to changes in case investigation and contact tracing practices, these data are no longer representative of the current situation,” the agency said.
• The new fiscal year is 10 days old, and Massachusetts is still without an annual state budget as lawmakers continue to negotiate a final spending bill.
• Top Democrats in both branches are now in agreement on a plan that would carve out hundreds of millions of dollars for one-time safety funding for the MBTA and $250 million to put towards a rail expansion in western Massachusetts.
• The Senate on Thursday teed up its version of a nearly $10.4 billion infrastructure bond bill (S 2989) that, like the legislation the House unanimously approved last month (H 4897), would create a $400 million pot that the T could tap as the transit agency works to address critical safety problems uncovered by a blistering federal investigation.
• The redraft also mirrors the House’s $250 million in bonds toward the long-sought East-West Rail project and creates a commission to investigate whether Massachusetts needs a new public agency to build the project and then operate a western rail segment.
• Beacon Hill Democrats effectively snubbed both Republican Gov. Charlie Baker and Springfield Congressman Richie Neal, who as chair of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee is one of the most powerful lawmakers in Washington, D.C., by punting questions about control of the western rail expansion to a study.
• Conference committees negotiating in private could produce compromises on already-approved major bills at any time this week, and House and Senate Democrats are also still dreaming up new bills to pass with three weeks remaining for formal sessions this year.
• The Senate on Thursday is expected to pass its version of a more than $10 billion infrastructure bill that has already cleared the House. On Friday, the Senate Ways and Means Committee was also moving out bills aimed at safeguarding puppies and kittens and establishing and increasing penalties for illegal hunting.
• One of the conference committees has been working on governance and oversight reforms at the two state-run soldiers’ homes, and conferee Sen. John Velis said Thursday that a deal was “being worked on and finalized now.”
• House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka have not publicly telegraphed specific plans for next week, leaving lawmakers on edge about which bills might be sprung from the committee and when. The branches each held only one formal session last week.
• House and Senate Democrats are expected to soon pass legislation offering a collective $500 million in one-time rebates to middle-income earners struggling with high prices for everything.
• Democrats are also expected soon to lay out some plans for other forms of tax relief and lawmakers need to get moving soon on an economic development bill that has still not surfaced in either branch.
• Secretary of State Galvin is due, under the voting reforms law signed by Gov. Baker last month, to send ballot applications to millions of voters by July 23 but the Supreme Judicial Court is weighing a request from the MassGOP for an injunction to block Galvin from sending the applications while the party’s chairman challenges the constitutionality of the law-making permanent early voting and mail-in voting.
• The SJC heard arguments related to the request for an injunction Wednesday and could rule any day this week, or later.
• Given that the SJC took the MassGOP’s request up quickly citing the time pressures at play, it seems likely that the justices will effort a ruling in the coming days.
• Popular COVID-era policies dealing with remote meetings assisted living nurse services, notaries public and other topics will lapse on Friday if lawmakers cannot find agreement on dramatically different extension bills (H 4989 / S 2985).
• After the House and the Senate took action this week, the branches left themselves little time to resolve their competing approaches before expirations hit, and that’s not unprecedented: mail-in voting and expanded early voting went dark for several months before the Legislature revived those options for good with a new law.
