The Massachusetts House of Representatives rejected an amendment to the joint rules on Wednesday, February 24, that would have ensured more transparency when the two legislative branches work in committees together during the current two-year legislative session.
The Senate sent its version of the bill to the House last week. The House removed most of the transparency measures from it before the vote Wednesday.
Amendment #8, sponsored by Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven (D-Somerville) and co-sponsored by Mike Connolly (D-Cambridge/Somerville) and Nika Elugardo – (D-Brookline/Boston) proposed to restore the bill to the Senate version.
The amendment failed to pass with only 36 votes for and 122 against. Most of those who voted for the amendment are Republicans.
The Senate version makes all joint committee votes publicly available on the State House Website and makes all testimony made to committees available to the public.
The House version won’t publish a full record of votes in committee, but only publish the names of those who voted no. It also removed the requirement to make testimony public and rejected a full week public notice before committee meetings take place.
Ryan Daulton, a Campaign Manager with Act on Mass, said “It’s shocking that many of the arguments against the amendment blamed constituents for our lack of understanding of how the State House functions when that’s precisely what we are asking for: to stop being shut out of the legislative process.”
Act on Mass is an organization advocating for transparency and accountability in the Massachusetts State House. It has 2,500 volunteers in over 100 districts in Massachusetts.
Here is how all 18 representatives in the Worcester district voted on the amendment:
Ferguson (R) 1st – yes
Zlotnik (D) 2nd – no
Kushmerek (D) 3rd – No
Higgins (D) 4th – No
Berthiaume, Jr.(R) – 5th – yes
Durant (R) 6th – yes
Frost (R) 7th – yes
Soter (R) 8th – yes
Muradian (R) 9th – yes
Murray (D) 10th – No
Kane (R) 11th – yes
Kilcoyne (D) 12th – No
Mahoney (D) 13th – No
O’Day (D) 14th – No
Keefe (D) 15th – No
Donahue (D) 16th – No
LeBoeuf (D) 17th – NO
McKenna (R) 18th – Yes
