Our heartbeat

Greetings,

In the middle of Senate budget week, performers from Treehouse Community’s Truth Teller ensemble, led by Priscilla Kane Hellweg, took part in a Children's League event at the State House. These artists captured hearts and minds with their stories of childhood trauma, of resilience and survival, of love and trust, and of their dreams for the future.

“What is worth standing up for?” they asked.

And then they answered, “Anything and everything that interferes with the flow of our heartbeat.”

They were absolutely riveting and utterly grounding in their calls to action.

***

May is budget month in the Senate, the culmination of months of meetings, emails, texts, and calls to and from constituents and advocates — all driving to the Senate’s debate of the annual fiscal year budget.

This year — with federal cuts endangering the wellbeing of Commonwealth residents — the Senate weighed every dollar with a new level of urgency. A fierce concern for the heartbeat of our people.

Friends, this is another everything-all-at-once moment as we endeavor to grapple with daily news of vile antisemitic and racist acts committed in the Commonwealth and nationally, the brutal ICE raids on community members, and the impact of federal cuts and layoffs.

As we find ourselves now in June celebrating Pride Month, we also recognize the continued courage, strength, and beauty of our LGBTQIA+ community in the face of continued attacks and threats on trans and queer people coming from the federal government.

My team’s job is to remain deeply engaged with all of this and more in the service of our district. It’s our job to work with constituents to push back. Hold strong. To help keep hope alive.

Let’s get into it.

TL;DR (that's a "too long; didn't read" digest)

Senate passes the fiscal year 2026 budget
Surplus Fair Share revenue coming to western and north central Massachusetts
Launching the BRIGHT Act
Update on the work of the Steering and Policy Committee
Committee hearings on bills we care about
Local leaders come to the State House
Not a conclusion, but a call to action: Awards
What do Secretary Tutwiler and Cup o’ Jo have in common? Amelia Durbin
Recognizing military service
Speaking up for the Quabbin region
Legislative briefing focused on End of Life Options
Update on the FirstLight relicensing process
Indigenous Legislative Agenda launch
Seeing the work through
Thanking Spring 2025 interns
Timely and important ways to engage
My team and I were out and about

Senate passes $61.4 billion fiscal year 2026 budget

On May 22, after months of preparation and four days of debate, my colleagues and I passed the Senate’s fiscal year 2026 (FY26) budget. You can watch my opening remarks here.

Over the course of the debate, Senators adopted over 493 amendments and took 22 roll call votes, resulting in a $61.4 billion budget proposal.

I am proud of this budget and the investments it makes in our people and our communities. By prioritizing education, transportation, health care, human services, and supporting municipalities, the Senate budget addresses our most immediate and pressing needs while laying the foundation for a more equitable and resilient Commonwealth.

This prioritization is especially important now. With federal cuts and tariffs causing reduced spending and investment across all sectors, I was glad to put $61.4 billion on the other side of the ledger so to speak.

With the House and Senate having approved different versions of the FY26 budget, a conference committee has begun work to reconcile the differences before sending the final budget to Governor Maura Healey for her review and hopeful signature.

I have been appointed to serve on the conference committee, so my team’s work on the FY26 budget continues.

Local priorities

In addition to fighting for our district’s wider spending priorities and key state programs, my team and I secured more than $840,000 in direct earmarks for programs and organizations working across our district, including:

Support for municipalities

As municipalities grapple with rising costs and impossibly tight budgets, the Senate budget invests in our cities and towns by:

Leading with $16 million for Rural School Aid and a record $150 per student increase in minimum aid;
Committing a total of over $1.3 billion for unrestricted local aid, which is funding that the Legislature sends directly to cities and towns;
Increasing payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) for state-owned land, which is particularly key for the Hampshire, Franklin, Worcester district, where more than 23% of the land is owned by the state; and
Including $52.4 million for libraries, $9 million in local public health, and funding to restore threatened co-responder services and police training subsidies.

An eye on regional equity

The Senate budget includes a dashboard to track funding for housing development and housing production, to ensure funding and production happen equitably across the state, as envisioned in a bill I filed this session.

It also includes a school transportation study to address long-time concerns about a lack of a competitive bidding process.

With regard to unrestricted local aid, the budget includes a commission to study distribution and maximize equity.

The Senate envisions free certification for EMTs and paramedics at all community colleges as a way to address a statewide shortage.

And on the last day of the Senate’s budget debate, I spoke in support of a successful amendment that will begin work to overhaul the municipal contribution formula for K-12 education. Watch my remarks here.

Protecting benefits owed to foster children

Since, as Vice Chair of the Committee, I cannot file amendments, I worked with Senator Robyn Kennedy on an amendment to protect the federal benefits owed to foster children in the Commonwealth.

This amendment reflects the language of a bill I filed with Representative Tricia Farley-Bouvier, An Act protecting benefits owed to foster children. Thank you to the constituent who sounded the alarm in 2020 about this issue, long overdue for positive change.

As a practice, Massachusetts intercepted monthly Social Security payments and veterans benefits paid to foster children whose parents have died or have become disabled, reappropriating the funds through the state’s annual budget. As a result, around $5.5 million in benefits meant for these vulnerable youth were siphoned away each year for the state’s own use, rather than being available to these children for their future use.

Hearing concerns from legislators and advocates, the state stopped this practice in 2024.

The amendment passed by the Senate codifies this change and directs state officials to preserve these funds for the child to use when they transition to adulthood and independent living. It also requires that each child in the foster care system is provided with financial literacy training beginning by age 14, and it establishes a reporting and accounting system to track the receipt and use of these funds.

Watch my remarks on this amendment here.

Read a full summary of the investments and policies included in the budget here.

Fair Share for western and north central Massachusetts

On May 8, the Senate debated a proposal to spend $1.33 billion in surplus Fair Share revenue.

I began calling for regional equity as soon as I saw the Governor’s supplemental budget proposal. In April, I questioned Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt out of a concern that nearly 90% of transportation funds in the Governor’s proposal were directed to the MBTA.

The Senate responded. Our version of the supplemental budget would provide transportation solutions for small, rural towns with an investment in micro transit; begin addressing the debilitating backlog of deferred maintenance on public higher education campuses; provide meaningful help to school budgets pushed to the breaking point; and more. I spoke about the Senate’s proposal during the debate.

My team and I also secured more than $750,000 in funding for the Hampshire, Franklin, Worcester district in the Senate bill:

These wins build on the spending included in the proposal. Information here.

With both chambers having approved different versions of the Fair Share supplemental spending proposal, a conference committee has begun work to reconcile the differences before sending the final package to the Governor for her review and hopeful signature.

I have been appointed to serve on this conference committee as well, so that makes two conference committees that I’m on, both finalizing billion-dollar spending bills.

Launching the BRIGHT Act

Last week, as Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Higher Education, I chaired a hearing focused on capital investments in higher education. The main event was H.54, An Act to build resilient infrastructure to generate higher-ed transformation or the BRIGHT Act, a higher education bond bill filed by the Governor.

Higher education is under attack across the country and at the highest levels of government — but here in Massachusetts we’re committed to protecting our institutions, faculty, staff, and students, and to ensuring that Massachusetts’ historic leadership in higher education not only endures, but that we expand opportunity and access to our world-class higher education system.

In the fiscal year 2025 budget, the Senate created a working group to identify new sources of capital to modernize, green, and tackle deferred maintenance on public higher education campuses and make recommendations for how to best deploy these new resources.

The working group released its final report and recommendations in January, and its work is embodied in the BRIGHT Act, which brings the recommendations to life and lays out a truly transformative vision for public higher education in Massachusetts for the 21st century.

I was delighted to represent the Senate on the commission, and even more so to hear and help shepherd the resulting bill during this legislative session. In the picture below, you can see the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Education Secretary Pat Tutwiler, and Administration and Finance Secretary Matt Gorkowitz testifying at the hearing.

More on the work of the Steering and Policy Committee

On May 28, the Senate Committee on Steering and Policy, on which I am proud to serve as Vice Chair, held a public hearing on legislation to strengthen and expand protections for reproductive and gender-affirming health care providers, patients, and advocates across the Commonwealth.

Watch the full hearing here.

Committee hearings on bills we care about

Public hearings on bills that have been filed this session are well underway, and will continue throughout the summer and fall.

If you would like to be notified about opportunities to testify on legislation, sign up to be added to an email list corresponding with your priority issue area(s).

I’ll share just a few highlights.

Providing a sustainable future for rural schools

On June 3, the Joint Committee on Education heard a bill I filed in partnership with Representative Natalie Blais, S.314/H.517 – An Act to provide a sustainable future for rural schools.

Rural schools face many structural challenges, including declining enrollments, stagnating local tax bases, disproportionately high transportation and special education costs, and a state funding formula that favors schools with dense populations and larger enrollments.

The bill takes a comprehensive approach to address these issues by creating new grant programs and funds for rural and regional school districts, for school building construction and renovation, and for exceptional transportation and special education costs; by supporting shared services among regional schools and looking for ways to reduce their health care costs; and by establishing a commission to review and update special education regulations and funding to better support all schools and students.

The bill also ensures representation from our region on the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) so that the western and north central regions have voices in the state’s K-12 education decision-making body. (Right now, NO ONE from Hampshire or Franklin Counties serves on BESE, but three members are from Newton.)

Read my testimony here.

Protecting ratepayers from unfair utility rates

On June 4, the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy heard a bill I filed in partnership with Rep. Blais, S.2238/H.3452 – An Act protecting consumers from unreasonable utility rate increases.

I hear frequently from constituents who are struggling with high costs for electricity and home heating. The gas and electricity rates that we pay to utilities must be approved by the Department of Public Utilities (DPU), and current rules allow utilities in Massachusetts to make higher profits than what is allowed in other states.

The bill protects constituents by prohibiting the DPU from approving any rates that would result in a utility earning a higher profit than what is allowed in neighboring states. It’s a simple, yet potentially gamechanging solution that could save ratepayers significant money.

Read my testimony here.

Making the second Monday in October Indigenous Peoples Day

Also on June 4, the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight heard a bill I filed in partnership with Representative Christine Barber, S.2113/H.3292 – An Act establishing an Indigenous Peoples Day.

Indigenous people in the Commonwealth and across the United States have been working to educate the public about Christopher Columbus, the impact of colonization, and the longstanding and continued injustices perpetrated against Native Americans.

Thanks to their efforts, states across the country have begun to celebrate Native American or Indigenous Peoples Day in addition to or in replacement of Columbus Day.

In fact, according to the Pew Research Center, Massachusetts is one of only 16 remaining states to still singularly observe the second Monday in October as Columbus Day.

The bill declares the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples Day to celebrate the thriving cultures — past, present, and future — of Indigenous people and tribal nations in Massachusetts and to acknowledge the history of genocide and discrimination against Indigenous peoples in our Commonwealth and nation.

Read my testimony here. Watch my testimony here.

Local leaders come to the State House

On June 4, Greenfield Savings Bank organized a group of business, non-profit, and academic leaders from the region to travel to the State House for meetings and networking with state officials. I was so excited to see them, I threw open my State House office window and snapped the first picture below, looking down from the fourth floor on a Beacon Street entrance.

Not a conclusion, but a call to action: Awards

On May 15, I received the Senate Legislator of the Year Award from the Disability Law Center.

It was a tremendous honor and meant a great deal to me personally — and in celebration of the work of our team and constituents. I was in the company of tremendous colleagues, like Representative Jim O'Day and Rick Glassman who were also recognized.

The Disability Law Center does extraordinary work, every single day — tireless advocates fighting for dignity, and for equity. It’s a watchdog when government fails, and a partner when government is willing to do better.

We've worked on a number of issues together, including scaling back MassHealth Estate Recovery (now law), ending the practice of the state taking federal benefits owed to foster children (which the Senate passed in the FY26 budget), strengthening supports for family caregivers, stabilizing the turning 22 pipeline, and more.

We must continue to dismantle policies that deepen poverty, exclude participation, or treat care and dignity as nice-to-haves instead of the rights they are.

And we must redouble our lines of defense in the Commonwealth, endeavoring to shield our people from the worst consequences of current national policies and actions.

Here are the remarks I shared at the event.

On May 21, I was honored to receive the Children’s League of Massachusetts' 2025 Senate Champion for Children Award.

The recognition was based on our team’s work to protect federal benefits owed to children in foster care, the passage of my Foster Parent’s Bill of Rights in 2023, our work together on a higher education tuition waiver for young adults in foster care, and on a Foster Children’s Bill of Rights.

The Children’s League event was tremendously moving — in large part because of the performance from Treehouse’s Truth Teller ensemble which I quoted in this letter’s opening.

You can see two pictures from the performance below.

Grateful to the Children's League, our team, and all of the advocates and legislative partners who help propel this work.

Here are the remarks I shared at the event.

What do Secretary Tutwiler and Cup o' Jo have in common? Amelia Durbin

Episode four of "Cup o’ Jo" features a conversation with Amelia Durbin, Northampton Youth Commission Co-Chair, high school student, and organizer extraordinaire.

In the conversation, Amelia and I reflect on a visit with Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler that she helped organize on May 27 to advocate for K-12 education funding reform.

In the pictures below, you can see Amelia and other student leaders in action with the Secretary.

Amelia and the Northampton Youth Commission members have been on fire, driving to the State House to meet with the Secretary AND testifying before the Joint Committee on Ways and Means about the urgent need for K-12 funding reform.

Check out the conversation here.

Recognizing and appreciating our military members

On May 22, our team honored John Paradis at the first annual Military Appreciation Day hosted by the Executive Office of Veterans Services. John is a retired lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, having spent 20 years in the military. After his service, John worked for the Veterans Health Administration and at the Veterans’ Home in Holyoke.

We nominated John because of his steadfast advocacy on behalf of veterans in Massachusetts. John has helped lead countless local and state-wide efforts to support veterans including advocacy for much-increased safety of and care for veterans living in the Veterans’ Home in Holyoke and the successful organizing against the closure of the VA Medical Center in Northampton in 2022.

Speaking up for the Quabbin region

On May 27, municipal leaders from the watershed communities that border the Quabbin Reservoir sent a letter to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) Board Chair, Energy and Environment Secretary Rebecca Tepper asking for recognition and just recompense for their almost 90-years of service and sacrifice to ensure that eastern Massachusetts has pristine drinking water. You can read their letter here.

We are being met with powerful opposition in our push for equity for the Quabbin Region. A March 21 letter from the MWRA Advisory Board was a brazen dismissal of the work of watershed communities to protect the Quabbin Reservoir.

In partnership with Representative Aaron Saunders, I filed legislation (S.546/H.1042 – An Act relative to the Quabbin watershed and regional equity) to secure just recompense for watershed communities.

The bill creates a Quabbin Host Community Development Trust Fund, into which the MWRA will be required to deposit $35 million annually, indexed to inflation. These funds will be provided to Quabbin watershed communities for municipal needs and to non-profit and cultural organizations that serve the health, welfare, safety, and transportation needs of Quabbin watershed communities.

The bill also provides payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) for the land under the Quabbin reservoir and adds representatives from Quabbin watershed communities to the MWRA board.

Lastly, the bill prohibits the MWRA from approving any new transfer of water from the Quabbin Reservoir until they have completed a study and evaluation on providing Quabbin water to surrounding communities in western and north central Massachusetts.

This bill was heard by the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources on June 3. You are welcome to submit written testimony on this bill (it need not be long or detailed) to jointcommittee.environment@malegislature.gov and copy me at jo.comerford@masenate.gov.

Please use this subject line: Environment and Natural Resources Hearing, S.546/H.1042.

You can read my testimony here.

Please watch riveting testimony from regional leaders here. William Tinker, Vice Chair of the Hardwick Select Board is pictured testifying below.

A legislative briefing for the end of life options bill

On June 3, I spoke at a State House briefing organized by Compassion & Choices on medical aid in dying.

Nearly 80% of Massachusetts residents support medical aid in dying with the safeguards now included in the bill.

This is the third session that I’ve filed An Act relative to end of life options (S.1486/H.2505). Last session, it received favorable reports from both the Joint Committee on Public Health and the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing.

There were about a dozen protesters at the briefing, some from our district. I spoke to them directly in my remarks, thanking them for their presence, as reported in State House News:

“This is not an easy conversation to have, yet in this State House, we welcome democratic engagement, we welcome debate, we welcome dissent,” the Northampton Democrat said. “If we weren't asking important questions about whether or not assisted suicide could be made safe — and I do believe it's made safe in this bill, I do believe that — we wouldn't be doing our jobs. This is too important a bill for us not to engage seriously with, so you are welcome here.”

"If there are ways to make this stronger, let's do it together, friends. We are not railroading this bill through the State House," she added.

Picture from Chris Lisinski at the State House News Service.

Update on the FirstLight relicensing process

In my last letter, I shared more about what comes next in the FirstLight relicensing process.

On April 22, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection released its final Water Quality Certification (WQC). My team and I have continued to engage with constituents and advocates on next steps for the state-based part of the relicensing process, which now is focused on stakeholder appeals.

On May 30, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released its draft Environmental Impact Statement for the FirstLight relicensing application. The draft can be found here.

Constituents can submit comments on this draft. Find more about the public comment process for the draft here.

FERC will be holding two public hearings on Wednesday, July 16 at Greenfield Community College:

Daytime Comment Session: 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Evening Comment Session: 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

I look forward to seeing many of you at these hearings.

As some of you may know, on June 4, FirstLight spilled at least 300 gallons of oil in the Connecticut River, underscoring the threats this facility poses to water quality and the environment and the importance of our collective engagement in this process.

Rep. Blais and I issued the following statement:

Launching the Indigenous Legislative Agenda

On May 12, my team and I helped host the launch of the Indigenous Legislative Agenda.

Speakers at the packed launch included Indigenous leaders from across the Commonwealth representing Massachusetts Tribal Nations, the Massachusetts Indigenous Legislative Agenda, the North American Indian Center of Boston, the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs, the Massachusetts Mascot Coalition Steering Committee, and other key stakeholders who spoke to the impact of the Agenda’s bills, including:

An Act prohibiting the use of Native American mascots by public schools in the Commonwealth (H.575/S.312)
An Act establishing an Indigenous Peoples Day (H.3292/S.2113)
An Act relative to celebrating and teaching Native American cultures and history (H.628/S.444)
An Act providing for the creation of a permanent commission relative to the education of American Indian and Alaska Native residents of the Commonwealth (H.649/S.412)
An Act to protect Native American Heritage (H.3597/S.2335)

At the end of the launch, Western Massachusetts Commissioner on Indian Affairs Rhonda Anderson (Iñupiaq – Athabaskan) spoke about the progress made to date on the important work of the Massachusetts Seal, Flag, and Motto Advisory Commission.

Subsequent to the launch, two of the bills I filed (establishing Indigenous Peoples Day and prohibiting Native American mascots in public schools) were noticed for hearings.

Watch a video of the launch here.

Seeing the work through

You’ve heard me say this before: It’s not enough to pass a bill, we have to see it through to implementation. That’s why we wanted to make sure to let you know of two exciting advances based on legislation I filed and passed in partnership with Representatives Natalie Blais and Mindy Domb.

Solar on the built environment — in last session’s climate omnibus bill, Rep. Blais and I were able to include our bill to prioritize solar on the built environment. I’m happy to tell you that, thanks to the work of the Department of Energy Resources (DOER), the state now has a Solar Canopy Working Group. Read about it here. Thank you to the constituents who have made your views known to the group. We hope to have more to report soon.

Green and healthy public schools — Two sessions ago, working in partnership with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Massachusetts, Rep. Domb and I were able to file and pass a bill to establish a Green and Healthy Public School task force charged with developing a comprehensive report. I’m delighted to tell you that the report titled Methods, Best Practices, and Standards for Achieving Green and Healthy Schools in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has just been released. Colleagues and I are pouring over it now and I believe it holds great promise for our work to transform the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). Read the report here.

Thanking our Spring 2025 interns

This spring, my team and I worked with a superstar team of interns and fellows. From left to right, starting at the top: Tina Vo, Bareha Abbas Naqvi, Megan Di Giovanni, Pavithra Venkataraman, Ally Roseberry, and Liam Black.

I am grateful for their service and their stellar work for our district. They allow us to work smarter and harder — while reaching more of our constituents directly. AND congratulations to Megan who has been hired by Senator Paul Feeney as his new Legislative Aide.

Please join me in wishing them well as they embark on new adventures. Our future is in very good hands.

Ways to engage

New opportunities to engage and take action on the issues that matter most.

Know Your Rights guide from Attorney General Campbell — Recently, the AG’s Office released a ‘Know Your Rights’ guide designed to help immigrants, families, and communities understand their rights and the basic legal framework for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions.

The Statewide Graduation Council Stakeholder Engagement Survey is live on mass.gov/k12gradcouncil. You can also access the survey via direct link here. It is important that everyone interested complete the survey by June 30. Information from the public survey and listening sessions will inform the Graduation Council’s recommendations regarding graduation requirements in the wake of the end of high stakes testing.

Office hours in June — Director of Constituent Services Jessie Cooley will be hosting remote office hours via Zoom on Friday, June 13 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Sign up here. Thanks to Jessie for leading.

Out and about

As always, we’re only able to share a few highlights of the past month. This newsletter highlights how members of our team were out and about across the district and the State House. But as you scroll through, please know that I also stopped by the Massachusetts Community College’s Honor Student celebration at the State House, met with local primary care providers on solutions to the pressing issues they’re facing, held a briefing with AARP on family caregivers, joined a flood resilience roundtable discussion, dropped into an open meeting with the MWRA Board of Directors, participated in a few Memorial Day observances and marched in the Franklin County Pride Parade, and much more.

On May 6, Director of Constituent Services Jessie Cooley attended Ancestral Bridges' Curiosity, Connection and Conversation: A Sneak Peak Event. This powerful exhibit was created through a collaboration between students in the American Literature in Conversation course at Amherst College, community elders, and Ancestral Bridges. The project centers intergenerational storytelling and highlights the generations of Black and Afro-Indigenous community members in Amherst. Thanks to Anika Lopes for the invitation and her leadership in this inspiring work.

On May 8, District Director Elena Cohen and Intern Megan Di Giovanni met in the district office with a group of UMass students working with MassPIRG to advance same-day voter registration legislation. The students shared a petition they'd collected of 500 signatures from across Massachusetts and shared powerful stories of their personal experiences of same-day voter registration working in other states.

On May 13, Elena joined MassDOT Secretary Tibbits-Nutt, MassDOT District 2 staff, the Governor's Western Mass Director and Deputy Director, and staff from Representative Homar Gomez's office to tour the Hadley Route 9 widening project.

On May 15, Elena attended the Franklin County Technical School's Legislative Breakfast and Ribbon Cutting for its brand new Chapter 74 Veterinary Animal Science building.

On May 16, Jessie participated in a North Quabbin Community Coalition forum, convening leaders from social service organizations for networking and an informative presentation on Alzheimer's and Dementia with Meghan Lemay, Regional Manager at the Alzheimer's Association.

On May 17, Elena spoke at the Greenfield Bee Fest, joining the City in celebrating pollinators. Pictured below is a beautiful new bee sculpture, the "MassGrown Bee," created by Greenfield artist Rachael Katz and painted by Melissa Pandina in honor of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR). Following the festival, this bee sculpture flew down to Springfield to be displayed at the Big E. Elena was glad to join Rep. Blais, MDAR Commissioner Ashley Randle and her team, Jessye Deane from the Franklin County Chamber, and Hannah Rechtschaffen from the Greenfield Business Association.

On May 20, Elena joined Valley Community Development for an opening ceremony of the new Laurel Street housing in Northampton which adds 20 units of affordable housing within walking distance of downtown Northampton.

Also on May 20, Elena attended a Topping Off Ceremony for the new Amherst elementary school and was pleased to join Rep. Domb, Maria Puopolo, Director of External Affairs for the MSBA, and members of the Town Council, Elementary School Building Committee, and Amherst Regional School District.

On May 28, Legislative Director Rachel Klein met with physicians from the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Baystate Medical Center to hear their powerful advocacy on behalf of their patients' rights to privacy and reproductive and gender-affirming care.

On May 29, Elena and Summer Intern Lily Frank attended the Canopy 2025: Innovations in Practice conference on forestry at UMass. Pictured is a panel representing a spectrum of values related to land management moderated by Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Tom O'Shea with panelists Ethan Tapper, Tom Lautzenheiser, Leah Hopkins, and Brian Donahue.

Also on May 29, Zoe "Zizi" Phillips Santiago of Northampton High School and Mia Ducos of Quabbin Regional High School were both awarded the prestigious Christian A. Herter Memorial Scholarship at the State House, recognizing that they have overcome adversity to achieve outstanding leadership and academic performance.

Zizi is pictured with Chief of Staff Jared Freedman, and then both Zizi and Mia checked out their future office — the Governor's Office — before heading home to Northampton and Athol. Congratulations to both Zizi and Mia on their remarkable accomplishments. I am beyond excited to see what their futures hold.

On May 30, Rep. Domb and I hosted a reception for a special exhibit on display in the State House: Cambodians in Amherst: The History of the Khmer Community.

Originally launched in May 2024 by the Amherst Historical Society, Amherst Media, and the Cambodian community of Amherst, the exhibit features oral histories, archival photographs, and personal narratives that honor the strength and resilience of the Cambodian community in the aftermath of the Cambodian genocide.

Director of Communications and Engagement Katelyn Billings is pictured below with Cambodian dancers from Indra’s Artistic Creations who performed at the reception.

On June 2, Elena delivered a citation on behalf of our team and the Senate celebrating Amherst Town Clerk Sue Audette’s retirement after two decades of service to the Town of Amherst. Thank you, Sue!

On June 4, Jessie joined the SPIFFY (Strategic Planning Initiative for Families and Youth) Coalition for their full coalition meeting at Nonotuck Park in Easthampton. It was a beautiful day for connecting with youth service providers and students from the region, with a great presentation from Re-Connect Western MA and a panel of students and administrators from Greenfield and Hadley on the importance of cell phone free school policies.

We’ll end here because we know this was a looooooong newsletter.

But every bit of this work is worth fighting for, as are the people and communities we represent.

We send our love to you.

Jo, Jessie, Rachel, Jared, Katelyn, and Elena

P.S. Overnight work is beginning on 91 north and south. Details here. We’re grateful for the tireless work of municipal staff, first responders, and MassDOT staff who are working hard to keep all of us safe.

P.P.S. On most days, Legislative Director Rachel Klein (back row, third from left) is laser focused on our bills and committee work — the embodiment of serious and steadfast. We were all delighted to catch a glimpse of Rachel’s wild side in the picture below of her flamingo-like frisbee team.