By Chris Lisinski, Ella Adams and Eric Convey | | Frustrated at incremental movement, progressives want leaders to legislate action against Trump policies | | |
Progressives have been frustrated for days, even weeks, at what they see as a sluggish attitude on Beacon Hill when it comes to President Donald Trump. The response from top Senate Democrats on Tuesday seems to have made some activists on the left even more irritated.
Eight days after more than a dozen progressive groups wrote to legislative leaders urging immediate action at the state level to mitigate impacts from the Trump administration, Senate President Karen Spilka and some of her top deputies convened a seemingly high-profile press conference.
They stood behind a podium bearing a new slogan — RESPONSE 2025, all-caps — and pledged for the existing Senate Committee on Steering and Policy to craft a state policy response to Trump's presidency, which began Jan. 20.
The lack of concrete details prompted Jonathan Cohn, policy director of the Progressive Massachusetts group that signed onto last week's letter, to ask: what took so long?
"We are now at the start of the fourth month of the year and are 10 weeks into Trump's second administration. Why is it only now that Senate Democrats feel the need to announce that they are thinking about how to respond to the disasters in Washington?" Cohn said. "Somehow, the Senate's announced response is more comical and more underwhelming than creating a new committee: they held a press conference to let the public know that an existing committee is going to do the work that it should have already been doing."
Of course, it takes two branches to legislate, and the plan-in-development presser featured only senators. House Democrats have not laid out any specific plans of their own to bring forward any particularly Trump-inspired legislation, though House Speaker Ron Mariano said vaguely last week his team is "looking at a couple of things."
"In the first term, he was very measured and very small. This — every day it's something different. One day he's fighting with air traffic controllers, the next day he's fighting with hospitals on [National Institutes of Health] funding, the next day he's talking about cutting out the Department of Ed," Mariano said. "We don't know where it's all going to land, and until it lands, we can't make a budget. We're just sort of shooting in the dark." — Chris Lisinski
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9:00 | Joint Committee on Public Health holds hearing to weigh medical aid-in-dying legislation as well as bills dealing with emergency medical services, professional licensure and scope of practice | Gardner Auditorium | Agenda & Livestream
10:00 | Senate subcommittee tasked with overseeing a response to the voter-approved law empowering the auditor to probe the Legislature meets | Room 222
10:00 | Massachusetts Competitive Partnership hosts an installment of its Competitiveness Conversation Series | UMass Club, Beacon Street, Boston | Register
10:00 | Advocacy group Transportation for Massachusetts holds its "day of action" | Room 437
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MBTA Communities fight enters next phase
The MBTA Communities Act seemingly has become the issue that never dies, and it'll move to the next phase in the long-running debate today. A Plymouth Superior Court judge will convene a hearing at 9 a.m. about the legal complaints that four communities — Marshfield, Middleton, Wrentham and Hanson — filed against the mandatory zoning-reform law after Auditor Diana DiZoglio's Division of Local Mandates dubbed it an "unfunded mandate." The Supreme Judicial Court has already upheld the law as constitutional while ordering a redo of regulations governing its implementation. Attorney General Andrea Campbell has dubbed the unfunded mandate determination "incorrect" and signaled she "intend[s] to successfully defend this law in court."
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Head of teachers' union wants state to aid struggling school districts
The head of the Massachusetts Teachers Association wants state officials to find ways to prop up the funding of struggling school districts, the Gazette's Scott Merzbach reports. Districts across the state are struggling financially amid rising costs and citizen refusal to override the tax-limit Proposition 2 ½. Proposals at a recent hearing include using more funds from the voter-approved income surtax on high earners and increasing the state tax on income generated by some foreign businesses owned by Massachusetts companies or individuals. — Daily Hampshire Gazette
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Pittsfield High School report won't be shared with public despite pledge
The Pittsfield School Committee appears to be reneging on a promise to share the results of a city-funded investigation into its high school with the public, the Eagle's Greg Sukiennik reports. The inquiry, led by a Pittsfield law firm, was ordered after a series of scandals involving high-ranking school officials. The school committee said when the probe began that it would share the report at the end of the firm's investigation, but the chairman now says he has been advised against doing so by the committee's lawyer and is likely to release its recommendations instead. — Berkshire Eagle
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Clark University ending four programs as part of belt-tightening
Clark University in Worcester says it will wind down four academic programs to address financial challenges, the Telegram's Henry Schwan reports. The programs on the chopping block include ancient civilization, French and francophone studies and comparative literature. Studio art will be downgraded to a minor. — Telegram & Gazette
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West Yarmouth lobsterman fighting order to close retail site
A West Yarmouth man who is the second generation of his family to sell their catches from what now is his home is fighting a town official's order that he stop doing so, the Cape Cod Times's Sarah Vaughn reports. The town agent said a neighbor complained, prompting the cease and desist order. The lobsterman says he was previously told his use of the property for a commercial purpose is grandfathered in. — Cape Cod Times
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Concord dressing up for country's 250th celebration
The town of Concord is going all-in for this year's July 4 celebration, which marks the country's 250th birthday, Concord Bridge’s Laurie O'Neill reports. One organizer of festivities told the paper residents are being encouraged "to dress up their houses, mailboxes, front porches, windows, dogs, and whatever might be visible from the street." — Concord Bridge
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Record-correction for marijuana pardons off to slow start
A year after Gov. Healey unveiled a blanket pardon of marijuana possessions, only a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of people who were set to be impacted has proof they've been pardoned. The Globe's Matt Stout reports that Healey's promise that people would feel automatic relief (and not have to do anything to claim a pardon) "collided with bureaucratic reality," as the record-correcting necessary remains a laborious process, and the governor's office isn't certain how long the process of updating the thousands of court records will take. Even if a record hasn't yet been corrected, everyone with a misdemeanor marijuana possession conviction is considered pardoned. — Boston Globe
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Former chief-of-staff for Lawrence mayor sentenced in child pornography case
Jhovanny Martes-Rosario, a one-time chief-of-staff to a mayor of Lawrence, was sentenced to time in federal prison after pleading guilty to possessing and transporting child pornography, MassLive’s Ryan Mancini reports. Martes-Rosario was sentenced to 43 months in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release. — MassLive
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A roundup on the federal front…
Social Security: Bay Staters are joining a nationwide chorus of people who utilize Social Security to vocalize what it could mean to them if cuts were to materialize as a result of Trump administration cost-cuts. The Eagle reports that in Pittsfield, residents gathered to share their fears with local representatives should SSA cuts become reality; in Springfield on Tuesday, demonstrators protested against potential cuts to the program and suggested firing of agency workers. Congressional Democrats, like U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, also warned people Tuesday about rising wait times for assistance at the SSA and potentially delayed checks, which they're calling a "backdoor cut" to benefits. Trump maintains he will not cut benefits.
Climate: Senators suggested Tuesday that an upcoming state energy affordability bill and environmental bond bill could provide opportunities for Massachusetts to progress its climate agenda despite federal headwinds, which they expect to make their climate ambitions more difficult to achieve. While the state expects to lose some speed on offshore wind — a piece necessary to meet the net-zero by Massachusetts's 2050 climate mandate and other climate goals — some senators said moving forward more aggressively on other aspects of the climate formula or agenda, like decarbonizing buildings and transportation, can still push progress toward the ultimate goals.
Education: The Trump administration cut $106 million of unspent COVID relief funding from Massachusetts schools, which found out about the losses last week. The state said Tuesday that schools were expected to have nearly another year to finish spending the cash, an extended timeline due to supply chain and other issues. Springfield and New Bedford are set to face the largest losses in Massachusetts — Springfield Public Schools stand to lose more than $47 million in federal education grants, while New Bedford stands to lose around $15 million.
Tariffs: Gov. Healey spoke to WBZ on Tuesday about the tariffs Trump is suggesting he'll roll out today. Healey said a proposed 20% tariff on Canadian imports would increase the price of lumber, making it more expensive to build housing, as well as serve as a tax on Bay State energy, causing utility bills and gas at the pump to rise. Despite Trump's focus on tariffs, Healey said she hopes "cooler heads" will prevail — "the market is tanking, economists last week came out and said Donald Trump is continuing to do things that are inflationary, that are raising costs and are getting us into trouble."
Veterans services: The Martha's Vineyard Times reports that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs won't be funding an island veterans counseling service. The program, called "Readjustment Counseling for War Veterans," has been in operation since the 1980s and received word in March that the VA wouldn't be renewing its contract that ends on June 30. The Trump administration points to the local closure, which will come alongside closures of around 500 other similar programs nationwide, as a way to cut down on federal spending.
Immigration: At noon, Massachusetts Peace Action and other activist groups are planning to gather at the JFK Federal Building in downtown Boston to speak to representatives from the offices of U.S. Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren. Activists are expected to read and turn in letters signed by Massachusetts organizations and individuals protesting the detention of Rumeysa Ozturk and the sale of arms to Israel.
| | ICYMI...Asked about his family's push to build a new soccer stadium in Everett, New England Patriots and New England Revolution owner Robert Kraft blamed "politics" for the delay in progress. Democrats are raising alarm about increasing energy prices under Trump administration tariff threats, but on Tuesday, Republican Sen. Ryan Fattman said that ratepayers are seeing massive increases in utility bills because of Massachusetts's clean energy mandates. While Wellesley College professors are on strike, their students are facing a dilemma — they've been asked by the school to substitute striking professors' classes for ones that are still meeting or to give up credits this semester. | | |
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Program Director for Education, American Academy of Arts & Sciences
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