State House Democrats Flub Major Legislation As Formal Sessions End

Even as they worked into the early morning hours of Thursday morning in an attempt to cheat their July 31 deadline, lawmakers in the Massachusetts State House ultimately failed to agree on several major pieces of legislation in time, leaving numerous important bills unresolved and likely dead.

Many of those bills had already won approval by wide margins in both the House and Senate.

But because House and Senate leadership couldn’t resolve differences between their chambers’ respective versions, those bills never received a final enactment vote before the end-of-the-session deadline.

The fumbled bills include one that would have streamlined permitting rules for new renewable energy projects, another bill that would have improved public oversight of hospitals while venture capital firms suck the life out of the Steward Health Care system, and a major economic development package.

Lawmakers’ failure gives transit riders more traffic, dirtier air

The Senate’s version of the failed renewable energy legislation – “An Act upgrading the grid and protecting ratepayers” – had passed with an amendment from Sen. Brendan Crighton of Lynn that would have required the MBTA to produce plans to electrify its commuter rail lines, along with a detailed accounting of how much money it needs from the state to accomplish that work.

The bill’s failure doesn’t prevent the MBTA from making those plans and requesting the necessary funding on its own. But the agency has not shown the initiative to do so in the half-decade since the T’s board of directors first asked the T to phase out diesel-powered engines and implement a regional rail system.

Other bills – including one we reported on earlier this week, “An Act relative to bus lane enforcement,” passed in the Senate, but never even received a vote in the House.

The bus lane enforcement bill died in the unfinished business of the House Ways and Means committee, chaired by Rep. Aaron Michlewitz of Boston (Michlewitz’s district encompasses downtown Boston, the North End, and part of the South End).

Try again with the new team

The House and Senate will continue to meet in small “informal sessions” for the rest of the summer and fall, and lawmakers often approve non-controversial bills in those sessions.

But during informal sessions, any single lawmaker can block a bill from moving forward, which makes it overwhelmingly unlikely that any major legislation or complex policies will pass before a new Legislature takes office after November’s elections.