Testimony: Everyone Needs ID

Tuesday, November 4, 2025 

Chair Crighton, Chair Arciero, and Members of the Joint Committee on Transportation:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I’m the policy director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide, member-based grassroots advocacy organization fighting for a more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic Commonwealth. 

We urge you to give a favorable report to H.3750/S.2399: An Act to provide identification to youth and adults experiencing homelessness (“Everyone Needs ID” bill. 

Individuals experiencing homelessness face significant obstacles to obtaining an ID, but IDs can often be essential to securing employment and even accomplishing everyday life tasks. Without an ID, it can be difficult, if not outright impossible, to apply for jobs, enroll in education programs, get a library card, pick up a package from the post office, receive a prescription from a pharmacy, and more. So many of us take such tasks for granted, but for individuals experiencing homelessness, they become complicated endeavors and roadblocks on the path toward stability.

The aforementioned bills offer a solution by requiring the Registry of Motor Vehicles to waive the $25 fee for an ID for people experiencing homelessness and by allowing applicants to support alternative documentation to prove Massachusetts residency, such as allowing individuals to provide evidence of receiving services from a state agency under the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

Massachusetts must take comprehensive action to ensure housing for all; however, in the interim, we must ensure that our policies are not exacerbating the obstacles faced by individuals experiencing homelessness. We urge you to make a difference this session by advancing these bills.

Sincerely, 

Jonathan Cohn 

Policy Director 

Progressive Massachusetts 

Tomorrow Is Election Day. You Should Be Able to Register to Vote Then.

Tomorrow is Election Day. 55 cities and towns across Massachusetts will be holding elections, and if you’re in one of them, you’ll be well aware that in the last week, especially the last few days, the election has become more visible.

Canvassers, lit, mailers, news coverage–the list goes on. But at this exact point when attention and visibility rise, our voter registration cutoff limits who can participate.

Our democracy is strongest when everyone can participate, but MA still puts up unnecessary barriers to participation with a 10-day voter registration cutoff. Given that the average American moves more than 11 times over the course of their lives, moving near Election Day could easily lead to disenfranchisement.

Even worse, if clerical errors exist on the voter rolls, voters can fill out a provisional ballot are left unsure if their vote will be counted. No one should ever lose basic rights due to clerical errors.

Same Day Registration can fix all of that, and MA should join our neighboring states in passing it. If Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Connecticut can all do it, why can’t we?

Can you let your legislators know it’s time to pass Same Day Registration?

The Scariest Part of Any Horror Movie Is Inaction 🎃🎃

Witches, vampires, ghosts–they are all scary in movies. But the threats faced in real life are much scarier.

🎃Threats to Health Care and Food Assistance: Massachusetts faces deep cuts in health care access, food assistance, and more due to the Big Ugly Bill passed this summer, and we face looming cuts to SNAP given President Trump’s illegal decision not to spend emergency resources. Massachusetts has a higher GDP than Sweden: we are a rich state with ample resources, and we should be raising new revenue and tapping into our flush rainy day fund. (When it’s raining, you take out the umbrella.)

🎃Threats to Privacy Rights:As Big Tech behemoths like Facebook and Google become accomplices to Trumpist authoritarianism, we need to rein in their ability to buy and sell our personal data in an unregulated market place. The State Senate took action last month, but the House needs to as well. And the clock is ticking.

But we can prevent these frights with good policy.

When you watch a horror film, you know that one of the scariest things can be inaction. That sense that the outcomes were not inevitable at all, that opportunities were missed, that voices were unheeded, all of them empowering whatever villains lurk.

We have seen far too much inaction from Beacon Hill this year.

On the last day of the 10th month, only 49 bills have been signed into law. Of those 49, 21 were home rule petitions for one city or town, 13 were personnel matters about individual people, and 8 were budgets and supplemental budgets.

Let’s change the ending of this scary movie.

Email Your State Senator

Email Your State Rep

Testimony: State House Staff Deserve the Right to Form a Union

Tuesday, October 28, 2025 

Chair McMurtry, Chair Oliveira, and Members of the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development: 

I am submitting testimony on behalf of Progressive Massachusetts. PM is a statewide, multi-issue, grassroots membership organization focused on fighting for policy that would make our Commonwealth more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic. 

We urge you to give S.1343/H.2093: An Act relative to collective bargaining rights for legislative employees.

This bill would give State House employees the right to organize a union for the purpose of negotiating their wages, benefits, and working conditions—a right held by almost all other workers in the commonwealth.

State House staffers do so much work to keep the Legislature running. They are the reason that today’s hearing will go smoothly. They will be the ones collating submitted testimony for you to read later and taking notes for your colleagues who could not attend. They are case workers, responding to countless constituent services requests and directing people to the right agencies to address their problems. They are schedulers, policy analysts, strategy partners, networkers, meeting-attenders, and so much more.

Despite all these things that they are, one thing that they are not is adequately compensated.

When State House staff are not provided fair wages, safe and healthy work conditions, or a seat at the table, we lose talent and limit who can even consider entering public service in the first place. When we don’t have all of the diverse voices of the Commonwealth at the table, we miss vital perspectives in crafting policy.

We are very appreciative of all the recent pro-labor reforms that this Legislature has passed over the past few years and your commitment in your own districts to show solidarity with workers fighting for better pay, better benefits, and a better voice at the workplace. We ask you to show that same solidarity here and support the rights of your staff.

Thank you again for your time and for holding this hearing, and we again ask for a swift favorable report for H.2093 and S.1343.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

Action Alert: Support the State House Employee Union

If you have ever interacted with your state representative’s or state senator’s office, you know how hard-working State House aides are. They coordinate the responses to constituent requests, they connect people to needed agencies and services, they help draft and decipher policy, they staff community events across the district, and much, much more.

But compared to the work that they do and the talent that they have, they are underpaid, and they lack a voice at the job.

Despite the organizing work by the Massachusetts State House Employee Union, the MA Legislature has yet to voluntarily recognize the union, and many otherwise staunchly pro-labor legislators have yet to voice their support.

When State House staff are not provided fair wages, safe and healthy work conditions, or a seat at the table, we lose talent and limit who can even consider entering public service in the first place. When we don’t have all of the diverse voices of the Commonwealth at the table, we miss vital perspectives in crafting policy.

Can you write to your state legislators today to support collective bargaining rights for State House staff?
Email Your State Legislators

S.1343/H.2093 (An Act relative to collective bargaining rights for legislative employees) would permit legislative staff in the House and Senate to form a union, if they want to, for the purpose of negotiating their wages, benefits, and working conditions.

This bill has a hearing on Tuesday, and the State House Employee Union is collecting signatures from the general public on supportive testimony. Sign on to Public Testimony

Sign Testimony

Letter: “State Needs to Step In”

Steve Leibowitz, “Letter: State Needs to Step In,” Cape Cod Chronicle, October 16, 2025.

Editor:
The recent cuts and shutdown at the federal level threaten essential programs that Cape Cod families rely on — everything from food assistance to housing support. While Washington retreats, our state must step forward. The Massachusetts Legislature has a responsibility not just to cushion these blows, but to act boldly and proactively to ensure no resident is left behind.
We cannot wait for federal funds that may never come back. Massachusetts has the resources and ingenuity to protect its most vulnerable communities, but it requires the political will to prioritize people to do so. A more aggressive response — through targeted state funding, innovative partnerships, and stronger safety nets — is not optional; it is a moral obligation.
If we fail to act decisively, the burden will fall hardest on our children, seniors and working families already struggling to make ends meet. This is not the time for incrementalism. Massachusetts should lead by example, proving that even when Washington pulls back, we move forward.

Steven Leibowitz
Brewster

Testimony: MA Needs Right to Counsel

Wednesday, October 22, 2025 

Chair Day, Chair Edwards, and Members of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary: 

I am submitting testimony on behalf of Progressive Massachusetts. PM is a statewide, multi-issue, grassroots membership organization focused on fighting for policy that would make our Commonwealth more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic. 

We see it all the time in polls, we hear it on the doors, and we see it in the data: Massachusetts has a housing crisis. More and more residents are unable to afford to live in our commonwealth anymore, priced out from one community to another and then out entirely, or face severe housing instability. 

We need a comprehensive approach to the housing crisis, and strong protections for tenants must be a part of it. We urge you to give a favorable report to H.1952: An Act promoting access to counsel and housing stability in Massachusetts.

These bills would provide legal representation for low-income tenants and low-income owner-occupants in eviction proceedings. The eviction moratorium that the Legislature passed earlier in the pandemic was a vital lifeline for so many, but eviction filings have now been climbing past what they were in 2019, pre-pandemic. Tenants enter such eviction proceedings at a major disadvantage: according to FY2024 Trial Court data, while 90% of landlords are represented, less than 5% of tenants are represented. Tenants facing eviction are disproportionately poor, female, and BIPOC, and evictions can have lasting negative impacts on physical and mental health.

Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Washington have already passed Right to Counsel policies, and Massachusetts should join them. 

Sincerely, 

Jonathan Cohn 

Policy Director 

Progressive Massachusetts 

Testimony: The Solution to Homelessness is Homes, Not Criminalization

Wednesday, October 22, 2025 

Chair Livingstone, Chair Kennedy, and Members of the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities: 

I am submitting testimony on behalf of Progressive Massachusetts. PM is a statewide, multi-issue, grassroots membership organization focused on fighting for policy that would make our Commonwealth more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic. 

We urge you to give a favorable report to H.274: An Act establishing a bill of rights for individuals experiencing homelessness.

The solution to homelessness is clear: giving people homes. But too often, municipalities see the solution as criminalization and punishment instead, worsening the underlying problems and forcing individuals into vicious cycles of incarceration and housing instability.

As rents and housing prices skyrocket in Massachusetts, an increasing number of families face housing instability, experiencing short-term or long-term homelessness. We desperately need comprehensive action to address our housing crisis and to secure housing for those currently without it. However, we also need to ensure that misguided and archaic laws do not make it more difficult for individuals to obtain housing.

These bills would rectify this status quo by extending anti-discrimination protections to persons experiencing homelessness, including protections when seeking employment, housing, voter registration, and access to public spaces and places of public accommodation. They would also ensure that individuals experiencing homelessness are not being criminalized for existing in public space, protecting their right to rest, seek shelter from the elements, occupy a legally parked car, pray, eat, and avoid needless harassment in public spaces.

H.274 is essential to ensuring Massachusetts is a state that treats all residents with dignity and respect, and we urge you to give it your support.

Sincerely, 

Jonathan Cohn 

Policy Director 

Progressive Massachusetts 

Election Day Is Two Weeks Away! Here’s What to Know

Election Day — Tuesday, November 4 — is just two weeks away. If you live in one of MA’s cities, that means it’s time to vote.

Remember: The deadline to register to vote or update your registration is Saturday, October 25.

But there’s a key question that might be on your mind: Who’s on my ballot?

In addition to the questionnaires collected by our Boston chapters for their endorsement processes, our Elections Committee has been collecting informational questionnaires from candidates across the state. Learn who’s running in your city or town and whether they are standing up for your progressive values.

You can find questionnaires for the following municipalities:

  • Attleboro
  • Beverly
  • Chelsea
  • Everett
  • Fall River
  • Fitchburg
  • Framingham
  • Everett
  • Haverhill
  • Holyoke
  • Lawrence
  • Lynn
  • Marlborough
  • Medford
  • Methuen
  • Newburyport
  • North Adams
  • Northampton
  • Peabody
  • Quincy
  • Revere
  • Salem
  • Springfield
  • Taunton
  • Waltham
  • Weymouth
  • Winthrop
  • Worcester