Go Big or Don’t Go Home

In a mere eleven days — on Friday, July 31st, at 11:59 pm — the legislative session in the Massachusetts State House comes to an end.

The bills that didn’t make it past the finish line this year will disappear into the ether or return like a phoenix from the ashes in January next year, only to face the same grueling process.

But there are many policies that can’t wait until January. Indeed, passing them now is already far later than should have been done. And, frankly, the Legislature shouldn’t get to leave session until they finish.

What priorities are we talking about?

  • Passing the Safe Communities Act so that state and local law enforcement aren’t being deputized as ICE agents
  • Passing the Work and Family Mobility Act because mobility is a basic right, regardless of one’s citizenship status
  • Passing the ROE Act because MA needs to strengthen reproductive rights here at home as they remain under attack on the federal level
  • Passing the 100% Renewable Energy Act because we can’t keep stumbling forward into climate chaos
  • Passing Emergency Paid Sick Time so that no worker has to choose between their health and their job security
  • Passing guaranteed housing stability for at least one more year ​because if we want people to stay at home, they need a home to go back to
  • Passing a budget that raises Progressive Revenue by making sure that corporations and the rich are paying their fair share

The Legislature can’t keep punting session after session and patting themselves on the back.

Can you call or email your state legislators about taking real action before the session ends — or staying in until they do?

Go Big or Don't Go Home

Take Action: The Senate Votes Tomorrow on Policing Reform

Black Lives Matter

Tomorrow, the MA Senate will be voting on a bill to reform how policing is done in Massachusetts.

Although it contains many important provisions, it also leaves far too much on the table, and it contains language that undercuts the ability of the reforms to provide meaningful change.

Here’s how you can help.

Tell your senator to support Amendments #10, 21, 27, 31, 37, 64, 65, 67, 75, 81, 108, 113, and 119. These amendments will reinvest in communities, limit the scope and presence of police, ban dangerous police tactics, and protect the rights of the incarcerated.

Find their number here and give them a call.

Tweet at them to support the amendments.

Send them an email in support of these amendments.

What These Amendments Do

Reinvesting in Communities

#81: Removing The Cap On Justice Reinvestment (Jehlen): The bill reinvests money from the Department of Corrections into a fund for job training and workforce development for communities disproportionately targeted by the criminal-legal system. The fund, based on the savings produced by reduced incarceration rates, could reach as high as $38 million a year, but the bill caps the fund at $10 million. This amendment would remove the cap.

Limiting the Scope & Presence of Police

Amendment #10: Promoting racial justice by decriminalizing homelessness (Rausch), which guarantees the right of those experiencing homelessness to use public spaces in the same manner as any other person without discrimination based on their housing status

Amendment #31: Banning pretextual stops (Chandler), which prohibits a practice too often employed by police to harass Black and Brown drivers

Amendment #108: Protecting Students from Profiling (Jehlen), which disrupts the school-to-prison pipeline by preventing the transmission of student information to a Fusion Center, the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, or any other agency that keeps a gang database

Banning dangerous police tactics

Amendment #64: Relative to Facial recognition (Creem): The Senate bill bans the use of facial surveillance for law enforcement for only one year. This amendment extends that ban until legislation is passed to implement such a ban permanently.

Amendment #65: Banning tear gas and other chemical weapons (Rausch): The Senate bill bill allows tear gas to be used in certain circumstances, offering no real deterrent to its use. Police should never use tear gas or chemical weapons against civilians. This amendment would prohibit the use of tear gas and chemical weapons altogether.

Amendment #67: Banning choke holds (Eldridge): Under the extremely narrow definition in the bill, the restraint used against George Floyd could be found lawful until the moment he was rendered unconscious and killed. This amendment clarifies that all neck restraints are prohibited.

Amendment #75: Clarifying the Reasonableness of an Officer’s Actions (Eldridge), which creates a higher standard for the use of force

Amendment #119: Banning no-knock warrants (Hinds): The Senate bill allows no-knock warrants in certain circumstances. Breonna Taylor was murdered after police broke down her front door without warning in the middle of the night under the auspices of a no-knock warrant, and no-knock warrants are disproportionately used to terrorize Black and Brown communities. This amendment would ban them altogether.

Protecting the Rights of the Incarcerated

Amendment #21: Strengthening visitation of incarcerated persons (Rausch), which removes harmful limitations on visitation imposed by the Department of Corrections

Amendment #27: Correctional Officers (Eldridge), which prevents decertified officers from working in prisons and jails

Amendment #37: Transitional Assistance for Wrongfully Convicted Persons (Jehlen), which guarantees $5,000 in transitional financial assistance as well as access to physical and mental health services upon release for those who have been wrongfully convicted

Amendment #113: Prison Use of Force Records (Eldridge), which ensures that an inmate and the inmate’s legally designated representative shall have the right to obtain a copy of all records relating to any use of force incident involving the inmate

Take Action: Extend Sick Time. Extend the Eviction Moratorium. Extend the Session.

COVID graphic

TL;DR: Tell your legislators to extend paid sick time, extend the eviction moratorium, and extend the legislative session.

Today marks Phase 3 of Republican Governor Charlie Baker’s reopening plan. That means that movie theaters (??), casinos (??), and gyms (??!?) are allowed to reopen today — even as states around the country are seeing resurgences of the COVID-19 outbreak.

And to make matters worse, this reopening is happening without any new, enforceable protections for workers.

If we want to have a successful, equitable recovery, then workers who are sick or are taking care of loved ones need to be able to stay home without fear of losing their job. Massachusetts’s 2014 earned sick time law does not provide enough hours to meet the scale of the crisis, and the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act has big coverage gaps that leave millions of front-line workers without paid sick time.

Massachusetts needs to pass Emergency Paid Sick Time legislation to ensure that all workers can take paid sick time during this crisis.

And for people to be able to stay home, they need a home to go back to. The eviction and foreclosure moratorium signed in April is set to expire next month, August 18. That means that, if the Legislature does not take action, working-class families across the state could face a wave of evictions during a possible COVID resurgence.

Evictions and foreclosures are bad for public health in the best of times. They are even more dangerous now, and the instability and insecurity is likely to hit Black and Brown families the hardest.

But, again the Legislature can take action here by extending the eviction/foreclosure moratorium, expanding mortgage deferment protections, and stabilizing both renters and small property owners.

And time is short. The Legislative session is set to end at the end of the month. If the Legislature does not finish the vital business of protecting workers and addressing the backlog of important pre-COVID legislative priorities, then legislators should stay in session until they finish.

Here’s where you come in.

(1) Call your legislators in support of these two bills & call on them to support extending the legislative session:

  • S.2701 / H.4700: An Act relative to emergency paid sick time
  • SD.2992 / HD.5166: An Act to guarantee housing stability during the COVID-19 emergency and recovery 

(2) Email your legislators in support of these bills and extending the session.

(3) Share this email with five friends.

Take Action: Protecting Reproductive Rights Here in MA

ROE Act

Yesterday, in a win for reproductive freedom, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law that was designed to close abortion clinics and cut off access to care. This decision affirms that people should not be forced to jump through medically unnecessary hoops to access basic medical care.

But Louisiana isn’t the only state with barriers to care. In Massachusetts, young people seeking abortion are forced to go to court to plead their case to a judge, and families who receive a lethal fetal diagnosis later in pregnancy must travel across the country for abortion care.

That’s why the Massachusetts Legislature needs to pass the ROE Act this session. The ROE Act (S1209/H3320) will make sure that everyone, regardless of income, age, or insurance, can receive necessary abortion care.

Can you email your state legislators today to ask them to priortize the ROE Act?

This is an equity issue. History shows us that wealthy white women have found ways to get abortion care, no matter the barriers.. Women of color, especially Black and brown women, LGBTQ+ people, and people with low incomes, are disproportionately impacted by the political games that corrode abortion access. The Commonwealth can remove harmful barriers to care, support our health care providers, and be a true leader on reproductive freedom by passing the ROE Act. 

Please contact your lawmakers today to ask them to lead Massachusetts forward by passing the ROE Act.

Just Mail Everyone a Ballot

On June 4, the MA House advanced a bill to expand opportunities to vote by mail and vote early in light of COVID-19 (Read about the good and the bad of the bill here.)

Now, it’s the Senate’s time to vote, and that means another opportunity to improve the bill–to make it better for voting access and better for public health.

That’s why we’re supporting the following amendments:

#1 (Rausch): Automatic Ballot Delivery for the General Election, which would automatically mail general election early voting ballots to every active registered voter in the Commonwealth

#3 (Lesser): Strengthening mail ballot request online portal, which strengthens the bill’s language establishing an online portal for absentee ballot requests

#6 (Chandler): Creating a Timely Online Ballot Request Portal, which would ensure that the early voting portal is available for the primary election as well as the general, as is included in the House version

#7 (Chang-Diaz): Voting Accessibility, which requires the necessary accommodations for individuals with disabilities to be able to vote by mail

#8 (Hinds): Ballots Mailed by Election Day, which ensures that ballots mailed by Election Day will be counted

#15 (Eldridge): Same Day Registration, which establishes same-day voter registration for all 2020 elections.

#20 (Eldridge): Safeguarding equity and access when making changes to polling places, which requires cities and towns to make specific findings when changing polling places, including that doing so would not have a disparate adverse impact on access to the polls on the basis of race, national origin, disability, income, or age, and increases the notice period for changed polling location from 15 to 20 days.

#23 (Rausch): Voter education and outreach, which requires Secretary Galvin to conduct a public awareness campaign promoting the new and expanded early voting and mail voting procedures included in the bill.

#24 (Eldridge): Guaranteeing Safe, Accessible, and Fair Elections For All, which strengthens the protections of and guidance around safe in-person voting

#35 (Cyr): Language Access, which requires transliteration of all candidates’ names as part of the bilingual ballot (for all translated ballots in languages not using Roman alphabet) and requires all candidates to be provided with written copy of transliteration

Send an email to your state senator here.

🚨Actions You Can Take from Home During the COVID-19 Crisis

With the outbreak of COVID-19, Massachusetts is facing a crisis.

We have a public health crisis, as the number of those infected grows every day. We have an economic crisis, as the threat of a recession looms larger every day and workers risk weeks (or months) without a paycheck. And we have a democratic crisis, as the virus outbreak challenges our ability to hold traditional in-person elections.

And this is on top of the crises we already face, such as the inequality that affects all aspects of our society.

And our Legislature needs to respond with the requisite urgency and comprehensiveness. 

Can you email your state legislators to demand quick and comprehensive action? 

Here’s what a comprehensive response must include: 

✅Passing HD.4935 (Connolly-Honan): An Act Providing for a Moratorium on Evictions and Foreclosures During the COVID19 Emergency because, in a state of emergency in which people are being asked to stay at home, people need to have homes. Evictions and foreclosures exacerbate our public health crisis and strain our already weak safety net. 

✅Passing legislation to provide immediate financial assistance ​to mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic​, such as HD.4945 (Gouveia): An Act providing for emergency cash assistance in response to COVID-19, HD.4951 (Decker): An Act to provide short-term relief for families in deep poverty, and HD.4950 (Miranda): An Act providing emergency access to equity and justice for all in response to COVID-19 

✅Passing HD.4958 (Mark/Sabadosa): An Act relative to COVID-19 emergency unemployment expansion, which would ensure that independent contractors, sole proprietors, partners in a partnership, freelance, and tipped employees are eligible for unemployment benefits and that COVID-19 emergency assistance does not make any worker ineligible for receiving any existing state benefits

✅Passing Emergency Paid Sick Time legislation that guarantees all workers at least fifteen additional work-days (120 hours) of job-protected paid sick time for immediate use during the COVID-19 outbreak or any future public health emergency because no worker should be forced to choose between their health and their economic security 

✅ Passing ​HD.4963 (Sabadosa): An Act regarding Decarceration and COVID-19, which would require the release of individuals who are currently in pre-trial detainment or under incarceration if they are a member of a population deemed especially vulnerable by the CDC, are eligible for medical parole, are almost finished with their sentence, or are only being detained due to inability to pay bail or due to minor violations of parole

✅Passing legislation to expand options to Vote by Mail (such as HD.4957 — Mark/Sabadosa), so that no voter is forced to choose between their health and their right to participate in our democracy 

✅Providing the necessary funding to ensure that our response does not leave vulnerable communities behind, such as our immigrant population or our homeless population.

Our legislators need to start responding with the urgency required–and fast.

Can you email your state legislators today?

Did you already email? Then you can follow up with a call. Find your legislators here.

Take Action: The MA Senate Votes on Climate Action This Week

This decade — the 2020s — will be the decade in which our collective actions determine whether or not we’ll continue to have an inhabitable planet. And that means we need to start taking action–fast.

Tomorrow, the Massachusetts State Senate will be voting on omnibus climate legislation (for a good overview, read this).

The bill is strong in many ways, but it can be bolder and more equitable.

And that’s where you come in.

Can you call your state senator today in support of the amendments below?

100% Renewable Energy

  • #53 2035 Renewable Portfolio Standard (Eldridge) – Increases the RPS to 100% by 2035 and prevents wood and trash burning from being eligible in the RPS

Environmental Justice

  • #11 Regulations to Protect Low Income Households (Friedman) – Adds in language about low and moderate income protections 
  • #89 Giving Energy Sector Workers a Voice (Feeney) – Adds language to protect workers displaced by advancements in the renewable sector
  • #105 DPU mandate (Chang-Diaz) – Adds “equity” to the DPU’s mission statement
  • #113 Energy efficiency advisory council (Eldridge) – Adds environmental justice and youth representation to the energy efficiency commission 

Equitable Investment in Green Infrastructure

  • #80 Re-investing in greenhouse gas emission reduction, and our communities (Chang-Diaz) – Requires that at least 30% of revenue generated from a market-based mechanism be spent on green infrastructure and at least 40% of that revenue benefit low and moderate income people

Other Amendments that Support the Mass Power Forward Coalition’s Vision

  • #33 Net Zero Stretch Code Improvements (Comerford) – Pushes up the implementation date for the net zero stretch code
  • #54 Inclusion of combustion of fuel in emissions count (Eldridge) – Requires that burning any combustible fuel be counted towards state’s emissions

Take Action:

(1) Find your State Senator’s email address here, and then email them to urge them to support the amendments listed above.

(2) Follow up by calling your State Senator and ask that they support the amendments that you emailed them

Here’s a sample script:

My name is [ first name], and I live in [town/city].   I am with a broad coalition of environmental groups called Mass Power Forward and we’re calling about Senate climate legislation, specifically, S.2477 and amendments that have been filed to that bill. I sent an email to your office with the amendment numbers that achieve our goals of Environmental Justice, 100% clean and renewable energy for all, and creating equitable investments through carbon pricing.  

The Student Opportunity Act is a Win. Let’s Make it Better.

Four years ago this very month, the Foundation Budget Review Commission highlighted how the state has been shortchanging public schools due to an outdated funding formula.

Because of the advocacy of teachers, students, parents, community members, and YOU, that formula will finally get fixed.

The Student Opportunity Act will provide $1.5 billion per year in new school funding to help the students who need it the most.

Tomorrow, when the MA Senate votes on the bill, we have an opportunity to strengthen it so that this once-in-a-generation bill is as strong as possible.

For that to happen, your senator needs to hear from you–to hear that you support the bill’s passage and support the following amendments:

  • #17 (Targeted Improvement Plans), which increases community and educator involvement in school districts’ plans to reduce disparities — and requires charter schools to create such plans as well
  • #19 (Charter Cap Reimbursement), which caps the number of charter schools and charter school seats for any year in which the state fails to fully fund the charter school mitigation account.
  • #27 (Analyze Impact of Proposition 2 1/2), which requires a study of the impact on this regressive tax law on municipalities’ ability to provide a high-quality education to all students
  • #53 (Ensuring Proportional Phase-In), which makes sure that all of the updates get phased in at the same pace so that low-income students don’t get left behind
  • #61 (Charter School Reimbursement Accountability), which requires the Commonwealth to draw funding from charter schools to ensure full reimbursement to public schools
  • #63 (Following Through On Our Commitments), which makes sure that the Legislature fully funds charter reimbursements.

Find your senator’s email and phone number here. And then tell them to support the Student Opportunity Act as well as amendments #17, #19, #27, #53, #61, and #63 so that we can deliver on our promise to all students.

Can we count on you to make that call or send that email?