Kelly Garrity, “A Call and a Delayed Response,” Politico, April 2, 2025.

“The big announcement fell flat among progressives, who have been urging the Legislature to quickly pass a joint rules package and turn their attention toward the deluge of actions out of D.C. In a letter sent last week, more than a dozen activist groups urged lawmakers quickly “respond to the extraordinary moment we are facing.”

“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?,” said Jonathan Cohn, policy director of Progressive Massachusetts. “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.”

The anticlimactic reveal shined a spotlight on the Legislature’s typically sluggish start to the session. Lawmakers did approve changes to the state’s emergency shelter system earlier this year and recently passed a bill extending a pandemic-era remote meeting provision. But little major legislation has made it across the finish line.

“Until a few days ago, when the Legislature temporarily extended hybrid meeting access for public meetings again, the only bill that the Legislature had passed this session was to kick unhoused families out of shelter,” Cohn said.”

Chris Lisinski, Ella Adams, and Eric Convey, “Frustrated at incremental movement, progressives want leaders to legislate action against Trump policies,” MASSter List, April 2, 2025.

“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.””

Chris Lisinski, “Progressives in Massachusetts demand legislative response to Trump,” State House News Service, April 1, 2025.

“Signatories on the letter include progressive watchdog Act on Mass, Homes for All Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Sierra Club, the Mass. Campaign for Single Payer Health Care, and Progressive Massachusetts.”

Anjali Hunynh, “‘We can’t sit idly by’: Mass. Senate tasks committee with deciding how to respond to Trump 2.0,” Boston Globe, April 1, 2025.

“Some advocates, however, remained unsatisfied by the Senate’s new approach. Jonathan Cohn, policy director of left-leaning advocacy group Progressive Massachusetts, criticized lawmakers for how long it took to coordinate any response to Trump.

“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,” Cohn said in a statement.

“Let’s just hope that their announced intention to take threats seriously is not another April fool’s joke,” he added.”

Chris Van Buskirk, “Trump cuts $106M in COVID-era grant funding for Massachusetts as Senate taps pol to lead Democratic response,” Boston Herald, April 1, 2025.

“Progressive advocates in Massachusetts have been hounding legislators to do something about the Trump administration’s decisions to slash federal funding for a variety of sectors in the state.

Progressive Massachusetts Policy Director Jonathan Cohn said Massachusetts voters have for months wanted to see their elected officials “be bolder and more proactive in protecting” the state against Trump’s “chaos, cruelty, and corruption.”

Cohn said voters want to hear “real answers from Beacon Hill: how we will protect our essential services amidst looming budget cuts, how we will protect marginalized communities, how we will protect civil liberties and our democracy, how we will show a real governing alternative.”

“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,” Cohn said in a statement.”

Sam Drysdale, “Mass. senators begin fashioning response to Trump, face complaints of slow start,” State House News Service, April 2, 2025.

Jonathan Cohn, policy director of Progressive Massachusetts, questioned the point of the press conference.

“We are now at the start of the fourth month of the year and are 10 weeks into Trump’s second administration,” Cohn said. “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? 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.”

Mike Deehan, “Mass. Democrats’ Tea Party moment that wasn’t,” Axios Boston, April 2, 2025.

What they’re saying: “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,” Progressive Massachusetts policy director Jonathan Cohn said after Spilka’s announcement.

Chris Lisinski, “Beacon Hill still figuring out how to fight back while bracing for the worst,” MASSter List, April 5, 2025.

Jonathan Cohn, policy director of Progressive Massachusetts, questioned why it took Senate Democrats until 10 weeks into Trump’s term to announce they would consider unspecified action at an unspecified later date.

“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,” he said.

John Micek, “In Mass., nationwide, the meter is running for the resistance. What’s next?,” MassLive, April 4, 2025.

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,” Jonathan Cohn, of Progressive Massachusetts, said in a statement to MASSterList.

“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.

Alexi Cohan and Adam Reilly, “Reformists sense momentum as new state legislative session begins,” WGBH, January 2, 2025.

“I appreciate that Spilka and Mariano both seem to be getting the message of the larger Question 1 victory last fall — that voters expect a greater degree of transparency from the Legislature,” Jonathan Cohn, the political director of the group Progressive Mass, told GBH News.

“Reforms like making committee votes and testimony public, which Spilka named, are long overdue and should just be the start,” he added. “Our Legislature really is an outlier among states in its lack of transparency, and we need the Democrats in the Legislature to model what good blue-state governance looks like — that it can be open and ambitious.”

Adam Reilly, “Progressive groups urge Beacon Hill to make anti-Trump push before year’s end,” WGBH, December 11, 2024.

Jonathan Cohn, the political director of the group Progressive Mass, told GBH News that given the way the Legislature usually operates, waiting until the start of a new session next year to begin initiating safeguards would be a mistake.

“Our legislature moves very slowly,” Cohn said. “What we often see, session after session, is that little in the way of legislation beyond the state budget will happen for the first half of the year in a new session … Things so often just get pushed back later and later and later , creating that bottleneck that [then] exists in July of an even-numbered year.

“With Trump 2.0 coming in January, we can’t wait until July of 2026 to be preparing our state for what’ll be happening,” he added. “It’s also far too late, and not nearly as proactive as we should be … to be even waiting until the middle ofnext year.”

Chris Lisinski, “Progressives Urge Action Before Trump Takes Office,” State House News Service, December 11, 2024.

Calling on Democrats to “be proactive, and not merely be reactive,” progressive groups urged Beacon Hill to take significant action on immigration, civil rights and reproductive health care before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

More than a dozen groups wrote to top legislative Democrats and Gov. Maura Healey on Tuesday with a series of requests, including eleventh-hour formal sessions to muscle through legislation they believe would better safeguard Bay Staters from the policies of Trump, who scored a convincing win last month over Kamala Harris.

In their letter, authors including representatives from Progressive Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition pointed to California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom called a special session to reinforce state laws that could be affected by Trump’s second term.

“If old patterns hold, then the Legislature will reconvene in January, committees will be assigned in February, hearings will continue for the next year, and little if any legislation will be passed and signed into law in the first half of 2025,” the groups said in their letter to House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka. “We saw the damage of the first Trump administration, and we cannot afford that wait.”

They praised the Legislature for prior efforts to “proactively respond to right-wing federal action,” including enactment of a law shielding abortion providers and out-of-state patients from legal action originating elsewhere following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The groups also asked Healey to create a state-funded legal defense fund to support court fights over topics such as reproductive health care, form compacts with other “like-minded states,” and prioritize state contracts and investments for “companies that align with progressive values.”

Legislative leaders, who preside over Democrat supermajorities and are working with a Democrat in the corner office, have signaled no plans to take up any Trump-inspired legislation before the new term starts Jan. 1.

They also displayed little to no appetite earlier in the term for tackling the specific proposals progressive groups highlighted, including the so-called Safe Communities Act, which has long been a source of debate but for several straight terms never moved forward for a House or Senate vote.