I spent most of the week in Boston covering informal House sessions for my Republican caucus and attending 2 days of formal House sessions. The clock is ticking down to the end of formal sessions for this legislative session on July 31.
July 31 is my birthday. It always works out that I have to spend my birthday every year working in Boston. It is also Governor Deval Patrick’s birthday and former Governor Bill Weld’s birthday. I see Governor Patrick all the time but I rarely see Governor Weld anymore.
Anyway, at the end of the session on Wednesday, the Speaker of the House, Bob DeLeo, (D-Winthrop) gave members the schedule for the rest of the session. He said we would be in formal session next Wednesday and Thursday, then the following Monday and Tuesday. We would recess from formal sessions for the year at midnight.
That does not mean Representatives and Senators won’t still be going to Boston. We still have informal sessions and meetings. In fact, if you and your family intend to visit Boston this summer or fall, I hope you will consider stopping by for a tour of the State House.
Simply contact me at my district office at 568-1366 and if I can I would be happy to give you a personal tour of your historic state capitol.
It has been very dry, hot, and humid lately. I haven’t minded being in my seat in the House chamber because it is so nicely air conditioned while my Westfield office is not. But something happened this week that has never happened in my time on Beacon Hill.
During session on Wednesday, a line of heavy thunderstorms moved through Boston. Outside the windows we could see the clouds and it got very dark. Suddenly my phone buzzed. When I checked it there was an icon on the screen I hadn’t seen before. It was a red cross. When I tapped the icon a message appeared on the screen from the National Weather Service stating that a tornado warning was in effect for my area and I should seek shelter immediately.
I probably wouldn’t have paid much attention to it a year ago. But after the tornado of June 1, 2011, I took the message very seriously. The problem was I didn’t know if the alert was for where I was in Boston or for home in Westfield. I asked a State Trooper outside the Governor’s office if he had heard of the tornado alert and he said he had but that it had expired without incident.
Later in the afternoon my phone buzzed again and the same icon appeared this time with a message that warned me of severe flash flooding due to torrential rains in my area. This time I assumed it meant the Boston area because there was a tremendous thunderstorm happening outside at that moment.
I was sitting in front of the chamber behind the Speaker’s rostrum so I couldn’t see out the windows but I saw frequent flashes from the lightening and could hear the booming thunder. The noise from the thunder actually drowned out a couple of legislators who were speaking from the lectern in the well of the House.
For the first time since I’ve been a legislator or a legislative staffer working on Beacon Hill I realized we were at the center of a violent electrical storm that was sweeping over us while the legislature was in session. I don’t ever remember hearing thunder as loud at the State House as I did this week at work.
The actions of the House were far less dramatic than the storm. We voted to override another of the Governor’s vetoes. This one pertained to a $20 million salary reserve for those direct care workers in the human services sector earning less than $40,000 a year. Our override restored money the Governor had cut. As a former mental health worker, I was pleased to sign on to this salary reserve effort and happy to again vote to override the administration’s veto.
The House passed a compact that the Governor had negotiated with the Mashpee Wampanoags concerning an Indian casino in Southeastern Massachusetts. The casino bill we passed had included language allowing the Governor to enter into negotiations with the tribe and come up with a compact. I voted YES.
The House also moved numerous bills along the legislative process. We moved many pieces of legislation out of the Ways and Means Committee, through the Committee on Bills in the Third Reading, then to the floor for engrossment. The final step of a bill’s passage is enactment. To reach the Governor’s desk it needs to go through the same steps in the Senate as well.
We unanimously accepted a Conference Committee report on ways to improve the administration of state government and finance in the Commonwealth by a vote of 151-0.
The other Conference Committee report we voted on was on the truth in sentencing/habitual offenders/Melissa’s Bill that had been in conference for 8 months and was fairly contentious. The vote was 139-14. I voted YES.
I will let you know in my next two columns what the House and Senate take up in the final days of the session. If you have questions or wish to weigh in on any legislation, please feel free to contact me or my Chief of Staff, Maura Cassin, at my district office.
Have a good week.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not the staff, editor, or publisher of the Westfield News.
Representative Don Humason and his Chief of Staff Maura Cassin may be reached at their Westfield District Office, 64 Noble Street, Westfield, MA 01085, (413) 568-1366.Representative Don Humason may be reached at his Boston office, State House Room 542, Boston, MA 02133, (617) 722-2803.
Email address: [email protected]
Website: www.DonHumason.org
