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Participating in the Legislative Process.
Massachusetts citizens are permitted and encouraged to take an active role in the
lawmaking process of the state legislature. It is a good idea for a person who feels
strongly about an issue to present his or her ideas to a representative or senator. That
person may discover that those concerns have already been formulated into a bill which is
awaiting legislative action. If not, the citizen is allowed to file legislation addressing
the subject. Massachusetts is one of the few states to allow its citizens to do so. This
access is called the "right of free petition."
Although it is not mandatory that a representative or senator sponsor a citizen's bill,
the rules of the House and Senate provide that a petition must be endorsed for
presentation by a member before it can be considered by the General Court. Obtaining the
support of individual legislators, then, is most advisable.
Due to the new rules established to allow the carry over of legislation from the first
to the second year of a term of the General Court, legislation must be filed in either the
House or Senate Clerk's prior to five o'clock on the second Wednesday of January of the
first annual session of the General Court . Legislation filed subsequent to the filing
deadline would thus be subject to Joint Rule 12 and would require approval by the
committees on Rules of the Two Branches. Only matters filed by the Governor and matters
that have local approval of a city or town would be exempt from the joint rule provision.
When a bill is filed, it is recorded in a docket book in the Clerk's office. The book
provides the name of the legislator filing the bill, the names of the petitioners, the
subject matter of the bill and the number the bill has been given for the legislative
session. The books are especially useful when one is trying to locate various pieces of
legislation of a similar nature. Pending legislation from the first term is now carried
over into the second term (effective with the 1995-1996 session of the General Court).
The petitioner may want to contact other petitioners whose legislation addresses the
same issue as the one in which he or she is interested. Working cooperatively rather than
independently can increase the impact of the proponents' arguments.
A petitioner should be well-prepared before testifying at a public hearing.
Well-organized, well-researched presentations and statements naturally have a positive
influence on committee members. If unable to attend a public hearing, a petitioner should
prepare written testimony which can be accepted by a committee before the scheduled
hearing.
Petitioners should prepare a summary of the planned testimony and make a number of
copies for distribution to committee members, staff members and any media representatives
present. This allows members to make notes on the testimony while the petitioner is
speaking. If the petitioner is serving as a spokesperson for a group, he or she should
mention that to the committee prior to testifying. Very often, only written testimony is
accepted on refiled bills.
At the conclusion of the presentation, committee members may request further
information or clarification. After all testimony is heard, the hearing is complete and
the committee will meet, in executive session, either that day or at a later time, to
decide whether to issue a favorable or unfavorable report.
The committee report is crucial to the survival of a bill, since the recommendations of
all committee reports are generally followed by the legislature.
"Money" bills (bills imposing a tax) must be first reported in the House.
Following the first reading of such a bill it is referred to the House Committee on Ways
and Means for further study. Ways and Means issues a report which is sent to the House;
the bill is then read a second time and continues through the legislative process. The
same procedure is followed when the bill reaches the Senate.
Petitioners should remain in contact with the Clerk's office or the appropriate
committee to deetrmine when the bill will receive a reading before the full body.
Petitioners should also try to attend that legislative session so that they can encourage
support of legislators to speak in favor of the bill. If the bill survives the debate at
the second reading, a vote will be taken on "ordering the bill to a third
reading," and the process continues as described earlier.
As the bill continues through the legislative process, the petitioner should work to
convince legislators to support it. The survival of any bill depends on continued
favorable votes in both branches of the legislature.
If the bill is engrossed in both branches, it is sent to the House and then to the
Senate for a "vote to enact" the bill. Enactment is usually a formality but it
does represent the final passage of a bill by the legislature.
The last step in the process is action by the governor. Letter-writing campaigns,
telegrams and e-mail are often utilized to acquaint the governor with citizen support or
opposition.
After the bill is signed by the governor, it becomes law, usually effective in ninety
days. However, there may be an "emergency preamble" attached to some laws,
making them effective immediately, as explained earlier.
The process of bringing a bill to fruition as a law in Massachusetts is a long, often
tedious, one. However, it is also very exciting and extremely worthwhile. It brings the
average citizen of the Commonwealth much closer to state government. And, quite likely, if
a petitioner is successful in gaining acceptance for the legislation, that law will be in
existence long after he or she and all the legislators who passed it have departed from
the scene.
Glossary of Terms.
- Act
- A bill that has been signed into law by the governor.
- Acts and Resolves
- A compilation of the bills and resolves enacted and passed by the legislature and signed
by the governor. Bound in a volume on a yearly basis.
- Adjournment
- Termination of daily session.
- Adverse Report
- A committee recommendation that a matter "ought not to pass".
- Bill
- Document accompanying a petition, usually asking for legislative action of a permanent
nature.
- Committee on Bills in the Third Reading
- A committee of three which is empowered to examine and correct bills and resolves prior
to their final reading in the Senate or House, resolutions prior to their adoption, and
amendments to bills, resolves and resolutions adopted by the other branch and before the
body for concurrence.
- Concurrence
- Agreement by one branch with an action originating in the other branch.
- Conference Committee
- Committee consisting of three members from each body (one senator and one representative
acting as chairmen) appointed by the legislative leaders to resolve differences between
the two bodies with regard to specific matter. Failure of the committee to agree or
failure of one body to accept the committee's recommendation results in the appointment of
a new conference committee.
- Daily List
- List of committee hearings giving the committee, its matters, and the time and room
number of each hearing.
- Emergency Preamble
- A preamble to a bill setting forth the facts constituting an emergency, and the
statement that the law is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace,
health, safety or convenience. Matters with emergency preambles become law immediately
upon approval by the governor. Either the governor or the legislature may attach a
preamble.
- Enactment
- Final passage of a bill by the House or Senate.
- Engrossed Bill or Resolve
- Final version of a bill or resolve before the House or Senate for final action after
being typed on special parchment by the Legislative Engrossing Division and certified by
the clerk.
- Favorable Report
- A committee recommendation that a matter "ought to pass". A matter takes its
first reading at this time.
- Formal Session
- Meeting to consider and act upon reports of committees, messages from the governor,
petitions, orders, enactments, papers from the other branch, matters in the Orders of
the Day, and various other matters which may be controversial in nature and during
which roll call votes may be taken.
- General Laws
- Legislative act applying generally to the Commonwealth and its citizens.
- House and Senate Rules
- Rules of order and procedure adopted by that branch at the beginning of each biennial
session.
- Informal Sessions
- Meeting designated by the Speaker of the House and Senate President to consider reports
of committees, enactments, papers from the other branch, amendments, matters in the Orders
of the Day, and various other matters which are of a non-controversial nature.
Any session may be declared an informal session with prior notice given, or in cases of an
emergency.
- Initiative Petition
- Request by a specified number of voters to submit a constitutional amendment or law to
the people for approval or rejection. The petition is introduced into the General Court if
signed by a number of citizens equaling three percent of the entire vote for governor in
the preceding gubernatorial election. If a proposed initiative law fails to pass the
General Court, additional signatures are required to place it on the ballot. A proposed
initiative constitutional amendment approved by at least one quarter of the General Court,
sitting in joint sessions by two consecutively elected General Courts, can be placed on
the ballot.
- Joint Committees
- Twenty-six committees, consisting of six senators and eleven representatives,
responsible for holding public hearings and reporting on all legislative matters referred
to them.
- Joint Rule 10
- Rule ordering that all matters referred to joint committees be reported out of
committees by third Wednesday in March of the second annual session and within 30 days on
all matters referred to them on and after the third Wednesday in February of the second
annual session of the General Court.
- Joint Rule 33
- Rule allowing the alteration, suspension or recision of joint rules by a concurrent 2/3
vote of members present and voting. Some rules are suspended only by a 4/5 vote and a very
few by unanimous consent.
- Joint Rules
- Rules for the governing of the two bodies adopted by both branches.
- Lay on Table
- To temporarily lay aside the consideration of a specific bill, resolve, report,
amendment or motion. If laid on the table, consideration is postponed until a subsequent
motion taking the item off the table succeeds. A motion to lay on the table can be made
only in the Senate.
- Legislative Record
- Numerical listing of all numbered matters filed for consideration by the General Court.
Includes a brief description of the matter and its full legislative history.
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- Massachusetts General Laws
- All of the laws of Massachusetts of a general and permanent nature as embodied in the
Official Edition of the Massachusetts General Laws (which are updated on a monthly basis),
together with all amending and related general statutes subsequently enacted down through
the current session of the General Court.
- Money Bill
- A Bill that transfers money or property from the people to the Commonwealth, i.e., a
bill that imposes a tax. These bills must be taken up in the House of Representatives
first.
- Order
- Formal motion in writing, not requiring the governor's signature, which is temporary in
nature and is used to establish investigative committees, to change rules and for other
parliamentary actions.
- Orders of the Day (Calendar)
- Listing of most matters to be considered by the Senate and the House at each sitting.
- Outside Section
- A section of an appropriation bill that may deal with an existing line-item in an
appropriation, but may also amend an existing law or create a new law
- Override
- To overturn the governor's veto by a 2/3 vote of the members present in both the House
and Senate.
- Pairing of Votes
- Procedure allowed in the Senate only, whereby a member, before the vote is taken,
announces to the Senate that he or she has paired his or her vote with an opposing vote of
an absent member. The two votes do not affect the outcome of the final tally.
- Pass a Resolve
- Final passage of a resolve by the House or Senate.
- Petition
- A request describing the nature of the proposed legislation and the objects sought by
it, signed by the petitioner, and accompanied by a draft of the bill or resolve embodying
the legislation proposed.
- Pocket Veto
- A veto resulting from the governor's failure to sign a bill following prorogation or
dissolution of the General Court. Because the session has ended, the bill will not
automatically become law after ten days and the General Court has no opportunity to
override the veto.
- Point of Order
- Challenge to the breach of order or rule.
- Proposal
- Document accompanying a petition introducing legislative amendments to the Constitution
of the Commonwealth.
- Prorogation
- Termination of a legislative year by agreement of the governor and both legislative
bodies.
- Quorum
- Twenty-one members in the Senate, eighty-one members in the House. Quorum is set by
rule.
- Recess
- Temporary delay in proceedings.
- Reconsideration
- Motion to reconsider a vote on action previously taken. Any member may propose
reconsideration and if the motion prevails, the matter is voted on again. Must be moved
prior to entering upon the Orders of the Day on the next legislative session.
- Referendum Petition
- A petition signed by a specified number of voters to repeal a law enacted by the
legislators, and requesting that the legislation be suspended until the vote is taken.
- Refile
- A petition similar to one which was presented to the General Court in a previous year.
- Report of Committees
- Recommendation on a legislative matter by the committee to which it was referred.
- Resolution
- Documents which may or may not accompany a petition expressing an opinion of the
sentiment of one or both branches of the General Court, used for congratulations, for
memorializing the Congress of the United States regarding public questions, etc.
Resolutions do not require the governor's signature.
- Resolve
- Document accompanying a petition, usually asking for legislative action of a temporary
or immediate nature; e.g., establishing temporary investigative commissions.
- Senate and House Journals
- Records of proceedings in each chamber for each legislative day, including matters
considered, amendments offered and votes taken.
- Special Law
- Legislative act applying to a particular county, city, town or district, individual or
group of individuals and not general in nature.
- Standing Committees
- Eight permanent committees in the Senate (Administration, Ethics and Rules, Ways and
Means, Bills in Third Reading, Long-Term Debt and Capital Expenditures, Post Audit and
Oversight, Science and Technology, Federal Financial Assistance and Steering and Policy)
and twelve in the House (Rules, Ways and Means, Bills in Third Reading, Ethics, Long-Term
Debt and Capital Expenditures, Homeland Security, Medicaid, Science and Technology, Post
Audit and Oversight, Personnel and Administration, Steering Policy and Scheduling, Floor
Division, ) which serve their respective legislative bodies separately.
- Substitution for an Adverse Report
- Procedure by which a committee's adverse report is overturned. The original or a new but
very similar bill, resolve or resolution is substituted for the adverse report.
- Veto
- Governor's objection in writing to legislation enacted by the General Court. The
legislation is returned to its branch of origin.
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