Press Room

Approximately halfway through debate of the Senate’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget, the upper chamber has dealt with 635 amendments, spanning categories including environment, economic development, and health and human services. As of 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, the Senate has adopted 245 amendments, rejected 204 amendments and taken 14 roll call votes.

The Senate Committee on Ways and Means on Tuesday released a $57.9 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) that reflects the Senate’s vision of creating a more affordable, equitable, and competitive Massachusetts by investing in residents and communities across every district of the Commonwealth, while continuing to be fiscally responsible and chart a sustainable path forward.

Today, Senate leaders unveiled MassEducate, a proposal for tuition-free, universal community college for all Massachusetts residents which is aimed at boosting the state’s workforce and expanding opportunity for students and families in every part of the state.

Today the Massachusetts Senate took action to protect residents and consumers from predatory tactics and promote fairer interactions with businesses in the state, passing bills that would ban third-party residential electric suppliers, enhance the state’s Lemon Law for car buyers, and mandate home insurers cover residential oil spill damages.

Today the Massachusetts Legislature gave municipalities around the Commonwealth a critical tool to make improvements to local transportation infrastructure by overwhelmingly passing a final bill to authorize Chapter 90 road funding.

Today, the Massachusetts Legislature passed a supplemental budget that funds the emergency shelter system for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2024 and provides a glide path into Fiscal Year 2025 while instituting reforms to ensure the integrity and financial stability of the program. The bill further extends certain COVID-era flexibilities, most notably allowing for permanent outdoor dining options and restaurants to sell cocktails to-go, as well as expanding nursing eligibility to graduate students and certain staff in assisted living facilities.

Today, the Massachusetts Senate unanimously approved $375 million in bond authorizations for statewide transportation projects, including the state’s Chapter 90 program, which would create a reliable funding source for local infrastructure investments like roads, bridges, regional transit equipment and infrastructure, bicycle infrastructure, and electric vehicle infrastructure, among other things.

Today the Senate unanimously passed legislation to boost safety for firefighters and people conducting “hot work”—welding, plasma cutting, and spark-producing construction—by requiring the state to create a public database of violations of the fire prevention statute, and a public notification system to alert workers of violations.