State House Spotlight: Conferences and commissions Olivia Ray — WWLP

This week at the State House in Boston, elected officials spent time in commission and conference committee meetings to tie up loose ends before the start of the next formal session in January.

BOSTON (WWLP) – This week at the State House in Boston, elected officials spent time in commission and conference committee meetings to tie up loose ends before the start of the next formal session in January.

Lawmakers announced a deal on a long-awaited clean energy bill that is expected to present extensive siting and permitting reforms for clean energy infrastructure.

This bill has been tied up in contentious House and Senate negotiations since July, but will soon be on its way to the governor’s desk. The emergency housing commission met this week as well, and some advocates say the state’s empathy for migrants is running low.

“I think that until now the state has been providing space for families that have been arriving specifically from Haiti…until these restrictions were put into place and people were literally being pushed out onto the street I do think we were doing the best we could,” said Andrea Park, the Director of Community Driven Advocacy at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute.

State lawmakers have been pushing for safer correctional facilities over the last few weeks, including some western Massachusetts lawmakers who have signed onto a letter to the governor.

Senator Ryan Fattman told 22News about a visit to a correctional facility, and what correctional officers say could help. “All of them, universally, have said give us pepper spray, “CO,” to protect ourselves so that if something violent does happen we can stop it quickly or even deter it,” said Fattman.

Also this week, Massachusetts was ranked dead last in the nation in terms of competitiveness of state legislative elections.

You may see that ranking in action on your ballot on election day in just a few weeks.

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