An Act establishing a college tuition tax deduction

This bill aims to alleviate some of the burden of tuition payments on students and families who pay tuition to a Massachusetts public college or university to make obtaining a higher education more affordable and accessible. Higher education costs have skyrocketed over the past few decades, driving students into crushing debt while pursuing a degree. This legislation allows students to deduct up to 50% of tuition and fee payments.  

Massachusetts relies on a highly educated workforce to propel economic growth, especially in healthcare, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing. Approximately 70% of Massachusetts high school graduates who move on to higher education attend a public college or university. In a time when too many students across Massachusetts are struggling to afford college, it is critical that Bay Staters can continue to afford degrees to fill these good, high paying jobs and support these industries in their home state.

An Act relative to chemicals in food packaging 

This legislation would ban the sale or use of packaging that is manufactured with PFAS, chemicals that can linger in the body for decades and are known to have significant human health risks.

PFAS, or Polyfluoroalkyl substances, is a class designation that includes nearly 10,000 chemicals used to make everyday items waterproof, stain resistant, or non-stick. These chemicals have become ubiquitous in products ranging from cookware to furniture to children’s toys, despite posing dangerous health risks. Even at low levels, the toxicity of PFAS chemicals can be devastating — increasing the risk of cancer, immunosuppression, birth defects, colitis, and other diseases. Compounding these dangers is the persistent nature of PFAS chemicals, known as “forever chemicals” for their resistance to breaking down in the environment.

While PFAS chemicals are effective at resisting water and grease, other products can fulfill the same function without exposing consumers to increased health risk. Over 200 scientists that study PFAS have issued a consensus statement, called the Madrid statement, urging governments to regulate these chemicals as a class and to eliminate the unnecessary use of PFAS.

This legislation was included in the omnibus PFAs legislation proposed by the Joint Committee on Public Health during the 193rd legislation and is based off of legislation that passed in Washington State and Maine in recent years. Additionally, 11 states have already passed bans on some consumer products manufactured with PFAS.

An Act building a more accessible Massachusetts

This bill would make changes to state regulations regarding the accessible infrastructure of residences and workplaces. Specifically, the legislation updates state disability regulations that have fallen behind federal standards and rewrites long outdated statutes that limit opportunity for individuals with disabilities in their search for both housing and employment. Those with disabilities are entitled to the same opportunities as those who are able-bodied; nonetheless, it is common for many to miss out on a potential housing unit or professional position due to inaccessible infrastructure.  

The Americans with Disabilities Act established the framework of responsibility for our public infrastructure to be accessible to all. In recognition of the decreasing supply on housing combined with overwhelming demand and increasing financial burdens, it is imperative that all our constituents have adequate housing options and access to all employment opportunities that they are qualified to perform. 

An Act relative to hospital price transparency 

The cost of health care in the United States is often crushing to those in need of care, deterring many from seeking necessary services in fear of facing massive medical debt. This bill would make steps toward helping patients better understand the cost of their care before they receive it. 

This legislation intends to set a path towards significant cost savings across the Commonwealth in the near future by requiring Massachusetts hospitals to disclose the prices of their products and services in a clear and searchable way. It also gives the Massachusetts Attorney General the power to enforce violations via Consumer Protection Laws.

This bill builds on recent advances in Colorado and Virginia to establish a baseline of transparency around the costs of goods and services provided by a hospital. 

An Act relative to the use of artificial intelligence and other software tools in healthcare decision-making

Modeled after a California law, this legislation ensures that decisions about medical treatments are made by our health care providers, not solely determined by artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms used by health insurers. While the bill does not prohibit the use of AI in assisting with decision making, it includes protections against bias and errors in the decision making process. 

An Act relative to improving outcomes for sudden cardiac arrest

This bill updates the existing Emergency 911 system to improve outcomes for individuals suffering sudden cardiac arrest (SAC). The Commonwealth’s 911 system responds to about 10 victims a day, but the survival rate is nearly ten times lower than in other parts of the country.

The legislation:

  • Requires that all dispatchers that provide dispatch for emergency medical conditions be trained in telephone-CPR

  • Adds a physician with a specialty in emergency medicine and a regional EMS expert to the State 911 Commission

  • Establishes a registry of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) accessible by 911 operators to make them easier to locate in an emergency

  • Adds Sudden Cardiac Arrest to the list of reportable diseases, allowing the Commonwealth to collect improved data on these incidents.

An Act to close the achievement gap by addressing disparities in children's vision

The bill is based on the 2021 Report of the Childhood Vision and Eye Health Commission and would implement its recommendations by creating a computerized registry of children’s vision screening eye care and a children’s vision and eye health advisory council within the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. This council would establish recommendations for improved children’s vision and eye health to facilitate short and long-term vision and eye health goals. The legislation also expands the current requirement for a recent eye exam for children entering kindergarten to those entering pre-school. Further, it would apply the requirement for an eye exam to also include private schools.   

This bill is crucial to ensure no child falls behind due to lack of access to basic vision care. Approximately 10% of all preschool children have eye or vision problems. Research shows that 90% of all information processed by the brain arrives through the visual system — eye care and vision play integral roles in healthcare and are fundamental to learning. Currently, for pre-school aged children, if symptoms of vision impairment are not caught by a parent, guardian, or educator, they risk losing integral developmental years.

An Act relative to advanced placement examinations

Currently, standards for accepting AP credits vary widely in Massachusetts’ public higher education system, with no guarantee that the substantial time, energy, and money invested into these courses will translate into college credits. This legislation requires all public higher education institutions to develop and adopt written policies and procedures to accept scores of 3, 4, and 5 on all advanced placement examinations to satisfy degree requirements. It also requires that these policies be published on university and college websites.

This bill is modeled after similar legislation signed into law in 36 states aimed to help more students get an early start on college.

Resolve establishing the Harmony commission to study and make recommendations related to the welfare and best interests of children in care and protection cases

Harmony Montgomery's father was plainly unable or unwilling to care for her — yet in February 2019, a Massachusetts Juvenile Court assigned him full custody without properly considering her safety and well-being. Just months later, she went missing. Her father has since been sentenced to 45 years in prison for beating 5-year-old Harmony to death. 

A string of failures within the Department of Children and Families and the Juvenile Court system led to this heartbreaking tragedy. This bill would create a commission to investigate exactly where things went wrong in Harmony’s case, study our current system more broadly, and make recommendations on how the Legislature can change our laws to ensure that a parent’s rights are appropriately balanced with a child’s needs. The creation of this commission is based on the first recommendation made in a report published by the Office of the Child Advocate. 

The Senate previously passed a version of this commission as part of its Fiscal Year 2023 budget, however the language did not make it into the final legislation. 

An Act to protect against election misinformation

This bill prohibits a person or political committee – within 90 days of an election – from maliciously distributing deceptive election-related information with the intent to mislead voters as to:

  • The date, time, or place of an election

  • The requirements, methods, and deadlines for registering to vote

  • The requirements, methods, and deadlines for voting

  • Any certification related to an election

  • The express endorsement of a candidate or ballot initiative by a political party, elected official, nonprofit organization, or other person

An Act relative to the ownership of pets by convicted animal abusers

This bill would prevent individuals who are convicted of animal abuse from owning animals for at least 5 years. This legislation would protect vulnerable pets from individuals convicted of serious animal cruelty offenses including mutilation, torture, and dogfighting. State law already bans these offenders from working with animals at their place of work but does not prevent access to animals in their home. These are serious violations of criminal law and indicate an unquestioned failure to meet the basic responsibilities that we require of pet owners.  

While the legislature took up omnibus legislation to address the humane protections of animals last session, this bill, which is crucial to the overall protection of animals, was excluded from the final version of the bill. Therefore, under current Massachusetts law, there are no constraint on a convicted animal abuser’s ability to adopt a pet unless the individual was charged for bestiality. I refiled this bill to address this gap in our legal system by prohibiting anyone convicted of crimes of animal abuse from owning, residing with, working or volunteering at an establishment where animals are present. Currently, 39 states in the U.S. have adopted similar possession bans for people convicted of animal cruelty.

An Act relative to preventing algorithmic rent fixing in the rental housing market

This bill addresses the emerging issue of landlords and property managers using software, such as RealPage, that uses algorithms to compare rental rates across its database and suggest parallel price increases on the units it oversees. This practice effectively enables price fixing in the rental housing market, while skirting traditional price fixing laws.

If passed, this legislation would ban this anticompetitive practice.

The Attorney General is currently in litigation with entities who have allegedly engaged in this type of scheme: AG Campbell Joins Justice Department in Suing RealPage, Large Landlords, for Anticompetitive Algorithmic Pricing Scheme that Harms Renters.

An Act Relative to Responsibly Reducing Emissions in the Transportation Sector 

This bill would delay the implementation of the Heavy-Duty Omnibus and Advance Clean Truck act until July 1, 2027, to more closely align with the vehicle model year sales cycle. The bill also mandates all of the Commonwealth’s purchases and leases, effective July 1, 2025, be for electric medium-heavy duty vehicles.  

When the HDO rule and ACT rule were initially implemented in 2020, Massachusetts and its municipalities, industries, and businesses welcomed the plan and were enthusiastic to work towards electrifying and making all aspects of our transportation sector sustainable. However, more than four years later, the plan agreed upon years earlier is essentially impractical from issues such as grid capacity to the lack of fundamental infrastructure.

An Act relative to stroke data reporting

This legislation builds off of years of legislative efforts to improve the system of how stroke patients are transported to treatment facilities. In the FY2024 state budget, a provision was included that requires the Massachusetts Department of Health (DPH) to “tier” hospitals based on stroke treatment capability and requires DPH to issue pre-hospital protocols for patients to be directly transported to comprehensive stroke centers, bypassing any closer community hospitals.

There are only a handful of such comprehensive stroke centers in the commonwealth. The language, which is several decades old, does not include any of the other 2019 DPH recommendations to ensure proper assessment on stroke severity. This bill would also require DPH to collect and report data that will be used to make improvements in the system to better efficiency and save more lives.

An Act assisting low-income students success through work-study

This bill would establish a Career Pathways Work Study Trust Fund to help subsidize the costs of work-studies for students enrolled in the Commonwealth’s community colleges. The Trust Fund would also help support an education opportunity coordinator through the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges. The trust fund will also help fund internships that would otherwise be unpaid, and thus inaccessible to students who have families that rely on their income to get by.

While success in the classroom is an obvious, it is impossible to understate the relevance of internships and work study opportunities that lend practical experience and so often lead directly to employment opportunities after graduation. Some schools offer assistance to find and succeed in these programs, however too often these positions are reliant on connections based on family, friends, and wealth — specifically the ability of students to work at an unpaid position. Too many students from low-income backgrounds are forced to miss out on these important opportunities to experience a workplace and build the networks necessary to succeed. The goal of this legislation is to uplift these students by placing at least one such coordinator on each of the community college campuses to assist students with career planning, accessing financial aid, and identifying a program of study.

An Act to ensure the responsible use of advanced robotic technologies

This bill would prohibit the manufacture, sale, use, or operation of a robotic device or drone that is mounted with a weapon. It does not affect the U.S. Department of Defense, its military contractors, or companies that obtain a waiver from the Attorney General to test anti-weaponization technologies. The bill also clarifies that warrants are needed when entry onto private property is made by a robot, except in exigent circumstances, just as it would be for an officer.