How to Find Current Legislation on Beacon Hill and How to Participate as a Citizen
If you have stumbled across this blog, welcome! And, it probably means you are curious and/or passionate about advocating for and enjoying nature. This particular post has a goal of informing and empowering you (yes, YOU!) on how to see what bills are pending at the Massachusetts State House and how to participate in the process as a citizen. You don’t need permission or need to have any special credentials to participate. Participation can be done in-person, in writing, or virtually…depending on the legislative situation.
I will show you the basics of how to navigate the legislative website and will show you an email I wrote to a legislator while crafting this blog post.
First, you will visit the website: https://malegislature.gov/
To understand any terms you come across that you don’t know the meaning of or how it pertains to legislation, the website provides a handy glossary for us! https://malegislature.gov/StateHouse/Glossary
To find nature-related bills, you should start by finding the committee that the bills would be referred to. Because I volunteer with Mass Audubon and have testified on Beacon Hill (you can, too!!), I know that the joint committee called the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources is what I’m looking for. However, if you didn’t know that, you can search the site with nature-related keywords (nature, environment, climate, etc.) in the site’s search bar. But, I’m going to navigate to “Committees & Commissions” section…
Bill
Document calling for a permanent change in law while under consideration prior to becoming an act.
Joint Committees
Currently 34 committees, consisting of Senators and Representatives, responsible for holding public hearings and reporting on all legislative documents referred to them.
Once you click that “Joint Committees” option, it will take you to a list of all the joint committees at the Massachusetts State House…
Once you click the desired joint committee option, it will take you to the landing page for that joint committee. That landing page includes current bills pending by bill number assigned, the title of the bill, who sponsored it, when it arrived at the joint committee, and when it will be heard.
So, let’s take a peek at one of these bills. Let’s look at H.864 An Act relative to clean lakes and waterways in the commonwealth. I mean…don’t we all want clean waterways? So let’s look…
Act
A bill that has become law.
When you click that bill number, it will take you into a landing page that gives you options and more information about the bill. This landing page links to who presented the bill, the committee it was referred to, various ways to view the bill, similar bills, the history of this bill, and the petitioners.
Petitioner(s)The name(s) of the person(s) advocating for legislation filed with the Clerk. May include the primary sponsor(s), other legislators and private citizens.
In looking at this page, I can see that there have not been any recent actions on this bill.
I wanted to see the actual bill, so I clicked the “Download PDF” box. Below you can see the bill number, the presenter, and the title of the bill.
Looking at these can be overwhelming, so I look for keywords and read one section at a time. You will see words underlined in blue that help me to break down the meaning. By doing this, I can see that the purpose of this bill is to be a petition to create a special commission to study and determine the maintenance and upkeep needs of Massachusetts lakes, streams, ponds, and other public waterways.
Petition
A request filed by one or, in some instances, two legislators briefly describing the nature of the proposed legislation and the objects sought by it, signed by one or more petitioners, and accompanied by a draft of the bill, order, proposal, resolutions or resolve embodying the legislation proposed.
Special Commission or Special Committee
A special commission or special committee established for a unique purpose, usually tasked with making an investigation and study with a deadline for filing a report.
The snippet below from this bill proposes who should be on the special commission…
The snippet below from the bill shows a proposed timeframe for the proposed report.
All of this intrigued me and got my critical thinking skills going.
Why haven’t there been any recent actions? Why was this bill created and who inspired it? Was it the legislator? Or a civilian? What were they hoping to retrieve for data? Was this prompted by specific concerns?
Because I could not find any information on this with a quick Google search, I went back to the presenter’s link on the bill’s landing page. I found the email address for Representative Lenny Mirra, and I sent him an email to try to get some insight.
You can see the email I sent below. I was sure to include the bill number in the subject line and to use respectful and appropriate tone in my email to Representative Mirra.
You do not need any special permissions or platform to be able to email any legislator. Also, the legislator does not have to be YOUR legislator for you to reach out.
I hope this blog post inspires and empowers you! Take things one step at a time. If simply browsing the website to learn more about bills in the state or your local area is what you’re comfortable with, then start there. Once you gain some confidence, you can reach out to legislators with questions, or even join a volunteer group who might participate in legislative hearings where you can go attend or even testify. I did just that with Mass Audubon in May 2023; it was empowering. I’ll never regret it and hope to get the opportunity again! Take it from this introvert…who loses her voice when she tries to speak in front of a group…that if I can do this….YOU can do this. If it makes you nervous to speak, you can send in written testimony ahead of the hearing but will need to look at the deadline for when those are due. That will be another blog post…how to prepare to testify in writing or in-person.
Stay tuned to see if Representative Mirra (or his staffers) replies to my email!
