Senate GOP
Caucus Files Additional Senate Session Rules for 188th General Court
Package to
Increase Transparency and Accountability
Boston- Today the Senate Republican Caucus is offering a package of rules scheduled for debate during today’s full senate session that if passed, would increase transparency and accountability within the legislative process. The package offered by Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester), Assistant Minority Leader Robert Hedlund (R-Weymouth), Senate Minority Whip Richard Ross (R-Wrentham), and Michael Knapik (R-Westfield), the Ranking Republican on Senate Ways and Means comes at a particularly important time due to the Senate already slated to take up many important issues for debate early in the legislative calendar.
Highlights of the Senate Republican Caucus’ proposed rules package include:
- Requiring the Clerk of the Senate to post all
roll call votes within 48 hours of a vote being taken;
- Broadcasting of informal and formal sessions
online and making a digital copy of the sessions made available to public
access television;
- Requiring a unanimous vote of all the members
present to allow Senate business to proceed beyond the hour of midnight;
- Mandating that any measure that proposes an
increase in taxation by available in print and posted on the Senate website
at least 7 days prior for consideration;
- Allowing any senator to object to the
consideration of a particular matter during an informal session, even if a
senator is not physically present as long as a written request to the
Clerk of the Senate has been received no later than 30 minutes prior to
the scheduled start of session;
- Directing the Senate Ways and Means Committee
to include in its executive summary of the state budget any federal
revenue source, non-recurring funding, and off-budget spending that alters
an existing appropriation;
- Requiring the Clerk of the Senate to post on
the Senate website the text of legislation introduced in the Senate that
has not been assigned a bill number;
- Allowing the opportunity to repeal, add, change
or modify any rule if two or more senators propose the measure;
- Allowing a bill or amendment be divided into
two or more separate measures if they are capable of detaching;
- Pairing of votes only in cases where a senator
is absent from the chamber due to military service or physical incapacity;
and
- Prohibiting the use of cell phones or other
mobile electronic devices in the Senate Chamber while the Senate is in
session.
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