MASSPIRG 2019-2020 Legislative Scorecard

MASSPIRG

Legislative Scorecard – 2019-2020 session

When consumers are cheated, when our public health is threatened, or powerful interests have more say than ordinary people, our job is to stand up for the public interest. We’re funded by thousands of supporters, from across the political spectrum, which allows us to be independent and to focus on doing what’s best for the public. 

This scorecard grades legislators from the 2019-2020 legislative session on a selection of public interest issues: protecting consumers, improving voter access to the ballot, investing in public transportation, protecting public health by eliminating toxic flame retardants and banning sale of flavored tobacco products, and reducing trash among others. 

While much of our attention and focus during this session was reacting to and mobilizing around the global pandemic, we did see progress on a number of our legislative priorities.

A few achievements: 

New voting law led to record voter turnout

Working in a strong coalition with the League of Women Voters/MA, Common Cause/MA, the Mass Voter Table and others we successfully campaigned for safe and accessible voting options, including vote-by-mail and early voting options during the pandemic.  With record turnout in both our September primary and the November general election, Massachusetts voters set the standard for safe voting during a pandemic and set the template for the future of our state’s democracy. These new rules were temporary however, and we will continue our work to make them permanent. The bill was filed by Reps. M. Moran and Lawn and Sens. Lesser and Hinds, and received overwhelming support in both the House and Senate.

New protections for student loan borrowers 

In the final hours of the legislative session, state lawmakers passed the Student Loan Borrowers Bill of Rights, (Sen. Lesser & Rep. Higgins), which will provide new protections against predatory and deceptive lending practices to nearly 1 million student borrowers across the state. 

Protecting kids and firefighters from harmful chemicals

On New Year’s Day, Governor Baker signed the Children and Firefighters Protection Act (Rep. Decker and Sen. Creem) into law, after several years of effort.  MASSPIRG, a member of the  Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow coalition, worked with the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts, Built Environment+, the Fire Chiefs Association of Massachusetts, the American Academy of Pediatrics Massachusetts Chapter and many others to secure passage of this key public health initiative.   

The new law bans 11 toxic flame retardants in children’s products, mattresses, household furniture, carpeting and window coverings, and gives the Department of Environmental Protection the authority to ban additional flame retardants that are hazardous to human health and the environment. 

Combating youth smoking

In the first half of the legislative session, the legislature passed a critical bill aimed at stemming the youth vaping epidemic.  The MASSPIRG backed bill, an Act to Modernize Tobacco Control, (Rep. Gregoire and Sen. Keenan) is the first state law that prohibits the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, menthol cigarettes and chewing tobacco. It’s a major step to protect youth as four out of five kids who have used tobacco started with a flavored product.

Legislative Scorecard:

MASSPIRG is a not-for-profit, non-partisan advocate for the public interest. In our role as watchdog, we monitor the voting records of Massachusetts state lawmakers each legislative session. While a number of our legislative priorities passed into law, many more did not. Disappointingly, a number of popular bills were never even brought up for a vote – despite being approved by a committee and being cosponsored by a significant number of lawmakers. Further, many bills passed or failed with voice votes, or bills did not come up for a roll call vote unless the vote was unanimous or close to it.