H.2024 & H.2026

H. 2024 (House Rules) and H.2026 (Joint Rules)

On Tuesday, February 25, 2025, I voted YES on the House and Joint rules that were

presented to the House of Representatives. There were a number of reforms included

in the House rules that govern how the House of Representatives will operate this session. Similarly, there were a number of reforms in the Joint rules that govern how

joint House/Senate committees will operate. In both cases, the reforms add important

transparency to the process, which was important to me as your State Representative.

Joint committees structure and process

• Hearings will be conducted jointly on all House and Senate bills, with the administrative responsibility of conducting hearings being shared equally between the two branches.

• House staff will prepare materials related to bills filed in the House for House members on the joint committees, and Senate staff will do the same for Senate bills.

• After a bill is heard by the joint committee, the House or Senate Chair may unilaterally poll members of the committee from their respective branch on a bill filed in that branch.

Summaries and other materials

• Joint committees will be required to produce plain-language summaries of all bills in time for their hearings, which will be posted to the General Court’s website.

• For favorable reports, committees must also provide a document showing changes made by the committee to the underlying bill, if applicable, and any changes made to existing law.

• Testimony will be made publicly available, and the manner in which testimony will be available will be determined by committees via their own committee rules.

Hearing attendance and committee votes

• Members of a joint committee cannot participate remotely and must be physically

  present in the hearing room. Remote participation is reserved for members of the public only.

• How each individual member votes on polls conducted by the committees will be posted on the General Court’s website, along with the relevant hearing attendance of the member voting on the poll.

Bill reporting

• Committees must make final report not later than 60 days after a matter is heard by the committee, but Chairs may request an additional 30 days, at their discretion.

• Additional extensions must be approved by the branch seeking the extension.

• Bills cannot be extended beyond the third Wednesday in March of the second annual session.

• Any bill not acted upon will be ordered to a study, by default.

Conference committees

• Requires all conference committees to file summaries with reports.

Formal lawmaking

• Extends the time allowed for formal sessions in the first year of session to the third Wednesday in December.

• The second year of formal session will end on July 31, but the House and Senate may return to a formal session for: reports of conference committees formed by July 31, appropriation bills filed after July 31, and gubernatorial actions related to conference reports (vetoes or bills returned with amendments).

The rules also included language carried over from the end of the last session that would require the State Auditor to select an independent auditor to conduct the legislative audit approved by the voters (and which I voted for). 

There was an amendment, offered by the Republican Caucus, which would have deleted the independent auditor requirement. I voted NO on the amendment because I believe it is critical that the audit be done by an independent auditor, selected by and overseen by the State Auditor, ensuring that politics are taken out of the process. This is a best practice in both the public and private sectors.

As always, I can be reached at Mark.Sylvia@MaHouse.Gov or 1-617-722-2800 ext. 7320.