HOW I VOTED ON H.4767, H.4761 &H.4692

HOW I VOTED ON H.4767

H.4767 –An Act requiring health care employers to develop and implement programs to prevent workplace violence

On Wednesday, November 19, 2025 I voted YES on H.4767 An Act requiring health care employers to develop and implement programs to prevent workplace violence, which strengthens protections for health care workers, establishes preventive and protective standards to reduce the risk of violence, improves health care facility incident reporting, enhances interagency coordination to safeguard privacy, and creates legal protections for certain employees harmed in the line of duty.

The bipartisan vote was 158 YAY and 0 NAY (unanimous). It now goes to the Senate for

consideration.

Every 38 minutes in Massachusetts health care facilities someone, most often a clinician or an employee, is physically assaulted, endures verbal abuse, or is threatened, according to the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association. Violence against health care workers most often occurs in emergency rooms, inpatient units and psychiatric units. To support a culture of safety and respect in health care facilities, the bill passed takes the following approach:

Prevention Plans, Training and Reporting

• Establishes a statewide requirement for health care employers to address workplace violence through a standardized framework, requiring annual and facility-specific risk assessments conducted with employees and labor representatives to identify factors that place staff at risk.

• Mandates a written violence prevention plan that includes hazard mitigation strategies, employee training, post-incident debriefing and a crisis response program.

• Requires annual reporting of workplace violence incidents to the Department of Public Health (DPH) and district attorneys, supporting statewide and county-level data tracking while maintaining data privacy. The de-identified data will be publicly published and categorized by occupation and incident type.

• Imposes civil penalties against a health care employer for noncompliance (up to $2,000 per violation) and protects employees from retaliation.

Criminal Protections and Penalties for Assaults Against a Health Care Workers

The bill codifies graduated penalties for assaulting an employee or contracted employee in the line of duty. With 91 percent of violent incidents in hospitals committed by patients against workers, it focuses on health care settings where violence is most prevalent. Strengthening these protections ensures that direct health care providers, and the staff who support facility operations, on-site administrative work, security, or emergency medical transportation, have an opportunity to seek the justice that they are entitled to through the following penalties:

• Assault causing bodily injury: Up to 5 years in state prison, up to 2.5 years in a jail or house of correction, a fine of $500 - $5,000, or combination of imprisonment and fines.

• Assault causing serious bodily injury: Up to 10 years in state prison, up to 2.5 years in a jail or house of correction, a fine of $500 - $5,000 fine, or combination of imprisonment and fines.

Paid Leave for Employees

This bill establishes that employees directly employed by a health care employer in high-acuity settings, who suffer workplace violence resulting in bodily injury or serious bodily injury are entitled to paid leave without using any accrued time (vacation, sick or personal).

Privacy Protection for Employees and Union Members

Victims of workplace violence who are employed directly by a health care facility, or who are union members, may provide either the address of their health care facility or that of their labor organization instead of their personal home address for all court documents related to a workplace violence incident.

Alternative Pathways for Behavioral and Mental Health and Data Protection

• Mandates a statewide report from the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) and the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS) to improve care and alternative treatment options for those with mental or behavioral health diagnoses, and for criminal justice patients.

• Requires identification of new, non-arrest pathways to reduce unnecessary criminal

  justice involvement for high-acuity behavioral health patients.

• All recommendations must include strong safeguards, penalties for data misuse, and full compliance with federal confidentiality laws, including heightened protections for behavioral health and substance-use information.

• Ensures that improving data sharing of workplace violence incidents to improve safety does not come at the expense of any patient or health care worker’s privacy.

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HOW I VOTED ON H.4761

H.4761 –An Act making appropriations for the fiscal year 2025 to provide for

supplementing certain existing appropriations and for certain other activities and projects.

On Wednesday, November 19, 2025, I voted YES on H.4761, An Act making appropriations for the fiscal year 2025 to provide for supplementing certain existing appropriations and for certain other activities and projects, a supplemental budget that prioritizes affordability for Massachusetts residents and protections for those being negatively impacted by decisions at the federal level. 

The bipartisan vote was 146 YAY and 9 NAY. Both branches of the Legislature voted to enact the closeout supplemental budget on Wednesday, sending it to the Governor for her signature. 

As part of allocating the final expenses of Fiscal Year 2025, the legislation, H.4761, provides funding for MassHealth, hospitals and reproductive care; ensures that students at public colleges and universities are delivered the financial aid they depend on and adds funding for the universal meals program for children in public schools; and funds operational enhancements to improve how Massachusetts residents access supplemental nutrition assistance, or SNAP.  It also directs state funds to support transportation and public safety ahead of the upcoming 2026 World Cup, ensures accountability in sheriffs’ operations, and brings transparency to former state

institutions where residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities suffered abuse.  

Details of policy and spending contained in the closeout supplemental budget agreement are below. 

Policy Provisions 

Accountability for Sheriffs. Directs an investigation into sheriffs’ Fiscal Year 2025 spending deficits. The investigation will include analyses of compliance with state finance law, spending on programs that are outside required operations, and payroll changes over time. Funds no-cost phone calls program and Section 35 treatment programs for people with alcohol and substance use and withholds funding the remainder of the sheriffs’ deficit until the Inspector General (IG) reports on sheriff spending, with a preliminary report due on February 27, 2026, and a final report due May 31, 2026. 

Transparency for Institutional Records. Opens the door for families and scholars to access archived patient records from state institutions for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities or mental health conditions, if the records are at least 75 years old or if 50 years have passed since the patient’s death. The policy change applies to records from more than 25 institutions—many of them now closed, including the Fernald Developmental Center—where residents were abused or neglected by practices in the institutions. 

Matching Funds Program for World Cup 2026. Creates a new Sports and Entertainment Fund initially provided with $10 million to support transportation, public safety, wayfinding, and similar costs related to Massachusetts’ seven 2026 FIFA World Cup matches. State dollars spent on the initiative would have to be privately matched. Going forward, the Sports and Entertainment Fund would be able to receive funding to support a competitive grant progra administered by the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism (MOTT) to attract major sports or entertainment events to provide event services, sports development, sports marketing, or construction, functioning, and operation of an event. 

State Leadership on Immunization Standards. Grants authority to the Department of Public Health (DPH) Commissioner to determine routine childhood immunizations and vaccination schedules rather than relying on the recommendations of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. 

Criminalizing Impersonation of Federal Agents. Criminalizes the impersonation of a federal officer and increases penalties for impersonating a public official, including a federal officer. 

Housing Stability for Federal Employees. Protects unpaid federal employees from residential eviction or foreclosure during and immediately after any federal shutdown. 

Privacy for People Seeking Name Changes. Removes the automatic requirement of a public notice for name-change petitions filed in court. 

Managed Care Organizations. Adjusts the managed care organization assessment to align with federal changes that require a broad-based and uniform assessment. 

Harness Racing and Simulcasting Extension. Extends authorization for harness racing and simulcast wagering from December 15, 2025, to December 15, 2027. 

Collective Bargaining Agreements. Ratifies 14 new collective bargaining agreements for public employees. 

Fiscal Provisions 

The legislation resolves outstanding expenses from the fiscal year that ended in June and has a net cost to the state of $806.9 million after accounting for federal reimbursements. The legislation includes $2.31 billion in total gross spending. 

Health Care. Addresses a number of deficiencies across the public health and health care sectors, including: 

• $1.67 billion for MassHealth, with a $303 million net cost to the state after federal

  reimbursements; 

• $374 million for Steward hospital payments, with a $236 million net cost to the state; 

• $10 million for Health Care For All to conduct a public awareness campaign to inform vulnerable populations about new Medicaid work requirements put in place by the recent federal spending bill; 

• $5 million in direct support for reproductive health care.  

Student Financial Assistance. Establishes a Public Higher Education Student Support Fund to maintain financial aid benefits for students attending public colleges and universities. Also appropriates $18.3 million to strengthen student financial aid assistance and ensure existing student stipend amounts are maintained. 

Universal School Meals. Provides $12 million to support the universal meals program for public school students.  

DTA Enhancements. Provides $10 million for operational and technical enhancements at the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) to improve recipients’ access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits with the aim of mitigating against harmful federal cuts. 

Life Sciences. Transfers $10 million to the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) to support and bolster scientific research and development in the Commonwealth. 

Public Defense Services. Provides $2.5 million for Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS) indigent persons fees and court costs. 

Snow and Ice Removal. Provides $60.7 million for MassDOT snow and ice expenditures. 

Affordable Housing Support. Transfers $50 million to the Housing Preservation and

Stabilization Trust Fund. 

Excess Capital Gains. After accounting for spending contained in the agreement, the remainder of collected excess capital gains will be distributed as follows: 

• $502.2 million (90 per cent) to the Transitional Escrow Fund; 

• $25.1 million (5 per cent) to the State Retiree Benefits Trust Fund; and 

• $25.1 million (5 per cent) to the Commonwealth’s Pension Liability Fund. 

Student Opportunity Act Transfer. Transfers $100 million in excess surtax collections to the Student Opportunity Act (SOA) Investment Fund. 

On Tuesday, November 18, 2025 – the House voted 145 YAY to 8 NAY to accept the conference committee (House and Senate) report on the supplemental budget. Today’s vote was to enact the supplemental budget – which then went to the Governor for her signature.

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HOW I VOTED ON H.4692

H.4692 Resolution rescinding previous Article V Convention applications

On Wednesday, November 19, 2025 I voted YES on House resolution H.4692 which, along with the Senate’s resolution S.2684, rescind all previous applications for a national Constitutional Convention under Article V of the U.S. Constitution. This joint initiative is in response to concerns that Congress and the Trump Administration could attempt to use prior Massachusetts resolutions to call for an Article V Constitutional Convention to advance their own political agenda, moves that could have broad and sweeping implications on current protections under the U.S. Constitution.

The bipartisan vote was 155 YAY and 3 NAY. Both chambers of the Legislature voted to approve the resolutions, and the House and Senate Clerks will transmit copies of the resolutions to the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives and to the Secretary of the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C.

The Legislature’s action makes Massachusetts the 17th state to rescind all prior applications for an Article V convention, and reaffirms that any constitutional decisions should reflect the will of today’s elected lawmakers and the people they represent.

An Article V convention is a process outlined in the U.S. Constitution allowing states to propose amendments if two-thirds (34) of state legislatures call for it. An Article V convention could open the entire Constitution to unpredictable changes, as there are no clear guidelines or limitations on what delegates could propose. While an Article V convention has never been called before in American history, there is recent conservative momentum to add up all active resolutions to meet the two-thirds threshold.

Massachusetts had several outdated Article V resolutions pending before Congress, including one sent in 1977 asking for an Article V convention to constitutionally ban abortions. These dormant calls have been cited in national legal strategies pushing for a convention, arguing they could still be considered active and contribute to the 34-state count. Sixteen states have already taken action to rescind all of their previous calls.

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