2022 Massachusetts legislative session
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| 2022 Massachusetts legislative session |
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| General information |
| Session start: January 5, 2022 Session end: August 1, 2022 |
| Leadership |
| Senate President Karen Spilka (D) House Speaker |
| Elections |
| Next Election: November 8, 2022 Last Election: November 3, 2020 |
| Previous legislative sessions |
| 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 |
| Other 2022 legislative sessions |
In 2022, the Massachusetts General Court was scheduled to convene on January 5, 2022, and adjourn on August 1, 2022.
The legislators serving in this session took office following the 2020 elections. Democrats won a 37-3 majority in the Senate and a 129-30 majority in the House. The Republican Party controlled the governorship, creating a divided government rather than a state government trifecta. At the start of the 2022 session, Massachusetts was one of six state legislatures where Democrats had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers.
Leadership in 2022
Massachusetts State Senate
- Senate president: Karen Spilka (D)
- Majority leader: Cindy Creem (D)
- Minority leader: Bruce Tarr (R)
Massachusetts House of Representatives
- Speaker of the House: Ronald Mariano (D)
- Majority leader: Vacant
- Minority leader: Brad Jones (R)
Partisan control in 2022
- See also: State government trifectas
Massachusetts was one of 13 states with divided government at the start of the 2022 legislative sessions, meaning neither party had a state government trifecta. A state government trifecta occurs when one political party holds the governor's office, a majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the state House. For more information about state government trifectas, click here.
Massachusetts was also one of eight state legislatures where Democrats had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers. Veto overrides occur when a legislature votes to reverse a veto issued by an executive such as a governor or the president. If one party has a majority in a state legislature that is large enough to override a gubernatorial veto without any votes from members of the minority party, it is called a veto-proof majority or, sometimes, a supermajority. To read more about veto-proof supermajorities in state legislatures, click here.
The following tables show the partisan breakdown of the Massachusetts General Court in the 2022 legislative session.
Massachusetts State Senate
| Party | As of January 2022 | |
|---|---|---|
| Democratic Party | 37 | |
| Republican Party | 3 | |
| Vacancies | 0 | |
| Total | 40 | |
Massachusetts House of Representatives
| Party | As of January 2022 | |
|---|---|---|
| Democratic Party | 128 | |
| Republican Party | 29 | |
| Independent | 1 | |
| Vacancies | 2 | |
| Total | 160 | |
Regular session
The list below shows up to 25 pieces of legislation in the 2022 legislative session that most recently passed both chambers of the legislature, were signed by the governor, or were approved by the legislature in a veto override. If no bills are displayed below, no legislation met these criteria in 2022. This information is provided by BillTrack50.
Standing legislative committees
A standing committee of a state legislature is a committee that exists on a more-or-less permanent basis, from legislative session to session, that considers and refines legislative bills that fall under the committee's subject matter.
At the beginning of the 2022 legislative session, there were 51 standing committees in Massachusetts' state government, including 29 joint legislative committees, 11 state Senate committees, and 11 state House committees.
Joint legislative committees
- Cannabis Policy Joint Committee
- Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities Joint Committee
- Community Development and Small Businesses Joint Committee
- Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Joint Committee
- Economic Development and Emerging Technologies Joint Committee
- Education Joint Committee
- Elder Affairs Joint Committee
- Election Laws Joint Committee
- Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Joint Committee
- Export Development Committee
- Financial Services Joint Committee
- Health Care Financing Joint Committee
- Higher Education Joint Committee
- Housing Joint Committee
- Judiciary Joint Committee
- Labor and Workforce Development Joint Committee
- Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery Joint Committee
- Municipalities and Regional Government Joint Committee
- Public Health Joint Committee
- Public Safety and Homeland Security Joint Committee
- Public Service Joint Committee
- Revenue Joint Committee
- Rules Joint Committee
- State Administration and Regulatory Oversight Joint Committee
- Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy Joint Committee
- Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development Joint Committee
- Transportation Joint Committee
- Veterans and Federal Affairs Joint Committee
- Ways and Means Joint Committee
Senate committees
- Intergovernmental Affairs Committee
- Personnel and Administration Committee
- Reimagining Massachusetts Post-Pandemic Resiliency Committee
- Senate Bills in the Third Reading Committee
- Senate Ethics Committee
- Senate Global Warming and Climate Change Committee
- Senate Post Audit and Oversight Committee
- Senate Redistricting Committee
- Senate Rules Committee
- Senate Ways and Means Committee
- Steering and Policy Committee
House committees
- Federal Stimulus and Census Oversight Committee
- House Bills in the Third Reading Committee
- House Ethics Committee
- House Global Warming and Climate Change Committee
- House Post Audit and Oversight Committee
- House Redistricting Committee
- House Rules Committee
- House Ways and Means Committee
- Human Resources and Employee Engagement Committee
- Operations, Facilities and Security Committee
- Steering, Policy and Scheduling Committee
Legislatively referred constitutional amendments
In every state but Delaware, voter approval is required to enact a constitutional amendment. In each state, the legislature has a process for referring constitutional amendments before voters. In 18 states, initiated constitutional amendments can be put on the ballot through a signature petition drive. There are also many other types of statewide measures.
The methods by which the Massachusetts Constitution can be amended:
The process of amending the Massachusetts Constitution is governed by Article XLVIII, Amendments to the Massachusetts Constitution, which is itself the 48th amendment to the state's constitution.
Article 48 allows the constitution to be amended through indirect initiative amendments. It imposes a number of restrictions on such proposed amendments:
- Petitions that relate to "religion, religious practices or religious institutions" are prohibited.
- Petitions that relate to the "appointment, qualification, tenure, removal, recall or compensation of judges" are prohibited.
- Petitions that would reverse judicial decisions are prohibited.
- Petitions relating to the "powers, creation or abolition of courts" are prohibited.
- Petitions that apply only to "a particular town, city or other political division or to particular districts or localities of the commonwealth" are prohibited.
- Petitions that would make "a specific appropriation of money from the treasury of the commonwealth" are prohibited.
- Any petition relating to Amendment 18 is prohibited through citizen initiative; however, Amendment 18 was altered through other paths.
- Petitions "inconsistent with" a list of "rights of the individual" are prohibited; those rights include:
- "The right to receive compensation for private property appropriated to public use."
- "The right of access to and protection in courts of justice."
- "The right of trial by jury."
- "Protection from unreasonable search unreasonable bail and the law martial."
- "Freedom of the press."
- "Freedom of elections."
- "The right of peaceable assembly."
- The sections of the constitution that prohibit various matters from being taken up by citizen initiative are also, themselves, prohibited from change through the process.
- Petitions that are "substantially the same as any measure which has been qualified for submission or submitted to the people at either of the two preceding biennial state elections" are prohibited.
The state's general court plays a significant role in the process for an initiated constitutional amendment in Massachusetts:
- The Massachusetts General Court is allowed to refer an alternative substitute measure to the ballot to compete with the proposed citizen initiative.
- The state legislature is allowed to amend the text of an initiated constitutional amendment through a three-fourths vote in joint session.
- In two successive legislative sessions, 25 percent of the members of the Massachusetts General Court must support the proposed amendment in order for it to go on the ballot. There are 200 legislators altogether—40 in the Massachusetts State Senate and 160 in the Massachusetts House of Representatives—so a proposed amendment must earn 50 positive votes. The proposed amendment does not need to earn a 25 percent vote from both chambers, but, rather, from a joint session. This means, for example, that if 50 members of the state house voted in favor of an amendment, it would require no support from any state senator to qualify for the ballot.
The Massachusetts General Court may also legislatively refer constitutional amendments. This procedure is defined in Section 1 to 3 of Article LXXXI of the Massachusetts Constitution. According to that section:
- Amendments may be proposed by either house of the Massachusetts General Court.
- Consideration of the amendment in a joint session may be called for by a vote of either house no later than the second Wednesday in May.
- Proposed amendments must receive majority approval (50% + 1) two successive joint legislative sessions to be placed on the ballot.
- If any such proposed amendment is approved by a simple majority of voters and by at least 30 percent of people voting in that election, the amendment is adopted.
The Massachusetts Constitution can also be changed through a constitutional convention and subsequent ratification from the voters.
There have been four constitutional conventions in Massachusetts:
- From 1779–80. This led to the adoption of the Massachusetts Constitution, which is the oldest state constitution continuously in effect.
- From 1820–21. This convention yielded the Articles of Amendment, 1-9.
- 1853. This convention led to a proposal for an entirely new constitution and seven proposed amendments. They were submitted to a vote of the people, and they all lost.
- 1917–19. This constitution proposed 22 amendments and a revised draft of the existing constitution. Voters approved all these proposals.
Historical partisan control
The table below depicts the historical trifecta status of Massachusetts.
Massachusetts Party Control: 1992-2024
Ten years of Democratic trifectas • No Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.
| Year | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 00 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governor | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | D | D |
| Senate | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
| House | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
Historical Senate control
From 1992 to 2020, the Massachusetts State Senate was controlled by the Democratic Party. The table below shows the partisan history of the Massachusetts State Senate following every general election from 1992 to 2020. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.
Massachusetts State Senate election results: 1992-2020
| Year | '92 | '94 | '96 | '98 | '00 | '02 | '04 | '06 | '08 | '10 | '12 | '14 | '16 | '18 | '20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democrats | 31 | 30 | 34 | 33 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 35 | 35 | 36 | 36 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 37 |
| Republicans | 9 | 10 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 3 |
Democrats maintained control of the Massachusetts State Senate from 1992 to 2020. Senate Democrats held their largest majority following the 2020 elections when Democrats held a 34-seat advantage. Throughout the period, Democrats usually controlled between 30 and 37 seats, while Republicans controlled between 3 and 10 seats. During the period, Democrats also held more than the 27 seats required to override a gubernatorial veto. Republicans controlled the governor's office from 1992 to 2006 and have held it since 2015.
Despite the national trend toward Republican state legislatures during the presidency of Barack Obama (D), the Massachusetts Senate was resistant to that trend. Senate Democrats never fell below 34 seats during Obama's presidency. From 2009 to 2017, Democrats experienced losses in state legislative elections, totaling 968 seats altogether.
Historical House control
From 1992 to 2020, the Massachusetts House of Representatives was controlled by the Democratic Party. The table below shows the partisan history of the Massachusetts House of Representatives following every general election from 1992 to 2020. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.
Massachusetts House of Representatives election results: 1992-2020
| Year | '92 | '94 | '96 | '98 | '00 | '02 | '04 | '06 | '08 | '10 | '12 | '14 | '16 | '18 | '20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democrats | 124 | 125 | 124 | 131 | 137 | 136 | 139 | 141 | 143 | 128 | 131 | 125 | 125 | 127 | 129 |
| Republicans | 35 | 34 | 35 | 28 | 23 | 23 | 20 | 19 | 16 | 32 | 29 | 35 | 35 | 32 | 30 |
| Other | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Democrats maintained control of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1992 to 2020. House Democrats held their largest majority following the 2008 elections when Democrats held a 127-seat advantage. Throughout the period, Democrats usually controlled between 124 and 143 seats, while Republicans controlled between 16 and 35 seats. During the period, Democrats also held more than the 107 seats required to override a gubernatorial veto. Republicans controlled the governor's office from 1992 to 2006 and have held it since 2015.
In the 2010 elections, Democrats kept control of the state House with a 128-32 majority but lost 14 seats. Republicans increased their minority in both the 2014 and 2016 elections but lost seats in 2018 and 2020. The Republican gains from 2010 to 2016 were in line with a national trend toward Republican state legislatures during the presidency of Barack Obama (D). House Republicans gained seats in the Massachusetts state House but Democrats never fell below 125 seats during Obama's presidency. From 2009 to 2017, Democrats experienced losses in state legislative elections, totaling 968 seats altogether.
See also
| Elections | Massachusetts State Government | State Legislatures | State Politics |
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External links
Footnotes
