COVID-19 Massachusetts State House Update 5-1-20
- As of Thursday night, DPH reported a total of 62,205 cases of COVID-19.
- The state has now confirmed a total of 3,562 deaths from the virus.
- Around 5,000 people, including COVID-19 patients and people they’ve interacted with, have been contacted through a community tracing program that Governor Baker said will be “a key element toward not only stopping the spread” of the contagious disease but also understanding who’s been affected.
- Governor Baker on April 3 announced the launch of a new tracing program, a collaboration with the nonprofit organization Partners in Health, intended to identify the close contacts of people who test positive for COVID-19, inform them of possible exposure and offer isolation resources.
- Nearly 900,000 Massachusetts workers, representing almost a quarter of the state’s entire labor force, have filed new claims for unemployment benefits since mid-March as the COVID-19 pandemic and the widespread shutdowns it prompted continue to exert an economic toll.
- Labor officials on Thursday reported 3.8 million initial standard unemployment insurance claims submitted nationwide between April 19 and April 25 and more than 70,000 in Massachusetts, the sixth straight week of elevated demand.
- Service industries such as restaurants and hotels have been hit particularly hard.
- Over the past six weeks with the outbreak in full force, more than 30 million Americans have filed new applications for jobless aid in a historic surge. Massachusetts recorded more than 720,000 initial claims for unemployment insurance in the same span.
- Rules allowing for formal sessions during which representatives could participate and vote remotely did not advance for the second day in a row after House Minority Leader Brad Jones used a procedural move to end the session for the day, before the rules vote could occur.
- Democrats called the amendment in the negative and Jones doubted the presence of a quorum, which was not present so the session ended. Earlier in the session, Rep. Sean Garballey objected to a Jones attempt to take up a borrowing bill proposed by Gov. Baker and return to the disputed rules order later.
- While still lacking a quorum in a branch where 158 members now serve, the session on Thursday turned into a gathering of around 30 House members, well above Governor Baker’s 10-person limit.
- The bill House leaders wanted to take up on Thursday is a House Ways and Means report on legislation (H 4593) that allows the Treasury to borrow an unspecified amount this fiscal year and pay it back by the end of the next fiscal year.
- The House will meet again on Monday at 11am.
- The Senate on Thursday handled routine business.
- Senate bills addressing unemployment insurance and transitional assistance benefits during the COVID-19 emergency remained in the House’s custody all week.
- The flow of legislation from the House appears dammed up by disagreements in the lower chamber over their internal rules.
- Governor Baker said Thursday afternoon that he originally hoped the Legislature would finish work by May 1 on his short-term borrowing bill, which has not yet been brought to the House floor.
- Senate leaders say they have a short-term plan to pass a borrowing authorization bill filed by Governor Baker, but will take their time putting together a more complete plan for formal sessions.
- Senate Majority Leader Cynthia Creem will lead a bipartisan group of seven senators to craft a plan that would allow the Senate to begin holding formal sessions, with recorded roll call votes, by early June.
- The Senate has devised a plan to pass the governor’s borrowing bill, which requires a roll call vote, as soon as it clears the House. The plan would allow for three options for senators to cast a vote, including in person or by proxy through another senator.
- The Senate adjourned to meet again Monday at 11 a.m.
- Casino and betting regulators will meet Friday morning and are likely to further extend the shutdown of the state’s casinos and slots parlor, which have been closed for almost seven weeks.
- Ballot question campaigns will be able to collect the 13,000-plus signatures they need over the coming weeks electronically under a new court judgment agreed to by Secretary of State William Galvin.
- In a resolution partly mirroring relief already granted to legislative and Congressional candidates, the SJC issued judgment late Wednesday allowing proponents of four initiative petitions to solicit digital signatures rather than pen-on-paper versions to limit COVID-19 transmission risks.
- All four campaigns and Galvin agreed to the resolution by the deadline the court set, averting a full hearing.
- The mayor of Brockton sided with Governor Baker on Thursday in a dispute between the administration and Plymouth County commissioners over who should administer $90 million in relief funds awarded by the federal government to the county.
- Brockton Mayor Robert Sullivan wrote a letter to the three Plymouth county commissioners on Thursday urging them to transfer the money to the state so that the Baker administration could oversee its distribution to cities and towns.
- The letter was also signed by Plymouth Town Manager Melissa Arrighi.
- A&F Secretary Michael Heffernan also sent a letter to Plymouth County on Tuesday urging them to relinquish the funds to the state.
- Secretary Heffernan said that as a result of the county’s application, the allotment of relief funding to Massachusetts state government was reduced by $90 million.
- If Plymouth County keeps the money, the county will assume all legal responsibility for oversight and compliance of how that money gets spent by cities and towns, and the state will not send any if its money to towns within the county and it will bill the county for the cost of its relief efforts within its boundaries.
