Seeking to address longtime public demands for more transparency about the goings-on in the Legislature, the state Senate last week rolled out a series of proposed changes aimed at giving people a better view of the process of crafting and debating legislation by their elected officials.

“There’s transparency, accessibility, efficiency, productivity. All of these are concerns that I have heard from constituents,” said state Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, who is a member of a temporary Rules Committee that introduced the new rules. “I’ve been on this committee before two years ago, where we did some of the reform work, but this year we leapt forward.”

In addition to public demand, the rule changes come in the wake of a ballot measure last November in which voters granted State Auditor Diana DiZoglio the power to audit the Legislature. The measure was approved by 71% of voters.

Since then, House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka have resisted DiZoglio’s audit, warning of constitutional separation of power issues. DiZiglio has sought the help of state Attorney General Andrea Campbell to take legal action to force the Legislature to comply with the ballot measure.

Under the proposed new transparency rules, votes that senators take in closed joint committee meetings where they discuss proposed bills would be posted online, as would any public testimonies given during committee meetings. The changes would also direct Senate committees to make bill summaries more easily available online if they are reported favorably by a committee.

“A bill can be three words, but those three words could determine the fate of a program, or something else that constituents value a great deal,” Comerford said. “We think our constituents have a right to understand what we’re doing at a very deep level, and they shouldn’t have to be lawyers to understand.”

The transparency proposals fall short of what advocates have been demanding for years: that the Legislature be subject to the same open meeting and open record laws that it imposed on all other levels of government in the state, while exempting itself. 

The proposed Senate rules also call for every state senator and employee to undergo cybersecurity training, something Comerford said is part of the modern reality of protecting from phishing scams that she said frequently target the Senate.

“We have to protect our employees to make sure they understand the potential threats of the online world,” Comerford said. “It’s just good awareness training. I think it’s a very smart idea in 2025.”

The Senate’s temporary Rules Committee is also proposing new joint rules that would bring more accessibility to both chambers of the State House. Those new rules include increasing the notice time for joint committee hearings from 72 hours to five days, giving more time to prepare for anyone looking to participate, as well as requiring at least one full day between a conference committee report filing and a legislative vote, allowing more time for review.

The House will also put out its own version of a rules proposal, and both chambers will have to work on an agreement to solidify the joint rules for the current legislative session.

Comerford also said the new rules were in response to changes at the federal level under President Donald Trump.

“The role of state government has grown even more important as the discord in Washington and the turbulence and real threat of the actions of the Trump administration come into sharper view,” Comerford said. “And it really needs the state to work with all due speed and skill on everything we can do to protect the programs and the services for constituents and safeguard their well-being.”

Sen. Joan Lovely of Salem, the Senate Rules Committee chair of recent sessions, said the package “aims to create a transparent and efficient Legislature that meets our current moment.”

“We want to create a framework for increased productivity during legislative sessions,” Lovely said while introducing the bill Wednesday. “These changes would provide more opportunity for residents to participate in the Legislature’s work.”

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.