#2021-6 February 19, 2021

House, Senate Democratic Appointments Set for 2021-2022

Late last week, House and Senate Democrats ratified their committee assignments for the two-year session by approving a leadership and committee structure.  The appointments include Committees that will increase oversight of the state’s COVID-19 response, federal stimulus funds, the decennial redistricting process, and to address the many issues facing the state on the other side of the pandemic.

House Speaker Ronald Mariano (D-Quincy) announced the first committee slate of his tenure during a Friday afternoon caucus, while Senate President Karen Spilka (D-Ashland) issued her assignments for her branch at an unpublicized noontime caucus.  The representatives and senators appointed to serve as chairs of committees will wield influence over the legislation before their panels and will aim to control the flow of bills to the House and Senate floors.  Though the joint committees are made up of members from both branches, House members outnumber Senators on each committee, giving the House and the House chairs more power in the joint committee structure.

Most importantly to the banking industry, President Spilka appointed Senator Brendan Crighton (D-Lynn) as the new Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Financial Services.  Senator Crighton has previously served on the Committee and was the Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Housing last session.  He joins Representative Jamie Murphy (D-Weymouth) who returns for his second term as chairman in the House.  The Association congratulates Chairman Crighton on his appointment, and we look forward to working with him this session.

Mariano’s elevation of Representative Claire Cronin (D-Easton) to the Majority Leader position created an opening atop the Committee on the Judiciary, which the speaker filled by appointing Representative Michael Day (D-Stoneham) to lead the panel, which is one of the busiest on Beacon Hill.  Representative Day opened a private practice after practicing law in Boston and serving as special assistant district attorney in Middlesex County.  Senator Jamie Eldridge (D-Acton) retains his position as Senate co-chair of Judiciary.  In addition, with Representative Thomas Golden (D-Lowell) moving into leadership, Representative Jeff Roy (D-Franklin), who most recently chaired the Committee on Higher Education, will now chair the Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy.  Senator Michael Barrett (D-Lexington) will continue to co-chair the committee for the Senate.

Representative William Driscoll (D-Milton), who has a background in disaster response and emergency management, was tapped by the new speaker to serve as the House leader of the new Joint Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management, which Mariano and Spilka created to provide oversight of the state’s pandemic response and to take on an advisory role for the Legislature.  Representative Jon Santiago (D-Boston), who works as an emergency room doctor at Boston Medical Center, will be the House vice-chair.  Senator Jo Comerford (D-Northampton), who led the Senate’s own COVID-focused working group last session, will serve as Senate co-chair.

Representative Bud Williams (D-Springfield) will chair the new Committee on Racial Equity, Civil Rights and Inclusion for the House – a committee that will oversee a review of existing laws and new proposals.  Sonia Chang-Diaz of Jamaica Plain will be Williams’ Senate counterpart.  The third new joint committee, the Committee on Advanced Information Technology, the Internet and Cybersecurity, will be chaired in the House by Representative Linda Dean Campbell (D-Methuen) and for the Senate by Senator Barry Finegold (D-Andover).  The House also created a new House Committee on Federal Stimulus and Census Oversight, two major issues of 2021, that will be led by Representative Daniel Hunt (D-Dorchester).  The panel will be tasked with reviewing federal spending, including stimulus bills and block grants, and recommending ways Massachusetts can tap into additional federal resources.

Representative Carlos Gonzalez (D-Springfield), who chaired the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus last session and was one of the six conference committee members who negotiated the final policing reform law, will lead the Public Safety Committee as the police accountability law is implemented over the next two years.  Senator Walter Timilty (D-Milton) will take the reins on the Senate side from Senator Michael Moore (D-Millbury).  Meanwhile, Representative Josh Cutler (D-Duxbury) will lead the Committee on Labor and Workforce Development for the House, a panel that deals with issues such as the minimum wage and worker safety protections each session but could have an even more significant role over the next two years as Massachusetts tries to rebound from the massive job losses of the pandemic.  Senator Patricia Jehlen (D-Somerville) returns to serve as Senate co-chair.

The Committee on Health Care Financing, which could be key to the speaker’s stated priority of working to stabilize community hospitals, will be under the leadership of Representative John Lawn (D-Watertown).  Lawn last chaired the Election Laws Committee, which will be handed off to Representative Daniel Ryan (D- Charlestown).  Senator Cindy Friedman (D-Arlington) will return to chair the Health Care Financing Committee on the Senate side. 

Representative Denise Garlick (D-Needham), who previously served as the vice-chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, is Speaker Mariano’s pick to chair the House Committee on Bills in the Third Reading, which is responsible for reviewing “all bills and resolves” for constitutionality and proper grammar, and to avoid duplication.  Although it is one of the least visible committees, almost every bill goes through it before consideration by the House.  Representative Kevin Honan (D-Brighton) will lead the House Committee on Steering, Policy and Scheduling, another of the Legislature’s lesser-known but powerful, panels.

Mariano’s committee assignments shuffled the House’s redistricting committee structure in a year when lawmakers will redraw the boundaries for legislative districts.  The House replaced its branch-specific Redistricting Committee with the new Federal Stimulus and Census Oversight Committee.  Mariano also tapped members to a separate Special Committee on Redistricting and Reapportionment, with Representative Michael Moran (D- Boston) as House chair and Representative Marcos Devers (D- Lawrence) as vice-chair, with the Senate Democratic leadership convening a Senate Standing Committee on Redistricting, led by Senator William Brownsberger (D-Belmont), just as it did in the 2019-2020 lawmaking session.

Minority Leader Jones Announces House Republican Committee Assignments

Legislative committees now have their full slate of House members, after House Minority Leader Brad Jones (R-North Reading) made his appointments to the 42 joint and House-only panels.  Of note, Representative Todd Smola (R-Warren) remains the ranking minority member on the House Ways and Means Committee, with Representative Angelo D’Amelia (R-Bridgewater) as assistant ranking member. 

Representative Paul Frost (R-Auburn) has the top GOP spot on the House’s Special Committee on Redistricting and Reapportionment.  Frost is also ranking minority member on the Legislature’s new COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management Committee, which plans an oversight hearing next week on vaccine distribution.  Representative David Vieira (R-Falmouth) is the only other House Republican on that panel.

One of the House’s two new Republican members, Representative Steven Xiarhos (R-Barnstable), received two ranking minority seats, on the Veterans and Federal Affairs Committee and State Administration and Regulatory Oversight Committee, while the other new Republican, Representative Kelly Pease (R-Westfield), will be ranking member on the Higher Education Committee.

Representative Jones has served as minority leader since 2002.  His leadership team includes First Assistant Minority Leader Brad Hill and Second Assistant Minority Leader Kimberly Ferguson, with Frost and Represenative Susan Williams Gifford as third assistant leaders.  Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester), whose caucus includes only three members, has not yet announced the Senate Republican Committee assignments.