Voting Record

Legislative Guide  

The Massachusetts legislature acts as a bicameral legislature, meaning there are two branches of the legislative branch; the House of Representatives and the Senate. 

Amendments are formal requests by members of the House of Representatives to alter a bill in some way once it is up for debate. Another way of saying a piece of legislation is up for debate is by saying that the bill or the amendment is "on the floor". Amendments are legislative tools members can use to attempt to make improvements or requests to a particular bill that is up for debate. Amendments can either be of a financial nature or a request for a language change in a bill. An amendment must be germane to the piece of legislation that is being discussed otherwise it will be ruled out of scope by the presiding officer. The Chair of the Ways and Means Committee may offer what is known as a consolidated amendment, which is one large amendment requesting many changes to a bill based on the feedback of the members. 

Engrossment refers to either the Senate or the House of Representatives advancing a piece of legislation from its legislative brach to the other legislative branch. The term comes from the process of engrossing, which is the literal act of printing a typed version of a bill on special parchment. Any piece of legislation regarding appropriations or bonding must be initiatied in the House of Representatives. Often times the House and the Senate will engross differing versions of a bill.

In order for a bill to reach the Governor's desk, the bill must be approved in each legislative branch. Each branch must accept the same exact identical language in order for a bill to advance to the Governor's desk. In order to reconcile the differences between differing pieces of legislation that a respective branch may engross, each branch will appoint a committee of three House members and three Senators to iron out the differences between the bill by working towards a compromise. The confference committee will accept a conference committee report, which is esentially a bill each branch can now enact. 

Enactment refers to the process of advancing a bill to the Governor's desk for their review. In order for a bill to reach the Governor's desk for their review, a bill must be enacted in both branches and contain the same language.