Beacon Hill Roll Call
Bob Katzen, Telegram & Gazette
Beacon Hill Roll Call
THE HOUSE AND SENATE
Beacon Hill Roll Call records local representatives’ votes on a roll call from the week of Jan. 25-29. There were no roll calls in the Senate last week.
CLIMATE CHANGE (S 9)
House 144-14, Senate on a voice vote without a roll call, approved and sent to Gov. Charlie Baker a 57-page climate change bill. A key section makes the state’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal net zero by 2050.
The bill is sponsored by Sen. Mike Barrett (D-Cambridge) and Rep. Thomas Golden (D-Lowell) who led the successful charge for legislative approval of the legislation for several months in 2020. An identical measure had passed the House 145-9 and the Senate 38-2 in 2020 - margins that were large enough for the Legislature to easily override any gubernatorial veto. But it was too late for that. The 2020 Legislature ended on January 5 and under legislative rules, any vetoes made, or amendments proposed, by the governor after that time could not go back to the Legislature for an override or consideration. So the bill died on the governor’s desk.