There's no rule that a committee can't be chaired by a dog
Beacon Hill goes a bit Air Bud this week
Welcome to new subscribers this week who came from the South Shore News. Similar to what Justin is doing there, we’re using AI to transcribe committee hearings and track other events at the state level, and using this newsletter to share some of the interesting things that don’t make the headlines.
If you want to read the raw transcripts, you can sign up at Legislata or become a paying subscriber of this newsletter and we’ll send you the link to it.
We had a decently full amount of hearings this week and so we’re going to try something a bit different and share the hearings individually with a table created by AI of the bills discussed, their topic, and some highlights from the hearings.
Let me know if you like this, if it’s overkill, or if you just want the best quotes pulled. But in considering just how much happens in a single hearing - and how this newsletter is focused on drawing out elements that aren’t usually seen in the normal press - we thought this might be an interesting way to cover each one of these hearings, which usually have a variety of topics and bills discussed, each one important to someone.
Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security - 9-25-2025
Rep. Steven Xiarhos on Dakota’s Law to support retired K-9: “They are not just dogs. They are police officers. They are partners.”
Here are some of the bills discussed, as analyzed by AI. (Let me know what you think about this format or if you prefer the select quotes like in the other hearing summaries.)
Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy - 9-25-2025
Chrissy Lynch, AFL-CIO, on a bill to expand apprenticeships: “We do not have a worker shortage in our unions. We have a high quality job site shortage.”
Maggie Nesbit, Heat and Frost Insulators Local 6, on a bill to insulate public schools and universities: “Every wasted therm of heat or kilowatt of electricity is packed is tax payer money lost.”
Ryan Murphy, Executive Director of Climate Jobs, Massachusetts Action: “Clean energy projects unfortunately have been hit hard by recent federal government decisions. By our count, the federal government has killed at least 20,000 planned clean energy jobs here in Massachusetts so far.”
Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies - 9-25-2025
This way a short hearing that focused on a bill to disclose the beneficial ownership of LLCs.
Representative from the National Public Records Resources Association: “Making the personally identifiable information of thousands of individuals publicly available puts each at risk of identity theft and other financial crimes. Importantly, no other jurisdiction requires the PII beneficial owners to be included in the public record.”
Joint Committee On The Judiciary - 9-23-2025
This hearing discussed reforms related to juvenile justice, particularly the “Raise the Age” initiative, which seeks to extend juvenile court jurisdiction to individuals up to 21 years old and which received the most testifiers.
Sen. Brendan Crighton: “We are proud to be national leaders in promoting rehabilitation over incarceration. This legislation builds on this progress by addressing the issue of criminal the age of criminal majority. In Massachusetts, as you’ve heard, that age is currently set at 18 years old, and the proposed legislation would gradually raise raise it, which would allow many young offenders to go through the juvenile system rather than the adult criminal justice system. In recent years, advances in the field of brain science has expanded what we know about human cognitive development during these years. As you know, the overwhelming body of scientific evidence research tells us that the prefrontal cortex which governs decision making and regulates impulsive behavior does not stop developing to the age of 25. Young people should learn from their mistakes, but they shouldn’t be haunted by them for the rest of their lives. In a in the way that they would be of charge under the adult criminal justice system.”
Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities - 9-22-2025
Key topics in this hearing included House Bill 223 and Senate Bill 130, which propose a livable wage for human service workers, addressing significant pay disparities that affect workforce stability and care quality.
Tammy Mello, Key Program: “The love of the work cannot be the only thing that sustains them. Fair, competitive wages are essential.”
Thanks for reading. Please let me know if you like this format or if you’d prefer something different.
The goal of this newsletter is to mine the transcripts from the State House and other #mapoli events generated by Legislata for items that illuminate what’s happening in Massachusetts government and politics. There is far more going on that simply can’t make it into our increasingly limited news ecosystem, and we hope to be able to draw on the raw material of policy to help supplement that.
But how that should be done is going to be a joint effort by us and all of you. Tell me if you’d rather an assessment of a single hearing, high level summaries of all of them, or the most interesting nuggets from them. We want to hear your thoughts and how we can best showcase what’s happening in your government.