Throughout the second week of February, the State House rumbled with the advocacy of constituents from the Hampshire, Franklin, Worcester district and beyond.
On Tuesday, my team met with waves of constituents, advocating on behalf of the issues most important to them.
This tidal surge included students from Frontier Regional High School advocating in support of MassBike’s agenda, as well as Northampton caregivers who ride e-bikes to work and would like to see rebates for these bikes implemented to make them more accessible. I am grateful to MassBike for its advocacy, and for including my Trails for All bill on its list of legislative priorities.
Chief of Staff Jared Freedman also met with families and staff from Community Action Pioneer Valley and Making Opportunity Count who came out to the State House (as they do annually) to talk to us about the importance of and challenges facing Head Start programs across the Commonwealth. I promise to make funding for this program a priority (as I do annually).
Some of the young people in Community Action’s Head Start program collaborated to design and build a snowman for me — under the condition that I send them pictures of the snowman in the State House, so here’s a first installment with more pictures to come.
Finally, I was so pleased to speak with youths from Greenfield, Amherst, Wendell, and throughout the Hampshire, Franklin, Worcester district from the Massachusetts Youth Climate Coalition to discuss their climate justice priorities for this legislative session.
Thursday was another packed day of advocacy in the State House.
I began my morning by joining a briefing hosted by the Disability Policy Consortium (DPC), which was debuting its legislative priorities for the 2025-2026 session. I am grateful to DPC for supporting a bill I filed, An Act supporting family caregivers, and was proud to speak about this bill and the new estate recovery law my office helped lead last session.
I then jetted off to participate in the Senate’s debate on our rules package. More information here.
While I was speaking on the Senate floor during debate, legal fellow extraordinaire Pavithra Venkataraman joined the fierce advocates from the #FreeHer movement to rally in support of a bill I filed to enact a five year pause on jail and prison construction, along with their other priorities.
During a pause in Senate session, I spoke at the Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Council’s (MDDC) Bill Sharing Session. I was glad to join this passionate group of changemakers and speak on a few of my bills that MDDC has made a priority this session.
Finally, I wrapped up my Thursday at Senate President Karen Spilka’s annual Galentine’s Day celebration.
All of this advocacy is a beautiful reminder of the people-powered force that drives the State House. Especially now we have to both seek and share these reminders as they’ll keep us strong and energized for the mountains of work ahead.
