Senator Eldridge Announces His Progressive Policy Agenda for the 192nd General Court Legislative Session
Eldridge emphasizes themes of universal services as rights, strengthening workers’ rights and wages, and bold action to combat climate change, poverty and prison injustice
Boston, MA - Senator Jamie Eldridge (D-Acton) has filed over 50 pieces of legislation focused on turning healthcare, higher education and public benefits into rights. These bills seek to boldly address problems people from across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are confronted with every day. Major bills include Medicare For All in Massachusetts, the Safe Communities Act, Debt-Free College, 100% Renewable Energy by 2030, Net Neutrality and several bills to protect the environment.
“I am very proud to be filing a variety of bills in this new session of the General Court aimed at expanding universal public goods. This past year has exposed our public systems to criticisms that I have been working to address throughout my career,” said State Senator Jamie Eldridge. “In response, I am once again filing bold legislation to establish Medicare for All, Debt Free College, and the Safe Communities Act. While these pieces of legislation gained tremendous momentum in the previous session, they were put aside as we focused on delivering COVID-19 relief, the Police Reform Bill, and the ROE Act. Now, as national support for these policies continues to grow, the Massachusetts legislature must work to create a more equitable system. I’m extremely grateful to my Team Eldridge staff, for working so hard to draft and file over 50 pieces of legislation. I’m also proud to continue my focus on protecting the environment and combating climate change through banning plastic bags, funding water infrastructure, requiring all rooftops be solar ready, establishing statewide recycling and composting, and banning plastic bags.”
Below are some of the major bills filed:
An Act Establishing Medicare for All in Massachusetts will transition the Commonwealth to a single-payer healthcare system by removing profit-driven health insurance companies as the barrier between patients and providers, and instead allow the government to reimburse health care providers directly. Significant layoffs at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for a more robust single-payer system, as hundreds of thousands of residents across Massachusetts lost not just their jobs and income, but their health insurance. The Medicare for All single-payer health care system will guarantee first rate health care coverage for every resident in the Commonwealth, regardless of employment status, while saving money for state and local government, businesses, and residents.
Immigration
An Act to Protect the Civil Rights and Safety of All Massachusetts Residents (the Safe Communities Act) limits state law enforcement’s involvement in federal immigration enforcement by establishing basic due process rights for people detained in state and local facilities for civil immigration violations, preventing law enforcement from asking people about their immigration status, and barring official collaboration agreements that deputize local law enforcement as federal deportation agents Massachusetts.
The time has arrived to make state universities, community colleges, and vocational schools free for all state residents.
An Act to Guarantee Debt-Free Public Higher Education aims to address the alarming student debt students and recent graduates continue to face. By creating a state grant program tasked with covering tuition and mandatory fees for all students admitted or enrolled in a Massachusetts public college or university, or at a certificate, vocational, or training program at a public institution.
Climate Reform
An Act investing in a prosperous, clean Commonwealth by 2030 (IPCC-2030) will set a frame around the need for the Commonwealth to reach emission targets according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, by 2030. It would (i) Set net emissions targets to zero for 2030 and negative after that; (ii) Mandate the procurement of new offshore wind and solar capacity, while increasing the accessibility of solar to low income and environmental justice communities (iii) Increase investment in electric vehicle charging infrastructure and transitions new vehicle sales to Evs (iv)Invest in and electrify the MBTA, RTA, and fleets used for a public purpose (v) Establish a net zero building code while harmonizing building efficiency standards across the commonwealth, and retrofits all publicly assisted housing by 2030 and (vi) Protect workers from fossil fuel industries, allowing them to choose to retrain or to collect a pension early while guaranteeing that jobs created as a result of the energy transition are union jobs with wage and benefit parity
An Act providing for climate change adaptation infrastructure and affordable housing investments in the Commonwealth (HERO Coalition Bill) This bill, backed by the Housing and Environment Revenue Opportunities (HERO) Coalition, would provide $300 million in new revenue for both Climate response and Housing action. Since Massachusetts’s current Deeds Excise Fee is less than half the fee in neighboring states and has not changed since 1969, this bill would raise the fee from $4.56 per $1,000 to $9.12 per $1,000 of assessed value. Half of the revenue would be used for climate mitigation and resilience, and half for affordable housing programs to aid working-class homeowners, low-income renters, and people experiencing homelessness.
An Act to Prevent the Imposition of Mandatory Minimum Sentences based on Juvenile Adjudications is a crucial piece of legislation that reaffirms a core principle of justice that kids are not criminals. It aims to separate juveniles and adults within the juvenile justice system. This piece of legislation, which is rooted around a plethora of evidence affirming the developmental differences between juveniles and adults, amends the definition of “violent crime” to prevent courts from counting past juvenile offenses in mandatory minimum sentence calculations.
An Act to Provide Criminal Justice Reform Protections to All Prisoners in Segregated Confinement has been filed in response to the Department of Corrections’ blatant disregard for l the Criminal Justice Reform Act of 2018. In the last two years, the DOC has managed to bypass policies by creating new units that are technically not “restrictive confinement” within the meaning of current law. By creating an umbrella term of “segregated confinement”, this bill ensures that all prisoners who are not in the general population are afforded the Criminal Justice Reform Act protections. Among other changes, it also makes placement reviews more rigorous and establishes an appeals process to the Superior Court for longer-term segregated confinement. Finally, it bans the DOC from placing people with developmental and physical disabilities as well as postpartum moms in solitary confinement.
An Act removing barriers to lifting people out of poverty reforms multiple social services programs to provide more effective and equitable assistance to people and families with low incomes throughout Massachusetts. Notably, this bill encourages families to develop modest savings by removing the asset limits for the Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC) and Emergency Aid to the Elderly, Disabled and Children (EAEDC) cash assistance programs.
An act providing a guaranteed minimum income to all Massachusetts families creates a guaranteed minimum income (GMI) to ensure that everyone in Massachusetts can attain a basic standard of living. Creating a GMI program in Massachusetts will be accomplished by enhancing the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) so that it covers more households and delivers larger cash benefits. This bill ensures that every family earning up to $70,000 receives a minimum of $2,400 per year, and often much more.
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