THE SENATE PASSED a major climate bill on Thursday after approving an unusual order allowing the chamber to convene in a short-term formal session to deal with that bill and any others that emerge from committees resolving differences between the House and Senate during the rest of the legislative session.
The order gained bipartisan support because it allowed a short debate, a recorded vote, and swift passage of the legislation, which makes it easier to site and permit clean energy infrastructure, authorizes procurements of battery storage, and gives regulators the power to rein in spending on natural gas infrastructure.
The climate legislation was approved 38-2. All 36 Democrats voted yes. Two Republicans – Sens. Peter Durant of Spencer and Ryan Fattman of Sutton – voted no, while the chamber’s other two Republicans – Sens. Bruce Tarr of Gloucester and Patrick O’Connor of Weymouth – voted yes.
Only about 10 senators were at the State House for the vote. The rest appeared to vote remotely.
Under legislative rules, formal sessions end on July 31 and traditionally no major business is conducted after that date. But the session ended with the House and Senate unable to agree on many major pieces of legislation, including climate and economic development bills.
Gov. Maura Healey in July called on lawmakers to come back into formal session to pass the economic development bill, which requires a recorded vote because it authorizes bond funding. The House and Senate haven’t reached agreement on the economic development bill yet, but in the meantime the two chambers have been reaching agreements on many of the other unfinished bills and passing them during informal sessions when traditionally only non-controversial legislation is dealt with.
The climate bill is hardly non-controversial, so the Democrats who control Beacon Hill had to figure out a way to get it passed. One way to block a bill from passing in an informal session is to doubt the presence of a quorum, which requires more than half of the members to be present. Senate Democrats can establish a quorum fairly easily with their remote voting system, but it’s more difficult in the House where remote voting is not allowed.
Instead of going the quorum route on the climate bill, where the ultimate vote is not recorded, Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed to the new order, which allowed the chamber to go into formal session, approve the climate bill on a recorded vote, and send it to the House for its approval.
The House later Thursday tried to pass the climate bill in its informal session, but a member doubted the presence of a quorum and the vote was put off. It’s more difficult to establish a quorum in the House because remote votes are not allowed. The House passed legislation last year in an informal session by bringing back more than half of the House members and taking a standing, unrecorded vote. It may have to do that again on the climate bill.
Rep. Aaron Michlewitz of Boston, the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, indicated this week that he is open to tinkering with the legislative calendar to allow more year-round lawmaking. But he acknowledged that would mean changing the rules governing how the House and Senate meet, something the two branches have not succeeded in doing for years.
Others are wary of this session’s shift to year-round law-making. Sen. Tarr, who cosponsored the order the Senate approved on an unrecorded voice vote Thursday, said he felt very uncomfortable doing so. He said the rules governing when and how lawmakers can approve laws were developed to prevent abuses, but he thought it would be wrong if the Democratic majority pushed the bill through without a recorded vote.
Tarr, a Republican, said he saw the Senate’s new standing order for this session as a one-time event. “We should never let this practice be part of the everyday operations of this body,” he told his colleagues during a speech.
Sen. John Kennan, a Democrat from Quincy, supported the order for the same reason. He said it’s important that voters know how their representatives vote on issues.
“This is not the way we should do business,” he said of the new order. “This should not be the normal practice of this body.”
Republican Sen. Ryan Fattman of Sutton, who voted against the climate bill, said the whole process worries him. He said the massive climate bill was released on Monday and the Senate first tried to vote on it in an informal session on Wednesday. “No one has read it. No one understands it,” he said.
He also thought it inappropriate that the Senate attains a quorum virtually. “Now we’re playing games with our whole process,” he said, referring to the new order. “This should concern everybody – the public and the media.”
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