AUGUST 1, 2026

Dear Cambridge and Somerville Constituents —

Last night, circa 11:30 pm, the House gaveled out of its regular, formal legislative session.

Some key highlights of the 2025-26 term, so far, include:

• Final passage of the PROTECT Act (which includes the key elements of the original Safe Communities Act) to better protect undocumented immigrants and defend everyone's constitutional rights
• An expansion of abortion rights via the repeal of the gestational abortion ban
• Establishment of an immigrant legal defense fund in the FY26 state budget, and an increase to the fund in this year's FY27 state budget
• Establishment of the gender Affirming Health Care Trust Fund in the state budget
• Protections for reproductive and gender-affirming care workers and patients via last year’s Shield Act 2.0
• Final passage of the Freedom to Read Act earlier this week
• Final passage of a Home Care bill this week, establishing the Commonwealth's first comprehensive statewide regulatory framework for the largely unregulated private home care industry.

Meanwhile, we continued to pour Fair Share millionaires tax funding into the MBTA and public education. Slow zones on the subways have been eliminated, and despite federal funding cuts, the state has continued funding universal free school meals.

Thanks to new joint rules that were adopted at the start of this term — all committee votes, committee testimony, and bill summaries are now made public (finally!), and the old July 31 cutoff for formal sessions was scrapped.

This means we are expected to return to formal sessions again in the fall to consider the remaining conference reports. "Conference reports" are what we call final legislation that reconciles House-passed and Senate-passed versions of a bill. Some major conference reports that remain pending include:

• Data privacy. The House passed an excellent bill, and the Senate passed a really good bill as well. The ACLU of Massachusetts celebrated our bill for its ban on the sale of precise location data and several other consumer-friendly privacy provisions.
• Energy/Utilities. I love how the Senate voted to phase out the Gas System Enhancement Program (GSEP), which Eversource has been using to pad their profits — rather than cutting Mass Save like the House did. This is why I voted No on the House bill.
• Economic development, which features a set of housing reforms like duplexes by-right statewide, the YIGBY bill (allowing by-right multifamily housing on land owned by religious institutions), streamlined site plan review, and the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), all of which have already cleared the House and/or Senate so far this term.

Now, for the next 31 days — legislators' attention shifts to the September 1 primary elections. Vote by mail registration is now open through August 25, in-person Early Voting begins on August 22, and the voter registration deadline is also August 22. 

Meanwhile, our district-related advocacy and constituent services work continues. A major upgrade to Draw Seven Park is set to open this fall in the Assembly Row section of the 26th Middlesex. This will include a spectacular new park with a resilient, living shoreline. Right now, Eversource is performing electrical work and the contractors have a few remaining punch list items at the park.

On Thursday, August 6, at 6:30 pm, MassDOT will host a public meeting at the Morse School to present concepts and gather feedback on the state’s $50 million commitment to redesign the Reid Overpass by Brookline Street and Memorial Drive. Earlier this week, I participated in a working session with transportation advocates, local bike safety leaders, and Cambridgeport residents to review the latest design concepts, and the next day, I also participated in a legislative briefing with the project team.

To be sure, all of the above is just a small sample of everything I'm working on — follow my social media (@MikeConnollyMA across platforms) for daily updates, and don't hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns on these items or any matter of interest to you.

As always, thank you for being an informed and engaged constituent.

Yours in service,

Mike