Below is an official Senate press release and fact sheet about legislation introduced today to provide public access to key records and documents in the legislature and governor’s office. I look forward to supporting this important transparency measure next week.
Bill Would Require Governor, Senate, and House of Representatives to Make Records Available to the Public, with an Independent Appeals Process
(BOSTON—7/23/2026) In an effort to further expand Massachusetts’ residents’ access to how decisions are made in the Executive and Legislative branches, the Massachusetts Senate released legislation today that requires the Governor, Senate, and House of Representatives to be subject to greater transparency and make expansive documents and records available to any person who requests them.
The bill—S.3200, An Act promoting transparency and public access in state government—provides access to key legislative records, such as voting records, salary information, ethics disclosures, operating expenditures, and certain contracts.
“This legislation is a critical step forward in the Senate’s continuing practice of making the Legislature’s work more open and accessible to the people we serve,” said Senate President Karen E. Spilka (D-Ashland). “By writing the Legislature and the Governor into the public records law, we are affirming that the people of Massachusetts have a right to clearly see our work and how their tax dollars are spent. This builds on the success of this session’s rules reforms, which were important steps in opening up our work to public view while inviting more voices into the process. I’m proud of the work the Senate has done to get us here and I looking forward to debating this bill next week.”
“These important public records reforms would expand the public’s direct access to government records, strengthen transparency, and improve our ability to hold our government accountable,” said Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. “We strongly support the Senate’s thoughtful bill and appreciate the Legislature taking necessary steps to improve transparency within a framework that is legally defensible. This historic expansion of our public records law builds on proposals that we and fellow advocates have long promoted, and we look forward to seeing it enacted into law.”
“For too long, Massachusetts has remained one of the only states in the country where the press and the public cannot access records of the Legislature and Governor,” said Robert Ambrogi, executive director of the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association. “This long-overdue bill would finally change that. We commend the Senate for taking this long-overdue step, and we urge its swift passage.”
“Transparency in government is a cornerstone of a strong democracy, and to achieve it requires good policy that empowers people and that can sustain constitutional challenges,” said Geoff Foster, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts. “That’s why we’re thrilled to support legislation that is being advanced by the Senate that would take the historic step of finally subjecting both the Governor’s office and the Legislature to a public records law which has been a top legislative priority for Common Cause Massachusetts and our members for decades.”
Modeling its approach to legislative records access after Pennsylvania’s ‘Right-to-Know Law,’ the bill outlines the process for members of the public to request legislative records, including an appeal process before the Judicial Branch—independent of the Legislature or Executive—for denied requests.
The legislation also boosts the transparency of the Executive Branch and opens access to records created by the Governor’s Office.
Like the process for requesting legislative records, any person could submit a records request to the Governor’s Office, which would have 10 days to produce responsive documents.
Requestors would be able to appeal a denied request from the Governor’s Office to a division of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, and then to the Superior Court.
All public access provisions would take effect at the start of the new term in January 2027.
The Senate plans to take up the transparency legislation at a formal session on July 30, 2026.
The bill was reported to the full Senate today by the Committee on Ways and Means. A previous version was passed by the House of Representatives.
Full details of the legislation are available in fact sheets in the Senate press room.
All votes taken at the committee and chamber levels are processed by the Clerk and publicly posted on the Legislature’s website.
Fact Sheet & Highlights: An Act Promoting Transparency and Public Access in State Government – S.3200
An Act promoting transparency and public access in state government promotes freedom of information in the Executive and Legislative branches of government by providing new, greater levels of access to public records that are created by the Governor’s Office, the Senate, and the House of Representatives.
The transparency measures would take effect at the start of the new term in January 2027.
The details of the legislation are below.
Creating Greater Public Access to Legislative Records
Guarantees Open Legislative Records. Allows members of the public to access legislative records, including voting records; committee testimony; financial records including legislator and staff salaries, operating expenditures, and vendor expenditures; independent, third-party audits conducted pursuant to the Senate or House rules; ethics disclosures; certain contracts; employee handbooks; the Orders of the Day; and Senate and House Journals. Appropriates $250,000 each for Senate, House, and Joint accounts to cover costs related to compliance, including technology, records management systems, and personnel.
Creates Process for Requests and Independent Court Review. Establishes a process that allows individuals to request records from either the Senate or House of Representatives via designated records access officers (RAOs), who act as the origination point for all requests. RAOs would be responsible for obtaining and disseminating the requested records from their respective branch to the requestor within 10 days. In cases in which a request is denied, the requestor would be allowed to appeal the decision to the Superior Court, which would rule on whether the RAO’s decision was in error.
Creating Public Records Access for the Governor’s Office
Opens Gubernatorial Records to the Public. Opens up access to public records created by the Governor’s Office, effective January 2027. Like the process for requesting legislative records, any person could submit a records request to the Governor’s Office, which would have 10 days to produce responsive documents. Requestors would be able to appeal the RAO’s decision to a division of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, and then to the Superior Court. Allows standard exemptions for documents that are part of policy development. Appropriates $250,000 to cover costs related to compliance, including technology, records management systems, and personnel.
Excellent!
I would like it extended to the Speaker’s office and Senate President’s office if it is not already implicit.
Still not the audit of the Beacon Hill regime we the people overwhelmingly voted for. It’s odd how the Marxists the DNC pander to and whose tail they lost a grip on want ranked choice voting, to abolish the Electoral College and pack the court yet speciously claim they want to “preserve the prerogative of the Senate” when the stakes are so high. This is the peoples’ audit, the prerogative of a co-equal branch of government isn’t to the escape accountability that landed numerous members of the body behind bars.
The Democrats have real talent, certainly Will included, but en masse the Party has pushed “pulling together” itself over the cliff of nihilism.
“So the next generation can learn how to fight Trump.” That’s the best you got? There are bad apples in both Parties, but at least the Republicans en masse are continuing to pull in a post enlightenment direction.
We need good Democrats to stand FOR something (other than soulless Marxist nihilism of course.”
Not nearly good enough. Sounds like the Trump administration… call it one thing but the fine print shows something different. For example, making voting records transparent sounds good if you don’t take longer than 30 seconds to think about it. But if a proposed bill never reaches a vote, there’s no transparency over what killed it (probably a special interest lobby or big corporation).
“By writing the Legislature and the Governor into the public records law, we are affirming that the people of Massachusetts have a right to clearly see our work and how their tax dollars are spent,” Senate President Karen Spilka said.
But in practice, the proposal would allow the public to access only those documents and information that are explicitly named in each bill. The Legislature already makes much of the information cited in both bills available to the public, in part through changes to its internal rules earlier this session.
Massachusetts is the only state in the country where the governor’s office, Legislature, and judiciary all claim to be completely exempt from the state’s public records law requirements.
They still don’t get it. Every single thing they do is funded by my tax dollars, and I pay higher-than-average taxes to this state. I have a right to know what they are doing.
Wow, you’re really doing everything you can to avoid the overwhelming taxpayer-approved audit. I hope everyone reading this votes for Daniel Lander in the primary on September 1st!
Hear! Hear! I hope Democrats do vote for Daniel Lander. If I had not left the Democratic Party after 30 years of voting faithfully for Democrats I would be voting for him.
Sadly, in spite of their being good and honorable individuals in the Democratic Party, their efforts only subservient to the nihilistic path of destruction the Party is irretrievably careening down.