The Senate President’s office has published a comprehensive review of bills passed by the Senate in the current legislative session, in four key areas: affordability, housing, transparency, and the Response 2025 initiative that counters federal actions under the second Trump Administration that threaten civil liberties, critical programs and institutions in Massachusetts.
What follows below is the verbatim text of the summaries for each section from the review. Each summary is followed by a link to a PDF for legislation details. You can also download a PDF of the entire report.
The review includes all bills passed by the Senate, whether or not also passed by the House and approved by the Governor. The PDF’s linked show the current disposition of each bill. Some of the bills are still are under active negotiation.
2025–2026 SESSION IN REVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
1. Affordability
The Massachusetts State Senate prioritized several practical initiatives this session as part of our Affordability Agenda to make life more affordable for residents.
Consumer Savings
We focused on ways to help residents save money and avoid costly pitfalls. We make live music more affordable by capping ticket resale prices. Consumers get added protection through new debt collection reforms, and we protect residents from scams by banning cryptocurrency ATMs. We also give shoppers a break through our annual sales tax holiday.
Education
We make higher education more affordable by fully funding tuition-free community college and creating a new student support fund to help with financial aid and stipends, ensuring more students can earn degrees without financial barriers. We have also guaranteed free breakfast and lunch for all K–12 students, allowing caregivers to keep more money in their pockets.
Energy
We are tackling high energy costs with a major legislative package designed to eliminate hidden fees, curb price spikes, and boost transparency — promising billions in long?term savings for households, while maintaining our commitment to our climate goals.
HealthCare
Our Primary Care and You bill cuts costs by shifting our healthcare system toward prevention. Investing in primary care providers means they can stay open and hire more staff, thereby reducing wait times, reducing ER visits and expensive specialty procedures. We also expand ConnectorCare, which helps residents access more affordable insurance with lower premiums, no deductibles, and reduced co-pays.
Housing
We expand options for affordable homeownership, provide several ways to tackle property tax relief, and ensure broker fees are not paid by renters. We also streamline the conversion of commercial space into residential units and allow two-family homes on any residential lot—helping more people find homes that fit their budgets.
Public Transportation
We are making public transportation more affordable and accessible. Residents with lower incomes now have expanded access to lower-cost options on the MBTA, and we made fare-free regional transit permanent, allowing all riders to use Regional Transit Authorities at no cost.
2. Housing
Building More Housing
We prioritized policies that make it faster, more predictable, and more financially feasible to build new housing. Major permitting reforms stabilize zoning rules from the moment a building permit application is filed through the completion of construction, preventing projects from being derailed by midstream regulatory changes. We also strengthened environmental permitting efficiency, expediting wetlands reviews while maintaining strong safeguards.
Our Economic Development Bond Bill expands housing production tools even more, requiring automatic two-family zoning and enabling easier commercial-to-residential conversions, among other things.
Finally, cutting the sales tax on certain building materials lowers construction costs in the face of tariffs, helping more projects move forward. Over time, that means more apartments and homes being built.
Keeping Housing Affordable
We also worked to create far more housing that people can actually afford. A package of tax-relief tools gives cities and towns the ability to reduce property tax costs and put savings directly into residents’ pockets.
By doubling and tripling key housing funds, the state can build more affordable homes and renovate older ones, increasing the number of places where residents can live without being priced out. By investing billions to modernize and upgrade public housing, the Senate is making sure that tens of thousands of older residents, families, and people with disabilities can continue living in safe, healthy homes.
Fighting for Renters
We advanced several measures that support renters and strengthen the multifamily housing market. We created construction sales tax relief for multifamily developments serving low-, moderate-, and middle-income residents—lowering costs for projects that produce rental homes.
We also got rid of unfair broker fees, saving thousands of dollars for renters hoping to find that new apartment.
3. Transparency
The Massachusetts Senate has undertaken a wide-ranging set of reforms aimed at strengthening transparency, accountability, and efficiency across state government, reflecting a commitment to ensuring residents have clearer insight into public decision-making and fiscal stewardship.
Expanding Public Records Access
Under our bill, the Senate, House and Governor would be explicitly required to comply with public records requests for the first time. We mandate disclosure of legislative records including voting histories, salary information, ethics filings, operating expenditures, and specific categories of contracts. We also create an independent appeals process to help members of the public resolve disputes over access.
Strengthening Transparency Through Updated Senate Rules
In our Senate rules, we require the publication of all committee votes taken by Senators in joint and Senate-only committees. We also mandate that written and in-person testimony submitted to committees be made publicly available online; direct committees to publish plain-language bill summaries online; and require cybersecurity training for all Senators and staff in addition to ethics, harassment, and implicit bias training mandates.
Reforming Joint Rules for Efficiency and Accessibility
The Legislature adopted comprehensive joint rules this session that modernize and streamline lawmaking. We require committees to post plain language bill summaries online, provide earlier public notice of hearings, and publish committee attendance and voting records. These reforms empower committees to take independent action on bills originating from their respective chambers while allowing formal lawmaking to continue throughout the full two-year session—providing greater flexibility and more time for thoughtful policymaking.
Balancing Constitutional Safeguards with Legislative Accountability
In response to a Supreme Judicial Court order, we adopted a resolution to provide documents related to our financial operations in four requested areas to the Office of the State Auditor. We also created a new public web page to provide real-time financial data to the public.
Promoting Long-Term Stability and Fiscal Oversight
We continued to make significant fiscal decisions aimed at improving long-term efficiency and stability. The final Fiscal Year 2027 budget dedicates an additional $51 million to the Commonwealth’s Stabilization Fund, raising its balance to a historic $8.2 billion. We also took steps to strengthen fiscal oversight of some aspects of state government to ensure responsible stewardship of public resources while enhancing transparency. And we did it all without raising taxes or fees.
4. Response 2025
In response to federal actions under the second Trump Administration that threaten critical programs and institutions in Massachusetts, we launched our Response 2025 initiative this session, a coordinated effort to protect our residents, defend our values, and lead Massachusetts through a difficult time.
The Senate Committee on Steering and Policy led this effort, working closely with Senate committee chairs and policy experts. Response 2025 focused on four key goals:
- Assessing federal actions to determine their real-world impact on Massachusetts.
- Identifying policy solutions to mitigate potential harm and safeguard residents.
- Prioritizing state responses based on need, feasibility, and effectiveness.
- Providing clarity to the public by cutting through misinformation and helping residents understand the states role in protecting their rights and services.
This effort has produced important results, including:
Passing nation-leading protections for immigrants, banning local law enforcement from civil immigration arrests and adding paths to hold federal officers accountable for violating rights.
Continuing our commitment to reproductive freedom, protecting health care providers and patients, and preserving rights for transgender citizens through the Shield 2.0 Act.
Passing one of the nation’s strongest data privacy bills, giving consumers more control over their data, focused on protecting kids.
Defending our free press by protecting journalists and their constitutional right to report facts and hold institutions accountable.
Fighting back against politically motivated book bans while protecting librarians and educators from personal attacks.
The Commonwealth should begin the process of applying to the FDA so that the public can import cheaper Canadian medications legally as Colorado has just, in June, received permission from the FDA. Their existing pharmacies will distribute the meds not a government bureaucracy. It took over 6 years to get permission from the FDA. Why not MA?!
Affordability? ‘Build More Housing’?- who will build it, the state? and of course the most hilarious part of this – TRANSPARENCY!
Let’s start with the audit we voted into law……………….oh, sorry, we’re in a Blue State…….
Will, this post is framed as “Senate accomplishments”. In the PDF report it’s clear that some of these bills became law and some did not. I know there’s maybe not much you can do about the House and the Governor, but is it really an “accomplishment” to pass a bill only for it to die on the vine? Seems like it would be more of an accomplishment to pass a somewhat weaker bill that actually becomes law, than to pass a stronger bill that doesn’t. With a bill passed by the Senate but not the House, plus $5, you can get a breakfast sandwich at Dunkin’.
Totally fair distinction. I’ve revised the introduction to emphasize the distinction: We have some bills that have become law and others where the senate floor process is complete, but the final version is in conference negotiation with the House. I do believe that most of the major bills will be law by the end of the session.
“Affordability,” read: transfer of wealth.