Welcome to the NASW-Massachusetts Action Center!
TAKE ACTION NOW ON OUR PRIORITY BILLS! CLICK HERE
The Action Center is a great place to learn about the various ways to lobby (influencing a legislator or public opinion on an issue) or otherwise get involved on various campaigns and legislative action!
Don't want to miss an opportunity to be involved? Join our Legislative Alert Network (LANs) to receive advocacy-related e-updates.
As you can see from the pyramid the foundation starts with Voting. Are you registered to vote? Do you participate in local, state, and federal elections? Does your agency have voting as part of the intake process? Vote-Er has a terrific badge and toolkit you can use to incorporate voting in your agency. Check it out here.
Voting is a crucial action and way to be heard; click below to say "This Social Worker Votes!"
The Process a Bill Goes Through to Become a Law:
Where do bills come from?
1. "That ought to be law": Social Workers, Advocates or Legislators witness or learn about a problem that needs to be addressed.
2. Finding a Legislative Champion: A legislator will draft a bill to change current law or introduces new law to change the problem, this is often done on the behalf of a constituency or organization, but can also be a personal interest of the legislator. They are the "sponsor" of the bill.
Note: There can be two versions of this bill; in the House and Senate; or one or the other, it depends on our strategy for that legislative session.
3. Advocacy: Using grassroots lobbying (e-mailing, calling and lobby days) coalitions can make sure their bill rises above the noise. Meanwhile, your legislative champion(s) can use their political clout to influence their colleagues to co-sponsor the bill, helping it pass quickly through several committees.
"I'm Bill"
- The sponsoring legislator files the bill with the House or Senate Clerk’s office (or both if there are two versions).
- It is then assigned to a committee and given a bill number, which is how the bill can be tracked.
- Every bill must then have a public hearing held by the committee to which it is assigned. (For example, a bill that would provide increased access to mental health care will likely have a hearing before the Mental Health & Substance Use Committee.) All members of the public are invited to give written or oral testimony in favor of or against the bill.
Activist Opportunity: You can give oral testimony or submit written testimony. Interested in doing this with staff support? Click here.
Favorable or Unfavorable, that is the question...
- After a bill is heard in committee the chairperson of the committee decides to report it out of committee one of three ways:
- Favorably: Great! They agree this bill should continue on its long path to becoming a bill. From here, it typically goes to another committee, especially if the proposed law will need funding(an appropriation).
- Unfavorably: It will go to the floor of that branch for concurrence and if there is no objection it will die on the floor.
- Study Order: This means the committee would like to continue to review the legislation and does not plan on reporting it out favorably- typically means the bill is dead for the session.
- Activist Opportunity: You can lobby members of the committee to report the bill out favorably or unfavorably. Interested in doing this with staff support? Click here.
Readings...and More Readings
- Once a bill is reported favorably by the committee it is given its first reading, which could lead to a referral to another committee.
- Favorable reporting of the next committee then sends the bill to the Floor of the Senate or House Chamber for its second reading. It is subject to debate, amendment, or objections at this time. When a bill “goes to the Floor” it is considered by all representatives or senators, not just the committee.
- Should legislators vote favorably after this debate, it is sent to the Committee on Third Readings. This committee checks for constitutionality, legality, duplication, or contradiction to existing law.
- If it passes muster in Third Readings, the bill goes back to the Floor, and is again subject to debate, amendment, or objection. Legislators must vote favorable or unfavorable at this time, for it to be engrossed – which means passed and sent to the other branch for consideration.
- The second branch has equal opportunity to debate, amend, or object to the bill.
Activist Opportunity: You can lobby committee members to vote in favor of the legislation on the floor of the House or the Senate.
Ironing Out Differences
- If there are differences in the bill from one branch to the other after engrossment, a Conference Committee is set up to agree to a compromise. Then the bill goes back to its original branch for approval, then to the other branch. After it is enacted in each branch, the bill finally goes to the Governor’s desk. Out of approximately 6000 bills filed each two-year legislative session, only 250 or so actually make it to the Governor’s desk.
Activist Opportunity: If your bill makes it to the Governor’s desk, you can lobby or write to the governor’s staff to support or oppose it. Once the governor makes a decision to sign, the bill becomes law after 90 days. If the governor vetoes the bill, it goes back to the legislature, which can choose to override the veto with a 2/3 majority in each branch.
ACTION OPPORTUNITIES:
Currently, we need your help in getting cosponsors for our 2023-2024 legislative agenda. Visit our Action Center here. We especially need your help with our first-time file, the SUPER Act. Can you send them a personalized email using this template? If you don't have the time, you can send a quick prewritten template!
There are many different ways one can be engaged in Political Advocacy. Examples include contacting your legislator by e-mail, phone or meeting in person, writing a letter to the editor or op-ed in local media as well as testifying on a bill (scroll down for more information on hearings).