lawmakers

House lawmakers may have been exposed to someone testing positive for COVID-19 while they sheltered at an undisclosed location during the Capitol siege on Wednesday.

After 16 hours, Massachusetts lawmakers just wrapped up a marathon session around 4:45 a.m.

In a marathon session overnight, Massachusetts lawmakers passed a number of bills.

Massachusetts lawmakers passed a number of bills overnight in a marathon session.

A transportation bill and changes to college sexual violence laws were among the things highlighted by lawmakers overnight.

Massachusetts lawmakers are in store for another pay raise. Two years after Gov. Charlie Baker certified a raise of 5.93 percent for the 200 members of the House and Senate for the 2019-2020 session, the governor in a letter to Treasurer Deb Goldberg on Wednesday advised her that a 6.46 percent increase is warranted in the base pay of legislators…

Maine House Democrats have selected a lawmaker to succeed House Speaker Sara Gideon who would be the youngest House speaker in the country serving currently and the first openly gay man to serve in the leadership position in Maine. Rep. Ryan Fecteau of Biddeford was nominated by fellow Democrats to serve as speaker. Since Democrats control the House, it’s...

New England’s mostly Democratic legislative delegation reacted with joy on social media on Saturday as Joe Biden was projected as the winner of the presidential election by NBC News and other national news outlets. “Thank God,” said outgoing U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III of Massachusetts. “A big congratulations to President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris,” said U.S....

Legislative leaders say they’re getting closer to reconvening state lawmakers following a pause during the coronavirus pandemic — but the special session still be a month or more away. State lawmakers have remained largely on the sidelines for the past three months after they adjourned and gave Democratic Gov. Janet Mills broad emergency powers to address the pandemic. Neither Senate…

Rep. Anastasia Williams said last week on the House floor that she was called a “house slave” by a lawmaker who she respected, comparing the term to being called a distinctive racial slur. Williams did not name the lawmaker at the time, but Rep. Marcia Ranglin-Vassell eventually identified herself in a Facebook post to deny that she used the word…

Rhode Island lawmakers are considering a bill to undo a change to how medical marijuana dispensaries are regulated, to address a lawsuit by the governor. The House Judiciary Committee is meeting Tuesday to hear testimony on the legislation. A provision in the state budget approved last year gave lawmakers the right to veto regulations imposed on the industry. Democratic Gov….

Local lawmakers in Massachusetts are speaking out on the tension between the U.S. and Iran.

Massachusetts lawmakers approved a spending plan Thursday for more than $1 billion in surplus tax revenue from the last fiscal year. House and Senate lawmakers sent the budget to Republican Gov. Charlie Baker’s desk in the early morning. Lawmakers approved $541 million in spending. The remaining money was deposited in the state’s rainy day fund, bringing that fund’s total...

A proposed constitutional amendment calling for an additional 4% tax on the state’s highest earners is being debated by a joint session of the state Legislature. Supporters of the so-called “millionaire tax” say the surtax would generate as much as $2 billion in annual revenue, with the money earmarked for education and transportation.

Lawmakers in several states want to make sure women needing surgery have a chance to say no to a medical student examining them while they’re under anesthesia.

At the New Hampshire State House in Concord, they are discussing 90 different bills over 3 days. Some of them are already on their way to the Senate. New Hampshire restaurants wouldn’t be able to provide customers with single-use plastic straws, unless a customer requests it. In addition, certain public accommodations built in the future would have to include changing...

Massachusetts lawmakers are pushing legislation to ban so-called “gay conversion therapy” for minors. The legislature’s Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities moved two bills Wednesday that would make Massachusetts the 16th state to outlaw the practice — which aims to alter a person’s sexual orientation.

Vermont has a proud history of being the first state to abolish adult slavery in 1777. Now lawmakers want to make sure that any reference to slavery is removed from the state constitution. Colorado voters last year approved a similar constitutional amendment, and Utah lawmakers are taking up a comparable measure this year.

Members of the Massachusetts Legislature have been sworn-in to a new two-year term on Beacon Hill. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker first administered the oath to 40 senators in the ornate Senate chamber that reopened Wednesday for the first time in more than 18 months after undergoing a $20 million renovation.

New Hampshire lawmakers have re-elected their veteran secretary of state and guardian of the first-in-the-nation presidential primary in a close vote. Legislators voted Wednesday to keep Bill Gardner, the nation’s longest-serving secretary of state. He’s held the job for 42 years. Legislators voted twice; neither candidate won a majority the first time. The final vote was 209-205.