There were no roll call votes in the House or Senate last week. This week, Beacon Hill Roll Call reports local senators’ roll call attendance records for the 2025 session through Dec. 5.

The Senate has held 116 roll calls in the 2025 session. Beacon Hill Roll Call tabulates the number of roll calls on which each senator voted and then calculates that number as a percentage of the total roll call votes held. That percentage is the number referred to as the roll call attendance record.

Senate rules allow a senator, who is not physically present at the session in the Senate chamber, to vote remotely from any location inside or outside of the State House, without giving a reason for his or her absence from the Senate chamber.

Sometimes a senator is not able to attend only one or two sessions during which roll calls are held, but since there are sometimes multiple roll calls on each one of those days, the number of roll calls they missed can be high even though they only missed one or two sessions.

Thirty-four (87.2%) out of the 39 senators did not miss any roll call votes and had a 100% attendance record. Five (12.8%) out of 39 senators missed one or more roll call votes.

The senator who missed the most roll calls is Sen. Lydia Edwards, D-Boston, who missed 23 roll calls (80.1% roll call attendance record.) Edwards did not respond to repeated requests from Beacon Hill Roll Call asking her why she missed so many roll call votes.

There were only four other senators who missed one or more roll call votes, including Sen. John Velis, D-Westfield, who missed 20 roll calls (82.7% attendance record).

“As a major in the Massachusetts National Guard, Sen. Velis is currently on an active-duty deployment to the southern border,” responded Velis’ office. “Due to the senator’s deployment, he was not able to participate in roll call votes during two Senate formal sessions in November.”

Sen. Mike Barrett, D-Lexington, missed two roll calls (98.2% roll call attendance record) and Sen. Adam Gomez, D-Springfield, missed one roll call (99.1% roll call attendance record.) Neither one responded to repeated requests from Beacon Hill Roll Call asking them why they missed roll call votes.

It is a Senate tradition that the Senate president only votes occasionally. Current Senate President Karen Spilka follows that tradition and only voted on 30 (25.8%) of the 116 roll calls while not voting on 86 (74.2%) of them.

The percentage listed next to the senators’ name is the percentage of roll call votes on which the senator voted. The number in parentheses represents the number of roll calls that he or she missed.

  • Sen. Joanne Comerford — 100% (0)
  • Sen. Paul Mark — 100% (0)                        

Also up on Beacon Hill

Protect public transit workers from assault and battery (S 2697)

Gov. Maura Healey signed into law legislation that would expand the current law that punishes anyone who commits assault and battery against a public employee, including police officers, firefighters and emergency medical personnel. The bill ensures that all transit workers are covered, including those who are not directly employed by the state, such as workers employed by Keolis, the state’s contracted commuter rail operator. The bill would also add “assault and battery by means of a bodily substance including saliva, blood or urine” to the current law.

“Public transportation employees do important work every day to keep our trains and buses moving on time and ensure the safety of all passengers,” Healey said. “They should never be subject to any form of assault simply for doing their jobs. This bill ensures that they have the protections they deserve and will enhance safety for all users of our public transportation system.”

“All transit workers deserve to come to work feeling safe and protected,” said interim MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng. “Transit workers work 365 days a year to ensure that we have a robust transit system that is safe, supporting riders that depend on mass transportation and allowing everyone the option to choose transit. Know that our labor workforce is dedicated, is a part of the communities they serve and deserves a workplace grounded in respect and security.”

“This is a significant victory for everyone who rides or operates public transit,” said Jim Evers, president of the Boston Carmen’s Union Local 589. “Our MBTA bus and train operators deserve to be safe on the job and commuters deserve to know that public transportation is safe. This law will ensure that those who assault public transit workers will be held accountable and that our valued transportation employees are protected. Our transit workers keep Massachusetts moving every day and deserve our utmost respect.”

Ban hostile architecture that targets the homeless (H 3307)

The House gave initial approval to legislation that would prohibit the state, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), and cities and towns from constructing “hostile architecture” that supporters of the ban say targets the homeless and tries to push them out of certain areas. The bill defines hostile architecture as “any building or structure that is designed or intended to prevent unhoused individuals from sitting or lying on the building or structure at street level.”

“Public space should be for people to use and enjoy, and constructing public spaces that are hostile to people experiencing homelessness doesn’t actually address the causes of homelessness,” said sponsor Rep. Mike Connolly, D-Cambridge. “Instead of pushing homelessness further into the shadows, we need a comprehensive solution to homelessness that includes a right to housing.”

Supporters say that family homelessness in Greater Boston has doubled over the last decade, shelters are overcrowded and waiting lists for affordable housing are in the tens of thousands. They note that policies that sterilize the homelessness crisis in public spaces are not only inhumane, but they also only serve to mask the problem.

According to Robert Rosenberger, an associate professor of philosophy at Georgia Institute of Technology, who has studied and written extensively on the subject, hostile architecture includes armrests that divide benches so that the bench is not long enough to sleep on, sprinklers that are turned on at night and certain trash cans.

“Garbage cans … serve several functions for people living unhoused,” Rosenberger said. “Some people use garbage cans as a source of recyclable materials, [which] can often be exchanged for a small sum of money. Garbage cans are also sometimes approached as a source of discarded food.” He noted that many newer garbage cans are built so that people cannot reach inside them to obtain recycled bottles or cans or leftover food.

Statute of limitations for victims of asbestos-related diseases (H 4676)

The House gave initial approval to a measure that would exempt situations when a person contracts a latent disease from asbestos-related or other toxic material exposure arising from property improvements, from the current statute of limitations, which limits the time period during which the person can file a lawsuit.

Under current law, actions are subject to a three-year limitation and a six-year statute of repose. That means that tort actions arising from improvements to real property must be brought within three years from when the cause of actions accrues, but, in any event, not more than six years after the improvement has been completed. 

“This bill will move us in line with a majority of states that have protection in place for such victims of latent diseases,” said sponsor Rep. Jeff Roy, D-Franklin. “It will remove the statute of repose on tort claims arising from latent diseases, while also applying retroactively to allow any person who has been affected prior to enactment to bring an action to recover damages. The state’s Supreme Judicial Court has encouraged us to do so by stating the following in its opinion: ‘The plaintiffs point out that a number of other state legislatures have effectively exempted asbestos-related illnesses from their respective statutes of repose concerning improvements to real property. We encourage our Legislature to consider doing the same should it determine that such an exception is consonant with the commonwealth’s public policy.’”

Give veterans extra points on teacher licensing exams (H 570)

The Education Committee held a hearing on a proposal that would give veterans an extra five points on the education licensing exam that must be taken by anyone applying for a teacher’s license.

“[The bill] recognizes the leadership, discipline and real-world experience veterans bring to our classrooms and helps remove barriers as they transition into civilian careers, all while strengthening our pipeline of qualified teachers,” said sponsor Rep. Michael Finn, D- West Springfield.

Provide funds to teachers who buy supplies online (H 675/S 448)

Another bill heard by the Education Committee would create a School Supplies for Teachers Program to provide financial and technical assistance to eligible teachers who buy school supplies online, for their students or themselves, and pay out of their own pocket.

Supplyateacher.org, a national nonprofit that provides teachers with a semester’s worth of essential school supplies, says that 93% of teachers nationwide spend their own money on classroom supplies. According to its website, the group gives each teacher two large boxes filled with enough core school supplies to last for at least one semester. They note that pencils, pencil pouches, folders, notebooks, sharpeners, erasers, rulers and pens are included in every box and that additional items are included based on grade level, such as crayons and markers for younger grades, and highlighters and colored pencils for older students.

Supporters of the bill say it is outrageous that teachers, many of whom are underpaid, are forced to buy supplies that the schools should be supplying.

Sen. Mike Rush, D-West Roxbury, the Senate sponsor of the bill and House sponsor Rep. Ed Philips, D-Sharon, did not respond to repeated requests by Beacon Hill Roll Call asking them why they sponsored the bill.

Establish minimum pay for substitute teachers (H 580)

The Education Committee’s hearing also included legislation that would require public schools to pay substitute teachers 85% of what schools pay a beginning teacher who holds a bachelor’s degree, or the state’s current $15 per hour minimum wage, whichever is greater.

The salary of the substitute teacher would be calculated by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, using the latest data available. The bill would not apply to substitute teachers who are represented in a bargaining unit in the school district that employs them.

Supporters say that schools need quality substitute teachers to operate. They argue that substitute teachers are underpaid despite serving an important purpose in elementary and secondary school across the state. The sponsor of the measure is Rep. Bill Galvin, D-Canton, who was first elected to the House in 1990 and is now serving his 36th year in the House. He did not respond to repeated requests from Beacon Hill Roll Call asking him why he filed the bill and why he wants the Legislature to approve it.