LEGISLATURE

The $3.1 billion supplemental budget Gov. Maura Healey signed late Monday includes a series of reporting requirements that were attached to a $250 million infusion of shelter funds that is only expected to cover shelter costs through the winter and into the spring.

With a quorum present, the Massachusetts House, in a rare hand-counted 105-14 vote, sent to the Senate a $3.1 billion fiscal 2023 closeout budget.

Mass. lawmakers were unable to muster a quorum for the third straight day. Efforts to advance a $3.1 billion supplemental budget bill will begin again Monday.

With most lawmakers headed home for the holiday break, members of the conference committee continue to try to work out differences between spending bills approved by the Massachusetts House and Senate. The bills hold funds for the state's emergency shelters.

Massachusetts House and Senate Democrats failed to negotiate a compromise before their holiday break that would send hundreds of millions of dollars to the state's emergency shelters. The spending bill was presented to the Legislature in September.

It's been 25 years since Rhonda Anderson, a Iñupiaq - Athabascan Native American, began advocating to remove Ingenuous people as mascots from Massachusetts public schools.

The legislation would implement several changes a nursing facility task force recommended in January 2020, such as empowering the Massachusetts Department of Public Health with more regulatory authority.

Amilcar Hernandez said Puerto Ricans have long been treated as second-class citizens of a U.S. commonwealth without voting members of Congress.

The bills are seeking to ban the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits in Massachusetts pet shops. The proposals went before a legislative panel on Beacon Hill Wednesday.

Following a Superior Court upholding the Healey Administration's plan to stop expanding shelter availability amid surging demand, once the number of families in shelter reaches 7,500, Massachusetts won't guarantee placement to additional applicants.