Senator Eldridge Announces Bills Filed for 194th Legislative Session

Among the Senator’s priorities are bills addressing criminal justice reform, clean energy, and affordable housing.

BOSTON – State Senator Jamie Eldridge (D-Marlborough) announced today that the official website had been updated with the latest bill information. The website hosts more than 50 fact sheets for bills in various categories. 

Senator Eldridge filed 57 bills for the 194th legislative session, prioritizing 13 major categories, with a strong focus on criminal justice reform, clean energy and climate change, gun safety, environmental protection, government transparency, helping low-income residents, protecting immigrants, and expanding civil rights.

SenatorEldridge.com serves as a one-stop resource for legislators, advocates, and the general public to access bill information and services Senator’s office offers. The website features biographies of Senator Eldridge, staff, and interns. Constituents can also use the website to submit concerns, log legislative stances, request meetings, or speaking engagements. The website also houses all of the Senator's media projects, including a photo gallery, his press releases, Half hour on the Hill TV series, and Op-Eds. 

Highlights for this legislative session include:

Civil Rights

S.1681 - An Act to protect the civil rights and safety of all Massachusetts residents (Safe Communities Act). Limits the participation of our police, courts and correctional personnel in civil immigration enforcement, so that immigrant state residents can seek help and protection from our police and courts without fear of immigration consequences.

Consumer Protection

S.735 -  An Act relative to fairness in debt collection. Updates several long out-of-date consumer protections ensuring that people aren’t pushed over a financial precipice when they are sued for debts that are often old, and have been bought for pennies on the dollar by those currently trying to collect them.

Criminal Justice Reform   

S.1087 - An Act to End Lifetime Parole for Juveniles and Emerging Adults. Even though it is unconstitutional to sentence a juvenile to life in prison without parole, after at least 15 years of incarceration, they are put on parole for life. This bill aims to terminate parole for these individuals after 3 years, provided they do not violate the law during their parole. 

S.1086 - An Act relative to judicial oversight. Solitary confinement is torture. This bill ensures that prisons and jails only use solitary confinement in the rarest of circumstances. It requires a court to approve a jail or prison placing a prisoner in solitary confinement for more than 72 hours.

Environment/Climate

S.586 - An Act relative to maintaining adequate water supplies through effective drought management. Would codify the Drought Management Task Force, allow the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) to establish outdoor watering restrictions during droughts and give municipalities the power to enforce these restrictions.

S.585 - An Act protecting drinking water quality in private wells. Requires the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to create a state private wells code to make standards for private wells used for human consumption. It also requires a seller to test a well for contaminants before selling their property.

S.2269 - An Act Facilitating Distributed Energy Resources in the Commonwealth. As Massachusetts continues to make progress on its climate commitments, we need to prioritize access to distributed energy resources (DERs) to ensure that the Commonwealth’s grid can flexibly, reliably, and affordably meet the demands of the clean energy transition. 

S.2270 - An Act maximizing and optimizing small-scale assets in communities (MOSAIC Act) sets Massachusetts on the path toward the distributed clean energy future we need. The MOSAIC Act directs Massachusetts to draw 20% of our generation from small-scale distributed resources by 2035, and maximizes DERs benefits to the grid by integrating virtual power plants (VPPs) as a central force in reducing peak demand and realigning utility incentives to foster greater adoption of distributed resources.

S.2269 - An Act facilitating distributed energy resources in the commonwealth (Facilitating DERs Act) proposes the common sense fixes that get us there feasibly and efficiently. The bill includes directives to streamline permitting and interconnection processes for small solar projects, facilitate residential solar and storage for low-income and retired Bay Staters, and allow greater establishment of microgrids.

Housing 

S.984 - An Act to regulate junk fees in rental housing. This bill would limit the upfront cost of moving into a new unit by limiting what a landlord can charge a new tenant to first month's rent and then last month's rent OR a security deposit. Furthermore, it would close a loophole in current law that allows real estate brokers to charge fees that landlords are not able to like application fees, background check fees or credit check fees. 

S.1973 - An Act relative to affordable housing and environmental adaptation dollars (AHEAD Act). This bill secures new revenue for investment in climate and housing by doubling the current Deeds Excise Fee that is collected when real estate is sold. It would also offer offsetting tax credits for low-income sellers and for those selling their homes to first-time homebuyers. The rate change would annually generate well over $300 million in new revenue annually, with the proceeds split evenly between state trust funds for affordable housing and for climate mitigation and adaptation. The current excise rate is among the lowest in the region, and it would continue to be so after this change.

Anti-Poverty

S.1975 - An Act to reduce poverty by expanding child and family tax credits (EITC bill). This is a comprehensive bill to provide more funds to low-income families to help meet their basic needs. For the budget, the priority is expanding the EITC to make immigrants who use an ITIN to file their taxes eligible for the tax benefit. The estimated fiscal cost of this provision is $22 - $28 million.  

“I’m proud to file legislation that ends lifetime parole for individuals sentenced as juveniles or young adults, strengthens tenant protections and access to affordable housing, establishes clear safeguards against abusive debt collection practices, and expands the Earned Income Tax Credit to better support low-income families,” said State Senator Jamie Eldridge. “These bills reflect the priorities of constituents and advocates across the Commonwealth, and I’m grateful for the strong partnerships that help move this work forward.”

Senator Eldridge’s legislative agenda, including fact sheets and bill information, can be found at this link. Most bills also feature a shortened link for quick sharing and downloads of fact sheets.