ANNUAL STATE BUDGET hearings got off to a late start this year, but lawmakers packed two hearings into three business days before pausing for an unusual two-week break that is coinciding with a general lack of activity among all legislative committees 10 weeks into the new session.

While it doesn’t explain the full length of the pause, nearly a dozen lawmakers, including the chairs of the House and Senate Ways and Means committees, were out of the country recently for three days.

In response to a News Service inquiry about the longer-than-usual break in budget hearings and possible out-of-state travel, aides to House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate Way and Means Chairman Michael Rodrigues said 11 legislators, all Democrats, left for Canada on Thursday with plans to return Saturday.

Rodrigues spokesman Sean Fitzgerald called it an “alternative energy fact finding trip.”

In an email late Friday, Fitzgerald called the visit “part of a broader strategy to explore affordable, sustainable, and renewable forms of carbon-free energy” and said the legislators planned to tour the HQ James Bay Generating Facility, which is part of Hydro-Québec’s operations. 

“The facility is a two-hour propeller plane flight out of Montreal and is one of several options to ensure the availability and viability of New England’s energy future,” Fitzgerald said. “With uncertainty at the federal government occurring in all sectors of the American economy, it is especially important to maintain the partnership with Hydro Quebec as one avenue to help meet the Commonwealth’s renewable energy goals and future grid demand.”

The trip comes as state energy policies shaped through a series of clean energy laws are suddenly at odds with the new direction of federal energy policy under President Donald Trump.

State policies are geared toward compliance with strict carbon emission reduction mandates, while US Energy Secretary Chris Wright this week emphasized “the critical role of fossil fuels in meeting global energy demands,” according to the energy department, and hyped the the need to “end the Biden administration’s irrational, quasi-religious policies on climate change that imposed endless sacrifices on our citizens.”

In the last week, the US Department of the Interior approved a plan to extend the operational life of Montana’s Spring Creek Mine by 16 years, enabling the production of nearly 40 million tons of coal. The US Department of Energy signed a major liquefied natural gas export permit approval, the White House said, and the Environmental Protection Agency launched the “biggest day of deregulation in American history.”

State officials in Massachusetts also face new and serious questions about federal support for ongoing and future clean energy efforts. As Trump looks to build jobs in fossil fuel-based energy, plans in Massachusetts to grow jobs and produce a major new supply of clean power through offshore wind projects are in doubt.

Sen. Ed Markey and eight other US senators released a letter Friday demanding that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin “cease his illegal witch hunt to claw back nearly $20 billion in congressionally appropriated and legally obligated funds that underpin the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.” The fund is designed to “spur economic development, lower energy costs, and reduce pollution,” Markey said.

Ana Vivas, a spokeswoman for Mariano, said in an email Thursday night that legislators planned to visit the Hydro-Québec Research Institute, the dikes, dam and spillway that are part of the Robert-Bourassa hydroelectric facilities, and an underground generating station that she said are part of “the largest hydroelectric facility in North America” and include a dedicated transmission line to Ayer, Massachusetts.

Budget hearings paused after a March 10 hearing in Gloucester and will resume March 24 in Amherst, starting a string of four budget hearings in six business days. After two final budget hearings in April, the House Ways and Means Committee plans to release its redraft of Gov. Maura Healey’s $62 billion budget during the week of April 14, with floor debate scheduled for the week of April 28.  Healey filed her budget Jan. 22. The Legislature has made a habit of not completing annual budget by the July 1 start of the fiscal year.

Rodrigues, Sens. John Cronin and Jacob Oliveira were on the trip, according to Fitzgerald. Cronin is a member of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy.

House members who went on the Canada trip included Rep. Mark Cusack, the new House chair of the Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy, and vice chair Rep. Michael Kushmerek. Senate co-chair Sen. Michael Barrett and vice chair Michael Brady were not listed as trip participants.

Rep. Jeff Roy, who Mariano moved off his former Energy Committee chairmanship and up into his leadership team, was also on the trip to Canada. Roy has been the focus of Boston Globe reporting over his relationship with an energy sector lobbyist.

The other House members who went to Canada, according to Vivas, are Ways and Means Committee Chair Aaron Michlewitz, Rep. Danielle Gregoire, Rep. Kathy LaNatra, Rep. Meghan Kilcoyne and Rep. Michael Finn. None of those representatives are among the House members of the Energy Committee.

Fitzgerald said senators on the trip were responsible for paying for transportation, lodging and expenses.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S executive order attempting to redefine birthright citizenship drew an immediate lawsuit from immigrants’ rights groups, including the ACLU of Massachusetts, and another subsequent complaint from Attorney General Andrea Campbell and more than a dozen of her peers.

Trump signed a series of immigration-related orders soon after being inaugurated, including one that seeks to end more than a century of practice awarding US citizenship to everyone born on American soil, even if their parents are not citizens.

Trump’s order instructs federal departments and agencies not to issue citizenship to anyone born here to a mother who is unlawfully present and a father who is not a citizen or lawful permanent resident, or to a mother who is here lawfully but temporarily and a father who is not a citizen or lawful permanent resident.

The order would take effect for births 30 days after January 20, 2025, and would not apply to current US citizens born to noncitizen parents.

Groups filed a federal lawsuit in New Hampshire within hours, alleging that the Trump administration is “flouting the Constitution’s dictates, congressional intent, and longstanding Supreme Court precedent.”

“Denying citizenship to US-born children is not only unconstitutional — it’s also a reckless and ruthless repudiation of American values,” said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “Birthright citizenship is part of what makes the United States the strong and dynamic nation that it is. This order seeks to repeat one of the gravest errors in American history, by creating a permanent subclass of people born in the US who are denied full rights as Americans.”

Plaintiffs in the case — New Hampshire Indonesian Community Support, League of United Latin American Citizens and Make the Road New York — say they work with families whose children would be denied citizenship under the order.

Several state branches of the ACLU, including Massachusetts, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the State Democracy Defenders Fund also signed onto the complaint.

The legal debate will likely focus on interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which declares that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Trump’s executive order contends the amendment “has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof.'”

Plaintiffs pointed to the US Supreme Court’s 1898 decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which ruled that the Constitution granted citizenship to a child born in the US to parents who were Chinese nationals.

“The Citizenship Clause enshrined in the Constitution the fundamental common law rule of birth by citizenship, whereby all people born in the United States are citizens. The term ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ excludes only a few inapplicable categories — today, just the children of foreign diplomats,” plaintiffs argued in the suit. “All other children born in the United States are citizens, no matter the immigration status of their parents.”

Attorneys general in more than a dozen states including Massachusetts added to the legal fight after 1 p.m. Tuesday, filing their own case US District Court for the district of Massachusetts.

The AGs — including Campbell —  similarly argued that the Fourteenth Amendment “unambiguously and expressly confers citizenship” to everyone born in the United States.

“President Trump now seeks to abrogate this well-established and longstanding Constitutional principle by executive fiat,” the AGs wrote in their complaint.

Campbell was joined in the case by attorneys general from New Jersey, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Washington, DC, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin, as well as the city attorney for San Francisco.

Gov. Maura Healey said Tuesday she supports the lawsuit, calling the executive order “something that I think most Americans are opposed to.”

“Birthright citizenship is something that’s in the Constitution. If you’re born here, you’re a US citizen,” she told reporters after an unrelated event. “I think the polls are pretty overwhelming, most Americans agree with that as a principle.”

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted between January 9 and January 13 found 51 percent of US adults oppose changing the Constitution to children born to parents in the country illegally are not granted automatic citizenship. Twenty percent said they neither favor nor oppose the idea, and 28 percent backed it.

More than 30 other countries, including neighbors Canada and Mexico, have unrestricted birthright citizenship policies similar to the US, according to the World Population Review. Another 32 offer citizenship to newly born babies with some restrictions, such as requiring one parent to be a citizen.

Trump targeted immigration in other executive orders, including measures suspending refugee resettlement and instructing agencies to expand vetting and screening of migrants.

His hardline stance on immigration has long worried advocacy groups. Elizabeth Sweet, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, called Monday “a dark day for America.”

“This clear deviation from American values is why the MIRA Coalition is more dedicated than ever to stand up for the rights of immigrants and refugees in Massachusetts and across the country. We remain focused on ensuring that all immigrants, regardless of status, know their rights and have access to legal representation,” Sweet said. “At the same time, we call upon Beacon Hill to pass policies including the Safe Communities Act, which protects immigrants and prevents state and local law enforcement from doing the work of ICE agents.”

In his order, Trump described US citizenship as a “priceless and profound gift.” The plaintiffs refer in their suit to the “priceless treasure” of citizenship, and allege that Trump’s order violates the constitution’s “citizenship clause.”

“The Constitution and Congress – not President Trump – dictate who is entitled to full membership in American society,” according to the lawsuit.

[Colin A. Young contributed reporting.]

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THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT issued a new “biological opinion” on the offshore wind power project being constructed off Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, finding that pile-driving noise associated with Vineyard Wind 1 is likely to adversely affect, but not likely to jeopardize, the continued existence of whales, fish, or sea turtles listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

“It will have no effect on any designated critical habitat,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries said in a statement. “NOAA Fisheries does not anticipate serious injuries to or mortalities of any ESA listed whale including the North Atlantic right whale.” The agency said that, with mitigation measures, “all effects to North Atlantic right whales will be limited to temporary behavioral disturbance.”

The statement indicated NOAA Fisheries believes some sea turtles would be injured and killed as a result of the pile-driving.

The opinion itself was not available. NOAA said the opinion will be available upon publication in its library in about 10 days.

NOAA Fisheries said it was issuing its new opinion to the “federal action agencies,” including Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which approved the Vineyard Wind 1 Project in 2021 and oversees offshore wind power development in federal lease areas.

The opinion, which stems from work that began in the spring, replaces a 2021 NOAA opinion. A NOAA official said that Section 7 of the ESA requires all federal agencies to “ensure any action that they authorize, fund, or carry out is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any listed species or destroy or adversely modify any designated critical habitat.”

Following the 2021 opinion, the official said, a consultation was reinitiated to consider effects of the proposed issuance of a new Marine Mammal Protection Act Incidental Harassment Authorization, “which would authorize the incidental take of a small number of marine mammals due to exposure to noise during impact pile driving for the 15 remaining monopile foundations.”

“This Opinion includes an Incidental Take Statement, which provides an exemption from the ESA’s prohibition on take of ESA-listed species,” NOAA Fisheries communications specialist Andrea Gomez wrote in an email. “It identifies the number of whales and sea turtles that we expect to be harmed … and temporarily harassed by pile driving noise, the number of sea turtles we expect to be hit by project vessels and injured or killed, and the number of sea turtles and Atlantic sturgeon we expect to be captured and released alive and without injury during trawl surveys that will be carried out to assess impacts to fisheries resources in the area. It also includes mandatory measures for minimizing, monitoring, and reporting those effects.”

The Gomez email did not specify how many sea turtles would be injured or killed.

On Saturday, a New England Aquarium aerial survey team detected the presence of right whales southeast of New York and redetected the presence of right whales southwest of Martha’s Vineyard. Right whale slow zones are in effect for mariners through September 8.

“Endangered North Atlantic right whales are approaching extinction,” NOAA Fisheries said. “There are approximately 360 individuals remaining, including fewer than 70 reproductively active females.

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AS LAWMAKERS COMPILE bills that collectively authorize more than $10 billion in borrowing, the Healey administration released a plan Thursday that puts those wish lists in perspective based on how much capital spending taxpayers can actually afford.

The updated five-year capital spending plan released by the Executive Office of Administration and Finance calls for $3.1 billion in fiscal 2025 capital spending across state government, an increase of $212 million from fiscal year 2024. The plan would fund $15.6 billion in projects and programs across its five-year timeline, while holding projected annual debt service as a percent of budgeted revenues at less than 8 percent over the next 10 years.

By comparison, the House just supercharged the $4.1 billion bottom line in Gov. Maura Healey’s long-term housing bond bill, cranking it up to $6.5 billion.  A roughly $3.5 billion economic development bond is on the move along with more than $1 billion for information technology. The bond bills authorize a menu of borrowing options, but the state can only afford so many projects and Administration and Finance told the State House News Service Thursday that are currently more than $40 billion in outstanding bond authorizations.

The state’s plan for actual capital spending dedicates $2 billion for housing over the next five years, and $400 million in fiscal 2025, which is a 30 percent increase over fiscal 2024.

Housing is a distant third in capital spending areas for the state in fiscal 2025, behind transportation and public works ($1.1 billion), and capital asset management ($719 million).

The updated capital plan reflects which projects are making the cut and poised to move ahead in the coming months and years.

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STEWARD HEALTH CARE is preparing to sell its physicians network to OptumCare, a subsidiary of the for-profit United Health Group, and hinted it is preparing to sell some of its hospitals in Massachusetts.

News of the sale of Stewardship Health, the parent of Stewardship Health Medical Group, to Optum was disclosed in filings with the Health Policy Commission, which typically reviews such transactions.

Stewardship Health Medical Group employs primary care physicians and other clinicians across nine states, according to the Health Policy Commission. Optum is a for-profit enterprise that previously purchased Atrius Health Services in 2022 and Reliant Medical Group in 2018, both physician networks and providers in Massachusetts. Steward is apparently trying to raise money to pay off debt and keep its other operations afloat.

“This is a significant proposed change involving two large medical providers, both in Massachusetts and nationally, with important implications for the delivery and cost of health care across Massachusetts,” HPC Director David Seltz said. “Details of the proposal will be reviewed by the HPC to examine potential impacts on health care costs, quality, access, and equity. The sale cannot be completed until after the HPC’s review and any concurrent review by state or federal antitrust authorities.”

Once all required information has been provided about the sale, the HPC will have 30 days to assess potential impacts of the transaction, according to the agency. If the sale is anticipated to have a significant impact on health care costs and market functioning, the HPC can initiate a full cost and market impact review, an option that it has often not pursued in the past.

Steward’s financial problems have received widespread attention in recent weeks and the outlook for its Massachusetts assets remains cloudy.  The HPC said that any transactions involving the sale of Steward’s eight Massachusetts hospitals would also require review by the agency, and review by the determination of need program at the Department of Public Health.

In its new notice of material change, Steward Operations Holdings LLC, in response to a question about other material changes anticipated in the next 12 months, wrote: “Steward anticipates providing Notices of Material Change regarding transactions concerning certain of its acute care hospitals and other provider operations in the next 12 months.”

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STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

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STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

TOP HOUSE AND Senate Democrats have reached an agreement on a tax relief bill, and plan to send it to Gov. Maura Healey next week as an opening act for their fall session.

The accord, announced without details in a two-sentence statement Thursday evening, could bring to end a debate that began nearly two years ago in an effort to put a dent in the state’s high cost of living and make Massachusetts more competitive for residents and businesses.

The House tax relief package would cost the state $654 million initially and eventually rise to $1.1 billion. It calls for stepping down the short-term capital gains tax rate from 12 percent to 5 percent, and and making a change designed to make Massachusetts more attractive to multi-state companies, which are subject to a three-factor apportionment based on location, payroll, and receipts to determine how much income is taxable in Massachusetts.

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STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

IT’S NOW eight months into Gov. Maura Healey’s administration and the wait continues for major proposals from the Corner Office to address perhaps the governor’s signature issue: housing affordability and production.

Some people in the advocacy world feel that’s going to change soon, and want the governor to “go big” to address the state’s housing crunch.

“We have been hearing that the housing bond bill could show up some time this month,” Phil Jones of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization told the News Service on Tuesday. “We are expecting the governor to make her proposal first.”

Jones said he’s not heard what’s in the bill, and said some legislators have said that they’re waiting for Healey to make the first move — the executive branch oversees state capital spending, putting it in a good position to understand which programs may be running low on available funds.

Housing activists have been pressing the idea of enabling cities and towns to assess fees on real estate transactions to raise money for affordable housing and Jones said administration officials “spoke positively” about that idea at a recent GBIO event, but the organization is unsure if Healey will actually propose it.

“We’re not sure where that will show up, but we’re feeling confident about it passing with administrative support this session,” said Jones, who lives and rents in Boston and is co-chair of GBIO’s housing justice campaign. “She could roll it into a bond bill.”

Many transfer fee supporters want to see the new levy slapped on higher-end housing transactions, and crafting a proposal that would enable all 351 cities and towns to take advantage of a new fee regime, not just those with higher property values, looms as a policy challenge.

The real estate lobby has strongly opposed transfer fees, deriding them as new taxes, and has helped defeat fee proposals for years on Beacon Hill.

GBIO and other housing groups have identified $8.5 billion in deferred maintenance that needs to be addressed at state-owned public housing units and is hoping for at least $1 billion to be included in the bond bill. The transfer fee, public housing investments, and housing access for people coming out of jails and prisons are among the topics GBIO plans to push during a fall campaign featuring meetings with state representatives and senators, Jones said.

“Our best move is to try to get these issues into the public eye as much as possible,” he said.

Citizens’ Housing & Planning Association hopes a bond bill will recapitalize programs that serve working families, the elderly, people with disabilities and those who are homeless. The group expected Healey to offer a housing bond bill in the spring, according to its website.

In 2018, lawmakers and Gov. Charlie Baker agreed on a five-year, $1.8 billion housing bond bill, and advocates say money from that package is running out.

During budget debate in May, Sens. Liz Miranda and Jamie Eldridge talked up the need for improvements at 43,000 public housing units in 242 Massachusetts communities.

“Something that is on the minds of many of us is the affordable housing bond bill and the need for us to pass that this session,” Eldridge, former co-chair of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Housing, said.

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STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

FACING A STEADY influx of migrants from other countries, Gov. Maura Healey on Thursday activated up to 250 National Guard members to provide basic services at emergency shelter hotels.

Healey’s office announced the move Thursday afternoon, saying that her new executive order applies to locations that do not have a contracted service provider. Guard members next week will be assigned to hotels to ensure basic needs of families are met.

The administration also said it is launching regional rapid response teams to assist with overseeing shelter sites and serve as a direct contact to the administration to address any concerns.

There are 6,000 families in emergency shelters and Healey has declared a state of emergency due to “rapidly rising numbers of migrant families arriving in Massachusetts, requiring the state’s emergency shelter system to expand in an unsustainable manner.”

“We need all hands-on deck to meet this moment and ensure families have access to safe shelter and basic services,” Healey said Thursday. “We’re grateful to the brave men and women of the National Guard for stepping up to help us ensure that every family in emergency shelter has their needs met, including access to food, transportation, medical care, and education.”

The Guard will step in “while we work to implement a more permanent staffing solution,” the governor said.

Said Major General Gary Keefe, the adjutant general of the Massachusetts National Guard: “Our role in the response to the ongoing housing crisis will expand to leverage our multitude of robust and adaptable capabilities in emergency and domestic operations to help those in need.”

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STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

LEGISLATIVE NEGOTIATORS filed a compromise $56.2 billion annual state budget Sunday night, packing major education, transportation, and health care policy measures and spending into an overdue fiscal 2024 accord that is expected to win House and Senate approval on Monday.

[Read the conference committee budget: Spending | Municipal and Regional Aid | Outside Sections]

A tax relief bill had been moving in concert with the budget, but House and Senate Democrats did not reach an agreement on that bill, which contains many ideas that legislators were touting in early 2022. Budget negotiators did set aside $581 million for tax relief this fiscal year, and allocated $1 billion in revenues from the state’s new surtax on annual income above $1 million. Of that, $523 million will go to education and $477 million for transportation.

According to House and Senate officials, the accord includes a Senate measure that will allow students without legal immigration status to qualify for in-state tuition rates, and state financial aid, at public colleges or universities here if they have attended a Massachusetts high school for at least three years or obtained their GED here.

Also in the higher education arena, the budget provides $50 million to support free community college across all campuses by fall of 2024, including $38 million for free community college programs for students aged 25 or older and for students pursuing degrees in nursing starting in the fall of 2023.

It also includes a House-backed initiative requiring schools to provide school meals to all students free of charge, a program that began in the pandemic with federal money and which has been retained by the state due to its popularity. The program will cost about $172 million.

In the early education and care sector, negotiators agreed to $475 million for the Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) grants, a funding level that budget analysts said represents an historic commitment. The initiative draws funding from three sources: the state’s General Fund ($270 million), a transitional escrow fund ($102.5 million) and an early education trust fund ($102.5 million).

The House backed a measure to allow online Lottery sales to fund early education and child care grants; Senate negotiators did not agree to that idea.

Budget analysts said the conference committee bill lays out $6.59 billion in Chapter 70 K-12 public education funding, an increase of $604 million beyond fiscal 2023, and doubles the minimum Chapter 70 aid level from $30 to $60 per pupil.

Unrestricted general government aid to cities and towns landed at $1.27 billion in the compromise, an increase of $39.4 million.

In health care, ConnectorCare coverage eligibility will be expanded under a two-year pilot to individuals earning up to 500 percent of the federal poverty level, or $73,000 a year for an individual. Supporters say 47,000 to 70,000 residents will become newly eligible for more affordable coverage.

The budget also requires state officials to create a standard, pre-hospital care protocol related to the assessment, treatment and transport of stroke patients by emergency medical services providers to a hospital designated by the Department of Public Health to care for stroke patients.

State employees will also be able to take advantage of another measure that will let them access health insurance coverage on their start date or the first day of the first full month of their employment.

Reviving the “free calls” initiative that nearly passed last session, the budget requires the Department of Correction and county sheriffs to provide voice communication services for free to people who are incarcerated.

The budget also raises a spending cap and allocates state funding to allow schools that signed building project contracts before the COVID-19 pandemic and those that are working toward signing contracts to “catch up” with inflationary costs.

According to information provided to the News Service on Sunday night, surtax appropriations of $1 billion in education and transportation break down as follows:

• $69 million towards universal school meals;
• $100 million for Mass. School Building Authority capital supports;
• $84 million for expanded financial aid;
• $50 million for a Green School Works initiative;
• $50 million for higher education capital projects;
• $25 million for “high demand” scholarships;
• $40 million for early education initiatives;
• $20 million for the MassReconnect community college program.

• $205 million for the MBTA;
• $70 million for station repairs;
• $50 million for bridge maintenance;
• $30 million for track and power repairs;
• $20 million for MBTA safety and workforce needs;
• $100 million for local road and bridge funds;
• $90 million for regional transit authorities;
• $50 million for highway bridge repairs;
• $5 million for water transit.

Once the budget reaches Gov. Maura Healey’s desk, she gets 10 days to review it. Governors announce budget vetoes and amendments when they sign the bill.

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