Press Release: 7/14/2026

The MA Senate Can Join the MA House on an Important Step to Address Our Housing Crisis

The MA House voted last Wednesday for its economic development bill, a bill that every two years can become a catch-all bill for various policy priorities and earmarks.



The House went through 688 amendments in the non-transparent Consolidated Amendment process. House Leadership grouped these 688 amendments into five categories to create five Consolidated Amendments, but little, if anything, of the content of most of these amendments remained. Rather than rejecting amendments (by voice or recorded vote) or having lead sponsors withdraw amendments, the House has increasingly taken to this strategy, which reduces the ability for the public to see what is happening and pushes even more discussion behind closed doors.



Consolidated amendments also erase opportunities for accountability by bundling measures together rather than allowing for clear up or down votes on individual priorities. 



One of the amendments that we had supported did, however, make it in: the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), which would allow cities and towns a local option to provide tenants in multi-family buildings the right to match a third-party offer when their homes are being sold. Tell Your State Senator to support TOPA as well.



TOPA passed the Legislature more than five years ago, vetoed by Republican Governor Charlie Baker when the legislative session had run out and there was no time for veto overrides. Two years ago, the House passed it as part of the housing bond bill, but it did not survive final negotiations. Let’s make it the session it finally happens.



The House’s bill also took other steps to address the housing crisis, such as authorizing municipalities to adopt commercial conversion zoning to transform underutilized commercial properties into housing and mixed-use developments through streamlined local approvals and allowing multifamily housing as of right on qualifying land owned by religious institutions, with a requirement that at least 20% of units be affordable.



Let's make sure that TOPA gets over the finish line.




  1. Find a few minutes this weekend to call/email your state rep to say "I was glad to see that the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act got into the economic development bill. I hope you will advocate for this to be part of the final bill that emerges out of House - Senate negotiations." 

  2. And then call/email your state senator to say "I was glad to see that the Senate passed the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act in the economic development bill. Please urge Senate Leadership to include it in the Senate's economic development bill as well. TOPA (S.998) is an essential tool for preserving naturally occurring affordable housing and fighting displacement." (You can use our template here.) 



Need their email addresses and phone numbers? Find them here.



In solidarity,

Jonathan Cohn 

Policy Director



Progressive Massachusetts



 




Senate Advances Social Media Bill 



A couple months ago, the MA House advanced a harmful bill that would ban minors from social media, force social media platforms to enable parental surveillance of teenagers’ online activity, and subject everyone to privacy-invading online ID checks in order to access information or speak out online. We joined groups from across the state in opposing this language.



The Senate’s bill (S.3164), which passed 38 to 2 last Thursday, takes a smarter approach, targeting addictive design. Republicans Kelly Dooner and Peter Durant were the sole NO votes.



We joined our friends at Fight for the Future in urging senators to support several amendments that would protect privacy, protect youth, and help the bill better accomplish its stated goals. Most of those amendments were adopted:




  • ✅Amendment #2, which closed a loophole in the definition of “user” that would have allowed platforms to continue providing addictive features to minors so long as the minor does not use an account to access the platform

  • ✅Amendment #3, which updated the definition of social media so that it would exclude sites like GitHub and Wikipedia that have valuable educational purposes

  • ✅Amendment #4, which clarified that the attorney general will be regulating interoperability of age signals and not mandating that all operating systems implement age signals

  • ✅Amendment #24, which voided the privacy and security issues that come with obtaining parental consent, while increasing the protections for minors

  • ✅Amendment #25, which clarified that platforms can use interaction data to generate feeds when that data functions to allow users to control the amount and types of content they receive from users they subscribe to

  • ✅Amendment #27, which expanded the ban on tech companies’ ability to use design tactics, such as repeated nudges and grouping of settings controls, to manipulate users into choosing less protective settings

  • ✅Amendment #29, which added important protections to minors’ data by requiring the attorney general to address issues of re-identification that could expose minors’ personal information to the public



However, the Senate rejected Amendment #19, which would have prevented companies from manipulating users into using addictive features and would have changed age verification requirements to opt-out to opt-in.



Take some time this week to let your state senator know that you are happy that the Senate adopted important amendments backed by civil liberties advocates and you hope that they will fight for these critical pieces in whatever bill emerges out of negotiations between the House and Senate.



You can find your State Senator's contact info here.