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Senate suspends rules to advance Marblehead parking and board-of-health bills to third reading
Summary
The Senate voted to suspend rules to allow expedited consideration of multiple measures and ordered a Marblehead parking violations bill (Senate No. 2528) and a bill increasing a board of health's membership (No. 3912) to a third reading, the presiding officer said.
The Senate suspended procedural rules and ordered two bills to a third reading, the presiding officer said during a brief session that otherwise recorded no extended debate.
Senator Joan B. Lovely, speaking for the committee, read a report "recommend[ing] that joint rule 12 be suspended with reference thereto," and the presiding officer then put the question; "the ayes have it," the chair announced and the rules were suspended. The chamber also suspended a Senate rule (referred to in the record as Senate Rule 36P) to allow matters to be considered forthwith.
Why it matters: suspending rules and ordering bills to a third reading accelerates their legislative progress by bypassing standard timing or referral requirements, allowing the chamber to consider the measures sooner than under ordinary order.
Most immediate actions recorded were procedural. The presiding officer said a bill to authorize the town of Marblehead to [act on] parking violations (identified in the record as Senate No. 2528) was ordered to a third reading after the chair put the question and "the ayes have it." Separately, a bill described in the record as increasing the membership of a board of health (No. 3912) was likewise ordered to a third reading.
The clerk read an order that, when the Senate adjourns, it should reconvene on Thursday next at 11:00 a.m.; members approved that order with no recorded objection. Earlier in the session the emergency preamble was adopted and resolutions were adopted, both announced by the chair as passed.
The transcript records no roll-call tallies tied to individual members for these actions; the chair repeatedly used voice approval ("all the ayes have it") and noted when there was "no objection." Senator Joan B. Lovely presented the committee recommendation on joint rule 12; Senator Reynolds was recorded in the discussion of suspending Senate Rule 36P. No formal floor debate or amendments to the cited bills appear in the record provided.
Looking ahead: the measures advanced by ordering a third reading remain pending further consideration at subsequent floor sessions.
