Senators Praise Ways and Means FY26 Budget, Highlight Health care, Housing, Education and Pappas Funding

Senators on the Massachusetts Senate floor delivered a series of speeches endorsing the Senate Ways and Means fiscal year 2026 budget proposal and previewing amendment debates, highlighting investments in health care, higher education, housing and services for vulnerable residents.

The senators’ remarks focused on protecting MassHealth and other human services, expanding tuition-free community college and workforce-targeted tuition pilots, increasing housing and homelessness supports including funding for Home and Healthy for Good, and maintaining services at Pappas Rehabilitation Center for medically complex children. Lawmakers also noted increased state aid to libraries, regional transit authorities and local governments.

Why it matters: senators said the budget frames the chamber’s priorities amid federal funding uncertainty and rising costs—particularly for health care—and will shape local services and municipal budgets if enacted. The Senate adopted an order to adjourn and reconvene tomorrow at 10 a.m. with the general appropriation bill as the only item on the calendar; no final vote on the general appropriations bill occurred in this session.

On the Senate floor, Senator Comerford said she “rises in strong support of this budget proposal,” calling budgets “moral documents” and praised the Ways and Means leadership for producing a…