Boston's Big Wonk Summer: Thousands of lawmakers arrive for annual conference

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6 days ago

Good Monday morning, everyone.
If things feel noticeably wonkier and more political around Boston for the next few days, there's a good reason for that.
Thousands of state lawmakers from across the country, legislative aides, and other folks who track state government rolled into town on Sunday for the annual summit of the National Conference of State Legislatures.
It officially gets started this morning with an opening session at the Thomas M. Menino Convention & Exhibition Center in the city's Seaport district.
NCSL, as it's more often referred to, is a one-stop shop of legislative best practices.
Want to know what other states are doing about, say, transportation funding? Or maybe wind energy? Or how they're handling artificial intelligence?
In-house experts at NCSL can provide lawmakers (and the reporters who cover them) with a veritable brain-dump of information on all those issues and more.
This year's observance in Boston also marks the NCSL's 50th birthday.
'It will almost certainly be the second-largest legislative summit NCSL has ever held,' NCSL CEO Tim Storey said during a press call with journalists last week. 'And we'll make a pretty strong run at the largest summit we've ever held ... in Boston.'
And because it's in Boston, some top Bay State pols also are expected to feature prominently.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is among the speakers at a Tuesday morning session dubbed 'The Great Political Realignment: The New Trump Coalition and the Coming Elections.'
She's slated to be joined by Rhode Island House Speaker Pro Tempore Brian Patrick Kennedy. Amy Walter, the publisher and editor-in-chief of The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, moderates.
Senate President Karen E. Spilka, D-Middlesex/Norfolk, is set to appear on two panels. That includes a summit-closing event on Wednesday with 'Hamilton' star Leslie Odom Jr., called, appropriately enough, 'The Room Where it Happens.'
Other high-wattage names on the bill this week include former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, Olympic running legend Meb Keflezighi, and syndicated radio host Michael Smerconish.
State lawmakers from the House and Senate, as well as experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and elsewhere, are also sprinkled across seminars this week.
And while the conference is likely to be a boon for Boston's faltering tourist economy, Spilka and other legislative leaders faced some uncomfortable questions last week about the high-dollar fundraising they've been doing to help finance it.
State lawmakers have asked corporations and others with business before the Legislature to pony up as much as $250,000 each, The Boston Globe reported.
'I'm not involved in fundraising, so I have no idea,' state House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano, D-3rd Norfolk, said when he was asked about it last week.
Spilka was slightly more expansive, telling reporters that she wanted to 'add that all of the money raised goes directly to educational programs, training, [and] transportation.'
'Nine thousand people are expected to be coming here to Boston, to Greater Boston, which is a real boon not only [to] the Greater Boston area, but for the entire state,' she continued, putting the total economic impact at $11.2 million.
So if you see some vaguely wonkish folks wandering Seaport, the Back Bay and Beacon Hill this week, now you know why.
You'll be back
It might be the 250th anniversary of the American Battle for Independence, but Massachusetts just can't quit the United Kingdom.
State lawmakers and British officials gathered on Beacon Hill last week to announce the creation of the new Friends of the UK Legislative Caucus.
The bipartisan group is intended to strengthen the economic and historic ties between the Bay State and Great Britain, its organizers said. State House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones, R-20th Middlesex; Rep. Susannah Whipps, I-2nd Franklin, and Sen. Dylan Fernandes, D-Plymouth/ Barnstable are its co-chairpersons.
The U.K. does $5 billion in trade annually with Massachusetts and British subsidiaries also employ more than 41,000 people across the state, according to the British Consulate-General in Boston.
'I've also met academics and scientists from the UK and Massachusetts working together to tackle some of the great scientific technological challenges of our age,' David Clay, British Consul General to New England, said at a press conference at the State House last week.
'I've met some of the 200,000 British tourists [who] come to Massachusetts every year and have an amazing time. I've learned about our shared history at Lexington, Concord, [and] Bunker Hill. There's been a few bumps in the road, but generally things have gone very well.'
With President Donald Trump's tariff policies roiling markets, Jones, of North Reading, said the new caucus holds 'tremendous opportunities.'
'We look forward to this caucus expanding and having more members in the House and Senate become involved, and realize perhaps we're at a point in time where we need to look to the states to lead, perhaps more so than Washington to lead,' he said. 'And we're happy to take up that mantle to try to foster that relationship to even greater levels than it has been.'
Okay. All together now:
'You'll be back, soon, you'll see. You'll remember you belong to me. You'll be back. Time will tell. You'll remember that I served you well. Oceans rise, empires fall. We have seen each other through it all ...'
A not very restful rest area
Hundreds of employees and supporters of the Waltham company, which lost out on a lucrative contract to renovate and operate Massachusetts highway service plazas, descended on the State House last week.
Their goal: To convince Gov. Maura Healey to reverse course and state lawmakers to exert some oversight muscle, according to State House News Service.
The company, Global Partners, and its partner, CommonWealth Kitchen, have been aggressive in the six weeks since MassDOT's board picked Ireland-based Applegreen for a 35-year lease of 18 highway plazas, according to the wire service.
Global Partners has argued that its bid for the project was worth more money to the state. And last week, it claimed that a state Department of Transportation official who played a key role in the selection discussed potential employment with the winning bidder's parent company.
Both the state and Applegreen have pushed back against Global's campaign, arguing that finances were only one factor in the contract award and that the winner offered a faster timeline and a focus on electric vehicles.
Applegreen founder Bob Etchingham slammed what he described as 'baseless public relations stunts' by the losing bidder, State House News Service reported.
Warren floods the zone
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and several of her colleagues fired off a letter to U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner to protest the agency's recent moves to roll back rules that protect people from floods.
'It is an objective truth that disaster events are occurring more frequently and at a larger scale than ever before. Our nation's floodplain standards helped ensure homes were more resilient to flooding and other extreme weather events–minimizing damage and harm to families. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,' Warren and her colleagues wrote.
The other lawmakers who signed onto the letter included Democrat U.S. Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Patty Murray of Washington and Peter Welch of Vermont.
Independent U.S. Sens. Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, both of whom caucus with Democrats, also signed the letter, according to Warren's office.
In the wake of disastrous flooding in Texas, HUD announced it was temporarily tapping the brakes on that rollback, according to the advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER.
Monday Numbers
New data from the Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst paints a vivid picture of the huge role that research funding plays in the Bay State's economy.
The bottom line: For every dollar that's invested in research, Massachusetts sees about double that amount, according to the new data.
Right now, research funding in the state supports a total of 81,300 jobs, $7.8 billion in income and more than $16 billion in total economic activity, according to the report, dubbed "Economic Contributions of R&D Funding in Massachusetts.'
But if 'proposed changes to federal funding and support for research and development are enacted, the economic future of the commonwealth faces significant uncertainty,' UMass researchers noted.
Some other top-line findings:
Massachusetts is home to 1 in 10 R&D jobs nationwide, compared to 1 in 40 for all jobs in the nation's economy.
More than 700 Bay State organizations have received R&D awards over the years. The top three recipients were the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Air Force and the National Science Foundation. That funding supported 46,000 jobs across those institutions.
R&D funding 'creates and supports jobs beyond those in research occupations and research organizations, with 34,600 more blue-collar and service jobs in sectors that support the industry and its workers, including construction, food services, healthcare, retail and administrative support,' according to the report.
And two of every five jobs 'created by research funding are created outside of sectors that directly receive the funding itself. For example, this activity supports 4,200 jobs in real estate and construction, nearly 3,000 jobs in retail and almost 1,600 jobs in transportation and warehousing,' according to the report.
What else you need to know:
'Federal funding for high-risk research keeps the U.S. at the cutting edge of innovation and provides the lifeblood of the state's knowledge and innovation economy,' Mark Melnik, the director of the Donahue Institute's Economic and Public Policy Research Group, said in an email.
'Our well-educated workforce and elite institutions in 'Eds and Meds' have provided an important magnet for funding, high-skill workers, and entrepreneurship in the state,' Melnik continued. 'The economic activity associated with these investments are essential to both the research happening in 'Ed and Meds,' as well as the broader economy of the state.'
They said it
'I think people have an image of food pantries as just having canned beans and canned vegetables and pasta and rice. 'We certainly offer those items. But I think most food pantries we know about increasingly strive to provide healthy foods.'
— Stacey Verge, the executive director of Acord Food Pantry in Hamilton, on efforts to feed scores of people across the state who live with food insecurity.
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What goes on
If you find yourself in the Berkshires later this month, you can swing by the Stockbridge Summer Arts and Crafts Show, which runs Aug. 16 and 17 at 50 Main Street.
Now in its 32nd year, the annual attracts thousands of visitors to a Main Street picturesque enough to warrant a Norman Rockwell painting, according to organizers.
The free show includes 80 jury-selected artisans and crafters, whose work ranges from paintings and ceramics to fiberware, jewelry and sculpture.
The hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Turned up to 11
Punk and new wave legend Billy Idol brings his latest tour to the XFinity Center on Aug. 23 (tickets and info here). If you only know him from his 80s work, you might be surprised to find out that Idol (né William Broad) is still recording new music.
Case in point, his very good 2021 single 'Bitter Taste.'
Your Monday long read
It wasn't too many years ago (OK, it was enough) when no summer was complete without a trip to a drive-in movie. These days, however, these land-guzzling outdoor recreation meccas are essentially a thing of the past.
The folks at History Facts have chronicled the rise and fall of this uniquely American institution. And the nostalgia? Well, it hits hard.
As ever: The germane bit.
'The novelty of the drive-in caught on slowly at first. But by the end of the 1940s, with World War II in the rearview, Americans and their growing families were ready to indulge in leisure and entertainment. Families didn't have to dress up, kids could doze off in the back seat and you could bring your own snacks — or heed the call of the animated intermission ads urging a trip to concessions for hot dogs, popcorn, and candy galore."
That's it for today. As always, tips, comments and questions can be sent to [e-mail]. Have a good week, friends.
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