Top Mass. Democrats face off on liquor, school reform
Tensions are high between House and Senate Democrats on Beacon Hill as their leaders clash on changes to local liquor licensing, vocational school reforms and health care protections.
Why it matters: With 35 days until the new fiscal year begins, House and Senate negotiators are trying to reconcile significant differences between their budget proposals.
The big picture: Both chambers approved spending roughly 6% more this year.
Though they're ostensibly part of the same political party, Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano diverge on several big issues that will require compromise.
What we're watching: The Senate wants to end the nearly century-old population-based cap system for local liquor licenses and let cities set their own limits. House leaders have historically opposed a change.
The two chambers are also at odds over how to end broker fees on apartment rentals.
The House wants to pause new changes to vocational school admissions.
The Senate plan includes prescription drug price caps and more funding to protect hospitals from closing.
How it works: Budget negotiations are top-down affairs, with the Ways and Means committee chairs — Rep. Aaron Michlewitz and Sen. Michael Rodrigues — making offers, trading proposals and protecting their bosses' priorities.
Between the lines: Aside from the chaos before the end of the lawmaking session, budget season is the pinnacle of horse-trade politicking in this one-party state.
Whatever compromises are hashed out will almost certainly become law. Rank-and-file lawmakers don't go against leadership.
The Republican minorities in the House and Senate have little to no influence on the outcome.
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Associated Press
17 minutes ago
- Associated Press
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New York Post
18 minutes ago
- New York Post
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NBC News
19 minutes ago
- NBC News
A global HIV/AIDS program that saved millions of lives faces cuts under the Trump administration
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A global health staff of 700 people plus contractors in the field prior to President Donald Trump taking office has been reduced to 80 people after recent firings. Last month, White House budget director Russell Vought told a Senate committee, without providing evidence, that PEPFAR spent $9.3 million 'to advise Russian doctors on how to perform abortions and gender analysis.' Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee and former chairman of the Africa Subcommittee, told NBC News that PEPFAR had always planned to get countries that had developed their own hospitals and health care systems, such as South Africa, to take over funding the program by 2030. According to Coons, that transition is already underway. But he and other critics of the current budget cuts said that it is not possible in low-income conflict zones, such as South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Haiti, to replace the U.S program anytime soon. 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Black also said maintaining prevention is 'clearly important" and that withdrawing funding for prevention, which is contemplated under the Trump plan, would increase HIV rates and expand the burden. Rubio, who as a senator supported PEPFAR and other foreign aid, defended $20 billion in overall proposed budget cuts to the Senate Foreign Relations committee in May, citing 'duplicative, wasteful and ideologically driven programs.' Asked last week about the PEPFAR cuts, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who served in the Bush administration when PEPFAR was launched, told NBC News at the Aspen Security Forum, 'I do think PEPFAR is going to not only survive, I think it's going to be just fine. ... There will be some scaling back, and it's probably worth it to take a look at focusing on what we really need to focus on. We've become pretty dispersed and diffuse in the kinds of programs that we were running.' But, she added, 'what makes America different as a great power is that we have not led just with power, but we've also led with principle.' Later at the conference, Rice said launching PEPFAR was 'the proudest moment' in all of her government service. But she added that the U.S. also wants to build other countries' capacity and health care systems to sustain themselves. Former President Bush, in rare criticism of Trump's policies, praised fired foreign aid workers in a video last month. He told the State Department employees who had been fired, 'You've shown the great strength of America through your work, and that is our good heart.' Citing PEPFAR'S lifesaving work, Bush said, 'Is it in our interest that 25 million people who would have died, now live? I think it is. On behalf of a grateful nation, thank you for your hard work, and God bless you.' In a video, Bono told the foreign aid staff in verse, 'They called you crooks — when you were the best of us, there for the rest of us. And don't think any less of us, when politics makes a mess of us. It's not left-wing rhetoric to feed the hungry, heal the sick. If this isn't murder. I don't know what is.'
