organize to make change
This toolkit is designed to provide supplemental information to the Massachusetts Legislative Timeline to assist in organizing to make change. It provides instructions and examples of how to find who represents you, how to write legislative testimony and track legislation, how to meet with your legislator, and how to draft an op-ed.
What's happening in the biennial session?
Legislative landscape
Knowing who represents your community allows you to advocate directly for your priorities.
Legislators pass legislation that includes funding of transportation agencies, which programs receive funding, and other transportation policies.
To find your local, state, and federal elected officials you can visit www.wheredoIvotema.com.
Enter your:
- Street number
- Your street name
- Street suffix (street, avenue, court, etc.)
- City/town or your zip code
- Voting location
- Town Clerk information
- Statewide office holders for the Commonwealth
- Current district representatives
Bill testimony
Providing bill testimony allows you to give direct feedback to your legislators on a bill.
Accordion Content
- You can provide written or oral testimony on any bill that you are following.
- Sign up for oral testimony or submit written testimony when your bill is being heard in a committee hearing.
- You can find hearing information before the hearing by checking the “Hearings and Events” page at malegislature.gov.
- Click on the appropriate committee for the hearing information.
- See the left hand side of the hearing information on how to sign up to testify or submit written testimony.
- Click here for more information on how to navigate malegislature.gov.
- Introduce yourself.
- Make sure you provide your name, title, and organization (if applicable)
- Example: I am XX, and I am XX for organization XX
- Identify the bill and your whether you support or oppose the bill.
- Example: T4MA supports Senate bill H.3373, An act relative to low income transit fares…
- Provide back up information on why you support or oppose the bill.
- Example: Low income fares have been shown to increase ridership on transit by XXX and save residents XX per month to expand opportunities for riders…
- Oral testimony is usually limited to 3 minutes per person.
- Be prepared to answer questions about your testimony.
- Coordinate with allies to provide testimony from multiple organizations.
Tracking legislation
A legislative tracking spreadsheet to keep track of the many bills during the 2 year legislative session can be helpful.
To build a spreadsheet you should include the following:
- Bill number
- Bill Title
- Sponsor
- A short summary
- Committee the bill has been assigned to
- Current bill status
- You can find a sample spreadsheet here.
- You can also pay for services like Instatrac.
Writing an op-ed
Op-eds provide public spaces to state your position on an issue.
1. Introduction
- Get right to identifying the issue you are focused on.
- Present the issue using a narrative or a short newsflash on a recent event.
2. Presenting evidence
- Elevate the stakes on why this issue is important and your solution to address the problem.
- Use statistics and make sure you cover the basic of who, what, when, where, and why/how.
3. Dispel counter arguments and look forward
- Mention counter arguments to your position and dispel them with facts to support your solution.
- Look forward to the future on how your solution will solve the problem that you have presented and what action steps need to be taken.
- For statewide policy issues submit your op-ed to a larger news outlet like the Boston Globe, Commonwealth Magazine, or WBUR.org.
- For local issues for city or town submit your op-ed to your local newspaper.
- If you can’t figure out how to submit an op-ed, call the publication and ask how to submit an op-ed.
How to meet with your legislator
Building a relationship with your elected officials helps you communicate how your work improves the lives of the constituents in their district.
→ Know who your legislators are, not only for the district you live in but also the district you work in.
- This information can be found on the State House website.
→ Build relationships with your representative or senator’s staff.
- This will ease the process of making appointments and can also help you get more information to your legislator.
→ Book a meeting with your legislators. Most legislators hold in-district office hours.
- Ideally, a request to meet one-on-one in the district will allow for fewer distractions.
Send a letter to your elected official
Make your voice heard. Send a letter to your elected official to let them know your priorities and help the people that your organization serves.
To send a letter:
- Find your legislator at www.wheredoivotema.com.
- Click on who you want to send a letter to get their contact information.
- Draft your letter and send by both email and regular mail.
→ Be sure to follow up if you don’t get a response.
Need more help?
Legislative terms glossary
Below is a glossary defining some of the terms used in the legislative calendar and toolkit. For a more in depth guide to legislative language please visit the State House Glossary.
Termination of a daily session, which is when legislators meet to vote on bills, or the termination of the 2 year session.
A proposed change, such as adding or removing certain provisions, or decreasing or increasing funding for programs, to a legislative bill that is recommended by a committee or legislator. Amendments are usually published on the MA Legislature website prior to a bill being voted on.
The two-year period between the beginning of the legislative session and the end.
Document filed by a legislator to be considered for a vote to become law.
A number assigned by the clerk to a legislative document for identification purposes.
A staff person in either the House or Senate Clerks’ offices whose job is to organize bills filed by legislators.
A group of legislators organized under one of the following:
- 27 joint standing subject matter committees (such as housing, transportation, labor, etc)
- 9 House standing committees
- 7 Senate standing committees
Joint Committees are made up of members of both the House and Senate. House committees are made up of only House members. Senate committees are made up only of Senate members. Committee membership sizes and appointment procedures may be changed periodically.
A legislator assigned to a particular committee.
Once a bill has passed both the House and Senate, this committee is composed of three members of the House and three members of the Senate and is appointed for the purpose of resolving differences between House and Senate versions of the same bill. This committee then files a report that must be voted up or down by both the House and Senate and may not be amended. After the conference committee report is voted on by both branches it is sent to the Governor for signature (appproval) or veto.
A legislator assigned to a particular committee.
An order extending the amount of time a committee has to vote on a bill.
When the House or Senate meet to vote on bills and other items that may be controversial in nature and during which recorded votes may be taken. These sessions are normally attended by all members of the House or Senate.
The formal name for the Massachusetts state legislature.
A legislative document submitted to the legislature by the governor that may include a veto of a bill, recommended legislation, or recommended amendments to bills that have been passed by the legislature.
The Rules are adopted by each branch to establish how the House and Senate will operate at the beginning of each biennial session. This includes how committees are formed, and processes including how many days legislation must be released from committee before being voted on, publication of committee votes, and other matters.
When the House or Senate meets to consider bills and various other matters that are of a non-controversial nature. These sessions are usually less attended by members of the legislature than Formal Sessions and a single member of the legislature can object to the proceedings and cause the session to be ended for the day.
There are currently twenty-seven committees, consisting of senators and representatives, and they are responsible for holding public hearings and voting on all legislative documents referred to them. Joint committees address specific subject matter areas such as house, healthcare, transportation, etc.
An internal legislative rule ordering that all legislation be voted out of committees by the first Wednesday in February of the second year of the two year session.
Rules for the governing of the House and Senate, voted on by both branches.
A generic term used for a bill pending before the Legislature.
Any document considered during the legislative process. This includes bills, reports from state agencies, resolutions, and other documents.
A member of the House or Senate. There are 200 legislative districts (160 Representatives and 40 Senators).
All of the laws of Massachusetts of a general and permanent nature. All of the General Laws of Massachusetts can be found here.
A section of a budget bill (a bill that provides funding for state programs) that may amend an existing law or create a new law. Outside sections are usually policy related and nonbudgetary in nature.
To overturn the governor’s veto by a recorded 2/3 vote of the members present in both the House and Senate. Overrides only happen during a full formal session of the legislature when most members are required to be present. See Veto.
A committee meeting during which any individual of the public representing themselves or an organization may testify about particular legislative documents before the committee.
Temporary suspension of a session.
A written recommendation by the committee to pass or not pass a legislative matter to which it was referred. See Standing Committees.
A voting process in which each legislator either casts their vote or abstains from voting on a bill. The vote is recorded for the record which is kept by the House or Senate clerk. Also referred to as the “yeahs and nays.”
Rules for operations such as establishing committees, legislative deadlines, and other procedural matters of the legislature are generally voted on at the beginning of a two year session. There are Senate rules, House rules and Joint rules.
Permanent committees in the Senate and House as well as joint committees. Members and chairpersons are appointed at the beginning of each two-year session. The chair of each committee is the leader of the committee and sets the schedule for the committee. Committees are established through the legislative rules passed by the House and Senate. They are broken down by subject matter (housing, transportation, energy, etc.) where bills covering those matters are discussed by the members of each committee before being voted on by the entire legislature.
The title of a legislative document that explains the subject matter that the document addresses.
Governor’s objection in writing to legislation passed by the legislature. The legislation is returned to its branch of origin, either the House or Senate. It requires two-thirds affirmative vote in each branch to override a veto.
Oral expression of the members of the legislature to vote on a legislative matter. Response is given by “ayes” and “nays” and the matter passes (if it gets more “ayes” than “nays”) or fails (more “nays” than “ayes”) based on the oral responses. This is not a recorded vote by individual members of the legislature.