The Massachusetts Legislature could soon have as many as five major bills tied up in private House-Senate negotiations after representatives moved this week to establish another conference committee to craft compromises on legislation cracking down on revenge porn.
Three weeks after the Massachusetts Senate passed a rewrite (S 2710) of a Massachusetts House-approved bill (H 4241), the House made official its disagreement with the changes and named three lawmakers who will be asked to hash out the differences.
State Representative Michael Seamus Day (D-Stoneham), who co-chairs the Judiciary Committee, will lead the talks on behalf of the House alongside state Representative Christine Barber (D-Somerville) and state Representative Alyson Sullivan-Almeida (R-Abington).
Senate leadership has not yet named its own conferees who will participate in the talks.
Both branches voted in favor of bills that seek to more forcefully prohibit sharing sexually explicit images or video without a subject’s permission, something that is already illegal in 48 other states. The legislation also tries to limit “coercive control” by abusers, and creates new education and diversion programs to deal with teen sexting.
The branches took different approaches on how long prosecutors can pursue charges in some abuse cases and which entity should oversee the proposed sexting education and diversion programs.
Survivors and advocates have long pressured Beacon Hill to take action to limit revenge porn, to no avail. During the 2021-2022 legislative term, House and Senate Democrats failed to agree in a timely manner on reforms, dooming legislation at the finish line.
The House on Thursday, April 11 also moved to bring another conference committee back to full strength more than two months after it lost one of its lead negotiators. State Representative Danielle Gregoire of Marlborough will fill an open slot on the panel negotiating over salary transparency bills (H 4109 / S 2484).
That spot has been vacant since former state representative Josh Cutler (D-Duxbury) resigned February 4 for a job in the Healey administration.
In addition to the revenge porn ban and salary transparency measure, conference committees still have not produced accords on sweeping gun legislation; a proposal by Governor Maura Healey to use interest generated by a state savings account to compete for federal funds, or a spending bill featuring emergency shelter funding and reforms.
Both branches adjourned for a long weekend and will not return until Tuesday, April 16, so no action will come on any of those measures — including on the supplemental budget, which would replenish shelter funding that one top lawmaker expects to run out by the end of the month — until at least then.
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