Beacon Hill Roll Call
Volume 51 – Report No. 22
May 25 – 29, 2026
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THE HOUSE AND SENATE: Beacon Hill Roll Call records local senators’ votes on the only roll call from the week of May 25-29. There were no roll calls in the House last week.
During the week of May 25-29, the House met for a total of 24 minutes and the Senate met for a total of four hours and 20 minutes.
THE BATTLE OVER WHETHER STATE AUDITOR DIANA DIZOGLIO CAN AUDIT THE LEGISLATURE (S 3104)- The latest chapter was written last week about the ongoing saga on whether State Auditor Diana DiZoglio has the right to audit the House and the Senate. In the November 2024 election, voters approved Ballot Question 1 asking them if they favor allowing the state auditor to audit the Legislature. The question passed overwhelmingly by 72 percent of the vote. It has now been almost 19 months since the voters approved the audit but an audit has yet to take place.
Senate President Karen Spilka (D-Ashland) and House Speaker Ron Mariano (D-Quincy) have continued to delay the audit – arguing that an audit would violate the separation of powers in the state’s constitution.
Last week, the Senate 33-6, approved resolutions, sponsored by Sens. Cindy Friedman (D-Arlington) and Paul Feeney (D-Foxborough), requiring that the Senate provide some financial information that DiZoglio has long requested. The resolutions laid out the history of its dispute with the auditor and made it clear that senators are limiting the records they will provide to those records discussed in recent litigation.
“Resolved, that the Senate, in providing said records, does so voluntarily but does not concede that it may be audited pursuant to Section 12 of Chapter 11 of the General Laws without violating the Constitution of the commonwealth,” the resolutions say. “And be it further resolved, that the Senate reserves all its rights to object to any such audit, present or future, and on any grounds, including, but not limited to, that Chapter 250 of the Acts of 2024 violates the Senate’s constitutional rulemaking authority, separation of powers, legislative immunity and privilege and the legal presumption that statutes operate prospectively and cannot be applied retroactively in the absence of clear legislative intent.”
(A “Yes” vote is for the resolutions. A “No” vote is against the resolutions.)
Sen. Jason Lewis – Yes
For more information and details on each bill, roll call attendance, and other relevant information, please visit the Wakefield Daily Item at www.localheadlinenews.com