COFAR blog

In an admittedly mistaken parliamentary decision, the state Legislature’s House clerk earlier this year referred two virtually identical House bills that would authorize Supported Decision Making (SDM) in Massachusetts to two separate legislative committees.

The filing and referrals of these bills are raising a concern for us that problems we have cited with the legislation may not be addressed in the possible confusion over the measures. (We will discuss our proposed safeguards for the legislation in an upcoming post.)

SDM involves enacting written agreements to replace guardians of persons with developmental disabilities with informal teams of “supporters” or advisors. We have long raised concerns that while SDM may be appropriate for high-functioning individuals, it may expose lower functioning persons to financial exploitation and reduce the input family members have over their care and services.

It isn’t clear why two separate and nearly identical SDM-authorization bills were introduced in the House this year. We think it is likely that proponents of SDM asked legislators to file both measures in order to increase the chances of passage of the legislation.

However, the referrals of the two bills to separate committees appear to violate a provision in the Legislature’s Joint Rules, which states that “each matter shall be referred only to one joint committee for consideration …(and) The committee to which a matter is initially referred may discharge the matter to another committee with jurisdiction over the matter.”

House clerk says double referral was a ‘mistake’

In an interview last week with COFAR, House Clerk Steven James acknowledged that the double referral was a “mistake and an inconsistency.” A single bill should have gone to one committee from which it could then be sent or discharged to the other committee, he said.

James referred both bills on the same day – February 16 – to the separate committees. One of the bills (H.201) was referred to the Children, Families, and Persons with Disabilities Committee, and the other (H.1485) to the Judiciary Committee. The separate bills are still before those committees.

James said he thinks the mistake may have occurred because each House bill has a slightly different title, and his office’s computer may therefore have identified the bills as separate pieces of legislation.

James said that “the remedy is to get one of the committees to discharge its bill to the other committee.” He said he thought the Judiciary Committee, in particular, should discharge H.1485 to the Children and Families Committee because that committee considered a similar bill last year, and H.201 is a refile of that bill.

In fact, there is even a third identical SDM bill (S.109), which was also filed this year. But that measure was referred by the Senate clerk on the same day as H.201 was to the Children and Families Committee. As a result, we think those two bills are likely to be merged by the committee into one bill if the committee does report favorably on the legislation.

A staff person with the Children and Families Committee said that both that committee and the Judiciary Committee are “coordinating our efforts” on the two House bills. However, the staff person did not say either committee would discharge their bill to the other.

Judiciary Committee staff did not respond to an inquiry by COFAR about the matter.

Previously another Children and Families Committee staff person had said that both committees had “decided to proceed and evaluate the bills separately.”

If so, it is concerning that the Children and Families Committee, which has jurisdiction over disabilities issues, might then have no input in the disposition of H.1485, which would potentially have a substantial impact on the way services are delivered to persons with I/DD.

Similarly, the Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over judicial issues, might have no input in the disposition of H.201, which would potentially have a substantial impact on the way probate courts decide applications for guardianship of persons with I/DD.

Last year, an SDM bill, which was refiled this year as H.201, came close to passage in the Legislature. It passed the Senate in November 2022, and was a step away from final passage in the House. However, the House Ways and Means Committee declined to advance it to the House after we identified problems with the legislation.

It is clear that proponents of SDM are intent on using every possible parliamentary method they can find of gaining passage of this legislation — possibly even methods that violate legislative rules. It would be nice if they showed a similar interest in improving the legislation.