Press Releases

Barrett Backs More Privacy for Social Media

senmikeb
Press Release

Boston – The Massachusetts State Senate has taken a major new step to protect the social media accounts of students and employees in the Commonwealth. 

For the past year and a half, Senator Mike Barrett (D-Lexington) has served as an original cosponsor of “An Act relative to social media privacy protection,” which passed the Senate last week.  The legislation prevents employers and schools from requesting or requiring access to the personal social media accounts of employees, students and job or school applicants as conditions of acceptance, employment, or participation in school activities.

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Carbon Pricing Picks Up Steam

senmikeb
Press Release

Boston – Senate Chair of the Energy Committee Mike Barrett (D-Lexington) and environmental advocates are making headway in their campaign to put a price on carbon in Massachusetts.

Barrett — who filed a carbon pricing bill in the Legislature this session — joined his colleagues on the Senate Global Warming and Climate Change Committee to announce the release of an omnibus energy bill that includes carbon pricing. The incorporation of carbon pricing into an overall policy initiative by the Senate is a breakthrough.

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Barrett Grills Eversource on its New Charge on Solar Users

senmikeb
Press Release

Boston – State Senator Mike Barrett (D-Lexington) and Representative Thomas A. Golden, Jr. (D-Lowell) quizzed Eversource Energy and the state Department of Public Utilities (DPU) at a formal oversight hearing last Tuesday, January 30.

Senate Chair Barrett joined House Chair Golden and their colleagues on the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy at the public hearing, following the DPU’s approval of a request from Eversource for a new fee on solar users.

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Mass. Residents May Be Able to Fight Climate Change Via Their Tax Returns

senmikeb
Press Release

Joined last week by prominent researchers and humanitarian leaders, State Senator Mike Barrett (D-Lexington) asked the Legislature’s Committee on Revenue to approve legislation tweaking Massachusetts tax forms and letting taxpayers direct voluntary contributions, over and above their regular payments, to poverty-stricken countries faced with worsening conditions caused by global warming.

The full title of Barrett’s bill is An Act enabling taxpayer donations to the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), an initiative of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

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Mass. Climate Math: Getting to Paris Reductions Goal Won’t Get Us Further

senmikeb
Press Release

Sounding a note of caution on today’s debate in the Mass. House of Representatives, the Senate chair of the joint committee that deals with energy matters cited “an inconvenient truth about Massachusetts climate change math: our share of the U.S. emissions goal set in Paris for 2025 is almost identical to a state-specific emissions goal we’ve already set for ourselves for 2020.  By 2025, Massachusetts will need to have progressed well beyond this point, or we will have little chance of meeting our ultimate emissions goal set for 2050.”

“Merely running in place on emissions reductions between the years 2020 and 2025 will throw us off pace and forfeit Massachusetts’ hopes to lead on this crucial issue,” said State Sen. Michael Barrett (D-Lexington).

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Barrett calls for an end to modern debtors’ prisons at State House rally

senmikeb
Press Release

Boston – State Senator Mike Barrett (D-Lexington) joined his colleagues and advocacy groups in the State House yesterday to rally behind a criminal justice reform bill that seeks to keep people from ending up back in prison.

The comprehensive bill includes significant reforms to the common practice by district court judges of incarcerating defendants solely for failure to pay fines, fees or court costs, commonly referred to as “fine time”.  This is an issue that has been championed by Barrett and he has worked closely with the Joint Committee on the Judiciary to ensure that the problem is addressed.

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Barrett proposes limits on Mass. inmates being sent out-of-state

senmikeb
Press Release

Boston – Yesterday the Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security heard from State Senator Mike Barrett (D-Lexington) about his bill to prevent sheriffs from sending inmates out of Massachusetts without meeting certain requirements.

In January, Sheriff Thomas Hodgson of Bristol County volunteered his inmates to help build a border wall proposed by President Trump. This would effectively mean sending prisoners — many serving short sentences for relatively minor crimes — nearly 3,000 miles away, far from rehabilitation services and their loved ones.

Senator Barrett is the author of An Act protecting inmate safety and the expenditure of state funds (S.1279), which would prohibit any sheriff from sending an inmate in his custody out-of-state without meeting certain requirements.

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Barrett seeks state funds for homeless veterans

senmikeb
Press Release

During a recent public hearing, State Senator Mike Barrett (D-Lexington) testified on behalf of his bill that would guarantee state funding for a Bedford housing complex that caters to homeless veterans.

Barrett is the chief sponsor of a bill (S.2009) that would ensure 100% reimbursement to Bedford for the financial assistance it provides veterans who move into Bedford Green, situated on the grounds of the VA hospital.  The complex provides apartments to 69 homeless veterans from all over Massachusetts.

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Barrett recognizes local unsung heroines

senmikeb
Press Release

This week, residents of Bedford, Lexington and Weston were honored as members of the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women’s 2017 class of Unsung Heroines.  Ann Guay, Alice Pierce and Pamela Fox were recognized as women who make a real difference in their neighborhoods and towns.

Senator Mike Barrett, D-Lexington, nominated Ms. Pierce because of her tireless work promoting democracy in her community.  She has spent over 40 years providing bookkeeping services and preparing financial disclosure reports free of charge to political candidates.  Barrett applauded Ms. Pierce and noted that she has “built up a reputation as a highly giving and valuable member of her community.”

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Beacon Hill proposal targets tax returns of presidential candidates

senmikeb
Press Release

BOSTON — State Senator Mike Barrett (D-Lexington) wants the Massachusetts Legislature to tell future presidential candidates that they cannot appear on a primary or general election ballot in the state until they release their tax returns and disclose potential conflicts of interests.

“Until recently,” Barrett wrote in a Dear Colleague letter to House and Senate members inviting cosponsors of the bill in the upcoming 2017-2018 session, “many Americans just assumed that the stature of the Office of the President ensured the observance of certain practices that are unwritten but responsible and well-established, one of which is the disclosure by candidates of recent tax returns and, by extension, possible conflicts of interest.  The 2016 election shattered this confidence.  I hope we can come together to rebuild it.”

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