Massachusetts Senate Moves to Subject Governor, Legislature to Public Records Requirements

Bill Would Require Governor, Senate, and House of Representatives to Make Records Available to the Public, with an Independent Appeals Process

(BOSTON—7/23/2026) In an effort to further expand Massachusetts’ residents’ access to how decisions are made in the Executive and Legislative branches, the Massachusetts Senate released legislation today that requires the Governor, Senate, and House of Representatives to be subject to greater transparency and make expansive documents and records available to any person who requests them.

The bill—S.3200, An Act promoting transparency and public access in state government—provides access to key legislative records, such as voting records, salary information, ethics disclosures, operating expenditures, and certain contracts.

“This legislation is a critical step forward in the Senate’s continuing practice of making the Legislature’s work more open and accessible to the people we serve,” said Senate President Karen E. Spilka (D-Ashland). “By writing the Legislature and the Governor into the public records law, we are affirming that the people of Massachusetts have a right to clearly see our work and how their tax dollars are spent. This builds on the success of this session’s rules reforms, which were important steps in opening up our work to public view while inviting more voices into the process. I’m proud of the work the Senate has done to get us here and I looking forward to debating this bill next week.”

“These important public records reforms would expand the public’s direct access to government records, strengthen transparency, and improve our ability to hold our government accountable,” said Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. “We strongly support the Senate’s thoughtful bill and appreciate the Legislature taking necessary steps to improve transparency within a framework that is legally defensible. This historic expansion of our public records law builds on proposals that we and fellow advocates have long promoted, and we look forward to seeing it enacted into law.”

“For too long, Massachusetts has remained one of the only states in the country where the press and the public cannot access records of the Legislature and Governor,” said Robert Ambrogi, executive director of the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association. “This long-overdue bill would finally change that. We commend the Senate for taking this long-overdue step, and we urge its swift passage.”

“Transparency in government is a cornerstone of a strong democracy, and to achieve it requires good policy that empowers people and that can sustain constitutional challenges,” said Geoff Foster, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts. “That’s why we’re thrilled to support legislation that is being advanced by the Senate that would take the historic step of finally subjecting both the Governor’s office and the Legislature to a public records law which has been a top legislative priority for Common Cause Massachusetts and our members for decades.”

Modeling its approach to legislative records access after Pennsylvania’s ‘Right-to-Know Law,’ the bill outlines the process for members of the public to request legislative records, including an appeal process before the Judicial Branch—independent of the Legislature or Executive—for denied requests.

The legislation also boosts the transparency of the Executive Branch and opens access to records created by the Governor’s Office.

Like the process for requesting legislative records, any person could submit a records request to the Governor’s Office, which would have 10 days to produce responsive documents.

Requestors would be able to appeal a denied request from the Governor’s Office to a division of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, and then to the Superior Court.

All public access provisions would take effect at the start of the new term in January 2027.

The Senate plans to take up the transparency legislation at a formal session on July 30, 2026.

The bill was reported to the full Senate today by the Committee on Ways and Means. A previous version was passed by the House of Representatives.

Full details of the legislation are available in fact sheets in the Senate press room.

All votes taken at the committee and chamber levels are processed by the Clerk and publicly posted on the Legislature’s website.

###