Massachusetts Legislature and Governor Advance Spending, Transportation, Privacy and Literacy Measures

In early June 2026, the Massachusetts House and Senate approved and sent Governor Maura Healey a $1.56 billion spending bill and a transportation bill intended to fund road and bridge repairs for cities and towns. Separately, Governor Healey signed early literacy legislation aimed at addressing declines in student reading scores across the state. The House also unanimously passed data privacy legislation, which will now go to a conference committee to reconcile differences with the Senate's version of the bill. House Speaker Ronald Mariano commented on the early literacy bill, calling recent declines in student reading scores "simply unacceptable" and describing the legislation as reflecting a legislative commitment to effective early literacy instruction statewide. Advocacy groups praised the literacy bill for provisions supporting multilingual and Latino students' access to evidence-based literacy curriculum. The spending and transportation bills await the governor's signature, and the timeline for that action was not specified in available reporting. The data privacy legislation remains in conference committee, with no reported timeline for resolution between the House and Senate versions. Specific dollar figures for the transportation bill and details of the literacy legislation's implementation timeline were not provided in the available reports.