Representative Steven S. Howitt maintains perfect voting record in 2023-2024 legislative session

Boston – State Representative Steven S. Howitt, R-Seekonk, maintained a perfect voting record during the 2023-2024 legislative session, participating in all 199 roll call votes recorded in the House of Representatives between February 1, 2023, and August 1, 2024.

Representative Howitt attained a 100% attendance record over the last two years, resulting in a 100% voting record for the past 14 years, casting votes on several major policy initiatives, including health care reform, veterans’ benefits, tax relief, data privacy protections, Second Amendment rights, prescription access, anti-stalking protections, and animal welfare. He has also consistently advocated for reforms to the state’s emergency assistance family shelter system, calling on the state to provide homeless Massachusetts residents and veterans with priority placement status and urging the Healey-Driscoll Administration to take steps to stem the flow of migrants, which has pushed the shelter program to its limits and created a strain on municipal finances as cities and towns struggle to house and educate these new arrivals.

With the annual cost of maintaining the emergency shelter system projected at more than $1 billion a year in current and future fiscal years, Representative Howitt supported multiple amendments this session to implement much-needed changes to the program. One such amendment, offered by House Republican Leadership and included in a Fiscal Year 2024 supplemental budget signed on April 30, requires any funds expended for providing food through the state’s emergency housing assistance program to be subject to a competitive bidding process. The amendment was filed in response to news reports that the state had signed several large no-bid contracts, including a $10 million, eight-month deal with Spinelli’s of East Boston to deliver meals to more than 30 shelter sites.

To help ensure that long-term residents do not lose out on housing assistance to individuals who have newly arrived from out of state, Representative Howitt voted on three separate occasions for amendments offered by Second Assistant Minority Leader Paul Frost (R-Auburn) limiting future emergency housing services to individuals who have been residents of the Commonwealth for at least one year, six months, or three months, respectively, and can provide documented proof of residency. These amendments, which were not adopted, included language providing an exemption for victims of domestic violence or individuals whose living situation has been affected by a fire or other natural disaster that occurred in Massachusetts.

During the Fiscal Year 2025 House budget debate in April, Representative Howitt supported a House Republican Leadership amendment to prioritize emergency shelter assistance placement eligibility for honorably discharged homeless veterans. While the amendment was rejected, new guidelines for the emergency shelter assistance program – issued on July 23 by Governor Maura Healey and effective on August 1 – include a requirement that families with at least one member who is a veteran receive priority placement in shelters.

In addition to voting against supplemental funding for the emergency assistance family shelter program due to the lack of reforms to rein in costs, Representative Howitt also opposed an overreaching gun reform bill that threatens the Second Amendment rights of the state’s lawful gun owners. Noting that Massachusetts already has some of the strongest gun laws in the country and the second-lowest gun violence rate in the nation, he called the bill “a solution in search of a problem” that will do nothing to reduce crime in Massachusetts.

Representative Howitt also supported a comprehensive tax relief package included as part of a 2023 economic development bill that is expected to provide taxpayers with an estimated $1.02 billion in savings once the changes are fully implemented in 2026. Highlights of the tax relief package include provisions to:
• double the Senior Circuit Breaker tax credit from $1,200 to $2,400, indexed to inflation, to assist nearly 100,000 seniors with their housing costs;
• eliminate the estate tax for all estates valued under $2 million and allow for a uniform credit of $99,600, effective January 1, 2023;
• combine the child and dependent tax credits into one while eliminating the existing cap and increasing the credit from $180 to $310 in FY23 and to $440 in FY24, which will benefit over 565,000 families;
• increase the rental deduction cap from $3,000 to $4,000, which will assist approximately 800,000 renters;
• raise the Earned Income Tax Credit from 30% to 40% of the federal credit, which will benefit approximately 400,000 taxpayers earning less than $60,000;
• allow municipalities to provide up to $2,000 in property tax reductions for older residents participating in the senior work-off program, which is currently capped at $1,500; and
• reduce the tax on short-term capital gains from 12% to 8.5%.

Other key roll calls taken by Representative Howitt this session include votes to support:
• legislation criminalizing “revenge porn” to address the unauthorized distribution of sexually explicit images or videos via text messaging and online postings, expanding the definition of abuse to include coercive control, and assisting survivors by extending the statute of limitations for certain domestic violence offenses;
• salary transparency legislation to help address the gender and racial wage gap by requiring most employers to disclose the salary range for open positions on job postings;
• comprehensive hospital oversight legislation, filed in response to the crisis at Steward Health Care, that would change how regulators monitor and contain costs, strengthen financial data reporting requirements, and require notice to patients before the discontinuation of essential health services;
• a long-term care oversight bill that would provide enhanced protections for patients as well as expanded training provisions for the industry’s workforce to help address persistent staffing shortages at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities;
• legislation to protect the privacy of patients accessing reproductive and other health care services, including those who utilize the state’s crisis pregnancy centers that provide abortion counseling, by prohibiting cell phone carriers and data providers from sharing or selling the individual’s location information;
• legislation to expand access to non-hospital childbirth options for expectant parents in Massachusetts and establish a formal licensing process for certified professional midwives and lactation consultants;
• a pharmacy access bill limiting out of pocket prescription costs for consumers and establishing a licensing process for pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs);
• legislation establishing a licensing process for alcohol and drug counselors and recovery coaches through the Department of Public Health (DPH) and requiring health insurers to offer policies covering prescribed opioid antagonists;
• legislation expanding benefits for the Commonwealth’s veterans and service members, including access to behavioral health treatment and providing local-option property tax exemptions for service members;
• legislation to protect Massachusetts homeowners facing foreclosure due to a municipal tax lien on their property from becoming victims of home equity theft; and
• a series of animal welfare bills designed to ensure the safety of dogs placed in kennels, prohibit the use of exotic animals in traveling acts, and prevent the intentional misrepresentation of service animals.

Representative Howitt represents the 4th Bristol District, consisting of the towns of Seekonk, Rehoboth, Precincts 1 and 2 in the town of Norton, and Precincts 4 and 5 of the town of Swansea. He currently serves as the Ranking Minority member on the Joint Committee on Transportation, and serves on the House Committee on Ethics, the House Committee on Steering, Policy and Scheduling, the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure, and the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy.