Among proposed new bills filed in the current session of the Massachusetts legislature are several related to burial options, funeral assistance, and other matters of interest to our consumer advocacy group. We have now set up a committee, chaired by board member Sandy Ward, to review these bills and consider what action, if any, FCAWM might take in relation to any of them. Board member Julia Johnson is on the committee. Long-term volunteer (and former president) Carol Coan will be an additional resource, if needed.
Please contact us if you would like to help us review relevant bills.
MAlegislature.gov is a very helpful website, giving access to the full text of each bill, as well as information about who filed it, and links to similar bills already filed. By searching on key words such as “funeral” or “burial” you can discover proposed bills containing the search words. That’s how we discovered multiple bills that merit our attention. (We already knew of a few, but these searches revealed more.)
The 193rd session of the legislature (“General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts”) began in January 2023 and runs for two years. We aim to do our review this spring, and write a progress report in our next newsletter (May).