House and Senate Republicans on Tuesday proposed changes to "course-correct" the state shelter system amid public safety concerns and mounting costs, while calling on Gov. Maura Healey to step up the frequency of her communications with legislators.
At a press conference, the GOP lawmakers said their omnibus legislation would respond to the Supreme Judicial Court's 2017 Lunn decision by allowing state courts and law enforcement to honor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers in the case of "violent offenders."
Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr said the provision is one previously proposed by Gov. Charlie Baker and has "no relationship" to incoming President Donald Trump's proposed mass deportations.
"This is about the day to day situation that we see in the courts where folks are being released after being charged and, in some cases, convicted of serious crimes. ... This is about a selective group of people that pose a threat to public safety," Tarr said.
Republicans are also proposing a requirement that families seeking to take advantage of the state's right to shelter law demonstrate lawful presence in Massachusetts for a year before admission to the shelter system, a change that would affect newly-arriving migrant families. Shelter stays would be limited to six months.
Asked what that means for families who would show up at Logan Airport without a place to live, Tarr said they would be "on notice that there is no right to shelter unless you meet the eligibility criteria." Any assistance rendered to families would be "from the benevolence of the people" of Massachusetts, Tarr said, without a legal mandate to provide aid.
Rep. Paul Frost, an Auburn Republican, said changing the residency requirement would send "a clear message" to charitable groups at the country's southern border that "Massachusetts is full." The governor has tried to send similar messages and last week expressed an openness to realigning the right to shelter law "with its original intent."
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Meanwhile, another Republican on Beacon Hill sees their channel to the federal government opening up after next Monday's presidential inauguration.
Former Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, who chaired Trump's campaign in Massachusetts, has acted as a liaison to the incoming administration for Bay State Republicans, according to Sen. Peter Durant of Spencer.
"But I suspect that once the administration gets sworn in and gets up and running, we'll have more of those contacts from there. We've talked to ICE -- I was talking to ICE late last week -- and so we have contacts within there. But I suspect those lines of communication will be much smoother once the new administration gets sworn in," Durant told the News Service.
Republican lawmakers plan to file their package before Friday's initial bill-filing deadline, along with separate bills that contain individual pieces of the broader plan. House Minority Leader Bradley Jones Jr. pointed to the fact that Republicans were holding a rare joint House-Senate press conference, and said it could demonstrate to Democrats "that it shouldn't be so hard for senators and representatives to get together and do something."
"It can no longer be addressed in a piecemeal fashion," Tarr said of concerns around the "unsustainable" shelter system. He added, "They're fundamental actions that need to be taken to course-correct this situation and address the concerns that have been raised consistently throughout the commonwealth of Massachusetts."
Targeting ballooning costs, the bill would subject all shelter services to a public bidding process, building on last year's legislative mandate that applied competitive bidding to the system's food catering.
The Republican proposal would create a watchdog unit within Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro's office to focus on the shelter crisis response. The GOP caucuses will also send a letter to Auditor Diana DiZoglio asking her to audit all financial aspects of the program, Tarr said.
And they want to hear more from Healey.
Jones last week called for "heads to roll" in response to the news that comprehensive background checks had not been carried out on shelter residents as the Healey administration previously said they had.
"There's been a lack of transparency," Jones said at Tuesday's press conference. He added, "One day you find out something, another day you find out something else. And only, usually through crisis, do we find out certain things -- that the head of this program actually retired a month ago. I don't think anybody knew that."
The News Service first reported last Friday that the administration's shelter czar, former Adjutant General Scott Rice, had retired at the end of December. The Healey administration disclosed the update in response to a reporter's inquiry. Rice had not been publicly visible since last June.
As far as whose head ought to roll in response to the missed background checks or other crises, Jones told reporters that "maybe that was with the retirement of General Rice" but it would be easier to identify someone "if we knew ... everybody who is in charge."
"Going forward, there needs to be a better mentality of 'the buck stops here,'" the North Reading Republican added.
With Rice gone, his old deputy, Assistant Secretary Adit Basheer from the Executive Office for Administration and Finance, is now in charge of the shelter Incident Command, the governor's office told the News Service last Friday.
The lawmakers said they are seeking monthly cost reports and monthly briefings with administration officials, and Tarr said they also want Healey to deliver a "plan on scaling down this program" to boost its sustainability and safety.
Healey this month sent lawmakers a "fiscal blueprint" that lays out how the administration hopes to make the system more sustainable in the long-term, including a goal to reduce the system's caseload back to 4,000 families by June 2026. The system has supported as many as 7,500 families this budget year.
As far as who's directly answerable to the Legislature on the state's shelter woes, Tarr said it might now be multiple people.
"Legislators don't know -- and haven't known -- who is in charge. So part of what we need to do is establish an accountability structure ... Now it may be that there's more than one person. It may be that the secretary of ANF [Matthew Gorzkowicz] is keeping track of the cost. It may be that the folks at HLC, Secretary [Edward] Augustus, may be in charge of the housing component. But we need to know that," the Gloucester Republican said.
The minority leaders were joined at the State House news conference by 13 of their caucus members: Reps. Frost, Michael Chaisson, Alyson Sullivan-Almeida, Steven Xiarhos, Todd Smola, David Muradian, Joseph McKenna, Michael Soter, Hannah Kane, and Sens. Durant, Ryan Fattman, Kelly Dooner, and Patrick O'Connor.