BOSTON (AP) - House Speaker Robert DeLeo is defending the practice of allowing vast stretches of the House debate on the $42.7 billion Massachusetts budget to be conducted behind closed doors.
During last week’s debate, lawmakers were instructed to go to a side room to hash out which amendments would make it into the spending plan.
Those closed-door discussions typically stretched on for hours before a single “consolidated amendment” was voted on in public. At that point, the negotiations began again in private.
The Winthrop Democrat told reporters Monday any member can bring an amendment to the floor for a public debate if it isn’t included in a consolidated amendment. He said all the lawmakers he spoke with were pleased with the process.
DeLeo urged the public to look at the final budget.
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