Massachusetts House Enacts Summer 2026 Municipal Liquor Pilot by Voice Vote

BOSTON — June 8, 2026 — The Massachusetts House passed a summer 2026 liquor license pilot program allowing municipalities to extend bar hours and permit outdoor public drinking in designated districts. The House voted by voice vote Monday to enact House 5478 after adopting a further amendment offered by Representative Thomas P. Walsh of Peabody that substituted the text of House document 5482 for all language after the enacting clause. An emergency preamble, requiring a separate division vote, cleared two-to-zero with members voting across the First and Second Divisions. The bill, which takes effect immediately under the emergency preamble, lets cities and towns opt in voluntarily for the current summer season. The House also passed to engrossment local liquor license bills for South Hadley and Westford, ordered to third reading a statewide ban on pet-shop sales of dogs, cats, rabbits, and guinea pigs (House 4319), and stood in silent tribute to Constance Carney Ellen Kruger, a longtime Amherst housing and planning advocate who died May 10 at age 78.