Massachusetts Senate Advances Higher Ed Infrastructure Bill, Passes Local Measures

BOSTON — February 19, 2026 — The Massachusetts Senate advanced a higher education infrastructure financing bill and enacted three local authorization measures in a brief February 19 session. The chamber adopted an order placing House No. 4769, the act to build resilient infrastructure to generate higher education transformation, on the calendar for a second reading, with the Committee on Ways and Means substituting the full text of Senate document No. 2962 for the House language. House No. 4272, authorizing Hudson to issue one additional off-premises wine and malt beverage license, passed to be engrossed; House No. 3977, authorizing alternate Conservation Commission members in Beckett, and House No. 4438, authorizing Swampscott to hold a fall annual town meeting, both passed to be enacted and were sent to the Governor. The Senate also referred a petition from Senator William N. Brownsberger on constitutional protections to the Committee on the Judiciary after suspending two procedural rules, and adjourned in memory of Phyllis Lasordo Chapman of Hingham, who died January 27 at age 108.