The Massachusetts Senate on April 28 ordered House Bill 4010, a fiscal year 2025 supplemental appropriations measure, placed for a second meeting on Thursday, May 8, 2025, and adopted procedural limits on how amendments may be offered.

A clerk reading the report of the Committee on Ways and Means told the Senate that the committee recommended the matter "ought to pass with an amendment striking out all after the enacting clause and inserting the text contained in Senate Document number 2512," and cited a direct-appropriations figure of $1,000,483,000 tied to the document.

Why it matters: the Ways and Means report and the order to place the bill for a second meeting set the version of the bill that senators will consider next, and the adopted amendment rules narrow how members may change the committee-substituted text ahead of final action.

Details of the action: the Senate adopted an order placing House Bill 4010 for a second meeting and immediate consideration on May 8, 2025. The order directs that all amendments to the Ways and Means proposed new text must be offered as second-degree amendments; the Senate also stated that third-degree amendments to such amendments would be in order. The Senate suspended its rules to consider the matter forthwith by voice vote, recorded in the transcript as "the ayes have it."

Additional procedural actions taken the same day include an order directing that when the Senate next adjourns it will reconvene on Monday next at 11:00 a.m., and a clerk was directed to dispense with the printing of a calendar for that reconvening; that order was adopted by voice vote.

Discussion vs. decision: the transcript records no substantive floor debate on the bill's policy content during the actions taken on April 28. The actions recorded are procedural: the committee recommendation, the Senate order to place the committee-substituted text for further consideration, the adoption of amendment-rule limits, and scheduling for further consideration. No final passage or substantive amendments were recorded in the April 28 proceedings.

What remains open: the bill was placed for a second meeting under the committee-substituted text (Senate Document 2512) and will be subject to amendment and further consideration when the Senate takes it up on May 8, 2025. The transcript does not record votes on the bill's final passage, nor does it record line-item detail beyond the committee's cited direct-appropriations figure. The clerk's reading and the orders adopted are the official floor actions recorded on April 28.