Policy & Advocacy Newsletter
In the previous policy newsletter, we mentioned that the Environmental Bond Bill passed in the Massachusetts Senate and that multiple amendments had been made. There were addendums added to the Environmental Bond Bill when it was debated on April 15, 2026 by the Senate Committee on Ways and Means. In this issue, we’re sharing that not all of the proposed amendments made it into the bill.
Unfortunately, the ban on spreading sludge on farmland did not make it into the bond bill: #199 – PFAS Farmer Relief Fund and Land Application Ban, $50,000,000, introduced by Senator Comerford. This amendment would ban sewage sludge application in Massachusetts, starting in 2030. Sewage sludge consistently has the highest levels of PFAS (also known as forever chemicals) contamination of any byproduct from the wastewater treatment process. When applied on land (including farmland), the PFAS in that sludge can contaminate the soil, produce, livestock, wildlife, and people who work and eat from that land. The amendment also establishes the Agricultural PFAS Relief Fund and authorizes $50 million to help support farm businesses and protect them from PFAS contamination and the many implications of that contamination.
The other bill NOFA/Mass supports which covered products made with PFAS, made it into the Bond Bill as an addendum: Preventing PFAS Pollution. This focuses on proactive prevention of PFAS or ‘forever chemical’ pollution, with $5 million to promote the use of safer alternatives to PFAS in products and manufacturing. It also funds research, technical assistance, and a competitive grant program (Amendment 87). Another addendum which shows legislators’ concern over PFAS in water and healthy soils programming made it into the bill: Protecting Clean Drinking Water and Soil. This would provide $450 million for the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust to protect access to clean water across the Commonwealth, in addition to $120 million for PFAS remediation in public and private wells and $125.5 million to support resource conservation and preservation initiatives, including $5.5 million for the Healthy Soils Grant Program. We were also pleasantly surprised that a local option for bans on anticoagulant rodenticides was approved as an addendum: Protecting Wildlife from Unintended Poisonings. This creates a local-option mechanism for towns and cities to choose to ban anticoagulant rodenticides. While anticoagulant poisons are targeted at killing rodents, they can prove a danger to pets or travel up the food chain and harm or kill other animals, such as eagles and hawks (Amendment 3).
See the Senate Bill Fact Sheet for more information about the provisions in their version of the Environmental Bond Bill. Now the House will need to debate, amend, and hopefully carry it through in a form that’s improved, or at least, intact.
Massachusetts Fiscal Year 2027 Budget
Aside from the Environmental Bond Bill, the other big legislative priority is the FY-2027 budget. The House Committee on Ways and Means released their draft budget in mid-April. Legislators then introduced amendments and debated the budget, before voting on amendments and ultimately passing the budget out of the House on April 29. See the State House press release for a detailed summary of the state’s proposed investment in several high priority areas. Also take a look at the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative’s breakdown of the House budget debate, as it relates to food systems funding in the Commonwealth.
The Senate Committee on Ways and Means released their budget proposal last week. The entire Senate is expected to begin debating the budget early next week, and we encourage partners and advocates to reach out to their state senators to ask them to support food system programs in the fiscal year 2027 budget. Once the Senate passes their version of the FY27 budget, a conference committee will reconcile the differences between the two versions of the budget before a final vote in each chamber.
Call to Action:Â Contact your Senator about FY27 Budget Amendments
Your Senator needs to hear from you about the budget items that are most important to you, so please contact your Senator by Friday, May 15th to let them know your priorities. You can use this handy template created by our partners at the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative to reach out to your Senator and ask them to cosponsor the below amendments. NOFA/Mass supports all four amendments in the template, but we are particularly supportive of amendment #344 which would increase funding for MDAR in the draft budget. Please contact your Senator to tell them how important this and other budget amendments are for the resilience of our food system.
Movement on the Farm Bill
Lastly, on the federal policy side, we’re once again seeing movement on the Farm Bill. The House passed the current bill on April 30 with a 224-200 vote, largely along party lines. NOFA/Mass applauds the Democrats who voted against the bill, particularly Representative McGovern who gave this impassioned speech about the shortcomings of the bill.
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