“Building resilience in the face of climate change requires ecosystem-wide collaboration... These grants will help restore entire watersheds, making our rivers and wetlands cleaner, more vibrant, and better equipped to handle future floods and droughts."

The plan also would include … a policy — originally proposed by state Senator Becca Rausch — that would scrub candidates’ addresses from the ballot and instead only list what town or city they live in. The proposal emerged after a gunman shot two Minnesota lawmakers at their homes last year, prompting lawmakers to reconsider how readily available some of their personal information should be.

Supporting LGBTQ+ people is simple, Rausch said: “Treat everyone with love and respect. Pride is a time for celebration and reflection. For our queer and trans community members and allies alike, this month is about saying yes to including and supporting one another, saying yes to embracing authenticity, and this month is about joy."

“I don’t care what your political affiliation is…. The uber-wealthy should not be able to buy their way into elected office. That is not a democracy,” Rausch said.

State Senator Becca Rausch, who co-chairs the Legislature’s Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, said it was important to craft a ban that would be feasible for all retailers. “We’ve built in an exception for small businesses,” she said. “We’re making sure to take care of everybody.”

“We have a significant plastics problem. Massachusetts uses an estimated 2 billion–that’s billion with a “B”– two billion plastic bags every year,” said Senator Becca Rausch, a Democrat from Needham.

“As a Brandeis alumna who is deeply dedicated to both public service and civics education, it’s a great privilege and pleasure to welcome ENACT students to the State House every year for hands-on legislative advocacy and experiential civics education."

Rausch recently filed a suite of five anti-ICE bills, including one to ban the arrest of parents of minor children without an approved care plan for the child and another that would allow any Massachusetts resident to sue ICE agents.

"Here in Massachusetts, we operate differently. We actually talk to each other, we trust science and understand evidence, and we don't dwell in rhetoric - we focus on action and meaningful results that are going to generate positive outcomes for people in their daily lives."

"Because of search engines and algorithms and money, a lot of times, the first places that pop up are these anti-abortion centers. But if they can't provide any ultrasound services because it's illegal in Massachusetts for them to do so because they lack a license and the appropriate training to do so safely and accurately, then that doesn't happen at the get-go," said Rausch.