Casts 142 consecutive roll call votes in first half of 2019-2020 session.
BOSTON – State Representative Alyson Sullivan, R-Abington successfully maintained a perfect voting record for the first half of the 2019-2020 legislative session. The Abington legislator participated in all 142 roll call votes cast in the House of Representatives between January and November of 2019, compiling a 100% voting record.
Representative Sullivan cast votes this session on several key bills that were later signed into law, including the Student Opportunity Act, a comprehensive education reform bill that will increase Chapter 70 funding by $1.5 billion over the next seven years while also creating strong accountability standards for local school districts to help close student achievement gaps. Other major initiatives she supported that were signed into law this year include a distracted driving bill that bans the use of cell phones outside hands-free mode while operating a motor vehicle, beginning in February of 2020, and a higher education bill that provides protections for students who are attending colleges that may be facing closure.
Representative Sullivan also backed legislation this year to:
- expand access to behavioral and mental health services for children;
- make over $1.3 billion in state grants available for cities and towns to invest in climate change adaptation and infrastructure improvements;
- establish a continuing education program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School to address deployment-related health conditions among Massachusetts veterans, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD);
- create a Women’s Rights History Trail to promote education and awareness of the struggle for women’s rights in Massachusetts;
- establish a special commission to honor Deborah Sampson, a Plympton resident who served in the Continental Army during the American war for independence, by creating a permanent memorial at the State House;
- expand access to school breakfast for students in low-income communities; and
- reform campaign finance laws by requiring legislators and legislative candidates to file more frequent reports on their fundraising and spending activities, using a depository reporting system requiring third-party verification.
Formal legislative sessions will resume in January and end on July 31, 2020. Representative Sullivan represents the 7th Plymouth District. She currently serves on the Committees on Joint Committee on the Judiciary, the Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery, and the House Committee on Personnel and Administration.