No air of urgency at State House

A lack of activity on legislation left the House chamber empty yesterday. (Globe Staff Photo / John Tlumacki)

When a young mother from Brockton named Uloma Ikeagwuonwu roamed the hallways of the State House yesterday looking for someone, anyone, to discuss school programs, it took her 90 minutes before she finally found two legislators.

"Nothing seems to be happening," she said. "It's so quiet. The people I expect to see, I'm not seeing them."

Seven weeks into the legislative session, facing an economic crisis of historic proportions and public confidence eroded by a series of scandals and ethics controversies, the Legislature remains at a virtual standstill.

Ethics law changes? No action scheduled for at least another month, perhaps not until April. Budgets, including emergency provisions sought by Governor Deval Patrick in response to the recession? Not even a hearing, despite Patrick's calls for quick action.

Since Jan. 7, the start of the legislative session, the House has met 19 times, for a total of 18 hours, 47 minutes, an average of less than 3 hours per week, according to a Globe analysis of minutes kept by the State House News Service. Of that, nearly 7 hours were for ceremonial events where no actual work took place, honoring Abraham Lincoln, listening to the governor's State of the State address, and being sworn into office.

The longest meeting was on Feb. 11, when representatives met for nearly six hours to debate rules. They still found time to adopt resolutions honoring Ronald Reagan and Red Sox legend Jim Rice. Last week, the House welcomed the mayor of Haifa, Israel.

About a dozen House lawmakers met on Monday, gaveled into session at 11:07 a.m. A prayer was said, the Pledge of Allegiance recited, and within 4 minutes they had adjourned.

Leading lawmakers say to stay tuned. House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, who has already restored term limits for his job and mandated ethics training for House members, said yesterday that the pace will quicken in upcoming weeks.

"I can tell you that I have been busy and a lot of commissions and committees have been busy, as well," DeLeo said outside his office. "As we go along, hopefully you're going to be pleased with the progress, in terms of what we're doing."

But some lawmakers say the delays, while not unusual, need to end because of the extraordinary issues facing the state.

"I'm anxious to see things get going," said Representative David Flynn, a Bridgewater Democrat. "The pressure is on us, justifiably so with all that we're confronting. The next two weeks, we've really got to shape up. The public has a right to expect we will move."

The inactivity in the Legislature contrasts with other government activity around the country. State lawmakers in California were working long hours at the State House last week to solve a budget crisis, for example, and members of Congress met on weekends to cut a deal on a $787 billion stimulus package sought by President Obama.

Most Massachusetts lawmakers took last week off for school vacation week.

"Everything seems to be stagnant," said Senate minority leader Richard R. Tisei, a Wakefield Republican. "The building should be humming every day with legislative hearings taking place. That's not happening."

David Falcone, a spokesman for Senate President Therese Murray, said the Senate has drafted a 268-page transportation reform bill and created several commissions to oversee the state redistricting process and to monitor the state's spending of federal stimulus money. A committee also held a hearing yesterday on a proposal to reorganize several state agencies.

Yesterday House and Senate lawmakers announced a series of hearings beginning next week on transportation law changes, among them a controversial plan by the governor to increase the gas tax by 19 cents a gallon. Lawmakers have criticized Patrick for not filing the bill until this week, preventing them from moving forward on changes.

The Senate has met even less often than the House, meeting 16 times for a total of 10 hours, 48 minutes, or about an hour and a half a week. The base pay for Massachusetts lawmakers is $61,440, although many earn additional stipends for holding leadership positions.

Longtime observers of the State House say this year's session got off to an unusually slow start, but few are alarmed. The Legislature is designed to be slower and more deliberative than the executive branch, and it typically takes several weeks to get going at the start of a legislative session.

"I may be wrong, but I'm not sure we're at the point where the world is going to collapse if we take two more weeks to deal with some of these issues," said Pam Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause, a government watchdog group. "I don't want to be an apologist for the system, which has many flaws. But we also need to be realistic and let it work. You can't get blood out of stone."

Work at the State House was also stalled this year because of the shakeup in the House leadership just as the legislative session was getting started, with the resignation of former speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi Jan. 27. After DiMasi resigned, DeLeo took several weeks to make new committee assignments and decide which lawmakers to name as chairmen.

Patrick, who accused the Legislature last year of not acting swiftly enough on his proposals, declined a request for an interview and avoided criticizing top lawmakers.

"The governor recognizes the speed with which the new speaker has assembled his team and the substantive discussions the administration has already had with the new chairs in both the House and Senate," his spokesman, Kyle Sullivan, said in a statement.

"Is it slow? Yeah, but there are reasons for it," said Representative Daniel E. Bosley, a North Adams Democrat. "It's unfortunate because we ought to be talking about pension reform, transportation reform, and the budget."

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.