---
type: "Bill"
title: "An Act to further address challenges faced by municipalities, school districts and state authorities resulting from COVID-19"
description: "An Act to further address challenges faced by municipalities, school districts and state authorities resulting from COVID-19"
jurisdiction: "us/states/ma"
legislature: "Massachusetts General Court"
session: "191st"
identifier: "H 4616"
citation: "Massachusetts H 4616 (191st)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["House Committee on Ways and Means"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 17
vote_count: 0
first_action: "2020-04-02"
last_action: "2020-04-10"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/6e82f87c-a37b-45d2-9506-b943f456415b"
source_url: "https://malegislature.gov/Bills/191/H4616"
source_hash: "fb11489d1c1ab266b40ec37e2754e906f55e61b7b16ae7469195c2c22371dd8c"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ma"]
---

# Massachusetts H 4616 (191st) — An Act to further address challenges faced by municipalities, school districts and state authorities resulting from COVID-19

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://malegislature.gov/Bills/191/H4616.pdf)

## Sponsors

- House Committee on Ways and Means — primary (person)
- Charles D. Baker — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2020-04-02** Reported from the committee on House Ways and Means
- **2020-04-02** Reported on the residue of H4586
- **2020-04-02** Read, rules suspended, read second, ordered to a third reading, rules suspended, read third and passed to be engrossed `reading-2, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2020-04-06** Read; and referred to the committee on Senate Ways and Means `referral-committee`
- **2020-04-09** Committee recommended ought to pass with an amendment, inserting in place thereof the text of S2629 `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2020-04-09** Rules suspended
- **2020-04-09** Read second `reading-2`
- **2020-04-09** Amended by striking out all after the enacting clause and inserting in place thereof the text of S2629 `amendment-passage`
- **2020-04-09** Ordered to a third reading
- **2020-04-09** Read third and passed to be engrossed `reading-3`
- **2020-04-09** Referred to the committee on Bills in the Third Reading `referral-committee`
- **2020-04-09** House concurred in the Senate amendment
- **2020-04-09** Emergency preamble adopted
- **2020-04-09** Emergency preamble adopted
- **2020-04-09** Enacted `passage`
- **2020-04-09** Enacted and laid before the Governor `passage`
- **2020-04-10** Signed by the Governor, Chapter 56 of the Acts of 2020 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/6e82f87c-a37b-45d2-9506-b943f456415b`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Massachusetts legislature records).