House set to take up 'revenge porn' compromise bill on Wednesday

The House plans on Wednesday to take up a compromise version of a bill to crack down on revenge porn and coercive control, Speaker Ronald Mariano's office told the News Service after negotiators filed the conference report just after 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.

State Sen. John Keenan, the lead Senate conferee, told reporters that his branch would likely take up the matter this week, as well. The Senate has a formal session planned for Thursday.

"I think it's a better bill at this stage. It's a great House bill, a great Senate bill, and I think working together we've produced even a better bill," Keenan told reporters.

Conference reports are sometimes walked into the clerk's office by a lone staff member, but this time, a four-legislator team dropped off the document: Keenan, state Rep. Michael Day, state Sen. James Eldridge, and state Rep. Christine Barber.

The two Republican members of the conference, state Rep. Alyson Sullivan-Almeida and state Sen. Ryan Fattman, were not present but also signed on in support of the new text, the clerk's office said.

Keenan said the conferees landed on having the attorney general's office take the lead on education and diversion programs for teens involved in sexting, an approach the House had preferred. The Senate's version had instead called for the Office of the Child Advocate to oversee the youth diversion program.

The final bill also includes a House-backed provision, Day said, to extend the statute of limitations from six years to 15 years for assault and battery on a family or household member or against someone with an active restraining order.

"It'll make that consistent, now, with our other statute of limitations in these areas of crimes," Day said.

A revenge porn bill fell just short of the finish line at the end of the 2021-2022 session. Outgoing Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito had pushed for its passage for years, and at the time they cited that priority as one they wished could have gotten done during their final term.

"Governor Baker and I are thrilled to see this important legislation moving forward," Polito said Tuesday in a statement to the News Service. "It is overdue that the Commonwealth provide these critical protections for women."

Under internal legislative rules, the new text (H 4744) can surface in the House anytime after 1 p.m. Wednesday.