House vote instructs DiZoglio to instead pick independent auditor

The House on Thursday moved to overhaul audits of the chamber’s business after voters overwhelmingly said the state auditor has the power to audit the Legislature.

Representatives voted 135-10 on a House rule change that provides Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s office “with the sole authority to select an independent auditing firm to conduct a financial audit of the House of Representatives,” a change she argued strips away the new authority her team gained at the ballot box.

Ten Republicans voted against the change: Reps. Donald Berthiaume, Nicolas Boldyga, David DeCoste, John Marsi, Joseph McKenna, Kelly Pease, Michael Soter, Alyson Sullivan-Almeida, Marcus Vaughn and Steven Xiarhos.

House Minority Leader Brad Jones supported the measure.

“The financial audit will be automatically posted to the Legislature’s website, and will be conducted annually,” Mariano said in a statement just after 12:30 p.m. “While Question 1 has not yet gone into effect, this proposed rule change is the first step in the House’s effort to respect the will of the voters without violating the separation of powers clause that is foundational to the Massachusetts Constitution. We look forward to a broader rules discussion early next year.”

Mariano announced the House’s plans while House Democrats met behind closed doors to discuss upcoming votes. A spokesperson said the Rules Committee unanimously endorsed the with Republicans in support.

Representatives did not hold any public deliberations about the new plan to respond to the powers DiZoglio’s office gained at the ballot box, and only a single lawmaker, Rep. Danielle Gregoire, spoke about it on the chamber floor before the vote.

The House already receives a financial audit each year from an independent firm selected by legislative leaders.

The House is meeting in a rare lame-duck formal session Thursday, where representatives also expect to approve long-stalled economic development and clean energy bills.

Senate Democrats do not plan to take similar action related to their rules and the chamber’s audit, according to a spokesperson for Senate President Karen Spilka.

DiZoglio, herself a former representative and senator, has been aggressively pushing to audit the Legislature over objections from top Democrats, who argue that doing so would represent a constitutional overreach.

She was quick to criticize the announcement, posting on social media that such a move amounted to “slapping voters in the face.”

“To the House members currently caucusing. If you strip away the ability for our office to conduct the audit, you give yourselves the ability to control the scope of the audit, by an outside firm, since you’ll still control how much you pay for the audit, what you will allow their scope to be, and what you will allow them to examine or not examine — you’ll be giving yourself control over every aspect of the process which will be overseen by you, and not our office, exempting yourself from oversight — yet again — slapping voters in the face,” she posted while House Democrats met privately.

Mariano announced that the House will act to change Rule 85A in its chamber rules, which declares that the “House Business Manager” with approval from House legal counsel must ensure that “outside, independent audits of House financial accounts be conducted for each fiscal year.” Those audits must be filed with the House clerk and made publicly available upon request under the rule.

DiZoglio’s taxpayer-funded office released results from its first attempt to audit the Legislature with a report published 15 days before Election Day, which said House and Senate Democrats refused to participate and criticized missing information.

The Methuen Democrat wrote to Mariano and Spilka last week renewing her push for information and outlining plans to conduct a “performance audit,” which could be broader than the “financial audit” envisioned by the House rules change.

With more than 70 percent support, voters this month approved a ballot question that explicitly empowered the auditor’s office to audit the Legislature.

Attorney General Andrea Campbell has cautioned that “constitutional limitations” might affect the voter-approved law. On Thursday, Campbell declined to shed more light on what those factors could be and said she first wants to get a better understanding of “what the auditor is looking to actually audit.”

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