In her role as president, she has continued her mission to support the rights of children and veterans, promote affordable housing, invigorate the Commonwealth’s traditional fishing and agricultural industries, and advance new technologies in the life sciences, as well as reforms in health care, energy, transportation, pensions and ethics.
Murray’s signature piece of legislation as is a health care cost control bill that was signed into law in August, 2008. Under this law, health care providers and insurers are held to new standards of transparency to identify cost-drivers in the market while also modernizing the health care delivery system with the adoption of standardized electronic medical records, physician order entry systems and uniform billing.
The new law also addresses the severe shortage of primary care doctors in the Commonwealth through a variety of measures.
President Murray was successful in getting other significant legislation passed in 2008 to benefit the people of Massachusetts while in the first six months of 2009, she worked to pass an unprecedented and comprehensive string of reforms, all while delivering an on-time and balanced budget during the worst recession in generations.
Prior to becoming senate president, Therese Murray served as chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means. Some of her notable legislative accomplishments throughout her career include spearheading the drive for welfare reform in 1995; consolidating child care services in 1998; passing the Mental Health Parity law in 2000 and creating the Catastrophic Illness in Children Relief Fund in 2001.
Murray was also the driving force behind Chapter 70 reform in 2006, a lead conferee on the landmark Health Care Reform Act of 2006, while she sponsored and passed the Oceans Management Act of 2008.
Murray is currently serving her eighth term as state senator for her district which includes the towns of Sandwich, Plympton, Plymouth, Pembroke, Kingston, Falmouth, Bourne, and parts of Barnstable. She is a 35-year resident of Plymouth and the mother of one daughter.