Gov. Maura Healey is expected back in Massachusetts this weekend after spending about two weeks either in Ireland on official business or in Rhode Island on a personal trip, her office said Wednesday morning.
Secretary of State William Galvin has served as acting governor since Saturday. Healey, fresh off a six-day trade mission to Ireland, decamped that day to Rhode Island and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll left to attend to a family matter in Virginia.
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Healey's trip to the Ocean State initially had no announced return date. Driscoll returns to Massachusetts on Wednesday morning as previously announced, the governor's office said.
"Lieutenant Governor Driscoll returns to Massachusetts this morning and will be Acting Governor through Saturday, when Governor Healey will return from Rhode Island," the governor's office said Wednesday morning.
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Healey left Sunday, June 25 for a trade mission to Ireland that ran until Friday, June 30. Shortly before noon on Saturday, July 1, Healey's office advised that the governor "will be in Rhode Island for personal travel beginning Saturday July 1."
While serving as acting governor during Healey's trip to Ireland, Driscoll signed five bills into law, including an interim state budget.
Healey's absence this week comes as the full-year state budget and a long-discussed tax relief package remain tied up in Beacon Hill negotiations, state transportation officials are overseeing the start of an eight-week closure of the Sumner Tunnel, and the Registry of Motor Vehicles is in the early days of implementing the state's new expanded license eligibility law.
