Top Beacon Hill Democrats indicated Wednesday they are willing to rework a major deadline that calls for the end of formal business before campaign season kicks into high gear, a potential rules change that could reshape the flow of work in the Massachusetts Legislature.

House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka faced pleas for culture reforms after closing out a 23-hour final formal session over the summer with only a handful of major proposals having crossed the finish line.

But in the months since, the Legislature has continued working and some deals have been struck on high-profile bills like a policy-laden jobs package.

After a meeting Wednesday afternoon with Gov. Maura Healey and Spilka, Mariano said he believes it is time “that we sort of reassess the difficulties that we had this year and ways that we can maybe improve and not have a repeat performance.”

“We both said very strongly, at the end of the day on July 31, it doesn’t mean this ends, that we will continue to work,” the Quincy Democrat said. “We kept that commitment and we did get a lot of things done, if you think about it, and maybe July 31 is an arbitrary deadline.”

Under the Legislature’s joint rules — which are agreed to by the House and Senate at the start of every two-year session — formal legislative business is supposed to end by July 31 in the second year of a legislative session.

The rule was first implemented in the 1990s to prevent legislators from pushing forward policies or making decisions after Election Day when politicians either know they will not be returning to the State House or are safe for another two-year term.

But Beacon Hill has blown past the date over the past several sessions, most notably in 2020 when legislators, mired in the dark days of the COVID-19 pandemic, decided to extend formal work into the fall to tackle specific bills like a police reform measure and the state budget.

The two branches have taken a similar approach this year.

The Senate voted to take recorded votes on a set list of policies stuck in inter-chamber negotiations if agreements are reached. The House adopted an order Wednesday that allows them to hold a formal session Thursday, which is expected to feature action on the jobs bill and potentially, climate-focused legislation.

Spilka said reforming the July 31 deadline is “open for discussion.”

“I think our rules are constantly evolving depending upon how the sessions go, how our colleagues in the House and the Senate, and I think it’s all up for discussion,” she said at the State House Wednesday. “So that most likely will be part of the discussion.”