The Maryland General Assembly opened its 448th Session on Wednesday, January 14th . The session lasts 90 days ending on April 13th. All bills introduced have to be signed by the House of Delegates and the Senate with exactly the same wording before they can be sent to the Governor for his signature. As of the first day over 500 bills have already been introduced. You can see all the bills that have been introduced on the House and Senate links: https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/
The big news this year is the election of a new Speaker of the House of Delegates, Joseline Pena-Melnyk. After she was elected, she made a lot of new appointments. The biggest structural change is Peña-Melnyk’s decision to split the House Health and Government Operations Committee into a Health Committee and a separate standing committee on Labor, Elections and Government. Here are the new Committee Chairpersons:
Appropriations Committee – Ben Barnes (D-Prince Georges and Anne Arundel)
Economic Matters - Del. Kriselda Valderrama (D-Prince George’s
Environment and Transportation - Del. Marc Korman (D-Montgomery)
Judiciary Committee – Sandy Bartlett (D- Anne Arundel)
Labor, Elections and Government Committee -Del. Melissa Wells (D-Baltimore City)
Health Committee -Del. Heather Bagnall (D-Anne Arundel)
Rules Committee, Dels. Anne Healey (D – Prince George’s)
Ways and Means – Del. Jheanelle Wilkins (D – Montgomery)
There are a number of important issues that the General Assembly hopes to address in its 90-day session. Top of the list is how to respond to the Trump Administration Federal Action. I’ll be discussing some of those in the upcoming weeks as we review specific legislation but here are some of the big issues:
o Budget Deficit
§ The State is facing a $1.4 billion deficit, and the Legislative leadership is not inclined to vote for any tax increases in a budget year, so it will be interesting to see how they manage the deficit without cutting needed programs.
o Redistricting will be discussed this year.
§ Some Democrats want to push for a new map that would reduce the Republican Congressional Reps from 1 to 0 in response to Republican redistricting plans in other states. The Governor and Speaker support some version of redistricting, but the Senate President is against it. We’ll see.
o Immigration:
§ There will be legislation to eliminate 287(g) Partnerships between local law enforcement and ICE that make it easier for authorities to arrest and deport people that officials say are in the country illegally. Eight Maryland counties currently participate in such collaborative agreements.
§ Another bill would forbid ICE agents from wearing face masks that shield their identity.
o Health Care
§ A bill to enable the State Health Secretary to recommend vaccines.
§ Legislation to help the 140,000 Marylanders who may lose Medicaid coverage because of new work and redetermination requirements passed in Trump’s tax legislation.
o Affordability
§ Governor Moore will support legislation to lower housing costs by clearing the way for transit-oriented development on state-owned land.
§ Moore also will support legislation to go after corporate grocery stores artificially raising prices, a practice known as dynamic pricing.
o Environmental Issues
§ Bottle Recycling Bill
o Elections
§ Constitutional amendment to require special elections for legislative vacancies to fill vacancies who are appointed in first year of a 4 year session
o Renters Rights
§ Good Cause Evictions
o Labor Issues
§ Collective bargaining rights for non-tenured professors and graduate students at the University of Maryland
§ Binding arbitration for Maryland state workers.
The Maryland Legislative Coalition has produced a more comprehensive agenda that includes many of the bills that advocates will be supporting. You can see the whole list with this link: https://mdlegislative.com/
HOW TO ADVOCATE FOR BILLS
When there is a Committee Hearing on A Bill Scheduled, it is important to contact members of the Committee. The General Assembly website lists all the committees, the members of each committee and their contact information. Go to the main page (https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/
Call or send an email to your legislators using the contact information found. Here is where you can find out who are your Delegates and Senator: https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/
If you would like to include a short description of the bills, you can include the descriptions shown above. You are also encouraged to include any details of why you think this bill is important.
Dear (legislator),
My name is _________ and my address is ______________. I am writing to let you know that the following bill(s) is(are) important to me and to all Marylanders. I would like to request that you be a champion for these bills and help them get passed quickly.
Each of these bills is important for Maryland and I support them and would like your help in getting them passed. If you are not on the relevant committee, I would appreciate your voting for them during the session. If you are on the relevant committee, I hope you will fight for them and support the sponsors as much as possible.
Thank you for your consideration,
(name)
