A New Committee

​Dear Friend:
Later today, the Governor will introduce his proposed budget and I will have plenty more to say about that in a future email. But in these early days of session before there are many bills to have hearings on or votes to take, the committees participate in briefings on various topics of interest to perform our oversight functions.  I chair the Environment and Transportation Committee and some of the briefings we have held or will hold during these first few weeks of session include:
-Electrification Impacts on the Maryland Electric Grid
-Clean Cars & Electric Vehicle Equipment
-State of Agriculture
-Housing
-Maryland Department of Transportation Major Projects
-State of the Chesapeake Bay
Further briefings are in the planning phase.

​And if you are really into the minutiae of how these committees work, you can watch the Environment and Transportation Committee's organizational meeting from last week, my first one as chair.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
 
Two of my pieces of legislation have been scheduled for their first hearings.  I shared further information about both bills in last week's email.
The Maryland Metro Funding Act (HB 198) would ensure that Maryland can provide additional resources to the Metro system that serves Montgomery County. The bill will be heard by the Appropriations Committee on January 23rd.
The Electric Vehicle Recharging Equipment Act (HB 159) updates the law on how Homeowners Association, Condo Board, and Co-op Board governed housing can provide access to vehicle charging equipment.  The bill will be heard by the Environment and Transportation Committee on February 6.
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The Montgomery County Delegation meets most Fridays early in the legislative session to consider local bills (bills that only affect Montgomery County). Our first meeting of the session was last Friday where we also heard from the County Executive and County Council President. You can watch the meeting here. And the calendar for all of the Delegation's meetings is regularly updated and can be found here.

ENVIRONMENT UPDATE
 
Last week I shared a few recent reports related to Maryland's work to implement our greenhouse gas reduction goals.  Another relevant report is the annual submission from the Maryland Commission on Climate Change, which you can review here.
It includes recommendations from the Commission for legislative and executive action to help meet our climate goals.
 
COMMUNITY NEWS
We have experienced our first significant weather in quite some time. Below is a list of useful storm contacts for the future.

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The Bethesda Chevy Chase Democratic Breakfast Club has a series of upcoming meetings. To obtain links for any of the below, please email [email protected]:
-Monday, February 5 at 7:30am: Council President Andrew Friedson
-March 4, at 7:30am: Lisa Taylor, Chair of the Montgomery County Committee Against Hate/Violence
-April 10, at 7:30am: District 18 state legislators

BOOK CORNER
Given the bill hearing being scheduled for my Metro legislation, I thought I would tie-in this week's recommended book: Zachary M. Schrag's The Great Society Subway. Scrag's book is a history of the development and construction of the DC-area Metro. It was written in 2006 and is focused on Metro's formative stages, as opposed to its actual operation.
I actually reviewed this book for a local political website 15 years ago and you can read that throw-back here: https://maryland-politics.blogspot.com/2008/07/summer-reading-list.html