​Dear Friend:
I always describe the job of a state legislator as having three components: legislating, as in writing and passing new laws; constituent service, which is helping anyone who reaches out to us navigate a problem; and oversight, to ensure the government is operating properly. But even just on the first component, legislating, there are different ways to achieve a goal. This year, Senator Shelly Hettleman and I had introduced the Board of Public Works (BPW) Climate Transparency Act (HB 1161), to ensure that the BPW--made up of the Governor, Comptroller, and Treasurer--has information regarding the impact of state contracts on our ambitious climate and sustainability goals. But last week, without the House bill even having a hearing, the BPW adopted an advisory implementing the law, which you can read starting on page 42 here. With our mission accomplished, Senator Hettleman and I plan to withdraw the bill. Watch my short video on this topic here.
I also recently had the chance to participate in an interview with Professor John Dedie about the legislative session. You can watch it here.
 
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
The Ways and Means Committee voted the Local Boards of Education Transparency Act (HB 154) to the floor unanimously. It will pass the full House of Delegates later this week.
Last week, I had no bill hearings on my legislation. But this week, I am in the midst of hearings on five bills I have sponsored in three separate committees. It is a busy week!
In the Environment and Transportation Committee last week, we had testimony from two District 16 residents.
Burning Tree Elementary School student Lucy Goldband traveled to Annapolis to testify in support of the Clear Before You Drive Act. The bill would follow the practice in other states of requiring drivers to clear their car roofs and hoods of snow and ice before driving. You can watch her testimony here.
And Donna Berry testified virtually in support of HB 646, legislation to improve the Motor Vehicle Administration process for dealing with certain medical conditions.
I am a cosponsor of both of these bills and have worked with the sponsors and constituents to advance them.

BUDGET UPDATE
The budget committees in the House and Senate are in the midst of their detailed work hearing the budgets of individual state agencies. Before each hearing, the Department of Legislative Services prepares an analysis of the agency's budget. If there is an area of government that is of particular interest to you, you can find the analyses here. Analyses continued to be added as the hearing date for that agency approaches.
 
DISTRICT 16 NIGHT IN ANNAPOLIS
The District 16 Delegation is hosting District 16 Night in Annapolis on Monday, March 9th starting at 6:00pm in the Lowe House Office Building. If you are interested in attending, just click reply to this email.

​POTOMAC INTERCEPTOR NEWS
 
Despite a sharp uptick in political rhetoric around the Potomac Interceptor break, real progress continues to be made. As I write this, there have been no overflow events since Super Bowl Sunday. DC Water--which owns and controls the pipe--expects to return full flow to the pipe (and out of the canal) by mid-March. DC Water is working with the National Park Service on plans to clean and fix the canal once that occurs. There are also odor mitigation efforts underway. As noted previously, DC Water has a landing page on the situation which you can access here. My office continues to email regular updates on the situation and you can just reply if you would like to be added to the list. Those updates are more thorough than this weekly check-in.
The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments held a briefing on the situation earlier this week. You can watch it here.
In addition, DC Water--which owns the pipe--will be holding a public meeting on Thursday (February 26th) at 7pm at Whitman High School to discuss the situation.
 
MONTGOMERY COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS NEWS
As many of you know, Montgomery County Public Schools has been undertaking a boundary study, in part to account for the soon to reopen Woodward High School. The opening of Woodward is a positive development to ease crowding at Walter Johnson High School, but any new lines have pluses and minuses. You can read more about the Superintendent's recommendations here. Remember, you have an independently elected school board and if you have feedback on the recommendations, you should advocate to them.
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One thing related to MCPS we are dealing with at the state level is the requirement for schools to have a minimum of 180 school days and 1,080 school hours. The long closure from snow and ice earlier this year and the crunch of various holidays is putting significant pressure on the school calendar. Although I agree that the school system needs to get better at mitigating impacts from weather events, I am supporting legislation to give Montgomery County some flexibility. The bill is on the House floor this week.

 COMMUNITY NEWS
Each year, the county's planning staff releases a monitoring report on the Downtown Bethesda sector plan. This year's report is now available online and it will be presented to the Planning Board tomorrow. A few highlights:
-The County’s Commuter Survey Report for the AM peak period (7-9am) in the Bethesda Transportation Management District indicates an Employee Non-Auto Driver Mode Share (NADMS) of 51.4% and a Residential NADMS of 65.2%, resulting in a Blended NADMS of 54.2%, which is just below the Blended NADMS Goal of 55%.
-In the 2030-2031 school year, the cluster-wide utilization rate is expected to drop to 80.8%, which is barely within the 80 to 100 percent utilization rate range that MCPS considers efficient for an individual school to be operating at.
-However, as my Bethesda Elementary (BE) Third Grader knows, there is one school in the cluster that remains over capacity and that is BE. 
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The next Purple Line Community Action Team Meeting for the Bethesda-Chevy Chase area will be on Thursday, April 23rd at 6:00pm and will be held virtually. 

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The Greater Bethesda Chamber was in Annapolis last week and we honored their 100th birthday with a floor resolution.

​MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Each week during the legislative session, I plan to spotlight a non-Montgomery County Delegate colleague. This week, I want to highlight Delegate Scott Phillips from Baltimore County. Delegate Phillips is an attorney who previously chaired the Baltimore County Planning Board and now serves on the Judiciary Committee. But as we observe Black History Month, I want to lift up Delegate Phillips' role as chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, the largest state black caucus in the country.

Dear Friend:
According to the House rules, the 31st day of the legislative session is known as the "Introduction Date." Bills introduced after that date are referred to the Rules Committee--instead of their committee of jurisdiction--and are not guaranteed a hearing. With the Introduction Date now passed for both chambers, there are 960 Senate bills and 1,585 House bills (many duplicate each other). 251 of the House bills are pending in the Environment and Transportation Committee. Eight of the bills are ones I have introduced as the primary sponsor and can be viewed here.
Since my last update, I introduced one bill: The Board of Public Works Climate Transparency Act (HB 1161). The legislation ensures that when our state agencies are bringing contracts to the Board of Public Works, they will be consistent with our state's climate and environmental policies.
 
GOVERNOR'S HOUSING PACKAGE UPDATE
I have received many questions regarding the Governor's housing package and its potential impacts on District 16. The Governor has described three different bills as part of his housing package:
1. The Maryland Housing Certainty Act is actually sponsored by members (not formally by request of the Governor) and focuses on what is called "early vesting," as well as impact fees. Early vesting relates to when the existing set of rules and regulations apply to a project. The hearing for the bill is on February 19th.
2. The Maryland Transit and Housing Opportunity Act focused on transit-oriented development in Maryland. A version of this bill passed the House last year and my own view is the that impact on Montgomery County is fairly limited, as we have already prioritized transit-oriented development around our fixed rail transit stations. That is something that has not happened all across the state. The hearing for the bill is on February 26th.
3. The Silver and Starter Homes Act is--in my view--by far the most controversial and far reaching. The bill would preempt a good deal of local rules about set backs, minimum lot size, and where town houses can be placed. As I have shared with those who have asked, I think the proposal is extremely aggressive and would need a lot of work to earn my support. Although the state has occasionally preempted certain local zoning to prioritize specific types of growth, this proposal is far reaching with a one size fits all structure. But I know the committee of jurisdiction will be working on the bill in the weeks ahead. You can watch the bill hearing online.
 
GOVERNOR'S STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS
The Governor delivered his annual State of the State Address one week ago. You can watch the speech here.

​DISTRICT 16 NIGHT IN ANNAPOLIS
The District 16 Delegation is hosting District 16 Night in Annapolis on Monday, March 9th starting at 6:00pm in the Lowe House Office Building. If you are interested in attending, just click reply to this email.

POTOMAC INTERCEPTOR NEWS
 
Work continues to mitigate further leaks from the Potomac Interceptor sewage leak. As noted last week, DC Water has a landing page on the situation which you can access here. My office continues to email regular updates on the situation and you can just reply if you would like to be added to the list. The sewage is no longer regularly leaking into the Potomac River but when bypass pumps go offline or other variables occur, some spillage may occur.
The Utilities Subcommittee of the Environment and Transportation Committee held a briefing on the breach with DC Water, Maryland Department of the Environment, Potomac Riverkeepers, and others last week. You can watch that here.

 COMMUNITY NEWS
The National Park Service is seeking public input on potential changes at Glen Echo Park. Learn more and comment here.
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A community meeting about the potential project on the Friendship Heights GEICO property will be held on Thursday, February 19th at 7 pm, in the Westland Middle School cafeteria (5511 Massachusetts Avenue, Bethesda, MD). RSVP at [email protected]. 
 
PRESIDENTS DAY
This past Monday was Presidents Day. Each year, the House of Delegates hears an address from a Republican member in honor of President Lincoln and a Democratic member in honor of President Washington. Back in 2018, I had the opportunity to deliver the Washington Day address. You can hear that old speech--it predates video streaming on the House floor--here.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Every week during the legislative session, I plan to spotlight a non-Montgomery County Delegate colleague. This week, I want to highlight Delegate Ashanti Martinez, the House Majority Whip. Prior to becoming a Delegate, Ashanti had a long history of working in local government and on local campaigns--including on the Congressional campaign of our current House of Delegates Speaker. The online Maryland Manual--the state's historic compendium of government--starts listing a Majority Whip for the Maryland House of Delegates about 50 years ago in the 1970s (the first one listed is a Calvert County Democrat named Thomas Rymer). In all of that time, Delegate Martinez is the first to rise to that post in his first term (and the first Afro-Latino). And, importantly for me, Delegate Martinez's mom works at Metro!

Every bill introduced by a certain date is guaranteed a hearing in the appropriate committee of the House of Delegates. Right now, the committee I chair--Environment & Transportation--is holding bill hearings every Tuesday through Thursday (soon to be every Tuesday through Friday). Two of my bills have also had bill hearings already, the Local Boards of Education Transparency Act (HB 154) and the Metro Funding Modification Act of 2026 (HB 386). 

​LEGISLATION UPDATE
 
Since my last update, I have introduced two more bills.
The Large Buildings for Tomorrow Act (HB 870) would ensure that buildings that will need to comply with Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS) in the future are built to comply today. BEPS is our state policy to reduce emissions from buildings. It makes no sense for a building built today to not comply with standards that will apply in the future under current law.

​The Land Transfer Accountability Act (HB 1009) sets guardrails around the federal government's ability to own land and buildings it owns in the state. Recall that the current Administration has sought to dispose of federal office buildings and preserved natural resources.

The Maryland Transit Administration Reform Act (HB 1081) would reform the Maryland Transit Administration--which runs Baltimore-area transit as well as statewide commuter rail and commuter bus service--by creating two new boards to oversee these functions and makes other changes to improve MTA's functions. 
 
ENERGY UPDATE
I had the opportunity to discuss energy issues--which is new to the jurisdiction of my committee--with the Maryland Energy Talk Podcast. You can listen to it here.
 
DISTRICT 16 NIGHT IN ANNAPOLIS
 The District 16 Delegation is hosting District 16 Night in Annapolis on Monday, March 9th starting at 6:00pm in the Lowe House Office Building. If you are interested in attending, just click reply to this email.

POTOMAC INTERCEPTOR NEWS
 This past weekend, I visited the site of the Potomac Interceptor breach. You can get there by parking at Lockhouse 9 and walking towards Lockhouse 10 where you will see an active work site and sewage being pumped from the breached pipe, through the canal, and then pumped back into the pipe. Just a warning that if you do go, the tow path has not been plowed and there is quite an odor.
DC Water now has a landing page on the situation which you can access here. My office continues to email regular updates on the situation and you can just reply if you would like to be added to the list.
The Utilities Subcommittee of the Environment and Transportation Committee will hold a briefing on the breach with DC Water, Maryland Department of the Environment, Potomac Riverkeepers, and others on Friday afternoon.
 
COMMUNITY NEWS
This week's Montgomery County Planning Board is taking up two issues of interest for District 16.
First, the planning staff has released the biennial monitoring report on the implementation of what was called the White Flint Sector Plan. You can review the report here.
Second, the planning staff has provided initial recommendations regarding their update of the Friendship Heights Sector Plan. You can review those recommendations here.
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WSSC has a Customer Notification System that you can sign up for to stay up to date with WSSC issues that may affect you, including leaks and breaks.
 
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
 This week's member spotlight is Delegate Ryan Nawrocki. Ryan is a member of the Environment & Transportation Committee that I chair and represents Baltimore County. I would say that my relationship with Ryan encapsulates the old adage that you can disagree without being disagreeable. Ryan is a member of the Freedom Caucus so there is a lot we disagree on. But we are similar ages, have similar senses of humor, and both have young families--although his is much larger than mine--so we can disagree in a friendly and respectful way. Which is one of the nice things about Maryland's political culture. You can watch us discuss and debate energy issues on Baltimore's local news here.

​Dear Friend:
The deadline to introduce legislation in the House and be guaranteed a bill hearing is Friday, February 13. Between now and then, numerous bills will be introduced. Thus far, I have introduced the following bills:
Local Boards of Education Transparency Act (HB 154): Requiring local boards of education to livestream their meetings and meet other transparency requirements.
Metro Funding Modification Act of 2026 (HB 386): Resets Maryland's regional contribution to DC-area Metro funding to account for inflation and other needs.
Co-Op and Condo Energy Refund Equity Act of 2026 (HB 702): Ensures that co-op and condo residents benefit from any energy rebates the General Assembly passes, including last year's rebate.
Franchise Reform Act (HB 730): Reforms the state's franchising laws to help our small businesses that are trying to use the franchise method.
More to come!

FLOOR UPDATE
Our floor sessions are off to a fast start this year with debate on the redistricting map and a bill to limit county partnerships with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) both up for debate at the end of last week and into this week. You can see part of my participation in the map debate here, here, and here.
 
COMMITTEE UPDATE 
The House Environment and Transportation Committee continues a rigorous briefing schedule. Since my last email, we have heard from our regional grid operator (PJM) and our California and Texas energy officials, as well as state transportation officials. Each briefing, hearing or other committee meeting is available on the committee's YouTube page.

DELEGATION UPDATE 
On most Fridays of the legislative session, the Montgomery County House Delegation meets. Last week, we heard from the Department of Legislative Services for our local fiscal briefing and voted on a few pieces of local legislation (bills that only affect Montgomery County). You can watch the meeting here and the continuation of it here.
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DISTRICT 16 NIGHT IN ANNAPOLIS
The District 16 Delegation is hosting District 16 Night in Annapolis on Monday, March 9th starting at 6:00pm in the Lowe House Office Building. If you are interested in attending, just click reply to this email.

POTOMAC INTERCEPTOR NEWS 
As noted last week, the District 16 legislators have been in regular contact with the Maryland Department of the Environment, as well as DC Water (who owns and operates the ruptured line, not WSSC) and Montgomery County government, regarding the major wastewater pipe breach along the Potomac. The good news is that the bypass system is now turned on and is operating well on most days. The bad news is that full repairs on the interceptor will take time and the impact of the sewage leak on the environment is not yet fully known. Please stay tuned for further updates. We have been sending more detailed updates to a list of constituents who have expressed interest. If you would like to be added to that list, please reply to this email.
One thing that challenges the bypass system--and our infrastructure in general--is items going down the toilet or the drain that do not belong there, especially grease and wipes. Please do your part to not put these materials into the system.

​THANK YOU MAYOR SLAVIN 
The Town of Somerset's Mayor, Jeffrey Slavin, has announced that he will not seek re-election. Mayor Slavin has served in that role since 2008 and was on the Town Council before that. Thank you Mayor Slavin for your years of service to our community. You can watch his announcement here.

CAMPAIGN NEWS
Senator Sara Love and I have announced a series of meet-and-greets around the district and have had two thus far. Unfortunately, the one scheduled for February 8th in Maplewood is being rescheduled. Email [email protected] for further information on any of our meet-and-greets.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT 
Every week during the legislative session, I plan to spotlight a non-Montgomery County Delegate colleague. This week, I want to highlight Regina T. Boyce. Regina serves on the House Environment & Transportation Committee with me where she chairs the Natural Resources and Open Space Subcommittee. Although she represents an urban Baltimore district, she has become a trusted voice on the committee for rural, agricultural, and sportsmen communities because of her work ethic and diligence. And fun fact, we went to the same elementary, middle, and high schools!