Bills Progressing - Weekly Update

With the bill deadline behind us and "crossover"--the date by which bills must pass one chamber without requiring a special vote of the Rules Committee--less than a month away, we are in the real legislative grind of the session. My committee (Environment and Transportation) is now holding bill hearings four days a week. After bill hearings, our six subcommittees hold detailed work sessions on the various bills moving forward. Committees are also reporting out more bills so the daily floor sessions are also getting longer as the full House considers each committee's work product. Below I will provide an update on the bills I am sponsoring and some other issues of particular note.

P.S. As President's Day just passed, I wanted to share my 2018 address to the House of Delegates in honor of Washington's birthday. Every year the Speaker of the House has a Delegate make such an address (and there is a similar tradition for Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther KIng, Jr.). You can listen to the address (which predates video streaming in the chamber) here.
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
​The  Electric Vehicle Recharging Equipment Act of 2024 (HB 159) passed the full House with a bipartisan vote last week. The bill updates a law we passed several years ago on access to electric vehicle charging equipment in buildings governed by homeowners associations and condo boards.

The Maryland Metro Funding Act of 2024 (HB 198) passed the House Appropriations Committee with bipartisan support and will be on the House floor next week. As you may know, our local Metro system is facing an operating funding short-fall.  The Moore Administration has stepped up with additional funds but this requires a change to our state law capping the operating fund increases to Metro. The bill has already had its hearing in the Appropriations Committee.
The Open-Source Phonics Matching Grant Program Act (HB 475) had its hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee this week. This legislation came from my work with a constituent and will put some state support into free reading materials to help support literacy in and out of schools. You can watch the hearing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r-2njs8-9E&t=447s
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I am regularly asked about the End-Of-Life Option Act, a bill which would allow those with terminal conditions in Maryland to request aide in dying. It can be a sensitive and personal topic, although the majority of constituents I hear from about it support the bill.  Last week, two House Committees held a joint hearing on the bill which you can watch here. Several years ago, this legislation passed the House of Delegates but not the State Senate.
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Another impactful bill moving through the committee process is the Access to Care Act . The bill has controversial headlines, but at its core it allows the undocumented to buy into plans on the state health insurance exchange with no access to subsidies or other government or taxpayer funded benefits if the federal government grants Maryland a waiver to do so. This represents an opportunity to expand healthcare access to the 6% of Marylanders who are uninsured (down from 13% before the passage of Obamacare).
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The House leadership announced the Decency Agenda this week. It contains five important bills including the Freedom to Read Act--which establishes a set of state standards for libraries to avoid banning books--a school employee training requirement for anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.  You may recall that I have a local (Montgomery County) bill on this issue, which statewide legislation would obviate the need for. Here is the complete Decency Agenda:
HB785  – Freedom to Read Act:
-Establishes a set of State Standards for Libraries to ensure that libraries cannot:
Exclude materials from their catalogs because of the origin, background, or views of the person who create the materials;
Proscribe or remove materials from their catalogs because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.
-Protects school and public library workers by preventing punitive actions being taken against them for their adherence to the State Standards for Libraries.
HB602 – Employment Discrimination – Sexual Orientation
-Prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in response to a recent Maryland Supreme Court ruling that said state law grants certain job protections to workers on the basis of their sex and their gender identity but not based on their sexual orientation.
HB1386 – Education - Employee Training and Holocaust Education Study – Requirements
-Implements anti-bias teacher training focused on combating anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
-Requires MSDE to conduct a third-party evaluation on the implementation of Holocaust curriculum standards.
HB1287 – State and County Superintendents of Schools - Employment Contracts - School Leadership Course or Program
-Requires all incoming County Superintendents & the State Superintendent to complete a school leadership course or program.
HB333 – Election Law - Election Disinformation on Large Social Media Platforms and Influence Related to Voting
-Combats voter suppression by defining “influence” in the law to apply to deceptive tactics intentionally used for voter suppression.
-Creates a voter action line within the State Board of Elections (SBE) to collect potential misinformation and refer them to the proper prosecution authority if necessary.
-Requires SBE to report voter suppression efforts found on social media platforms to the platform, request false information is removed, and issue corrective information to ensure the public knows the facts.
ADMINISTRATION UPDATE
In the Environment and Transportation Committee this week, Lieutenant Governor Aruna Miller presented one of the Administration's priority bills: The Maryland Road Worker Protection Act of 2024.
In 2020, construction worker Michael O'Connor was killed on Old Georgetown Road--a state highway--in District 16. We worked with Mr. O'Connor's widow to require the State Highway Administration to provide a report on worker safety which you can read here . The basic thrust of State Highway's response then was that no additional measures needed to be taken.  So after a tragic incident on the Baltimore Beltway killed six highway workers, I was relieved to see the Moore-Miller Administration respond in force with a Lieutenant Governor-led work group followed by legislation.
The bill would increase the automated enforcement penalties for work zone violations, make it easier to place automated enforcement equipment, and dedicate more funds to work zone safety.
BUDGET UPDATE
In prior emails, I noted that the Moore Administration set aside $90 million in unspecified funding for implementation of the Climate Solutions Now Act, Maryland's ambitious legislation to make the state a net zero emitter of greenhouse gases by 2045. The Governor has now announced his intention for the funds, although how they are used will ultimately be up to the General Assembly. Under the Governor's proposal, the funds will be allocated as follows:
$17 million for grants to purchase and lease electric school buses to serve Maryland public school students;
$23 million  for grants to install electric vehicle charging infrastructure in low and moderate income communities; and
$50 million for grants to electrify hospitals, schools, multi-family housing, and other community buildings.
COMMUNITY NEWS
Maryland Matters recently ran a story on District 16 resident Joy Hakim and her work to improve school textbooks. You can read the story here.
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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]:
-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
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Each year, the Governor delivers his "Green Bag" appointments to state boards and commissions to the State Senate. The name comes from the ceremonial bag the hard copy is delivered in. Among this year's Green Bag appointees is District 16's Dr. Phyllis G. Scalettar, who has been nominated to reappointment to the board of the Maryland Legal Services Corporation.
BOOK CORNER
I have already twice included books in this section by author John Frece, a scribe of Maryland's 20th century political history. I had the opportunity to meet him earlier this month so this is a good time to mention another of his books, this one his most recent: Self-Destruction: The rise, fall, and redemption of U.S. Senator Daniel B. Brewster. Senator Brewster also served in the state legislature and the House of Representatives before representing the state in the United States Senate from 1963 to 1969. He is perhaps best known for serving as Lyndon Johnson's proxy in the 1964 Maryland Democratic Primary where Brewster squared off--on LBJ's behalf--against George Wallace. For those interested in Maryland history, this is a terrific read.