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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. ----- 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. ----- 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.  ----- 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.  Comments are closed.
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January 2026
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