May 1, 2025

WDC has good news about its legislative advocacy this year in Annapolis. Nearly half the bills we championed passed the General Assembly and are headed to the Governor’s desk for his signature. That success rate is a testament to our Advocacy Committee members’ efforts and our priority bills’ sponsoring legislators, many of whom represent Montgomery County.

For the 2025 session, WDC officially backed 21 bills; 12 of 21 bills crossed over to the opposite chamber and 10 of the 12 crossed-overbills passed out of both Chambers by Sine Die on April 8. See below for the 10 successful bills that are on their way to becoming law in Maryland along with the WDC Advocacy subcommittees that supported them.

HB0190/SB0181: Correctional Services-Geriatric and Medical Parole (Criminal Justice Reform)

HB0268/SB0981: Hospitals-Financial Assistance and Collection of Debts-Policies (Health, Aging)

HB0334/SB0156: Workgroup on Newborn Nurse Home Visiting Services-Establishment (Reproductive Health)

HB0424/SB0357: Prescription Drug Affordability Board-Authority and Stakeholder Council Membership-Lowering Prescription Drug Costs for All Marylanders Now Act (Aging)

HB0853: Post conviction Review-Procedure to Reduce Duration of Sentence-Maryland Second Act Look (Criminal Justice Reform)

HB0859/SB0611: Access to Health Insurance for Child Care Professionals-Outreach (Children and Youth)

HB0879: Task Force to Improve Attendance and Reduce Chronic Absenteeism in Schools (Children and Youth)

HB0881/SB0703: Family Investment Program-Child Support (Children and Youth)

HB0930/SB0848: Public Health Abortion Grant Program-Establishment (Reproductive Health)

Success this year was significant, but there was also disappointment over 11 worthy bills that didn’t make it all the way through. Sometimes Advocacy members pour their life’s blood into a bill, and it falls short for a variety of frustrating reasons. Our appreciation goes to those advocates even though they can’t celebrate this year and must look ahead to the next session. Legislative success or not in 2025, WDC’s Advocacy members are resilient, savvy, and relentless. They’ll be back in action for MGA 2026.

April 1, 2025

The end of the 2025 Maryland legislative session is less than one week away and for legislators, it’s the equivalent of college finals week, or the last two minutes of the fourth quarter, or the bottom of the ninth inning. Delegates and Senators are racing to finish their work by midnight on Monday, April 7th. After only 90 days in session, the legislature will pass many hundreds of bills and the FY26 budget, which by law, must be balanced.

Thanks to excellent coverage I’ve been reading from news sites including Maryland Matters and the Maryland Reporter, here’s a brief synopsis about the difficult work of reaching a balanced budget that both serves Marylanders and maintains the state’s fiscal health.

On March 25th, after hours of floor debate, the House approved an FY26 budget of $67 billion, one-tenth of a percent higher than the FY25 budget. (This figure includes all spending, including general and federal funds as well as higher education.) The House budget bill has two parts, HB350 and HB352, and after the House approval, the Senate has now started its own process of addressing the budget bill cross-file of SB319 and SB321.

The FY26 budget bill framework agreed to by House and Senate contains key provisions being considered to address the more than $3 billion structural deficit.

• $2 billion in cuts, which are still being detailed.
• $1 billion in new taxes, including a sales tax on data and IT services.
• 2% surcharge on capital gains income over $350,000.
• $344 million in projected revenue from changes in the income tax code, including two new tax brackets that levy higher tax rates for the highest income taxpayers.

I could add more detail about the budget in this newsletter but by the next paragraph, I know that “eyes would glaze over.” For those of you who are developing an interest in “getting into the (Annapolis) weeds,” continue to check out Maryland Matters, the Maryland Reporter, and the web site for the General Assembly. Next newsletter: WDC’s debrief on how our priority bills fared and what’s left to be done.

March 15, 2025

Legislative activity in Annapolis is ratcheting up for the final three weeks of the ninety-day session. House and Senate legislators are working at fever pitch to pass hundreds of bills, as well as a balanced budget by deadline. This is a tall order every single year.

March 17: Crossover Day is when each Chamber sends to the other those bills it intends to pass favorably, giving those bills a chance to get all the way through the second Chamber in time. Opposite Chamber bills received after March 17 are subject to referral to Rules Committees, which can significantly reduce a bill's chances of passing.

March 31: A budget bill must be passed in the House and Senate by this date. This year’s fiscal atmosphere is especially stormy due to a $3.2 billion structural deficit plus the growing impacts of the Trump administration’s actions. Multiple proposals to balance revenues and expenses will be argued and negotiated to ensure a balanced budget for FY26 is reached.

April 7 is Adjournment (Sine Die) for the General Assembly. Legislators will wrap up the 2025 Session by midnight. All bills must be passed by this date. Then, between April 27 and May 27, passed bills are presented to the Governor and are either signed into law or vetoed.

It’s not too late to follow what’s going on in the General Assembly. See below for two terrific resources to check out:

• The Maryland General Assembly website is a comprehensive and in-depth source of information. Website visitors can learn about bills and legislators, watch online committee hearings, House-Senate floor sessions, and track bills’ progress. Additionally, anyone can set up a MyMGA account and receive progress notices about bills of interest.
• For superlative Maryland legislative news coverage, look to Maryland Matters with its experienced, ear-to-the-ground journalists. Maryland Matters gives its readers an incisive inside view into the workings of Annapolis.
• 
  

Thanks for reading Advocacy Corner today. In the next newsletter you’ll see a report on the 2025 Maryland General Assembly Session, including how WDC’s priority bills fared. Cross fingers. Three more weeks!

March 1, 2025

On a beautiful, sunny, and warm February 26th, WDC held its Annapolis Day experience for members. At the morning’s opening program, our attendees heard remarks from Brooke Lierman, Maryland Comptroller, and Delegate Dana Jones, President of the Women’s Legislative Caucus. 

Our group observed the morning floor proceedings in the House and Senate chambers and then dispersed for legislator meetings to advocate for selected priority bills. WDC Issue Captains gathered attendees to visit legislators’ offices and led advocacy conversations with bill sponsors as well as Montgomery County members of the committees considering the bills. Thanks go to Issue Captains who led those conversations: Liisi Fidler (Environment), Janet Frank (Housing), JoAnne Koravos (Aging), Lynn Olson (Advancing Democracy in Maryland), Cynthia Rubenstein (Reproductive Health), Kate Stein (Children and Youth), and Beth Tomasello (Criminal Justice Reform).

At noon, WDC sponsored a catered luncheon at the Treasury Building, and more than a dozen Montgomery County legislators joined our group to explain their priorities for the session in the context of a difficult state and national environment. Attendees also heard from Delegate Jheanelle Wilkins, President of the Legislative Black Caucus (the largest in the nation), and Delegate Joseline Pena Melnyk, Chair of the Health and Government Operations Committee.

WDC’s action-packed Annapolis Day closed with opportunities for our members to attend Committee hearings and witness legislators and advocates make their best cases for (or against) legislation for the 2025 session.

Lastly, from Advocacy Chair, Cynthia Rubenstein, and Advocacy Co-Chairs, JoAnne Koravos and Diana Conway, THANK YOU to all who were part of the planning, organizing, coordinating, communicating, implementing, and attending! See you next year for Annapolis Day 2026!

February 15, 2025

WDC in Annapolis

On Wednesday, February 26, the Advocacy Committee will be leading an Annapolis Day experience from 8:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. (lunch included). Attendees will have the opportunity to visit Legislators’ offices for conversations about WDC’s priority bills. If you are a WDC member and want to learn how direct advocacy can help move bills in the General Assembly, please register and join us for the day. As a small preview, see below for three important bills that will be included in our discussions with selected Senators and Delegates. 

HB0930/SB0848: Public Health Abortion Grant Program-Establishment, co-sponsored by Delegate Lesley Lopez and Senator Guy Guzzzone. This bill will establish a State Special Fund and grant program to provide operating grants to Maryland clinical abortion care providers. It will enable them to serve individuals who have insufficient resources to pay for these services and for whom the use of federal funds is prohibited. This program will be funded by surplus insurance premiums that the Affordable Care Act requires Qualified Health Plans to set aside in segregated accounts for abortion coverage. These surplus insurance premium funds will be transferred annually to the segregated, non-lapsing State Special Fund. No tax dollars are required.

HB862/SB452: Childcare Affordability Commission-Establishment. Co-sponsored by Senator Nancy King and Delegate Jared Solomon, this bill will establish a Commission to study and make recommendations to address childcare affordability in the State. Despite historic investments in childcare scholarships over two years of the Moore-Miller administration, the high cost of childcare continues to significantly suppress women’s workforce participation in Maryland. The extent of the problem is outlined in a revealing 2024 report by the Office of the Maryland Comptroller. Current mechanisms for funding childcare in Maryland simply don’t work and this bill will help the State move towards finding childcare funding solutions that enable our economy and our families to grow and thrive.

SB0632/HB1198: Correctional Services-Comprehensive Rehabilitative Prerelease Services-Female Incarcerated Individuals. This bill is co-sponsored by Sen. Mary Washington and Delegate Charlotte Crutchfield. Background: In 2021 the General Assembly overrode the Governor’s veto to pass the Gender-Responsive Prerelease Act to require the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) to open and operate a pre-release center for women in an appropriate location, with programming that is gender-responsive, trauma-informed and evidence-based. It is now four years later, and DPSCS’s execution has been abysmal. Their selected site is undersized, with a bed capacity that is entirely inadequate, that does not detail gender-responsive programming and whose operation will not occur until seven years after the statutory deadline. SB0632/HB1198 will remedy the current shortcomings and will ensure that this facility for women is done correctly and sets them up for success.

February 1, 2025

Maryland is less than a month into its 2025 General Assembly session and bills are dropping at an accelerating pace. House and Senate committee bill hearings are well under way. Over the next month, bill introduction activity will reach fever pitch before March 3, the deadline for introduction of new bills (without suspension of rules). The Advocacy Committee is deep in the process of testifying for priority bills and pressing ahead through the rest of the session to help get them passed.

To illustrate the work under way, three priority bills that were in the pipeline early in the session are profiled below. These three bills represent issues including Reproductive Health, Aging, and Advancing Democracy in Maryland. 

HB0334/SB0156: Universal Newborn Nurse Home Visiting Services-Program Establishment and Insurance Coverage. This bill, co-sponsored by Del. Kenneth Kerr and Sen. Karen Lewis Young, would establish a flexible, voluntary program to provide universal newborn home visiting services by a registered nurse to all families with newborns residing in Maryland. These services would reach mothers and their newborns during the first 12 weeks after birth and promote newborn and maternal health and positive parenting. 

HB0424/SB0357: Prescription Drug Affordability Board Expansion. This bill, co-sponsored by Del. Bonnie Cullison and Sen. Brian Feldman, would expand the authority of Maryland’s Drug Affordability Board (PDAB) to set upper limits on how much certain payors would pay for high-cost prescription drugs. PDAB’s expanded authority would enable it to set upper payment limits on high-cost prescription medications to cover all Marylanders. 

HB0174/SB0002: Special Elections to Fill a Vacancy in Office. This bill, co-sponsored by Del. Linda Foley and Sen. Cheryl Kagan, would provide for special elections to fill legislative vacancies instead of the current practice of party central committees filling such vacancies through appointment. This bill would allow the voters of legislative districts to vote directly for their representatives to the Maryland General Assembly. Twenty-five states (including Virginia), already fill their legislative vacancies through special elections. 

This is only a small sample of what Advocacy will be pushing for this session. Keep watching this space for more news about WDC’s action and impact in Annapolis.