We just wrapped up a very productive 90-day legislative session, where we pushed Maryland forward on issues including child poverty, reproductive rights, education, cannabis legalization, and more. Of the roughly 2,300 bills introduced in the legislature this year, over 800 passed and were sent to Governor Wes Moore for his signature. Highlighted below are a selection of notable bills we passed during the 2023 legislative session.
Governor Wes Moore has already signed into law the Family Prosperity Act, which will help working families and lift thousands of children out of poverty. Specifically, it makes permanent the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit we passed in 2021 and expands the Maryland Child Tax Credit to an additional 40,000 families. Senator Nancy King and I have been working on the Child Tax Credit for four years and I'm so proud that the Governor included it in among his legislative priorities for his first session. I had the honor to defend this bill on the House floor and take part in the Governor’s bill signing ceremony.
In response to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, the General Assembly passed multiple bills related to reproductive health. The legislative package included measures to enshrine the right to choose in Maryland's Constitution, which will be on the ballot in 2024 for voters to ratify; protect reproductive health medical records from being used in criminal prosecution or civil litigation outside of Maryland; and enhance access to reproductive health care at colleges and universities.
Last November, voters overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment legalizing recreational cannabis. This session, we followed up with legislation detailing implementation of the new cannabis market. Sales will be taxed at 9%, the same rate as alcohol sales. Safeguards include creation of a production tracking system from seed to sale. We also passed a bill to protect Marylanders’ rights against unlawful stops and searches by prohibiting police stops based solely on cannabis odor.
The Supreme Court's Bruen decision requires Maryland to overhaul its gun safety laws. The General Assembly passed legislation to limit where firearms can be concealed-carried and prohibit possession of a regulated firearm by a person who is younger than 21, who suffers from certain mental disorders and has a history of violent behavior, or who has been involuntarily admitted for more than 30 days to a mental health facility. Also passed was a bill to reduce unsupervised access to firearms by children.
The General Assembly passed all of Governor Wes Moore’s priority bills, including to:
Address the educator shortage in Maryland by enhancing financial support for college students who student teach
Allow military veterans to claim a larger retirement income exemption on their taxes (the Keep Our Heroes Home Act)
Offer a service year as an option for young people to learn professional skills after high school while serving their community
Establish a pilot program to provide matching funding for infrastructure projects and spur innovation in the technology sector
This session, the Speaker of the House named me as Chair of the Early Childhood Subcommittee. A top priority for my subcommittee this session was expanding access to high-quality, affordable child care. We expanded eligibility for publicly funded full-day pre-K to include homeless kids and low-income kids with disabilities or whose families don't primarily speak English at home. We ensured that the Department of Education wouldn’t unilaterally create waitlists again for subsidized child care. We also addressed child care on military bases, Montessori pre-K, and created a new pilot program for outdoor preschool. My subcommittee also passed bills to increase teacher pay at nonpublic schools that serve students with special needs and to increase funding for nonprofits that provide free books to young readers.
The General Assembly passed many bills on K-12 and post-secondary education. I sponsored legislation to ensure that public schools are taking steps to protect students with severe food allergies. We banned corporal punishment in schools and increased funding for free school breakfasts. For higher education, the legislature passed an increase in tax credits for state employees with student loan debt and reformed the state’s troubled 529 Prepaid College Trust program.
The General Assembly also acted to further protect the environment. Among the bills we passed are expansions of offshore wind and community solar, stricter energy efficiency standards for state government buildings, and measures to boost recycling and composting. Clean vehicles will get a boost through increased funding for the charging rebate program and commercial truck electrification grants, and owners of electric vehicles will continue to be able to drive in an HOV lane with a permit. We took action to conserve forest canopy and enhance the Attorney General’s environmental crimes unit. Lastly, my bill to ensure diverse representation on the Maryland Wildlife Advisory Commission–including a scientist–is on the Governor’s desk.
A number of bills passed to improve transportation across the state. I’m proud to serve as Secretary of the legislature’s Transit Caucus, which was successful in passing all five of our priority bills this year. Maryland’s pursuit of no roadway deaths will be furthered by a new requirement for the state to implement short-term safety improvements while a pedestrian or bicyclist safety project is in the construction queue. The Caucus also succeeded in repealing a requirement that the Maryland Transit Administration increase transit fares with inflation and in increasing state funding for local transit systems–including Montgomery County buses–with inflation. Our other priorities require that equity be considered when state transportation plans and goals are developed and establish a revolving loan fund for transit-oriented development projects.
The legislature acted on many bills concerning health care and social services. Hospitals will now have to identify and reimburse patients who paid an out-of-pocket expense but qualified for free medical care. We passed legislation to significantly lower–or eliminate–out-of-pocket costs for breast and lung cancer diagnostic imaging. We made reforms to the Prescription Drug Affordability Board to ensure that the Board is effective in limiting prescription prices and required pharmacies to provide accessible prescription labels for blind and visually impaired individuals. Mental health services will get a boost from $12 million in annual funding for the 9-8-8 hotline for suicide prevention and mental health help. Maryland Medicaid will soon provide gender-affirming treatment when medically necessary. Importantly, the state is now reimbursing stolen SNAP benefits and will be streamlining enrollment in SNAP, Medicaid, and other safety net programs.
The General Assembly passed several bills to further fair and affordable housing. Marylanders who have been waiting for months or years for federal housing assistance may get help from a new state housing voucher program. We provided $2 million in emergency rental assistance. The General Assembly passed my bill to prohibit local governments and landlords from penalizing residents for calling police and emergency services; this is especially an issue for victims of domestic violence. Other bills passed include requiring a landlord to notify a tenant in writing before increasing the tenant's rent and that a landlord be in compliance with local rental property licensing requirements if they are trying to evict a tenant.
On the subject of consumer and worker rights, Governor Moore led the effort to accelerate getting to $15 per hour minimum wage one year ahead of schedule. The General Assembly passed my bill to ensure that when the state recovers overpayments of unemployment benefits in cases that don’t involve fraud, the out-of-work Marylander still receives at least half of their weekly benefits. The General Assembly followed up on legislation passed last year creating a Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program by passing a bill to implement the program; workers will be able to get paid leave starting in 2026. We also took action to protect consumers against price gouging during states of emergency, expand prohibitions on non-compete agreements, and cut down on spam telemarketing calls.
Several bills passed on criminal justice. The Child Victims Act of 2023 removes the statute of limitations on civil lawsuits against sexual abusers, which is especially timely given the recent report revealing decades of abuse by Catholic clergy in Maryland. The Attorney General will be able to prosecute police-involved fatalities, ensuring that cases can still move forward when a local prosecutor elects not to prosecute. We protected victims by prohibiting an incarcerated person from contacting or harassing an alleged victim, providing civil remedies for hate crimes, and prohibiting a person from making prank or false 9-1-1 calls (aka “swatting”). And after multiple years of attempts, we finally repealed the crime of unnatural or perverted sexual practice, a law that has been used to criminalize consensual intimacy among LGBTQIA+ adults, and eliminated the spousal defense against charges of rape and other criminal sexual offenses.
I have the pleasure of serving on the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees the state’s election laws. HB 192, my bill to limit campaign contributions to only U.S. currency, thereby banning untraceable cryptocurrency donations, is awaiting the Governor’s signature. Our District 17 Senator Cheryl Kagan’s legislation to allow mail-in ballots to be processed before Election Day also passed, making election results more timely. Among the other bills passed were a pay raise for election judges and a measure to require public input before a local board of elections changes a polling place.
Tax policy continues to be a major focus area for me, although it was a somewhat quiet year on that front, outside of the Moore/Miller Administration’s bills. Comptroller Brooke Lierman advocated for a new Taxpayer Advocate Division to assist taxpayers in resolving problems and complaints. We passed legislation to allow union dues to be deducted and to make it easier for low-income homeowners to reapply for the Homeowners’ Property Tax Credit. We also expanded the state’s tax credit for child adoption expenses and tax incentives for film production.
As Chair of the Montgomery County House Delegation, I’m proud of our successes with respect to the state budget. The county’s capital requests for public school construction were fully funded, including District 17’s Gaithersburg Middle, Meadow Hall Elementary, and Ritchie Park Elementary. Capital projects for Montgomery College, Shady Grove Medical Center, and the forthcoming Institute for Health Computing were among the many projects that received significant funding. Bus rapid transit in the county will benefit from additional one-time and ongoing funding, and money was allocated for the purchase of zero-emission buses. All of District 17’s local bond requests received funding: Crown Farm Historic Park in Gaithersburg, Twinbrook Community Recreation Center in Rockville, and capital projects for Montgomery History, Rockville Housing Enterprises, CaringMatters hospice, and So What Else food pantry.
Thank you to all of the residents of Gaithersburg and Rockville who contacted my office this session. Your visits, phone calls, letters, and emails are appreciated. Have questions about topics I didn’t address in this letter? Please reach out and ask! Even though the legislative session is over, my legislative office will continue to operate, albeit at a reduced capacity. Please reach out if there is anything I can do to assist you with state agencies or to share your opinion.