I withdrew two of my bills today.

One because the executive branch wrote a letter.  The other because it was the right idea but not yet in the right pew.

The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene “plans to continue to make Wraparound services available to youth with intensive needs,” Secretary Van Mitchell wrote me today.

That was the purpose of House Bill 759: to maintain high quality mental health care for youth in outpatient settings.

I introduced the bill at the request of the mental health community. As we hoped, it brought everyone to the witness table for both the bill hearing and discussions afterward.

The letter and better care are the results.

The bill is no longer needed.

When I was in Israel last December, I learned that the government assumes the cost of the charitable sector’s successful social welfare programs.

“I’ll introduce a bill to do the same in Maryland,” I told my startled hosts.

I had even written the opening lines of my testimony.

Justice Brandeis wrote that the states are the laboratories of democracy.

                 In this instance, the state of Israel is a laboratory for democracy. 

House Bill 748 would have created a grant program for job training programs based on the Israeli model.

As I prepared for the bill hearing, I realized that more work needs to be done on this concept.  Instead of a poor bill hearing this week, I’ll discuss this idea with more people this summer.

Next year in Annapolis.