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The Whole Loaf

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When the Congress passed the first civil rights bill since Reconstruction, Roy Wilkins, the executive director of the NAACP, called the watered down legislation “a small crumb.”

This afternoon, Speaker Adrienne Jones and the House of Delegates leadership announced their support for ten measures addressing critical housing issues.

That’s the whole loaf.

The two issues in the housing package that are most important to me are:

  • A special fund to for rental assistance and legal aid programs; and
  • A means-tested right to counsel in specific landlord-tenant cases

The right that I became aware of as a high school student. that I testified in favor of last night, is now very likely to be enacted into law.

Without a lawyer

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As I prepared to testify on legislation providing a right to an attorney for poor tenants facing eviction, I expected to tell this story.

Gideon v. Wainwright is the Supreme Court case that held a defendant charged with a felony is entitled to a lawyer, paid for by the state.

Gideon’s Trumpet, written by the New York Times Supreme Court correspondent, Anthony Lewis, is about the case.

I asked my parents to give it to me for Chanukah when I was 14 years old.

Lewis signed it for me when he spoke in Baltimore in 2003.

For Sandy Rosenberg, who writes laws

“This committee writes laws,” I began my testimony at 10:15 last night.

But instead of talking about the book and the author’s inscription, I said this.

An attorney for the property owners, when testifying on the bill before this one, stated that,  “If rent is paid, there are no evictions.”

Under the laws that this committee has written, the tenant should not pay the rent if the property is unsafe.

But a tenant doesn’t know that.

The overwhelming majority of tenants face eviction without a lawyer.  The landlord is represented in court, with very few exceptions.

The laws we write are not enforced if the tenant is without a lawyer.

The public policy we enact – the balancing of interests, is not a reality.

Making your case – sometimes

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Bill hearings are the public forum for witnesses on both sides of an issue to make their case.

Or sometimes not.

If the stakeholders are already discussing a compromise, they may not want to say out loud what they may be ready to concede in private.

On the other hand, testimony can make it clear that negotiations are stalemated.

“Pass the bill without any weakening amendments,” several witnesses implored us today.

Then there are the bills that must pass – for reasons of policy or politics.

In those circumstances, reaching a consensus is not left to the contending parties.

Legislators will join the negotiations.

If the issue is very important or  middle ground  is seemingly out of reach, we’ll be joined by the staff of the presiding officer.

Three scenarios

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If your bill won’t have a public hearing until March, don’t despair.

Email all of the interested parties now to get their input.

Your goal is to reach consensus before the hearing.

If you can do that, the committee can act favorably on your compromise – with time to spare.

 

Every bill has a fiscal note that estimates the cost if the bill passes.

If that cost exceeds a certain amount, draft an amendment that reduces the cost of the bill below that ceiling.

 

If your legislation has a provision that everyone agrees with, keep it in the bill and delete the controversial provisions.

 

Over the last several days, I’ve been involved in each of those three scenarios.

 

Working in the Laboratories of Democracy

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“The states are the laboratories of democracy.”

I didn’t think of that.

Justice Louis Brandeis did.

For example, a minimum wage law was first enacted by Massachusetts in 1912.  FDR made it part of the New Deal in 1933

Maryland became one of the first states to set aside a separate fund for the settlement we received from the tobacco industry in 2000.

I sponsored the bill, along with Delegate Peter Rawlings.

The veto override of House Bill 732 was before the House yesterday.

The bill included an increase in the tobacco tax  Every year, at least $18.25 million of this new revenue would be used to prevent people from starting to smoke and to get others to stop smoking.  Those are the two principal goals of the fund we created 30 years ago.

The bill would also impose a tax on digital advertising.

One of the arguments made by the Republican opponents of the bill was that Maryland would be the first state to impose such a tax.

I rose to speak, “Justice Brandeis said that ‘The states are the laboratories of democracy.’”

The House voted to override the Governor’s veto, 88-48.

My Newsletter Test

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I don’t need to be the lead sponsor of the bill that passes.

What counts is passing into law an idea that I have proposed.

My Voters’ Rights Protection Act, House Bill 57, is an example.

It has six provisions that enhance voter access or election integrity.

I learned today that the Ways and Means Committee is likely to keep  two of those provisions in my amended legislation.

Several of the other elements of HB 57 will move forward in bills introduced by my colleagues that also address those issues.

I call this my newsletter test:

If I can say in my end-of-session newsletter (or before then on social media) that I played a part in changing public policy for the better, I can write about it in my newsletter.

Get involved before you get credit

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It doesn’t matter who sponsors the bill.

When the Governor signs it, he gets credit for its enactment.

Nonetheless, this is what Governor Hogan wrote to Maryland’s Congressional delegation yesterday.

Maryland’s current course [for vaccinations] has brought the state “from 2,000 shots per day to over 22,000 shots per day in a matter of weeks,” Hogan wrote to the Democratic federal lawmakers from Maryland who last week called on him to improve the state’s vaccine rollout. The Republican governor suggested congressional staffers spend more time reviewing relevant federal vaccine policies and briefing their bosses, “as opposed to writing press releases disguised as letters.”

http://www.baltimoresun.com/coronavirus/bs-md-hogan-vaccine-tour-20210208-ug5l75yx4befhgjzfolap3ibw4-story.html

Vaccinating Marylanders safely, fairly, and efficiently is our number one obligation – at all levels of government.

We won’t solve the problem by encouraging people to sign up on multiple vaccine lists, as acting state Health Secretary Schrader suggested yesterday.

One way to improve this process is to have a single website where everyone can make an appointment – wherever you live in Maryland.

See http://www.delsandy.com/2021/02/02/doing-this-better/.

That idea will be discussed at the hearing on my legislation, House Bill 1263, Maryland Department of Health – COVID–19 Vaccination Plan

I hope that the Governor and his Department of Health will get involved – before any bill signing.

The Same Opportunity

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It’s been eleven months since I entered the House chamber.

The action we took today will have an impact for a decade and beyond.

 

We adjourned early last March because of the pandemic.

Committees have been meeting virtually for the last three weeks.

Today was our first floor session.

We voted to override Governor Hogan’s veto of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future.

 

The need to reform our pre-K-12 public school system is even greater than when we passed this bill last March.

Children of color, children who live in impoverished circumstances have fallen even further behind their contemporaries.

They lack access to the Internet.  Their  parents can’t work from home and assist in their schooling.

Addressing that disparity remains at the heart of the Blueprint.

Implementing the Blueprint is an investment in programs that have worked in other states and abroad.

Expanding pre-kindergarten to three-year olds means children will come to kindergarten ready to learn.  Better training and higher pay will keep better teachers in the classroom.

Many of our students and their families will get the help they need to address social problems that hinder their classroom performance.  Students will choose either college credit courses or a career track by 10th grade.

I know how important my public school education was to me.  We need to provide that same opportunity to all of our state’s children.

If we’ve already done it

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There was only one early voting location in St. Mary’s County last fall.  It was 14 miles away from the community with the highest concentration of low-income voters and voters of color in the county. Objections were raised, but the State Board of Elections was powerless to act.

My Voters Rights Protection Act (House Bill 57) would authorize the State Board of Elections to establish an additional polling place in a specific area if the Board determines that the absence of a polling place is discriminatory on the basis of race, color, religion, or disability.

Today I was asked to draft language that would identify who could make such a claim to the Board.

I’ve asked people who know Maryland’s election law far better than I do: “Is there relevant language in the Election Law article or elsewhere in the Code?”

If we’ve done it before, we’re more likely to do it again.

—

A settlement with McKinsey & Company for unfair opioids marketing was announced today by Attorney General Brian Frosh.

Maryland will receive more than $12 million.

I introduced the law requiring that the funds received from an opioid settlement be spent to address the problems associated with the opioid epidemic.

I will now see if reassurances are needed to make sure this happens.

A deadline is approaching

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For my bills to get a public hearing, I need to submit them by Friday at 5:00.

Do other bills address the issue, making my bill unnecessary?

That was the response I got on my bill creating a task force to study whether mental health professionals or the police should respond to 911 calls.

Instead, I will strategize with the advocates on their bills, which will be considered by the committee I serve on.

Can my bill be revised before it is introduced or will I have to offer an amendment at the hearing?

The former is preferable but not crucial.

The simpler the change, the more likely it can be made now.

On the other hand, if a new provision in the bill is likely to be opposed by the affected government agency, it could balloon the cost estimate for the fiscal note that is prepared for the bill hearing.

Better to try to work those details out.  No time to do that now.

  • My Key Issues:

  • Pimlico and The Preakness
  • Our Neighborhoods
  • Pre-Kindergarten
  • Lead Paint Poisoning