More time for the committee to consider your bill is far more important than more co-sponsors on your bill. I spoke this afternoon with an advocate who’s asking my colleagues to co-sponsor one of my bills. As we talked, I realized that hundreds of bills will be introduced next Thursday because it’s the deadline to …more >
If you’re going to negotiate, make sure the other side is in the room where it happens. If you reach a compromise with a neutral third party without your opponents at the table, they are certain to demand that your bill be weakened further. I gave that advice to a liberal group I‘m working with. …more >
We are here to pass bills. My work starts long before the 90-day session begins. A constituent comes to me with a problem. I read about how another state is dealing with an issue. I meet with an advocacy group to learn what they want to accomplish. I make a bill drafting request. Then I …more >
Poverty has the greatest influence on a child’s poor performance in school. Senator Bill Ferguson said that at the Greater Baltimore Committee’s forum on the 2018 General Assembly session this morning. I’m aware that poor children enter kindergarten with a much smaller vocabulary than middle class kids. A Republican colleague at today’s forum put the …more >
“The horses are on the track.” That’s what the announcer says when the #1 horse steps on the track to begin the post parade. Until this week, I thought there would be no bills this session regarding the future of the Preakness. Phase Two of the study of Pimlico as a suitable location for the …more >
I’m a newcomer legislatively when it comes to health insurance. My focus has been on the public health side – lead poisoning, family planning, and mental health. However, with the changes to Obamacare in the federal tax bill and regulatory actions by the Trump administration, 240,000 Maryland families will likely become uninsured. “Implications of Federal …more >
Nothing concentrates the mind like a bill hearing. I’ve shared that insight with you before. Everyone who could be affected by your legislation has to come to the table. The bill could pass, however unlikely that may appear to be. Today was the deadline to request that a bill be drafted by our non-partisan professional …more >
I knew Judge Dana Levitz. He testified in Annapolis. He taught a class at the University of Baltimore Law School right after mine. We said hello to each other every week. I learned from his obituary that Levitz had prosecuted Anthony Grandison for a brutal double murder in 1983. Grandison was one of the five …more >
Maryland’s Attorney General did not have the authority to sue the federal government without the Governor’s approval until we passed the Maryland Defense Act last year. Since then, Brian Frosh has entered into twenty law suits – on federal actions affecting the environment, health care coverage, immigration, and other issues. Every Republican member of my …more >
Two visions of education will be considered by the General Assembly this session and next year as well. Last week, Governor Hogan declared that we needed the Office of the State Education Investigator General to investigate “complaints of unethical, unprofessional, or illegal conduct relating” in our public schools. At his budget press conference yesterday, the …more >
