The 2021 General Assembly responded to the pandemic by making vaccines available to you and your family and providing financial assistance to Marylanders in need.  We also passed major legislation.

• Vaccines were made available at Sinai, now at Northwest Hospital, and  at CHAI’s senior apartment communities throughout Park Heights.  Testing was conducted at Pimlico Race Track.Stimulus Payment, and a Lawyer
• If you still need to be vaccinated, you can call 1-855-MD-GOVAX, pre-register at https://onestop.md.gov/govax, or try the Vaccine finder maryland.gov. You must register in advance at the Baltimore Convention Center 443-462-5511 and M&T Bank Stadium https://www.baltimoreravens.com/stadium/covid-19-vaccinations/ or 1-855-634-6829.

• At the outset of the pandemic last year, I sponsored emergency legislation that greatly expanded access to telehealth. My bill this session adds access to school health centers, which many students rely on for essential health care services.
• A single person with an income of $15,000 will receive $831 from state and local government, in addition to the money from the federal government. A married couple with two children and an income of $25,000 will get an additional $1,527. To see if you’re eligible, go to https://interactive.marylandtaxes.gov/Relief
• For people who lost their job, my Constituent Director, Jackie Greenfield, has helped dozens of people obtain their unemployment benefit.  We passed laws to correct major flaws in the system.

       The pandemic made us aware of the inequality and injustice in America’s past and present.  My efforts in this regard are longstanding.

I served on the Task Force to Study Implementing a Civil Right to Counsel in Maryland. I introduced legislation to implement the recommendations of the task force in 2015.

This session, I was a leader in the effort that passed House Bill 18, which establishes access to counsel in eviction cases.  After bills are enacted in Annapolis, a tenant’s future is decided in a courtroom.  The landlords are represented by someone who knows the law 96% of the time; the tenant only 1% of the time.  Those are bad odds.  We have begun to address that unfairness.

Funding legislation did not pass.  The morning after the session ended, I started lobbying to pay for lawyers with federal stimulus dollars.