Let’s go ahead and call the Senate to order members please take your seats Sergeant arms will please secure the chamber doors Madame clerk please call the role Mr President all right Senators uh this morning we are very pleased to have Reverend Dr Barbara Palmer of Kingdom Celebration Center in gambrells Maryland
Guest of the distinguished cater from the 32nd District please rise for the invocation before I pray I’d like to say thank you to the entire senate for giving me this opportunity to give today’s invocation thank you Senate President Bill Ferguson for your valuable leadership I’d also like to thank
Senator Pam bidal for the invit ation and for the great work that she continues to do for the district 32 with that being said let us pray the Earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof the world and they that dwell therein for you have founded it
Upon the Seas and established it upon the floods when we consider ourselves we remember your word that says what is man that you are mindful of us the heavens can continue to declare your glory and your promises are new each day great is your faithfulness we thank you today for
Allowing us to rise and for blessing us with the ability of a sound mind especially for your loving kindness and your tender Mercy father we invite you into this space this morning for your wisdom guidance and direction for every decision that will be made in this chamber today tomorrow tomorrow and the
Days to come you are a God that transcends time and space so we know that even after this prayer has been spoken that it will still reverberate in every Hall and chamber and decision that affects every citizen of every County in our great state of Maryland help us oh
Lord to reflect your character and to display the same kind of love and mercy that you have shown to us help us to lead with love and with kindness millions of people rely on our leadership so we ask for your wisdom and guidance in our decisionmaking today we
Want to make the right decisions we want to make Fair decisions the kind that make life better for our constituents use us as vessels of good will let us be found on the right side of history let us have the courage to correct the things that are hurting our
People and the courage to launch out into the deep with innovative solutions that will build hope and create new opportunities for thousands especially for the marginalized and underserved communities let us be a Powerhouse for positive change what we can’t do or solve in our human capacity we give you
Permission to override our frail Minds with your infinite wisdom and provide the answers to our problems we yield to you as our source let your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven I conclude this prayer with a blessing upon this Senate and let the great state of
Maryland forever be blessed our God and our father this is our prayer amen and amen thank you you’re welcome recognizing the senator from the 32nd District thank you Mr President and Pastor Palmer thank you for your prayer along with your husband Apostle Antonio Palmer if you’ll stand Apostle Palmer thank you
Um and they are joint pastors at Kingdom Celebration Center and work extensively in Ministry Pastor Barbara promer is a remarkable woman who has dedicated her life to empowering Children and Families through her Ministry and nonprofit organization Kingdom Care Incorporated with over 25 years of experience in Ministry she’s mentored mentored
Countless young ladies on self-esteem and self-worth it’s a little loud her passion for helping others led her to start Kingdom care in 2011 which has since grown to include three arms Kingdom Care Child Care Center West County Family Support Center and mentoring entrepreneurs and I thank all
Of the members of this body for supporting um Pastor Palmer through um grants and bond bills and through these programs Barbara and her team have nurtured Children and Families providing them with the tools and support they need to pursue their dreams with the focus on early childhood education effective parenting and youth mentorship
Programs Pastor Barbara is making a lasting impact on our community and Beyond thank you Mr President I ask that the um pastor’s prayers be journalized uh without objection most certainly we will journalize the wonderful invocation this morning thank you for your presence here with us today all right has
Everyone recorded their presence in the chamber if so the clerk will take the call with 42 members in the chamber and a quorum being present the Senate of Maryland is now in session Senators I take full blame uh on the scheduling here we have five resolutions we have a
Lot of work to do a lot of work to do so please we’re going to do this as efficiently as possible and we’re going to start the resolutions are going to uh we’re going to start putting a cap on it sooner um we were’re so appreciative of
Everybody being here and we know it’s a privilege but uh we we got to make sure our timing is right so we’ll recognize the senator from district one and appreciate uh your understanding thank thank you Mr President colleagues please put your hands together let’s get ready to
Rumble big red for Fort Hill High School went 12-0 on her way winning the school’s third third straight straight state championship and 10th in school history Fort Hill won its uh won eight out of his last 10 1A state championship the team also also is high functioning
In the classroom a team combined for a 3.98 GPA and their uh Comm communative GPA is 3.3 we have 20 graduating seniors and appears that seven of them will be continuing with athletic careers in various colleges next fall four to attend 2-year and fouryear universities in the fall five will attend a trade
School and one for the State Police Academy let’s give a round of applause for the state onea champions Ford Hill big red all right the clerk will read the resolution in full be hereby known to all that the Senate of Maryland offers sincerest congratulations to Fort Hill High School football team in recognition
Of winning the class class 1a State football championship we applaud your outstanding season and wish you many more congratulations the entire membership extends its best wishes on this memorable occasion and direct this resolution be presented on this 14th day of March 2024 the clerk will call the role Mr President has everyone recorded
Their vote if so the clerk will take the call to the uh gentleman of Fort Hill High School football team congratulations the Senate of Maryland unanimous celebrates your uh 1A State football championship congratulations thank you all for joining us have a safe drive back and enjoy the day while you’re here in
Annapolis all right all right let’s go to the vice chair of Finance senator from Baltimore County thank you Mr President ladies and gentlemen of the Senate today I’d like to take the time to recognize those who are fighting to increase awareness about of discinesia of desia other otherwise
Known as TD is a condition of involuntary muscle movements of the face trunk and extremities that can carry infrequency and AP aptitude TD results from the use of certain medication used to treat mental illness such as schizophrenia bipolar disorder and major depressive disorders there are approximately 6,000 people in the United
States living with TD and approximately 65% have not yet been diagnosed the National Alliance for mental illness reports that one in every four patients receiving long-term treatment with antipsychotic medication will experience TD periodic screenings for drug induced movements disorders and patients taking antipsychotic medication are essential for detection proper diagnosis and
Management to help improve therapeutic outcomes today we have individuals on the floor who have been working to increase awareness about TD they have been working around the country to have the first week of May declared TD awareness week and will be working in Maryland to do so as well we have Debbie
Meyer from Nami and Carla Caraco from Nan biosciences Incorporated so let’s give them a warm Senate welcome and may the clerk please read the resolution clerk will read the resolution in full be hereby known to all that the Senate of Maryland offers a sincerest congratulations to the National Alliance
On Mental Health and recognition of your efforts to raise awareness about ganesia which have impacts approximately more than 600,000 Americans the entire membership extends its best wishes on this memorable occasion and directus resolution be presented on this 14th day of March 2024 the clerk will call the role Mr
President has everyone recorded their vote if so the clerk will take the call to the leadership of National Alliance on Mental Health we thank you for joining us today and appreciate your work on behalf of 600,000 Americans uh to advocate for tardive discinesia thank you so
Much you all right we have the senator from the 28th district has a group here yeah thank you Mr President good morning colleagues may God bless everyone here this morning I’m here to welcome the representatives of the Maryland Association of Christian Home Educators the Maryland Association of Christian Home Educators may she has
Served Maryland homeschool families for over 35 years it was founded in 1989 with a mission to support protect connect and Lead Maryland homeschoolers let me say as a on a personal note my family is a homeschool family I decided to homeschool my children along with my
Wife after a teacher in one of our grade schools told one of my kids you’re not as smart as you think you are when I’m done with you I’m going to have you Whistling Dixie and I said Lord God help us and I read and researched certain
Books and I found a book called The countering The Conspirator conspiracy to destroy black boys and I said wow that’s what they’re trying to do to my kid and I prayed and I research and my wife and I prayed and we found this wonderful wonderful support group and we joined
The support group and God has blessed my family and I so thank God for the 200 homeschooling folks here today in Indianapolis and I definitely celebrate you personally the association of Christian Home Educators host several events such as their upcoming annual homeschool and parenting convention and Statewide senior graduation this organization is
Committed to connecting homeschool communities black or white asian Jews gentes to tremendous education here on the senate floor we have our president Sue Manon we have our executive director lenisha James with several Mai families and friends watching from the balcony and each side of the Senate chamber Mr
President I would ask that the clerk please read the resolution in full the clerk read the resolution in full be hereby known to all that the Senate of Maryland offers its sincerest congratulations to Maryland Association of Christian Home Educators and recognition of 35 years of supporting connecting protecting and leading
Maryland homeschoolers the entire membership extends its best wishes on this memorable occasion and direct this resolution be presented on this 14th day of March 2024 the clerk will call the role Mr President has everyone recorded their vote if so the clerk will take the call to the leadership of the Maryland
Association of Christian Home Educators uh congratulations on 35 5 years of work connecting protecting and leading Maryland homeschoolers all right uh next we have the senator from the 22nd District thank you Mr President honorable members and of the Maryland Senate distinguished guests and fellow brothers of alile Fraternity Incorporated it is an honor
To stand before you today to celebrate the El luxurious history and enduring Legacy of The iot Zeta chapter of Al Fraternity Incorporated the chapter in which I crossed the Burning Sands 18 years ago since his establishment on April 27th 1974 the Iota Zeta chapter has exemplified the values of leadership
Scholarship and service enriching communities far and wide Today We Gather to recognize a pivotable pivotable moment in our chapter’s history the chartering of the 1974 line at the University of Maryland College Park this is singer’s group of brothers the 10 sons of the Phoenix who who joined our
Fraternity 50 years ago embodies the essence of excellence and commitment their contributions have left indelible mark on alpha alpha and the communities we serve the distinguished line consists of brother Wen Thomas who entered the Omega chapter but his son is here in the gallery and is the chef for former
President Barack Obama William Ward brother Gonzalez Bruce here today with us brother Maurice Jenkins here today also with us Jamay montigo Jr Joseph Williams Micha green brother roosevel Boone who’s here with us today Steven o Gibson who’s here with us today and myin Lofton as we reflect on their remarkable
Journey and celebrate their 50th anniversity anniversary in the alpha Fraternity Incorporated let us express our deepest gratitude for their unwavering dedication to our community please join me congratulating the members of the spring 1974 Charter line and the brother of the infamous IC iated chapter of Al Fraternity Incorporated on their remarkable achievements and
Thanking them for their enduring Legacy May the May the May the clerk read the resolution in full clerk read the resolution in full be hereby known to all that the Senate of Maryland offers sincerest congratulations to Iota Zeta chapter of alpha alpha fraternity and recognition of chartering the Iota Zeta
Chapter of alpha alpha fraternity on April 27th 1974 congratulations on 50 years of Brotherhood Legacy and service the entire membership extends its best wishes on this memorable occasion and directs this resolution be presented on this 14th day of March 2024 clerk will call the role Mr President has everyone recorded their
Vote if so the clerk will take the call to the gentleman of the Iota Zeta chapter of alpha alpha congratulations on 50 years of Brotherhood Legacy and service and now we have the senator from the 38th District good morning Mr President and colleagues and friends we are recognizing the Steven
Decater high school wrestling Dynasty for the fifth consecutive year the Steven dear high school wrestling team won the 2A state championship the wrestling team has compiled 60 straight conference wins and the fifth consecutive State title is the second largest streak in Maryland wrestling history in addition our team state
Championship to these championships we have three individual state champions Elijah KCK at 113 lbs two-time state champion Gavin celo at 157 lbs and our first state girls state champion Aj Johnson at 190 lbs our girls team also finished fourth in the state this team is all heart and in
Addition to being state champions they give back to our community in mentoring and coaching the elementary school students the team will be leading the Ocean City St Patrick’s Day parade this Saturday and we are most proud that not only are they consecutive five-time state champions but we are recognizing
Their sportsmanship and how much they give back to our community so please join me in welcoming and recognizing them the clerk will read the resolution in full be here hereby known to all that the Senate of Maryland offers sincerest congratulations to Steven deor wrestling team in recognition of winning the 2024
Class 2A state championship we applaud your outstanding season and wish you many more congratulations the entire membership expends its best wishes on this memorable occasion and directus resolution presented on this 14th day of March 2024 the clerk will call the role Mr President has everyone recorded their
Pres or not their presence their vote their vote would be the most important here if so the clerk will take the call to the wrestlers of Steven decer wrestling team congratulations on the class 2A state championship well done keep up the great work in the class
Room too on the mat in the classroom very good all right uh do we have any guests today guests today recognizing the senator from Prince George’s thank you Mr Mr President uh colleagues would you please welcome Mara bab who hails from District 33 and she’s a junior at cofton
High school um where she also is a state legislative affairs coordinator of the Maryland Association of student councils Secretary of legislation for Chesapeake Regional Association of student councils vice president of her sgaa um a member of the Honor Society swim team International thespians um and colleagues you may be wondering like
What is the senator from Prince George is doing uh with this guest as a shadow for the day well miss bab has been in the Triple E committee uh a few times and she has done an outstanding job testifying on behalf of pieces of legislation and I told her so and what
She said was well I’d like to be a senator for the day so she soed some additional in uh initiative and so of course I said yes that’s how she is here um and let’s just give her a warm Senate welcome thank you welcome welcome any further guests further guests
Senator from mcgomery County thank you Mr President uh with me today shadowing me is Alex Hassen kill now colleagues he may look a little familiar because it was just last year that he was one of our Stellar Pages he’s a student at Hood College he is president of the uh youth advisory Council
Legislative chair uh and so he has testified in our committee as the good senator from District 47 has indicated and so it’s wonderful when our young people start off as Pages stay connected stay involved and continue to be engaged in policy please join me in welcoming Alex back
Welcome thanks for joining us senator from Baltimore County thank you Mr President up here in the gallery behind me is a young man who may be a page next year Owen Gilligan is a junior at St Paul school for boys he’s down here to learn about the legislative process he’s
On the golf team and the ice hockey team and his favorite subject is American history so we may see him next year please welcome Owen welcome thanks for joining us any further guests any further guests uh yes senator from the 35th thank you Mr President be time to do the
Doctor introduce the doctor proceed I’d like to introduce uh Dr today Frank spado MD who specializes in Internal Medicine as on the council on legislation for medai and also as a retired flight surgeon for the Air Force we give a warm welcome to our doctor today welcome welcome thanks for serving
Your service today thank you any further introductions if not so we consider the reading of the journal from the prior legislative day I’ve got uh number of bills from the house this is calendar 13 the clerk will read the bills House Bill 22 delegate Ruth agriculture pollinator habitat plan requirement for State Highway
Administration finance and education energy the environment Majority Leader move so we consider the reading of the bills we have calendar 14 clerk will read the bills House Bill 51 delegate Rosenberg Public Health Maryland Pediatric cancer fund and commission Finance Majority Leader move so be considered the reading the bills they
Will be referred to their appropriate standing committees uh let’s go ahead and see this is a a record number of of Bill reports that we have here um we’re going to hold off on the layovers for the moment let’s go back to our unfinished business from yesterday if we
Can believe let’s go with judicial proceedings is where we left off uh let’s start with report number 17 and Senators again we have a we have a lot of Bill this is a a huge number on the reports um if we can summarize the bill and and the Amendments that are
Done um we don’t have to read every ASP every little line of the floor report we just want to get the general idea if if members have questions we can get questions uh out through the through the reports but kind of a quick summary uh and then a summary summary of the
Amendments would be excellent so clerk read the first bill Senate Bill 71 centor Carter Correctional Services pregnant and postpartum support prevention of forced infant separation act favorable recognizing the bill sponsors the floor leader thank you Mr President this bill um requires the division of Correction to allow a pregnant woman classifi ified
To be in pre-release status to relocate to the pre-release unit for women throughout the duration of her pregnancy and also allow an incarcerated individual who is classified to be in pre-released status to and recently gave birth to her child to reside in the pre-release unit for women for up to one
Year following the birth of the child further it also allows for visitation with the father or secondary caregiver if that person is otherwise legally permissible as a visit in addition it establishes the Healthy Start bonding program in the department of corrections and the bill is contingent upon the establishment of the
Pre-release unit for women there are no committee amendments I would move the favorable committee report floor leer moves for the adoption of the favorable committee report any discussion any objections without objection the favorable committee report is adopted are there any amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 71 is
Hereby ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 468 Cent McCree criminal law private home detention monitoring notification favorable with four amendments recognizing chair of the committee is the floor leader thank you Mr President this bill Alters the matter in which private home detention monitoring units
Have to operate in the state of Maryland specifically it requires immediate notification when a person is under monitoring who enters uh an exclusion zone two it requires notification within an hour of the person under monitoring tempers with or fails to properly maintain their equipment and three notification within 24 hours for all
Other violations there are three amendments or actually Four committee amendments Mr president number one is technical number two Alters the Times by which companies are required to provide that notice number two three adds civil penalties and amendment number four removes Provisions establishing the work group uh Mr President move for the
Adoption of the four committee amendments in the favorable committee report floor leader move for the adoption of the four committee amendments and the favorable committee report on the Amendments any discussion any objections without objection the four committee amendments are adopted question Nows on the amendment report any discussion any objections without
Objection the amendment report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 468 is hereby ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 838 cental gallion Vehicle Laws lighting privately owned Vehicles favorable recognizing senator from district one is the floor leader
Thank you Mr President this bill authorizes specified officers of the Volunteer Fire Company and the fire police of a Volunteer Fire Company to equip their privately owned vehicles with red red and white or red and green lights or signal devices there are no amendments uh the committee um favorably
Recommends Senate Bill 838 I move to adopt the favorable committee report floor leader moves for the adoption of the favorable committee report any discussion any objections without objection the favorable Comm committee report is adopted are there any amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 838 is hereby
Ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 840 Senator Sor Public Safety automatic license plates readers captured plate data favorable with two amendments recognizing the bill sponsor is the floor leader thank you very much and good morning uh Senate Bill 840 is essentially a license plate reader bill
That allows law enforcement agencies to upload that data to Cloud uh Computing it also uh ensures that that data or it makes clear that that data is owned by the law enforcement agency and it cannot be sold there are two Tech Two amendments the first is Technical and
The second clarifies that the capture license plate data may not be sold or accessed in certain ways by contractors requires law enforcement agencies to develop certain procedures to protect such data Mr President I move the adoption of the amendments in the favorable committee report floor ler moves for the adoption
Of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report on the Amendments any discussion any objection without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question now is on the amendment report any discussion yes chair recognizes the uh Vice senator from montgomer County thank you Mr President I wonder if we could lay this
Over until this afternoon just so so I can learn more about this bill that with you thank we would we just we just adopted the Amendments so then can we special order until this afternoon yes or we can go back to second to before adopting yeah if we special order I
Think we’re just taking a look if there’s any objections there’s a possibility of an amendment Mr President I do want to chat with this with the sponsor of the bill okay let’s um let’s go ahead we’ll we’ll special order it we’ll see where we are if um if there’s
Any concerns there all right any objections to the sponsor no objections okay without objection the bill will be special ordered to the appropriate time this afternoon or second session today uh all right clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 103 Senator folden Vehicle Laws manufacturers and dealers delivery of vehicles favorable with two
Amendments recognizing the bill sponsor the floor leader thank you Mr President s SP 10003 as amended this bill clarifies the statutory requirements related to the delivery of vehicles and components from manufacturers to dealers apply where orders are submitted in writing or electronically rather than only when submitted in writing there are
Two amendments amendment number one is Technical and amendment number two clarifies that orders may be in writing or electronically Mr President I move the adoption of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report floor ler moves for the adoption of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report on the
Amendments any discussion any objections without objection the two committee amendments adopted question now is on the amended report any discussion any objection without objection the amended report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 103 is hereby ordered printed for third reading clerk
Read the next bill Senate Bill 104 Center folden motor vehicle specifically designed vintage reproduction registration plates favorable with one Amendment recognizing the bill sponsors the floor leader thank you Mr President Senate bill one4 as amended makes permanent a temporary requirement for the motor vehicle administration to make available specially designed
Vintage reproduction registration plates the administration must charge an initial fee of $100 for the issuance and a renewal fee of $25 for the Vintage reproduction plates there’s one committee Amendment which increased the fee from 20 to $25 for the renewal fee Mr President I move the adoption of the
Amendment and the favorable committee report Flor leer moves for the adoption of the one committee Amendment and the favorable committee report on the amendment any discussion any objections without objection the one committee amendment is adopted question now is on the amended report any discussion any objections without objection the
Amendment report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 104 is hereby ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 1036 Senator West task force on the creation of a division of returning citizens and expanded re-entry Services
Establishment favorable with two amendments recognizing the bill sponsors the floor leader thank you Mr President as amended this bill established is the task force on the creation of a division of returning citizens and expanded re-entry Services the task force is directed to identify and assess the re-entry services that exist in the
State and to identify gaps in these services in particular it’s charged with developing a plan for improved Housing Services Employment Services health services and education services for released Prisoners the fact is the best way to present recidivism is to equip equip released prisoners to succeed once they’re no longer behind bar ours the
There are two amendments the first adds members to the task force the second provides that each member of the task force serves at the pleasure of the person who appointed that member and requires the task force to adopt a code of conduct for members the vote of the
Committee was unanimous I hereby move the adoption of the two amendments as well as the favorable committee report floor leer moves for the adoption of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report on the Amendments any discussion any objections without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question now is on the
Amended report any discussion any objections without objection the amended report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 1036 is hereby ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 1095 Senator Smith a work grp on home
Detention monitoring favorable with two amendments recognizing the chair of the committee is the floor leader thank you Mr President this bill Works in conjunction with Senate Bill 468 which I read earlier uh this B this bill uh as amended requires or reestablishes the work group on home detention monitoring
To study and make recommendations regarding the cost and availability of both of both publicly and privately provided pre-trial home detention monitoring systems Mr President there are two amendments amendment number one Alters the membership of the work group and amend number two provides that a member of the work group serves at the
Pleasure of the person who appointed the member and requires a work group to adopt a code of conduct for the members move for the adoption of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report Flo moves for the adoption of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report on
The Amendments any discussion any objections without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question now is on the amended report any discussion any objection without objection the amended report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 1095 is here by ordered printed for
Third reading that does it for that calendar is that right yes uh chair recognizes the senator for Prince georgees thank you thank you uh Mr President is this a good time to introduce some special guests senator may proceed good morning good morning wonderful colleagues good morning rising
Stars it is a genuine pleasure for me to recognize the people who are standing the people who are standing I was with please remain standing Charles Herbert flowers I was at Charles her flowers when the shovel was put in the dirt as a matter of fact I had an office on the
Fifth floor of the top floor of Charles Herbert flowers and saw the beginning of that wonderful School under the leadership of Helena Noble Jones was with her when she wrote the words to the song Charles Herbert flowers but it is a genuine pleasure for me to welcome you here I’m glad you’re here
Here I also want to thank the staff and the volunteers for the work that you’re doing with those young people those rising stars that are standing up there and I especially want to give a shout out to the wonderful principal of that school the administrative staff outstanding and we are so delighted and
Excited and Overjoyed that you all are with us this morning and we wish you well because guess what you are the people who are going to turn this world right side up and we’re just glad that you’re here to see how the Democratic process works could you all please give
A rousing Applause to this wonderful wonderful group of youngsters from Charles Herbert flowers High School welcome welcome thank you all for joining us today enjoy enjoy your time here in Annapolis all right uh before we go to the next calendar if we could uh I think
We have a motion from the uh chair of the committee yes I’d like to uh if if we could make a motion to reconsider the vote by which Senate Bill 1095 passed on to third reader Senator moved to reconsider the vote by which 1095 Senate Bill 1095 uh was passed along to third
Reader are there any objections to the motion without objection uh the motion passes uh the Senate Bill 1095 is now again uh on second reader and open to Amendment uh senator has an amendment pages will distribute the Senator’s Amendment senator may explain the amendment Senator uh thank you Mr
President uh so obviously the Judiciary plays a critical role in this process and so this amendment simply adds a member of the judici appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Maryland to that work group and move the amendment all right the chair moves the amendment any
Objections to the Senator’s Amendment without objection the amendment is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 1095 is hereby ordered printed for third reading all right let’s go to judicial proceedings calendar number 18 clerk will read the first bill Senate
Bill 550 Senator sidor children labor trafficking favorable with two amendments recognizing the bill sponsors the floor leader thank you sir uh this bill adds labor trafficking as a form of abuse or neglect and requires the referral to the regional Navigators who already provide service to child victims of sex trafficking and have special
Training and expertise to assist child uh or all child victims of trafficking there were two amendments the first is technical the second Alters the definition of abuse to include labor traffic trafficking of a child by an individual for purposes of provisions of the law go governing children in need of
Assistance cases and child abuse and neglect reporting uh Mr President I move the adoption of the Amendments and the favorable committee report floor leader moves to the adoption of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report on the Amendments any discussion any objections without objection the two committee amendments
Are adopted question now is on the amended report any discussion any objections without objection the amended report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 550 is hereby ordered printed for third reading clerk will read the next bill Senate Bill 858 Senator Hester
Revenge porn civil action reporting requirement favorable with two amendments recognizing the bill sponsor is the floor leader thank you Mr President with the democratization and the proliferation of AI technology um a lot of deep fakes have surfaced around most prominently I think uh in the interim with Taylor Swift and so our law
Is pretty well covered with regard to uh child uh pornography and when images are generated for children but does not cover those for adults and so as amended this bill provides that a person may bring and maintain a civil action for defam defamation per se against another who distributes a computer generated
Visual representation that is indistinguishable from the actual visual representation of the person and falsely depicts that person with his or her intimate Parts exposed or engaged in sexual activity the amended Bill also Alters provisions of the state’s bur of Pion against Revenge pornography and provides that a person may not knowingly
Distribute a computer generated visual representation that is indistinguishable from another actual and identifiable person uh that displays the other person with his or her intimate Parts exposed or while engaging in sexual activity Mr President there are two committee amendments number one is Technical and amendment number two strikes provisions
Of the bill and provides for defamation and revenge pornography Provisions as specified I’d move for the adoption of two committee amendments and the favorable committee report floor ler moves for the adoption of the two committee amendments in the favorable committee report Mr chairman just a quick the state standing with the the
Actual image where it was seen or is it by the person that conducted it these I’m sorry Mr President is is it uh does standing happen where the image is located or where the production no so this is if if if you are that person if
The if it’s it’s not an actual picture of you but it’s indistinguishable then you have standing to bring the case and it’s it’s computer generated and you cannot possess or distribute it yeah New World Order or you cannot distribute it yeah excellent all right on the Amendments any
Discussion any objections yeah yes ch CER from McMan County thank you with the Flor your y for a quick question so uh so just to confirm uh first of all thank you thank you thank you for all your hard work on this so what we’ve been seeing online through
Like Facebook and other things so if someone manipulates a photo of someone in a really un uh you know uncompromising situation this is Marilyn taking the lead and saying that that’s not allowed in this state that’s absolutely correct and I I just have to commend uh the senator from Howard and
Montgomery County for her hard work on this as well thank you very much Mr Floor leader all right uh on the Amendments any discussion any objections without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question now is on the amended report any discussion any objection without objection the amended
Report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 858 is hereby ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 905 C Kelly Public Safety extreme risk protective orders review of Court records favorable recognizing the bill
Uh chair the committee is the floor leader thank you very much Mr President this bill authorizes researchers affiliated with institutions of higher education who are conducting academic or policy research to review a court record related to a petition for an extreme risk protective order there are no committee amendments Mr President I move
For the adoption of the favorable committee report floor later moves for the adoption of the favorable committee report any discussion Mr President if I mayd like to make a motion to special of the approprate time tomorrow uh next session or tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow okay any objections to the motion
Without objection uh the bill will be special ordered to the appropriate time tomorrow um clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 1097 Senator Smith Public Safety gun buyback programs destruction of firearms favorable with four amendments recognizing the bill sponsors the floor there as amended this Bill establishes requirements relating
To the destruction or rendering permanently inoperable and irreparable of firearms and their counterparts surrendered to add a gun buyback program as identified by the bill a federal firearms license or a law enforcement agency that violates these Provisions is subject to a maximum fine of $10,000 per violation if the Violator is a licensed
Firearm dealer in addition to the maximum fine per violation the Secretary of the State Police must revoke the dealer’s license additionally the bill exempts certain employees of the Department of Natural Resources from specified prohibitions of wearing carrying and transporting a firearm in certain locations it classifies theft of
A firearm as a felony subject to a maximum penalty of 5 years and imprisonment of up to uh and a fine of up to $1,000 and classifies trafficking of a regulated firearm as a felony Mr President there are four committee amendments one is technical number two add specified exemptions for that DNR
Employee Provisions related to the theft of a firearm and amendment number three classifies firearm trafficking as a felony amendment number four Alters Provisions relating to gun buyback programs Mr President move for the adoption of the four committee amendments and the favorable committee report floor leader moves for the adoption of the four committee
Amendments and the able committee report on the Amendments any discussion any objections without objection the four committee amendments are adopted question now is on the amended report any discussion any objections without objection the amended report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate
Bill 1097 is hereby ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next bill bill 1108 Carol County Senators Carol County Deputy Clerk or deputy sheriff oath of office favor recognizing senator from the 42nd is the floor leader thank you Mr President um this emergency Bill requires that every
Deputy Clerk or deputy sheriff in Carroll County take and sign the oath or affirmation of office prescribed by Article 1 Section 9 of the Maryland Constitution there were no amendments there was no opposition the vote of the committee was unanimous I hereby move the adoption of the favorable committee
Report floor later moves for the adoption of the favorable committee report any discussion any objections without objection the favor committee report is adopted are there any amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 1108 is hereby ordered printed for third reading all right let’s take a u let’s
Take up this special order this is calendar number 45 45 clerk will read the bill Senate belt in 99 Senator Kagan election law affiliating with the party and voting unaffiliated voters question is on the adoption of the favorable report my question is on the adoption of the favorable report uh recognizing the
Minority web I’d like to speak on the report if I might Mr President Senor May proceed so there’s a um we’re a closed primary state in Maryland so in in the Democratic primary or the Republican primary only registered people with that party may vote in that primary that’s
Current law right now if you are unaffiliated we we sometimes will cocly call unaffiliated folks Independents but technically as the floor leader said yesterday they’re they’re not registered independent they’re registered unaffiliated if you are unaffiliated you have until 18 days before a either a a a midterm primary which is usually in late
June in our state or in this case our our presidential primary in May most of the times it’s in March or April uh you have until 18 days before to switch to a either the Republican or Democratic party to vote in either party’s primary otherwise if you go to vote and there’s
A Schoolboard race you’re able to vote in the nonpartisan Schoolboard race if your county has those most counties now have nonpartisan elected School boards um that’s the only thing you can vote for now there’s a lot of folks who talk about whether we should allow unaffiliated voters or independent
Voters to vote in primaries and I think that’s a very reasonable policy debate that can be had I’ve always been of the opinion that you should choose you should select a party if you want to vote in that party’s primary so if you live in mcgomery county or Howard County
Or or Carol County and you want to vote in uh the primary of and that maybe in some cases unfortunately as the floor leader very aptly pointed out we have a very um what’s a nice way to say it we have a very siloed map there’s another
Word for it but I’ll maybe not be perjorative on the floor of the Senate and there’s not a lot of Senate districts or I guess by extension House of delegates districts where there’s much the the general election is is particularly close as far as Republican vers Democrat I think that’s unfortunate
But that’s another bill and another issue I think before what we’re doing with this bill if if this bill were to pass the way it is you are opening it up for unaffiliated voters to vote in your primary whether it’s Democratic Republican primary in your District in
Your county they can show up at early voting and decide they want to switch parties you’ve had no opportunity you we not expecting candidates have had no opportunity to know that these people are going to come vote in the Democratic primary or the Republican primary probably have not been communicating
With those voters have not been sending them any information or knocking on their door likely let’s be let’s be real in a lot of our districts where the primary is is often times very determinative of the general election and this bill would just let folks show
Up and decide at the last minute not the very last minute cuz it doesn’t go all the way to election day but while already voting that they decide they want to become a Democrat or become a republican but it doesn’t even require them to stay in that party for any
Period of time they could switch while they’re there and switch back the next day I I don’t I don’t like that idea I think we should either I think we should either have unaffiliated be able to vote in our primaries or they we should stick to they’ve got to choose by a certain
Time and I think 18 days is close enough to where someone’s able to make that decision and be an informed voter uh so Mr President I I just am opposed to the bill I thought about some amendments but the only amendments I could think of would either widen it more or just take
It back to what’s current law which obviously defeats the purpose of the bill so I I I just want to speak in opposition and I against I’m against the bill and and we’ll be voting no on it on the report on the report yes sir
Okay uh let’s go to the senator from the 28th followed by the senator from mcy County well no yeah thank you uh Mr President um question for the floor leader please for the floor leader of the bill yeah um yes sir as far as the uh reason for this
Bill what is the problem that it is meant to solve that is the right question thank you and I do want to correct factual inaccuracies from the senator from District 5 but let me answer your question first the the reason for this bill and the reason why
It’s so important is that we used to have 8% of our constituents who were registered unaffiliated who declined to choose becoming either a Democrat or Republican 8% now that number in 2024 is 21.4% those folks are being are having the door slammed in their face they come
In they get the mailers from the League of Women Voters they get the mailers from their count count Boards of Elections their family is getting mailers from candidates because maybe Mom or Dad or Grandma uh or or a sibling or something is registered and so they’re learning about the candidates
They’re also seeing it on their social media they’re seeing it maybe on radio or TV they are becoming aware not all of them not all 900,000 but some number then get inspired and they say I want to participate and when they show up they can’t and so this would allow them just
During early voting to cast a partisan ballot uh let me correct the senator said 18 days that’s not accurate it’s 21 days so it’s more than three weeks in advance that they have to be focused on it that they’ve got to fill out the forms change their change their party
Affiliation and this would give them uh a few more days and they would be able to come in during early voting and they would be able to re-register cast a partisan political ball uh up to 5 days before election day yeah so you’re looking out for if I can
Summarize what you say you’re looking out for the voters who have a last minute desire to vote either democrat or republican as most voters are most voters aren’t as focused on elections as we are and they just start paying attention because that’s when the mailers come to their doors that’s when
More lit drops are happening that’s when we’re sign waving or at the grocery store that’s when our our cable ads or something are there and that’s when they start paying attention so would you agree that these voters who are unaffiliated choose to be unaffiliated again the right question
Some do some don’t there are some folks and again so if I could uh a lot of young people uh consider themselves independent-minded when they move when people move from 20 other states in the United States 20 states have open primaries and say they don’t realize
That they’re not going to be able to vote in the primaries unless they choose a team basically and so this enables them I’m sorry I’m so go ahead yeah so this just enables them to get engaged if they choose most of them won’t this is not going to result in throngs of
Unaffiliated Voters rushing to the polls during early voting to cast a ballot but some folks do and we saw those numbers uh and the numbers as I mentioned yesterday a 50% increase in provisional ballots at least a chunk of those were because they wanted to vote and weren’t
Allowed to so listen to your answer you’re saying that you’re looking out for some and you said I think you said young people who might be not aware of uh the process so young people are disproportionately registering inde dependent that’s what studies show and I meant to try to talk to our wonderful
Pages and see whether they were registered yet uh and how they were Affiliated but I would bet that most of them are unaffiliated people it’s a choice they make to be unaffiliated you are right but in our the choice they made in our democracy Senator we try to uh in
Maryland we have tried to make the franchise more accessible whether it’s for returning citizens whether it’s allowing people to vote by mail for no no excuse we used to have to have an excuse for absentee voting is what we called it you had to be absent or sick
And now it’s just because I feel like it we want to make it easier for people to vote right okay so in the committee um what was the committee vote on this uh Bill to send the bill to the floor the committee vote was 7 to four 7 to4
Uhhuh okay was it a uh how should I how can you ask was a bipartisan it was a bipartisan vote Yes both sides yes sir okay so wow this is a amazing so I just really wonder and maybe I don’t know if you can answer this is it we try to respect the
Decision of people if someone say I don’t like a r or a d I’m GNA be unaffiliated that could be for a good reason you know we often quote the behavior of our elected officials in Washington and people say Hey you know I don’t want be part of any of that bad
Behavior or or D so I will be unaffiliated and so with that um why should we go out our way to make it feel that they’re making a dumb decision you might be young and you don’t know what you’re doing so we’re going to work on you even up to when you
Show up to the voting location to tell you that you can go on either side well I don’t think any of us judge our constituents as dumb I think we just want them to be engaged in the process if they choose to be I want to share colleagues some I want
To Mr President sorry there’s a weird sound I don’t know if so we’re trying to figure out what it is okay I want to share some statistics briefly with you all to my friends on the Republican side of the aisle voter registration numbers the high point that the Republican party has
Ever reached in Maryland I shouldn’t say ever we went back to 1990 so that’s a pretty long time ago the highest percentage you ever got to was 31.7 of all of the people registered in the state of Maryland 31.7% in 1990 off affiliated with Republicans that number now it has been sliding and
Decreasing and declining and now that number 2024 is 23.8 now let me tell you Democrats the numbers aren’t great for us either back in 1990 63.1% 63.1 almost two in every three voters said I’m a Democrat and you know what that number is today again it’s been declining today it’s
52.9 barely half now let me do the contrast here and I’m going to say it again I said it yesterday 1990 8% chose to be unaffiliated and now that number is 21.4 the trend is clear neither Democrats nor Republicans are growing in their affiliations neither one is engaged in younger voters or immigrants
Or people who move from other states that’s who generally is choosing to be unaffiliated if we want to grow our parties the Democratic or the Republican parties we have to offer to open the door this is a compromise and it simply says rather than 21 more than 21 days in
Advance that you can decide to affiliate cast a provisional ballot up to 5 days before election day so one final question um so um Madam Flor leader so someone who’s running for office whether r or D they took the dive and they choose to identify as a are Republican
Democrat because they could be unaffiliated to or go to green party whatever and get on the ballot but do they have to then reach out to all the unaffiliated ERS do they have to send mailers and to to all these because they know that they can show up and go
Either way I mean how is that fair to people running for office who decide to take the leap of faith to run for office um we’re talking about numbers we’re talking about campaign strategy so first off it’s up to each of us as we run our campaigns as I mentioned
Yesterday 4 46 of the 47 of us won with more than 55% of the vote so having a small handful of unaffiliated Voters show up at the poll is unlikely to be threatening to any of us or to frankly any any of our colleagues across the hallway um in terms of uh party
Affiliation changes of provisional ballots in 20 uh according to the State Board of Elections literally there were 5,075 okay people Statewide who cast a provisional ballot because of party registration okay we’re not talking about throngs we’re talking about those who get inspired we’re going to open the door
And welcome them to our parties thank you for that and I appreciate the answers thank you for in time and I think I’ll be voting red on this bill because I just really don’t agree with it thank you all right let’s say hear from the chair of the committee yeah Mr
President we got a large long cue I’m looking at that stack right there and this bill I think is going to take up a fair more amount of time I’d like to special order this bill till the afternoon session if that’s acceptable to the body any objections any objections without objection we’ll
Special order the bill till the appropriate time to the special session or not the special session the afternoon spe session we’ll see whether or not it’s special that’s to be determined all right uh clerk is that the last one on that one oh that’s all right okay let’s
Go to Executive nominations let’s take up the report first this is report number five clerk will read the report report number five the Senate executive nominations committee reports favorably on the attached appointments and recommends the son of Maryland advis and consent to these appointments Antonio Hayes chair recognizing the chair of the
Committee thank you Mr President calendar five is a calendar that includes nominees on on a variety of boards and commissions this is the list based on the nominees we heard this past Monday night the names of the nominees can be found on the floor system under
The other business tab I request that we consider these nominees in regular session under rule 22 and move that we special order this report until the appropriate time tomorrow March 15th all right uh the chairman has moved to special order the uh report and hear it in open S Open session at the
Appropriate time tomorrow any objections any objections without objection so ordered Senators please make sure to take a look at the uh at the listing of of nominations and separate out if or be prepared to separate out if we could give notice to the chair ahead of time
If there are any separations let’s go to now the uh report of the committee on Executive nominations this is report number one clerk will read the bill Senate Bill 107 Senator Hayes state government executive appointments favorable with two amendments recognizing the chair of the committee sure Mr President as amended
Senate Bill 17 reinforces the Maryland constitutionals requirement that the governor must submit Senate confirmation nominations to the Senate by the 40th Day of a regular session and the term of an office will will end if the term of the office will end during the upcoming recess the governor May submit a
Nomination after 40th Day only if the Senate consents to examine a nominee the bill also provides that an officer may not hold over more than four years after the officer’s term expires finally the bill makes Technical and clarifying changes to current law regarding recess appointees there are two committee
Amendments amendment number one is technical amendment number two as an emergency provision that authorizes the governor to appoint an individual to the State Board of Elections during the recess of the Senate regardless of the requirement that the nomination be submitted by the 40th Day of session extends the effective date for the remaining
Provisions of the bill from June 1st 2024 to June 1st 2025 and increases the number of years an individual May hold over to four years I mov the adoption in the I mov the adop of the two committee amendments and favorable committee report floor leers move for the adoption
Of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report recognizing the CH the floor leader Mr President we’ like to lay this over until oh it’ll it’ll come up at our next session okay next session yes senator’s motions in order the bill and the Amendments will lay over under the rule
All right let’s go to budget and tax this is unfinished business uh this is report number nine report number nine clerk will read the first bill Senate Bell 138 Senator Hayes Baltimore city property taxes authority to set a special rate for vacant and abandoned property favorable with two amendments
Recognizing senator from Baltimore C the floor later thank you Mr President Senate Bill 138 as amended authorizes counties in Baltimore City to set a special tax rate for vacant Lots or improved property cited as vacant and unfit for habitation there are two committee amendments the first is technical the second adds authorities
For the counties and requires an annual report that must be submitted if any local governments establish special rate move adoption of the committee amendments Mr President and the favorable report all right floor leader moves for the adoption of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report on the Amendments any
Discussion any objections without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question Nows on the amended report any discussion any objections without objection the amended report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 138 is hereby ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next
Bill Senate Bill 589 Senator Bailey Tri County Council of for southern Maryland Southern Maryland agriculture development commission funding favorable I think we may be the senator from the 29th District potentially is the floor leader all right thank you Mr President Senate bill 589 deals with the Tri County Council for southern Maryland and
The funding for the southern Maryland agricultural de uh development commission what it uh does is for the last um 20 years since the cigarette restitution fund uh was created and we took uh tobacco away from Southern Maryland farmers they’ve been funded with $900,000 and uh now we’re increasing that to $1
Million so it’s a $100,000 increase there were no uh committee amendments I move the adoption of the favorable committee report floor leader moves for the adoption of the favorable committee report any discussion any objections without objection the favorable committee report is adopted are there any amendments to the bill ‘s title
Seeing none Senate Bill 589 is here right order printed for third reading cler read the next bill Senate Bill 677 the president controller Electronic Tax and fee return filing requirements favorable with two amendments recognizing the bill SP nope C from is the flooor leader thank you very much Mr
President uh putting on my former life’s hat as a former employee of the com controller’s office I understood how we used to be on on Saturdays we used to go to the basement of the revenue Administration Division and open up tens of thousands of envelopes and sort the
Mail and make sure that people are getting their refunds uh over the many years uh there’s been this thing called Maryland tax connect and what we’ve done is and really through the leadership of this body move people to electronic filing what this bill does is this is at
The request of the com controller’s office and this moves starts moving business taxes and other me mechanisms of filing paper to electronic we’re still doing what the as as amended the bill still does what it can to to allow certain marylanders to still file uh paper but this is still moving us to
Electronic filing and why that’s important is it cuts down on fraud uh on um on people um stealing people’s identity and filing taxes um fraudulently and also make sure that we’re that the that the state is able to better track it there is uh two amendments one makes technical changes
And the second amendment makes technical corrections to find certain terms establishes civil penalties and exempts a person who has a disability for or uh for religious beliefs and that cannot file electronically it also sets up other exemptions as well there was no opposition I moved the two committee amendments and the favorable committee
Report later moves for the adoption of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report on the Amendments any discussion any objections without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question now is on the amended report any discussion any objections without objection the amended report is adopted are there any further
Amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 677 is here by order printed for third reading clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 878 Senator Claus Meer gaming problem gambling prevalent study and funding Revenue favorable with two amendments recognizing chair of the committee is
The floor leader thank you Mr President uh as uh you may all uh know that uh the casinos have been paying into a fund um uh for problem gaming uh for for some time now when we did um Sports wagering we did not add a component for revenues
That come from Sports wagering to be uh contributing to that fund so all that this bill does is that um 1% of that of sports wagering revenues as well as um fantasy uh competition uh revenues and um uh that will be used uh for a number
Of things the uh the fund does one of which is some studies but also it provides a 247 hotline counseling services and Addiction Services and we have two amendments well number one makes technical changes the second removes the lottery revenues from the bill and adds a reporting requirement
Move the Amendments and the favorable committee report floor lader moves for the adoption of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report on the Amendments any discussion any objections without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question now is on the amended report any discussion any objections without
Objection the amended report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 878 is here by order printed for third reading clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 1092 Cent gone vehicle registration emergency medical system sech charge increase in distribution of
Funds favorable with four amendments recognizing the bill sponsors the floor leader thank you Mr President um I know you asked us not to read it all but I’m going to read this one because there are a lot of complicated component parts to this and I’ll then I’ll try to explain
It in more simple terms um this is a very important bill it involves our uh trauma system across the state and ensuring that it has adequate funding as we move forward so Senate Bill 1092 increases the annual search charge on vehicle registration fees that supports Emergency Medical Services in the state
By $23 from $17 to 40 the bill also increases the portion of that search charge distributed to the Maryland trauma physician service fund by $5 from 250 to 750 the bill also ensures a constant level of funding for the R Adams collie uh Shak Trauma Center uh at
At least $9 of the $40 sear charge must be annually allocated by the governor to the center with a balance paid to the Maryland emergency medical system operations fund there are four amendments Amendment one makes technical changes to the bill Amendment two defines certain terms and specifies that the Maryland trauma
Physicians fund consists of the registration search charge 10% of fines collected for du uis and impaired driving the amendment also increases the reimbursement rate for on Call Physicians from 30% to 20 to 35% in level two trauma centers and from 35 to 40% in level three Trauma Centers it
Also gives authority to the commission to change the percentage under certain circumstances the amendment also adds additional items for the commission to include in its annual report to the general assembly and requires the commission to award an annual Grant from the from the fund to level one pediatric drama centers Amendment Three
Increases the fines for the first and second offense of a person convicted of a violation of drunk or impaired driving by 10% Amendment four makes the annual appropriation beginning in 2026 at least 16,500 to the Amos fund uh fire and rescue and ambulance fund so uh Mr President that is what it
Does so what does that mean so our trauma center and all of our emergency medical system actually actually falls into um what I think of as three buckets the one is shock trauma the main Shock Trauma that we allware of in Baltimore um the second is um what is
Referred to as mof which a whole host of things and I’ll go into very quickly in a minute and then the third is the physician fund and the physician fund we have um eight uh Trauma Centers that don’t um well one does but they provide very I levels of service but but trauma
Services across the state and so uh in e in each instance uh as we’ve been looking out into the future uh there has not been there will not be the resources based on the current amount of money that’s coming in right now to cover the costs for all of those entities and all
Of those entities put together um are what makes up uh the whole system so again we’re all familiar with shock trauma downtown and we know that they’re um uh receive a great number of the um of the cases serious cases everything from Falls and accidents in cars to to
Uh gunshot wounds you name it and they’re there we all know that they have a tremendous um success ratio um I think they’re about 97 depends how you who who you talk to but 97 at least percent if you get there to them you’re going to live and so um that
Particular uh piece of the system has been struggling because of increased cost largely um because of personnel costs um we have uh nine operating um rooms at Shock Trauma and they’ve been only able to keep open six and there’s a tremendous if you’ve ever been there you
Know that there is a tremendous team of folks folks with all kinds of Specialties working to ensure that people who have had an accident survive the second part and they’re they’re all kind of integrated in a way but the second part is mof and you’ll and on mof um there’s multiple
Components and the first part is the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute which is basically a training um operation for our First Responders uh the second is uh Mims which is basically uh the coordinating entity that keeps all the communication flowing whenever there’s an emergency and how that uh reaches out to everyone
Who needs to hear it then of course the shock trauma center there’s something called the Aus fund you might have heard me say that was in an amendment for a number of years that’s been funded at a constant rate of $15 million and we we
Were going to bump it up to 16.5 and that’s for local fire departments um to uh purchase ambulances and other equipment it’s helpful in that regard the big um component part of this moft is the Maryland State Police Aviation Division and if you can imagine the helicopters that are bringing people to
Shock trauma over the years um the maintenance that’s included with that the upkeep that’s included the parts everything that to keep those flying safely and making sure that they’re doing what they need to do and then there’s also a component for increasing um salaries in there and then finally as I said before
There are these uh Trauma Centers across the state and they rely on which we call is the traumas physici fund and primarily what is going on there is that um we have to ensure that there are Physicians Physicians who have the expertise in these areas to do um the
Work when it needs to be done which requires folks to be on call and that on call cost is significant and so what this bill does uh in a nutshell uh is ensure let me just say that just to give you a perception of where where we are even this year when
We went into this year we believed that there was $4.8 Million left in the fund at the beginning of the session and and things were revised already since then and we’re down to about uh 800,000 we have been adding and we added last year a number of millions to sort of do
A stop gap on this and ensure that we could keep providing these Services until uh essentially next year it’s time that we look at this f look at how we’ve been funding it and we did we had a commission that studied this over the inter term and based on that and other
Conversations along the way these three component parts we believe believe need the funds um uh for these purposes uh again it’s $23 a year on the registration and for uh as we all know registration uh for cars is every two years so in reality it’s $46 one of the
Registration this is life-saving stuff um it’s not only life saving it’s also good results um measures um so it’s an important service we have the best in the world I believe I think we should all be very proud of it in this in this uh in this state and um Mr uh Mr
President I’m going to uh ask that we lay this over uh till uh how do we is that can I do it to the second session first session tomorrow uh well probably not but we could special order it tomorrow or when it comes back up that’s
Fine that’s fine okay all right uh the motion is in order uh the bill and the Amendments will lie over under the rule thank you Mr chairman um excellent under the rule laid over under the rule all right clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 1142 Senator Zucker tax
Clinics for lowi income marylanders funding favorable recognizing the bill sponsor as the floor leader thank you very much Mr President uh Senate Bill 1142 uh might look familiar to you because it is uh this is a bill that we passed unanimously uh last year uh this
Helps provide uh counsel and uh help in court for those with their state taxes the reason why this is back is uh when it became law there was another bill that followed it and when that bill came effective it struck this from the code entirely so this bill puts it back in
Code this doesn’t happen that often but we want to make sure this gets back on the books there are no committee amendments because it’s in the same posture that we passed unanimously so I move uh the favorable committee report floor leader moves for the adoption of the favorable committee report any
Discussion any objections without objection the favorable committee report is adopted are there any amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 1142 is hereby ordered printed for third reading all right let’s go to calendar 10 out of B&T clerk will read the first
Bill Senate bill at 7 03 Senator Hayes Board of Public Works transparency dashboard favorable with two amendments recognizing senator from mcer county is the floor leader thank you very much Mr President Senate Bill 703 uh according to the sponsor is one of the best bills that’s ever been presented uh but this
Is about transparency and uh this is a good bill because it’s going to uh allow transparency and require uh the office of the com controller in coordination with the governor and and the state treasurer to provide information on websites related to State uh procurement so this is a transparency Bill and it
Will be up to the controller’s office to maintain and establish the website um there are two committee amendments the first one it makes technical changes of the uh title and the second uh is uh requires the dashboard to be published On The Board of Public Works website in
Consultation with the governor the com trol and the treasurer uh there is no opposition uh I would move the two committee amendments and the the adoption of the favorable committee report FL lader moves for the adoption of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report on the Amendments any discussion any objections
Without objection the two committee amendments are adopted the question now is on the amended report any discussion any objection without objection the amended report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 703 is hereby ordered printed for third reading cler read the next
Bill Senate Bill 706 Senator Jackson Law Enforcement Officers pension system Reemployment as Sheriff favorable with one Amendment recognizing the bill sponsor the flo there thank you Mr President colleague Senate Bill 706 as amended is a joint committee on pensions bill that requires a Board of Trustees of the state retirement and pension
System to temporarily suspend the retirement and allowance of a retiree of the law enforcement officer’s pension system who is elected as Sheriff within one year of retiring from leops Law Enforcement Officers pension system the retirees allowance is reinstated when the retiree ceases serving as Sheriff while the allowance is suspended the
Retirees family is still entitled to survivors benefits under current law uh there is one Amendment the amendment reduces the time that the retiree uh Le off’s member must wait before being uh elected as Sheriff from 5 years to one year uh the uh and applies the bill prospectively moving forward and uh to
Individuals retiring after the bill takes effect uh the bill wrote it out of committee 13 to0 uh move adoption of the committee Amendment and the committee report FL later mov for adoption of the one committee amendment in the favorable committee report on the amendment any discussion any objections without
Objection the one committee amendment is adopted question now is on the amendment report any discussion any objection with that objection the amendment report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 706 is here by order printed for third reading clerk read the next
Bill C Bill 784 Center alred comprehensive Community safety funding act favorable with two amendments recognizing the bill sponsors the floor leader thank you very much Mr President colleagues we just had a discussion about the importance of our trauma system um and I’ll note that 40 years
Ago this body made the decision to to fund that trauma system in part through uh the at that time the leading cause of what was having making people present to the trauma system at that at that time and Still Remains the highest is vehicle accidents it’s why we tied it directly
To vehicle registration not all of us are going to get into accidents or cause accidents but if God forbid we are we have that trauma system to rely on uh and as the chair said best in the country if not the world we uh went about over the interim uh working with
The trauma system uh across the state to figure out other ways to Shore that up given uh what are looming challenges with its sustainability and one of the answers that was presented by the trauma systems themselves is we are seeing an increase in people presenting to our trauma systems an increase in gunshot
Wounds and so this idea actually came from the Physicians themselves who are treating those gunshot wounds just in the last 10 years at Shock Trauma in Baltimore City they have seen uh the number of patients experiencing a gunshot wound in 2013 was 4.9% in 2023 that grew to 10% and these
Are also incredibly complicated situations uh more expensive on the system itself uh than other accidents and so from that work we bring you Senate Bill 784 which attempts to which will if passed uh change the tax on gross receipts uh the bill is introduced had a tax on gross receipts of guns and
Ammunition and accessories the committee amended the bill to change that from an excise tax to a sales tax of 11% currently those items are taxed at the 6% regular sales tax rate this would put them at 11% again for those Firearms firearm accessories and ammunition and secondly it creates a sales tax
Exemption for the purchase of firearm accessories and ammunition for law enforcement officers retired Law Enforcement Officers or a member of the armed services or National Guard and three the sales tax uh is estimated to generate about $1 million uh that will then be dispersed through a formula that’s outlined in the
Bill and that formula is as follows 44% to the Maryland trauma Physicians fund that we just discussed that covers the the centers across the state 29% to shock trauma 23% of the funds would go to the violence intervention and prevention program so actually getting ahead of uh the violence before it
Starts and trying to to interrupt that violence before it begins 2% to the survivors of homicide victims grant program and 2% to the proposed Center for firearm violence prevention and intervention uh that I believe we B debated just a few moments ago uh so as I mentioned there are two
Committee amendments the first is technical the second rewrites the bill as I mentioned from an excise tax to a sales tax and then includes that exemption that the committee debated at length yesterday and with that Mr President I move adoption of the two amendments in the favorable committee
Report floor leader moves for the adoption of the two committee amendments in the favorable committee report uh on the amendment should I recognize the senator from the 35th District time to ask questions sen May proceed thank you uh Mr President so has now changed an increase in sales tax so
Roughly in comparison to our neighboring states now is it how much more expensive will it be to buy these products in Maryland when we have neighbors very close to us in other states I we’ll check on the sales tax rate in Virginia but I believe it’s
6% so it so Virginia’s around is 6% and so this would represent a 5% increase okay compared to Virginia and and this is two two bills now that we’ve heard in in succession that uh through special funds are trying totally for uh funding msolved and and those are definitely
Priorities I guess my question is why are we going this route and if it’s such a priority why is it not just through the regular budget process why we have to rely on a special fund uh like this it’s an excellent question Senator and back to how I started the the the
Argument when we first dreamed up 40 plus years ago funding the the park the shock trauma we wanted to connect the cause of what is bringing people to to need that that service uh to funding that service in that case vehicle registration as we just mentioned again
I don’t plan on getting an accident I hope you don’t plan on getting in an accident but if God forbid we are we have paid into that service this is the same logical thought process of something is in this case gunshot wounds are increasing and is our Trauma Centers
That that are responsible for against saving lives when people are in that circumstance and so the bill simply in the same logic suggests that we should tie part of the cause to saving lives and the services that our constituents come to expect let me just question that that premise a little bit
So these uh taxes are going to go up on people that are probably mostly legal law abiding citizens you’re trying I understand you’re trying okay there more gun shot wounds so you’re trying to get F you know funding that’s related but what we’re seeing in shock trauma how
Many of these bullet wounds are from these uh guns that are purchased lawfully and I don’t have that data Senator but I will I believe that’s part of the intention of the governor’s Bill to create an actual uh you know Center within the Department of Health to to
Tie that the data directly back in terms of crimes committed to to this very question until we see that wouldn’t you say there’s a pretty good chance of the injuries you’re seeing at shock traumas as a result of firearm injuries are probably from a lot of illegally
Obtained guns and uh ghost you know stuff like that and not I haven’t heard of a huge issue with a bunch of law buing citizens having that are shooting U you have these victims that are going into shock trauma it’s probably mostly criminal activity that’s leading to this
So I don’t that’s where I see a problem with the correlation I I understand I don’t have that data in front of me I can share with you that in In This Very District that that I represent we had a uh a horrible incident of gun violence
Just last year three people lost their lives a number of other people were injured and that was by a legally purchased gun and so I don’t have the breakdown of the data but certainly anybody any of our constituents who are the the victims of a gunshot wound would
Now benefit from ensuring the services that will save their lives again 99% life saving rate at Shock Trauma if you get there in the golden hour I think that’s a service our constituents come to expect I and I totally agree I just question is this the the avenue to get
There very fair and just one other thing if if you could respond to you know Mar and this would have pertained to the previous bill as well you know we’re hearing about inflation still ticking up gas prices you know there’s we have a lot of people in the state are are
Already suffering some hard times with with uh these pocket book issues and now you have you know law-abiding citizens they’re going to have to pay more that justes that just doesn’t seem uh fair to the folks that are doing things the right way that now they’re paying more when nothing a overwhelming majority
Have done has caused this issue so I don’t know if there was any uh any talk about that or in your commit it came up in committee and and again if if that’s your basis for your vote I I understand that but the committee feels strongly
That there is a direct Nexus and that this is a responsible measure okay well I appreciate trying to fund the um you know these different programs you know I had Amendment last year on the canas bill that would have helped towards this and unfortunately was turned down uh
That would have been another funding Revenue but uh thank you for your answers thank you Senator all right uh on the two amendments here Rec senator from District 4 followed by the senator from District 42 thank you Mr President the floor will yes s May proceed so Senator thank you for
Bringing the bill forward I just wanted to touch base on a couple um very relative points uh if you go to West Virginia which is one of our border states do you know what the sales tax is there on guns and ammo I do not it’s zero West Virginia charges zero sales
Tax on guns and ammo so by nature of the design of this bill we are actually putting a tax on our own ffls in Maryland a business tax on them that can have devastating consequences to them as business owners small business owners and could literally run them out of
Business in the state of Maryland that seems pretty unfair to the to those people because they can go and buy the same gun across the across the river for 11% less I I I just think that this is do you have any comment to that on why we
Would do such a thing as Reckless is this that you know when we’re when we’re talking about we’re in a funding deficit and this is how we’re going to do it is tax this one uh entity well I I’m not sure I agree with your pre preface that this is reckless I
Think we make tax policy decisions every year when it comes to uh tobacco for instance um we have this debate on the floor it’s a fair debate the committee decided that this was a responsible measure again moving it from an 11% excise tax which would have been on top
Of the 6% sales tax moving it to an 11% sales tax the bill is more balanced as amended as it came in as introduced okay I I I stand corrected 11% was Reckless 5% is still very bad but 11% was really over the top and Senator I am getting
Data uh right now from our analyst that in Pennsylvania there is a $3 sirar charge on guns and that is on top of their 6% sales tax so just looking at all the states and relative to any gun purchase that factors out to what percent in Pennsylvania mhm I don’t have
That information so $3 would be not even that would be on a $50 purchase in the state of Maryland roughly and then 6% sales tax on top of it correct okay but we’re adding it to everything and above that anything and above $50 is going to be additional fees
Compared to Pennsylvania so that that’s not even if you want to go with a $3 thing hey we’re we’re all we’re all ears ready to listen to that but we’re taxing the entire amount for this certain sector and you know you made a really great Point earlier when you said said
Connect the calls thought that was really good because we connect the calls we just had a great uh discussion and presentation by the chairman about the cause of car crashes and we’re sending a lot of people to shock trauma so we need to be able to maintain those resources
Now we’re saying and those are probably I think in the area of about just under 40% somewhere in that area I believe is what the new number is um we’re saying gun violence is around 10% we’re up 7% from the date you gave about a decade ago I I suppose but the largest
Overwhelming contributor to those taking the shock trauma is from what seniors falling seniors falling so I guess I’m asking why aren’t we like putting looking to do the same thing on those slippery tiles that are seemingly are we going to put that is that what’s next
We’re going to make tile to have be etched so it’s not fall you know resistant um are we going to require ladders to have a a tax put on them I mean that’s the largest contributor it’s a overwhelming almost half are from Falls and not just senior Falls but predominantly senior Falls but
From Falls so are we going to add attacks to ladders are we going to add attacks to tile is that being considered because there’s a lot of tile in this state senator I appreciate your question I would encourage everybody in this body to visit Shock Trauma or John Hopkins or
Any trauma center and visit with the trauma Physicians uh Mr President I can share when I visited John’s Hopkins pediatric Trauma Center which is also the lead Trauma Center for burns um you know the doctors talked about uh ramen noodles causing havoc and being the leading uh cause of a lot of young
People but I I think I I I understand your logic I think we’re trying our best to pick not pick but but choose the the the exact causes and Nexus between so I me it’s it’s a little bit of a funny example but my point here is we’ve seen
This uptick and gunshot wound victims they are incredibly expensive cases complicated cases uh you can again I encourage you to to speak with trauma Physicians about the complicating factors of what gunshot wounds uh cause in our community uh and again this bill is just trying to create that the Nexus
Is there it’s trying to tie the cause to uh the solution having been on far too many shootings than I care to elaborate on and making so many notifications to families that their loved ones are not coming home I will tell you that I agree
Any of those are too many but this body fails time and time again to move meaningful legislation forward to those that are the illegal gun owners holding and using those in crime we fail time and time again and here’s another example of this body levying attacks on
Legal gun owners to prohibit ffls from thriving in our state which is their absolute right and we’re minimizing their right and we’re sending our people to other states where they can get the same exact item and in West Virginia for no tax so they can save 11% that is wholly unfair
Inequitable and completely inappropriate I I just I I would urge the body just this is we should not be doing this government should not be picking winners and losers when it’s available all across our state all across our country and if we are going to do that then we
Need to do it equitably tile manufacturers ladder manufacturers all those Ramen put it on the ramen that’s a dangerous dollar put it on there it’s important because if that’s what there if that’s what these experts are telling you because that’s the impetus from this bill was that these surgeons are telling
You that this is a needed uh fee because they’re seeing an uptick in this then why aren’t we doing it for these things also and then with that I would it’s rhetorical thank you thank you Mr President all right uh here from the minority leader on the Amendments thank
You very much Mr President the floor leader continue to yeld please s May proceed um thank you I just feel it’s only responsible if my colleague was talking about West Virginia and there being no sack no tax there obviously also familiar with Delaware in the Eastern Shore no sales tax there as well
Too so a lot of the same type of issues that we are bordered by surrounding states and unfortunately this body sometimes just operates in a bubble and doesn’t consider what’s going on when we make changes like this because we have obviously a lot of businesses here in
This in in the Eastern Shore that rely on Hunting I fact didn’t we have a bill earlier this year that dealt with sea deer right yes so my question with respect to that does this tax go on uh Firearms you know such as shotguns yes and so shotguns it would it would it
Would also could cause gunshot wounds that are devastating for communities and our trauma system so when when the doctors presented this idea to you Physicians presented this idea did they talk about how many wounds came in from shotgun blast I’m not sure we collect that data did not collect that data um
So shotguns and I obviously the ammunition for shotguns would be taxed at 11% as well too yes uh okay so you know again I think this is important we recognize what we’re doing to businesses in the state of Maryland we’re going to put businesses out you know so I’ve got a
Lot of uh you know stores in the in the state in the um Eastern Shore that sell things to all the people that we’re trying to attract to Maryland to come down and hunt seek a deer and other things and yet we’re going to tax them 11% as they drive through from
Pennsylvania and places that they’re coming through and go through Delaware they’re going to stop there buy ammunition buy magazines firearm Scopes they might need a new stock a new grip handguard or even body armor for some I guess we’re taxing body armor at 11% but they’re going to
Stop there on their way down to Maryland and spend money there and and yet we’re somehow saying that that these types of hunting activities has a Nexus to to the injuries that we’re seeing at sh Shock Trauma that is the bill as it’s introduced and amended yes and I can
Share from West Virginia the exemption only exists for small arms and Small Arms ammo so it it seems they don’t have an exception for the hunting materials you’re speaking to that was in West Virginia is that what you said yes okay well in Delaware it’s zero sales tax so that’s what I was
Speaking to but but you know and and I think that’s the other thing is is is there also a a a theory here that in increasing the tax will reduce the violence I will no I that’s not the theory behind the bill part of the funding the bill goes towards is
Violence intervention and Interruption programs uh in our communities to stop gunshot gun gun violence before it begins I there is not a single witness or or evidence to suggest that increasing this tax would uh inhibit anybody’s second amendment rights or in inhibit or or stop gun violence at the
Same time the funding is going to go towards hopefully interrupting the violence before it begins and then go towards as I said the trauma system that saves the lives once God forbid it does happen right and you know again I think that you’d mentioned previously there were a number of reasons obviously why
Individuals are end up in shock trauma um gun violence is probably lower on the list than some of the other things that we’ve seen but um okay I I appreciate it I just again want to make sure that when we make these decisions to to do one
Thing that it has a ripple down effect absolutely and it’s certainly going to hurt businesses in in my district in Western Maryland uh throughout the Eastern Shore that have been there for many many years and you know we rely on tourism as a big part of the Eastern
Shore and as our counties Mr President are now struggling with this blueprint for Maryland’s future and trying to find ways to fund that all we keep seeing over and over again and I know there’s another bill coming that’s going to restrict what counties can potentially charge for solar projects but we start
To restrict the way that our counties can raise money in in a way that is agreeable by both sides and you know again so as we come back and continue to complain that we can’t fund the blueprint from the county perspective we’ll then go back to all of these reasons
On why businesses are leaving the state of Maryland and why we can’t do some of the things when we use the resources that are valuable to us to potentially bring in Revenue that those get Ended as well so I appreciate the responses thank you thank you Senator all right uh let’s
Hear from the chair of Finance senator from man Rundle thank you senator from District 32 you know so often we talk about money and our our whole discussion um is framed around money and the cost and I I sorry to disagree with my my friend from the
Eastern Shore but in 2022 the CDC said that there were 26,990 deaths by Suicide with guns and I’ll tell you a story about my cousin my cousin at age 53 um had a fully licensed handgun it was a legal gun he was having a hard
Time in his life he took this gun and held it in the roof of his mouth and tried to kill himself but it didn’t work he laid in shock trauma for almost 3 weeks before he died and he was he he he couldn’t talk he could we don’t even
Know if he knew we were there visiting him it was so sad and to think that we had 26,990 people in our country in one year dying by Suicide with gun I think we need to do something to help Shock Trauma take care of these patients thank
You thank you Senator thank you all right on the Amendments further discussion chair recogniz senator from the 42nd District on the Amendments thank you Mr President can I also have a short cqu with the sponsor of the May proceed of the bill um so uh there’s no question a piffle series of question
Great Scrabble words maybe maybe a little longer than a piffle um but not much so uh there’s no question that where this money is going is important uh it’s part of the core responsibility of the state of Maryland to its citizens much like providing food for people who
Are hungry we have to do these things Shock Trauma is essential um but it’s essential in my view it’s essential that the state in general overall provide this not just a small number of the constituents in the state so uh this bill is going to be challenged as on the
Constitutional grounds and when it is the colloquy that we’re having on the floor will be transcribed and will be part of the legislative record which will be referred to by litigants on both sides of the issue so our colloquy is important now a while ago you were asked
Uh you you indic ated that the basis for taxing gun gun purchases in the state was because guns are used frequently in that and result in injuries which go to shock trauma but you were asked whether you had any data to show whether or not the people who are buying guns legally
And are being checked out uh their background backgrounds are being checked at the time they purchased their weapons whether those guns are the ones that are resulting in the injuries that that produce shock shock trauma patients and you indicated that you did not have that information at this time um my request
At this point Mr President is that we lay this bill over uh so that you can find that information and bring it back to us when we resume talking about this bill and share it with us on the floor so it will become part of the legislative record Mr President I that
Is an automatic layover and I understand if I can May clarify Senator I’m not sure that data exists not that I just don’t have it but I will do my best to get you an answer well when we come back we should find out whether the data
Exists and if it doesn’t exist relying on non-existent data to impose a tax on citizens who are using are lawfully uh under the Second Amendment purchasing guns is something that will be a subject of focused conversation when this Bill gets into the courts thank you Senator all right the Senator’s motion is in
Order of the Bill any Amendment will IE over under the rules clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 880 Center Jackson State retirement and pension system average final compensation compensation adjustments favorable with two amendments recognizing the chair of the pension subcommittee as the floor leader thank you Mr President colleagues Senate
Bill 880 as amended is a joint committee on pensions bill that establishes that for the calculation of the average final compensation for member of the state retirement and pension system a salary increase is not an extraordinary salary increase if it is related to a review and adjustment to the compensation for a
Position classification to address inequities and compensation among employees in the same position classification or increase the compensation for the position classification to more consistent to be more consistent with Market compensation for the position uh there are two amendments the first is technical changes the title The Second Amendment
Iz the Bill’s provision to the state retirement pension systems Retirement Systems erroneously not included in the bill and clarifies the process by which a member will notify the state retirement agency that a salary increase is exempt uh from being considered an extraordinary salary increase move adoption of the committee amendments as
Well as the committee report floor L leader moves for the adoption of the two committee amendments in the favorable committee report on the Amendments any discussion any objection without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question now on the amendment report any discussion any objections without objection the amend
Amended report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 880 is here by ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 881 Center Zucker Public Health federally qualified Health Centers grant program recovery of funding favorable
With one Amendment recognizing the bill sponsors the floor leader thank you very much uh Mr President colleague Senate Bill 881 puts the federal qualified Health uh program um grant program in the same other uh Capital programs uh what it does is it just Alters the recovery period uh for leases from uh to
15 years and for those that are owned to 30 years uh there was one committee amendment that clarifies what I said it’s moving the recovery period 15 years for leases and 30 years for uh property that’s owned for federally qualified Health Centers um I move uh the one committee Amendment and the favorable
Committee report floor leader moves for the adoption of the one committee Amendment and the favorable committee report on the amendment any discussion any objections without objection the one committee amendment is adopted question now is on the amended report any discussion any objections without objection the amendment report is
Adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 881 is hereby ordered printed for third reading cler read the next bill Senate Bill 960 Cent Feldman Maryland clean energy center climate technology Founders fund favorable of two amendments recognizing center from
The capital city is the floor leader thank you Mr President colleagues Senate Bill 960 established es a climate technology Founders fund within the Maryland clean energy center to provide really critical early stage startup funding for companies focused on qualified projects in Climate Technologies it is an emerging uh Technologies opportunity particularly
Because climate change affects Maryland uh disproportionately compared to other states and we have a whole lot of thought Talent here in the state that would like uh that really needs this startup funding the funding recipients must provide a onetoone matching uh funds to qualify and the bill requires the transfer uh to
Start up this this fund from the Strategic energy investment fund the SE that we discussed yesterday uh to the new fund within the Clean Energy Center from fiscal years 25 to 28 and the bill repeals an existing distribution from that c fund to the small minority in women-owned business account in the
Department of Commerce so all in all Mr President as amended there is a net neutral effect on the sea fund we’re just moving uh $ 1.2 million from one from Commerce to clean energy there are two committee amendments the first is Technical and the second provides the maximum distribution of funds for
Certain uses and establishes funding priorities and finally the amendment strikes a current distribution of C funds to allow greater flexibility to the Maryland Energy Administration I move uh adoption of the committee uh amendments and the favorable committee report all right floor later moves for the adoption of the two committee amends to the
Favorable committee report was quite a ring recognizing the minority whip on the amendment I wonder if the Florida could yield for a question sure senator may proceed thank you so much um so I was glad that you got to the point about it’s a net zero on SE which is good
Because we’ve talked about how that seems to be kind of a piggy bank that we’re trying to be sure we keep an eye on could you just clarify for me we’ve we’ve had a lot the last two sessions dealing with funds that deal with Commerce funds versus climate
Versus equitech and that’s a lot of moving Parts some of them come for finance can you just clarify for me what money is this taking from Commerce what were they using This 1.2 million for or were they not using it or excellent question Senator so it was targeted for the small
Minority women owned business account which is also funded by VT fundings video Lottery terminal funds but apparently um it has never been used and every year that money has been returned back to the SE account thank you very much thank you Mr President all right on the Amendments any further discussion
Any objections without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question now on the amended report any discussion any objections without objection the amended report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 960 is hereby ordered printed for third reading click read the next
Bill Senate Bill 972 Center gone Correctional offers retirement system membership favorable two amendments recognizing the chair of the pension subcommittee is the floor leader thank you Mr President colleagues uh Senate Bill 972 as amended makees specified employees of the Maryland Department of Health members of the correctional officers retirement system as a
Condition of their employment it also requires the Board of Trustees of the state retirement and pension system to transfer service credits earned by affected members of the employment retirement system and employment pension systems to the correctional officers retirement system unless an effective member opts out to have service credit
Uh transferred the bill takes effect July 1 and Provisions related to the transfer credit terminate on June 30th 2025 there are two amendments the first uh makes technical change to the title the second adds a list of facilities in which the members are required to be employed adds additional positions not
Included in the original bill as a previously omitted position in the Department of Public Safety and correctional services and clarifies the employees who may opt out of having employee systems service transferred into the correctional officers our retirement system a move adoption of the committee amendments as well as the committee
Report floor later moves for the adoption of the two committee amendments in the favorable committee report on the Amendments any discussion any objections without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question now is on the amended report any discussion any objections without objection the amended report is adopted are there any further
Amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 972 is hereby ordered printed for third reading clerk will read the next bill Senate Bill 97 four centri gazon Behavioral Health crisis response Services 988 trust fund fees recognizing the bill sponsor the floor L there thank you Mr
President so in um 2020 the federal government uh passed an act establishing the 988 uh phone or uh numbers as a phone uh number for uh reaching behavioral help assistance and uh in 2022 we began developing that system in Maryland uh we’ve been dealing with it
On a one-time basis just uh money that we were able to do out of the general fund knowing all along that we were going to have to have an ongoing fund source to make this work and that’s what we’ve done um this sets a fee of 25 cents a
Month uh on your phone bill and so it’s $3 a year and for that $3 a year uh we have a system that’s going to do what we think and hope uh is best for our citizens the first thing is um that the idea of having this system will
Hopefully keep more folks out of emergency rooms and that’s a critical component um you know was uh tragic uh story that the chair of Finance uh told a minute ago and uh you know I know if we think about it in every one of our Lives whether it’s a f a friend or
Family member we know uh that this exists and we want to do everything in our power to prevent it one of the reasons that we from a cost perspective don’t want uh individuals showing up in emergency rooms for this purpose for behavioral health issues is the uncompensated care
Folks coming in uh uh into this uh emergency room and and maybe not being insured and lots of different reasons the cost of being in an emergency room to deal with these kinds of issues in many cases and if you talk and I’m sure you’ve heard from all your hospitals
Across the state that in many cases they’re not really equipped to deal with it so the first thing is to hopefully avoid having folks coming into uh emergency rooms the second really important important thing has to do uh with when 911 is called and there is a police response for behavioral health
Issues now um this is a critical component because unfortunately sometimes um because of a police response and not because the police are necessarily untrained or it can lead to an escalation and unfortunately can um cause more problems and again really what we want to do is get people
Reaching out reaching out on this system to get the help that they need right UPF front this uh system is based uh on a crisis call centers mobile crisis team Services crisis stabilization centers and acute Behavioral Health Care Systems it’ll generate about $20 million a year and just to be a little more
Specific about what we’re getting for our money there are 8 988 call centers across the state and they have been working very diligently since this started to have an answer rate of 9 95% of calls answered within 30 seconds they’re about uh 90% answered at that rate at this
Moment but they’ve been hiring they’ve hired over 50 new counselors they’ve been professionalized ing the 988 Workforce uh through transitioning away from part-time and volunteer uh staff they’ve increased salaries um they purchased new phone uh data and Tech platforms expanded um uh calls and referral services um there’s a
Lot going on um to make sure that this is part of an overall health care system and um we this bill uh Mr President one one last thing um we are also just for for cost concerns um we do believe that we’re going to be able to start collecting
Part of costs through Medicaid and we’re going to work through that process and and hopefully uh pick up some from revenues there also this uh this bill has three Amendment uh two amendments one makes technical changes to title the second establishes a cap on administrative expenses for the com controller’s office
Of 6% for three years and then 3% beginning in fiscal year 2028 it exempts the federal Lifeline program from the fees and delays the implementation of fees on prepaid wireless until 20 uh 27 Mr President I move the Amendments and the favorable committee report FL leer moves to the adoption of the two
Committee amendments and the favorable committee report on the Amendments any discussion any objections without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question Nows on the amended report any discussion any objections without objection the amended report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none CER
Bill 974 is hereby ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next bill s Bill 1065 cator gazon Motor Vehicles registration annual search charge favorable with two amendments uh recognizing the center from district 7 as a floor leader thank you Mr President uh colleagues this is a bill that’s been
A long time coming deals with electric Vehicles registration fees or I’m sorry uh uh gas tax if you want to call it that if you think about it you know when you go to fill your car up at the pump you put the gas in your car you’re
Paying about 47 cents combined state federal and gas tax electric vehicles they don’t pay anything they have not paid anything you originally the idea was to to help the industry grow get more on the the road so we had some tax incentives for people to buy them but now that it’s
Kind of matured and by maturing you know 11% of all vehicles bought in Maryland uh the last three quarters of 2023 were electric vehicles right now there’s 111 models on the road and they’re expected to be 150 by 2026 so they’re becoming more prevalent they’re more out there Mr
President you know we have legislation here that we’ve passed to pretty much go all electric by 2035 so the issue is we need more money for transportation trust fund they’re not paying their fair share that’s what this bill does so the committee kind of discussed you know how
To do it was the best way there’s kind of if you think about it two options one you pay by mile or you just pay a flat fee we discussed it some states do by mile they have to fill out forms send them in it’s pretty rigorous and and
Inundated for the uh end user to do that or you do by mile and that’s what we decided to do in the committee so the bill now the way it comes in fully electric vehicles will pay $150 a year for their considered their Their donation towards Transportation trust
Fund the plug-in hybrid vehicles will be $122.50 those are the vehicles that you actually plug in there two types of hybrids there are some where it’s both combustion engine as well as some type of electric component but that is self-generation by the car itself through braking systems or something it
Actually is able to to produce some type of recharging of itself that’s not included it’s the ones that actually have to plug in those are 122 what it also this bill does allows for installment payments for this because you got to realize your car registra or registration is done every
Two years that’s when this is going to be assessed on these vehicle owners that’s going to be $300 so just like you have an installment payment for gas tax you pay it every time you go once a week once every two weeks you’re you’re paying a
Little bit at a time this allows for those types of those owners to be able to do an installment payment um and it does have a a clause in here that failure to pay you cannot renew your registration or change transfer the title uh Mr President there were two
Amendments the first was technical change the uh um paragraph purpose paragraph and the second was changing those fees as I said you know we looked at different options of the amount and we came up with 150 and 12250 for those uh there was no um it was actually unanimous in Committee in
The vote so Mr President I move favorable on the committee and amendments floor leader moves for the adoption of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report on the Amendments sh recognize the minority whip thank you Mr President I actually um I think of a it’s not not I am not
Unsupportive of the of the measure I think it’s we do have to look at this issue very closely with the rise of electric vehicles um I would like to consider a couple of ideas so maybe asked if the am asked for the bill and the amendments to oh you have a question
Well Mr President I would like to perhaps make a motion soon about giving us a little time to look at a couple things but I would defer to a colleague that may want ask a question all right uh let’s recognize the uh senator from Baltimore County thank you to the florid
To yield Sarah May proceed I have a just a question my my car is a plug plugin but it’s also got the combustable system where it generates electricity if it plugs in and that is based off of your car registration actually the way the MVA registers the
Vehicle the code uses if it plugs in it would be fallen underneath this legislation but it’s a hybrid it is it’s the lower fee but you have to realize by hybrid you’re not using a lot of you’re not paying a lot of G when you you’re
Not consuming a lot of gas 22 miles I’m sorry I only get 22 miles on one charge so coming from my house to here I’m I’m paying half gas and half Electric do you understand what I’m saying I’m saying that I understand that but I’m trying to comprehend that you’re eating
22 miles per gallon no no no 22 miles per charge oh per charge yeah so it’s not like I’m I’m just jetting around the state with hundreds of miles and I do have to buy gas yeah well that’s what the committee looked at you we worked with MVA that’s how they register these
Vehicles two types and we you know decided that plug-in also should pay I guess so well what can I say hey it’s fair you know I might just go get you don’t like potholes I don’t like potholes I might like to get an all electric and just get my money’s worth
Out of the exra tax so we’re getting there oh and Mr President I do want to mention one other thing this also did change uh originally in the bill the money was going to go towards electric buses we did change that actually goes Transportation trust fund so we don’t
Want people stranded on the roads in the winter and buses so this does go to the transportation Trust fun all right senator from the 35th district oh thank you Mr President if FL May proceed so I appreciate this bill um you know we’ve learned with uh EVS
Know they weigh more and which could lead to more wear and tear on our roads because just the increase of the weight of the vehicles as opposed of regular so on the on the fee amounts and the fee structures when you came up with the numbers did you kind of look at other
States in the region and see what their amounts were how did you come up with the the actual numbers as com did you and I’m just curious I I didn’t had time to look up what other so we did let let’s do some raw math here all right so
According to the EPA the average car drives gets 28 miles to gallon according to the Federal Highway Administration the average marylander drives 13,490 mil per year so if you divide that up my head carry the one comes down to about 481 miles a gallon or mile 481 gallons that the average rounder will
Consume now we add on the 47 Cent gas tax we’re going to multiply 47 cents 481 carry one time two comes to $226 so the average marylander right now pays $226 for their gas tax we looked at it again some people are saying hey I don’t drive that much
Others say I drive a lot I want per mile we came up with 150 we thought it was fair and if you look at other states and I do have that Alabama they are $200 and the hybrid is 100 uh Arkansas’s 200 their hybrid is to 100 California land of great ideas um
They’re $108 Colorado is 51 Georgia $213 Illinois 100 Idaho 140 let’s see where’s some big ones Mississippi 150 so as you can see Indiana 150 we’re kind of in the middle there with some of the other states Sumer lower North Carolina 140 25 cents North Dakota 120 so we’re kind
Of where most other states are J by your math you’re saying like with just a regular uh uh gas powered vehicle it comes out to 225 and this is going to be for 150 that is using what EPA says the average right gallons per mile is Plus Federal Highway saying the average marer
Drives comes out to that but you got to also consider that’s Tak into consideration the average of you know you have a lot of big cars Yukons pickups that of course got a lower gas mileage versus a you know some of the smaller cars a Honda Accord or something that’s going to be
Higher as we go in this direction I guess my only concern would be if it’s on average like $75 less than what a combustion engine is paying these EVS weigh more and I mean I just read an article other day how you know they’re they’re wearing out the tires quicker
And all these particulate matter from the tires are are environmental concern because of the I think it’s like 30% more in weight so appreciate your data and your quick math there and uh for run us to the less thank you no and I I support I thank you for that because we
Did talk you know I think we we talked in committee about 200 but we said look we got to start somewhere let’s start here you know it is a $300 per year that or uh bi anyal that they’re going to get assessed now so that’s where we started
Um so that’s we can always come back and raise it after we’ve studied it for a while all right do we any from the minority whip do we have a motion Mr President um I was having to take my shoes off over here to count while they’re doing all this math but I
Think we’re going to do we’re going do I like to build a lie over under the rule all right the motion is in order the bill and the amendment will lie over under the rule clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 1077 Senator quarterman Public Schools Appropriations for school safety expenditure school security
Employees favorable two amendments recognizing the bill sponsor the floor later thank you Mr President uh Senate Bill 1077 as amended would authorize additional Appropriations into the safe schools fund starting in fiscal 2026 the bill also expands the authorized use of the grant funds to include school security employees there are two
Amendments the first is technical the second authorizes instead of requiring the funded increase and returns a distribution of funds to current law of Distributing based on number of schools uh move adoption of the committee uh Amendment and the favorable committee report Flor leader moves for the adoption of the two committee amendments
And the favorable committee report on the Amendments any discussion any objections without OB oh yes uh recognize senator from the 22nd District on the Amendments thank you Mr President there a question for the floor leader s May in the grant fund that’s here can you just explain what what are some of
The uses of the fund like how can how can the the school system this particular fund is only for SRO for currently for Sr and so the the the two things it does it increases an au ation of that fund um and then also allows
That fund to then be used for the school security employees what we have found in a lot of communities a lot of schools around the state SRO uh difference of opinion of whether people want to have SRO uh or they want to have school security employees which
Are you know they don’t have guns things of that nature but they are you know security for the school so it allows that authorization to be used uh that grant funding for the for those individuals in in our County we have sro’s and then we have school security
Personnel we have over about 200 school security Personnel will this be able to cover those school security personnel as well correct yeah they’d be able to tap into that Grant funded thank you yep all right any further disc yes chair recognized senator from District 9 on the Amendments thank you Mr President um
With the sponsor yield for a question yes s May proceed so I have a bill that’s fairly similar but has a few other things in it and I was just wondering if we could possibly lay over the bill so that I could talk about a possible Amendment including a
Co-sponsor okay sounds great thank you very much all right uh senator’s motions in order the bill and the amendment will lay over under the rule clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 1105 the president income tax individual income tax credit eligibility awareness campaign favorable with one Amendment uh recognizing senator from Baltimore
County floor leader thank you very much Mr President Senate Bill 1105 is a departmental bill from the controller’s office and what it does it requires the controller’s office to uh run a uh a campaign to educate people about eligible tax credits it uh provides funding in the annual budget for this
Awareness campaign as you may know we have child care tax credit we have dependent tax credit we have the earned income tax credit and many people don’t know about them so what this would allow the office to do is to uh educate the public about it so there is one
Amendment that is technical I move the adoption of one Amendment and the favorable committee report floor later moves for the adoption of the one committee Amendment and the favorable committee report on the amendment any discussion any objections without objection the one committee amendment is adopted question Nows on the amended
Report any discussion any objection without objection the amended report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 1105 is hereby ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 1120 chair budget and Taxation committee University Systems of Maryland academic facilities
Bonding Authority favorable recognizing chair of the capital committee is the floor leader thank you very much Mr President colleagues Senate Bill 1120 is regarding academic facilities bonds for the University system of Maryland buildings and campuses it’s for the um financing refinancing Renovations renewal and construction of the campus
And projects this is annual language that we uh approve every year this is approved by both the capital debt affordability committee and the spending affordability spending affordability committee there are no committee amendments I move adoption of the favorable committee report FL there moves for the adoption of the favorable
Committee report any discussion any objections without objection favorable committee report is adopted are there any amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 1120 is hereby ordered printed for third reading all right let’s see if we can get rid of some of these singular Calenders here uh
This is layover calendar number 21 clerk will read the clerk will read the bill Senate Bill 416 Senator Lewis young renewable energy cons customer cited solar program question is the adoption of the two committee amendments in the favorable report question is on the adoption of the two committee amendments
And the favorable committee report on the Amendments uh chair recognizes the minority leader on the Amendments uh thank you very much Mr President I uh laid this over yesterday but the sponsor of the bill was able to address the concerns that I had and um my questions have been answered thank you excellent
All right uh on the Amendments any further discussion any objections without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question now is on the amended report any discussion any objections without objection the amended report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 416 is hereby
Ordered printed for third reading let’s go to calendar 22 layover calendar 22 clerk read the bill Senate belt 959 Centra Feldman electrics electricity tariffs distributed energy resources and electric electric Distribution Systems Support Services distributed renewable integration and vehicle electrification Drive act question the adoption of the two committee amendments and the
Favorable report questions on the two committee amendments sh recognize the minority whip on the Amendments thank you Mr President my questions have been answered appreciate the dialogue from the uh committee chair and I have no further questions thank you all right question is on the two committee amendments any discussion further discussion any
Objections uh without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question now is on the amended report any discussion any objections without objection the amended report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill F 959 is hereby ordered printed for third
Reading let’s go to layover calendar 23 clerk will read the bill sen Bill 540 Center guile education School mapping data program established questions and the adoption of the two committee amendments and a favorable report all right question is on the two committee amendments chair recognizes the vice chair of the committee thank
You Mr President uh the great senator from District 44 had uh had a valid question I have an amendment Council thought that it wasn’t needed but belts and suspenders are never a bad idea okay we just have to adopt um all good well uh on the committee amendments any
Objections to the committee amendments with without objection the amendments are adopted the question now is on the amended report any discussion on the report objections to the report without objection the amended report is adopted Senator has uh dist we will distribute the Senator’s amendments and give us
Just a moment to add to the board all right C may explain the amendment thank you Mr President this makes doubly triply clear that the confidential Public Safety possibly life-saving mapping data of our schools that will keep our kids safe is not going to be accessible under the Maryland Public
Information Act move the amendment all right Senator moves the amendment any objections to the Senator’s Amendment without objection the amendment is adopted any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 540 is hereby ordered printed for third reading let’s good to lay over
Calendar number 24 clerk will read the bill sen Bill 674 Center alth abandoned or sunken vessels and Waterway Improvement fund grants question is in the adoption of the two committee amendments and the favorable record all right question is on the two committee amendments shair recognizes the minority
Leader on the Amendments thank you again Mr President I thank the sponsor of the bill I had some concerns from our counties uh we’ve actually introduced the bill my bill’s caught up in rules but she was kind enough to add those uh requirements into the bill so I
Appreciate that and no further questions is that digging under the moat is that no uh all right uh on the two committee amendments uh any discussion any objections without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question now’s on the amended report any discussion any objections without objection the amended report is adopted
Are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 674 is hereby ordered printed for third reading let’s go to layover calendar number 25 clerk read the bill send a bill 539 Senator guile commercial law consumer protection sale and resale of tickets questions and Adoption of the one
Committee one Amendment offer from the floor by Senator guile all right question before the body is the uh Amendment from the floor leader uh Madam floor leader would you like to remind us what the sen what the amendment does sure Mr President so the the amendment that’s currently before the body um the
Amendments that came out of a committee would establish um some refund guarantees and so um what this amendment would do is um would ensure that that uh refund could only be um uh addressed with whomever you had that direct transaction with consequently if you got your ticket from a secondary ticket
Market you couldn’t go back to Merryweather and ask for that full refund um so we just want to make sure that you’re only getting your refund back from whomever you paid that money to thank you Mr President all right thank you Senator Senator uh presses the amendment any objections on the
Amendment any objections without objection the amendment is adopted are there any further amendments oh that’s we have a second amendment from the yes thank you Mr President all right let’s collect um and and with apologies uh there’s we had another amendment this would basically ensure when we give us
One second just give us one quick second I apologize thank you Mr President make sure we have it up on the board here all right senator make explain the amendment and thank you Mr President so this this amendment so once we made some changes to the disclosure requirements
We just wanted to make sure that um those disclosure requirements were at each step of the transaction um which was the intent of the committee um but we just needed to make sure that uh that that was clarified um in the in the final reprint so that’s what this
Amendment does and I would move the amendment all right Senator moves the amendment any objections to the floor leader Amendment without objection the amendment is adopted are there we have another amendment I apologize Mr President there was one from the committee from last night okay one one additional minor additional Amendment
Minor minor collect and distribute the center’s Amendment um so well I’ll wait till it’s distributed thank you all right s may explain the amendment all right thank you Mr President so um it was brought to our attention by committee analysts and it was discussed in the committee um yeah last evening
That once we struck that cap on on the um um in from the bill that we just wanted to be sure that um what it said then was that a secondary ticket Marketplace couldn’t um uh set up a market for resale that of any tickets that was in violation of the bill
However that would create a problem in that um speculative tickets aren’t resold they’re in fact just sold so all this would do was just make sure that they clarify and say sale or resale so this was uh voted out of committee last night and I would move the amendment
Senor remov the amendment the committee Amendment any objections to the committee Amendment without objection the amendment is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 539 is hereby ordered printed for third reading let’s go to special order calendar number 41 clerk will read the
Bill Senate Bill 764 Senator Hayes art Arts incubator Workshop established question as the adoption of the favorable report all right the question is on the adoption of the favorable report believe there’s an amendment on this one is that correct all right any discussion or objections on the report
Without objection the report is adopted recognizing the bill sponsor has an amendment pages will collect and distribute the Senator’s Amendment adding Harford County no all right senator may explain the amendment thank you Mr President um these amendments we discussed in committee they came in after we had already moved the billing the amendment
Um and the committee is okay with them this amendment simply adds another co-sponsor add additional members to the commission including a member of the Maryland Arts Council as well as two members from Arts districts and it uh gives the task the the committee more time to um report back to the leg
Legislature uh I move this amendment and I’m pretty sure the floor leader will accept them all right Senators move the amendment do we have is the floor leader on this oh got it little slow little slow I’m slow on the draw today uh all right uh any objections from the floor without
Objection the amendment is adopted any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 764 is hereby ordered printed for third reading let’s go to special order calendar number four 44 clerk will read the bill sign upell 429 Cent Bailey corporations and associations Protestant Episcopal Church
Dases of Washington question is the adoption of the favorable report uh we don’t have the floor leader um let’s uh let’s do this recognize senator from uh the 28th District maybe we can special order this for 10 minutes yes Mr pres all right any objections the Senator’s motion to
Special order the bill for 10 minutes without objection uh the bill we special ordered for the 10 minutes all right let’s go to let’s go to the committee on education energy in the environment this is report number 28 okay all right um calendar 28 clerk we’ll read the first bill Senate Bill
482 the president governor’s office engaging neighborhoods organizations unions governments and households enough grant program enough Act of 2024 favorable recognizing president protm is the floor leader thank you Mr President uh colleagues this is uh a significant priority for the governor who has expressed the desire um to eradicate childhood poverty um this Administration
Bill codifies the governor’s office of children and specifies that the special Secretary of of uh governor’s office of children is the head of the office the special secretary must establish an enough grant program designed to advance place-based targeting um strategies targeting child poverty the bill also establishes an
Enough Grant fund and requires the governor to include in the fiscal 2026 budget Bill an appropriation of $15 million to the fund this dis appropriation is supplemental to and not intended to supplant any federal funding received for place-based support the bill takes effect July 1st 2024 um fiscal impact of course as was
Mentioned is a general fund expenditure of $15 million in FY 25 and 26 there are no committee amendments I move the adoption of the favorable committee report FL leader moves for the adoption of the favorable committee report chair recognizes the minority whip on the report thank you Mr President I wonder
If my friend the floor would be willing to rise for some questions absolutely sen May proceed first of all I I the governor I know is very when he pushed this forward has been very passionate about this cause and I I think it’s very genuine and I I appreciate it I I had
Some questions about exactly how this would work so first of all I noticed in the fiscal note just on the cost side we we um it’s for the next two fiscal years three fiscal years the next two fiscal years okay and then after that there’s still some fiscal impact is that just
Ongoing residual type yes I I would imagine that it has to do with the um administration of the program so the tail of it yeah okay correct okay so in those two years um we’re it’s a grant program where would the funds be coming from from the
General fund that is correct okay and how will how will people or organizations apply for these funds is there try to get a more specific question what do you have to demonstrate to be eligible for grant funding if you were in a I assume there’s designated areas that would be eligible for this
What would you have to demonstrate that you do or are doing or going to do to get have the opportunity to have access to these funds the way that this is is set up that will run through the this newly established government governor of uh office of for
Children is that it it is a um where folks are combined to to be concentrated on um the projects uh that are specific for uh locations that have high incidences of poverty 20% um I’m sorry 40% uh is really what they’re looking for but it can go as low as 20% as we
Have seen that those would be the places that would be the targets for these neighborhood implementation grants the way it would be set up is that there would be a lead partner and that lead partner would likely be a nonprofit or a governmental entity that would then work
With other partners to have this very focused concentrated effort um that that will look at these areas of high incidences of poverty um and that’s basically how they would do that they would apply to here in the way that we have folks apply and for other grants
That the the team would be assessed um the area would be assessed of course to ensure that it’s they’re targeted into those places and and and then what their intentions would be to um work to um limit or eradicate as the governor has said that childhood poverty it thank you
For that answer does the entity that would apply for these grants have to be based in that area The Entity um it is a local partnership um if you just maybe a better way of asking because I it’s not fair to say is it literally in the neighborhood
Obviously could be an entity from outside the neighborhood that’s I understand that it does it have to be like a like a based in that jurisdiction at least or at least within the state of Maryland I’ll have to check the bill that the the it does not specify
Um the location of the entity um but what it does specify is the area in which the the services will be provided that it has to be inside of that Community okay but that’s fine and then you know as as in the assessment of them though when they are assessing it though
They will be looking for that nonprofit and that local the intent is for it to be a partnership with the with the local nonprofits um and government entities so the expectation is that in the process of evaluation of the entities although it’s not prescriptive in the in the
Legislation itself that that they would be the ones who they would be looking to um as far as the grants okay yeah okay and then what was the discussion or what is in the bill regarding what what are the the goal is it just ending the rate is
It just lowering the rate of poverty or there some more prescriptive things that we’re because that’s a very broad category and I think it’s again a worthy goal and I know the governor has talked about how there are some communities and they’re not just of course they’re rural
Urban and Suburban communities that have had persistent poverty for Generations really and and we do know that’s a huge driver in a lot of societal problems so we we want to be responsive to that but I guess I’m wondering like what is it just trying is the goal to just is it to
Lower the rate of poverty how do we determine success on a program like this sure uh well well F Well to to answer what you said last first I mean there’s no question that the success would be reduction in the the the poverty rates um it does though
Uh allow for a comprehensive approach um um to to support services akin to what we have um in the the blueprint with the um um wraparound definitely with the wraparound services and with the um the community schools that we have which do incorporates like the wraparound services and things like that that would
Help with that so it includes community health safety um definitely poverty rate uh through a comprehensive approach that that is the intent and that they also are just U making sure as well in there to that look to help with affordable housing and affordable housing and high
Quality housing so so there are C certain elements that are that are that they are looking for that will be a part of it so it’s fair to say that this is grants for for program or organizations and local governments that would be focusing in an area to work on job
Training um housing supports and childhood hunger and those if they’re doing sort of a wraparound of a lot of that that’s that’s really I’m just trying to identify what what is this meeting that is not already available and I I think there’s stuff that’s fals through the crack so I’m
Very open to it I just really just trying to could you answer that question that’s a fantastic uh question so when the governor came into our committee and we talked about this bill um it really resonated with me because we had a similar program to this in Prince George’s County we call the
Transforming neighborhoods initiative where the the thought process was is that we do have these programs that are sort of generalized and they they cover the gamut like you’re talking about but what we don’t always do is and what’s unique about this is that what we’re saying is we’re going to identify an
Area of real high need with a very specific set of needs and we’re going to put all of these services in there such that they will maximize their impact in these high impact areas so that’s what’s different so yes we do have all of these different things that are out there this
Will help to coordinate those efforts in the areas of the highest need this is not and that’s a bit of a different approach it’s a it’s a unique approach from the state level that have been those approaches uh uh in the country though as far as that and the governor
Spoke about that this being a unique Approach at the state level where you are coordinating all of these different efforts to make sure that you get the maximum benefit from each of them and hopefully it’ll increase it when they’re working together because we don’t want TR that’s good I mean that’s that’s
Helpful because we don’t want to this a lot of our stuff that’s countywide or Statewide is more triage it’s something’s already happening and we’re just trying to get somebody through to them those are important things to do this is more of a targeted focused
Effort to try to get it sort of the at the Grassroots level of that’s right so and and the point of that is that if we by identifying these areas that are these you know these indicators like high levels of poverty then we get there sooner and
That we try to help things out earlier and we try to move it before it becomes that and by according those efforts where they are so we get there sooner we get there earlier it should be more efficient and we should have greater results and then I think two smaller
Last questions one is there going to be a robust reporting in the bill I have a chance are we going to get a report like regular reporting on how this is go like on the program like what got awarded I’m sure it’ll be publicly available on some website somewhere but
Are we going to get a report from the general assembly on it to the general assembly on it hold on I wasn’t I wasn’t trying to trip you up I’m sorry that’s okay hold on for a second here let me see there Senator I am still looking for the
The reporting mechanism that is there um yeah s thank you okay yeah so they there there are reports um uh on the grants that will be reviewed and there also will be an evaluation that will happen a couple years later um and then the reports all and also ongoing reports on progress
Made within jurisdictions impact of them and then the policy ch and those those reports will come back to the general assembly it’s it’s not in the bill but it that well actually actually fortunately Yes actually it is on page six of the bill um you will see there
The where there there are the reporting requirements that are there including the evaluation you know what I scrolled right past it I’m sorry so thank you so did I no no no it’s good and then and then um lastly just one one final question and thank you Mr
President I have some frustration when we we talk about eliminating poverty um with more sort of government programs I’m glad this is trying to as I understand it leverage a small amount relatively small amount of government program government funds taxpayer funds to match with private and nonprofit funds and perhaps County federal funds
Absolutely in targeted areas and I think that that’s fair uh that is the goal right so it’s it’s the $15 million a year it’s going to be you know this area is going to $250,000 this program might get 500,000 okay um it’s a little frustrating to me
That we had to fight tooth and nail to keep a little bit of money in the state budget just so some kids in failing schools have the opportunity to go to a better school but we’ got $15 million um and this body has been great on keeping that those funds in the
Budget I should hasten to add we’ve stood strong on that it’s that one of the greatest indicators of somebody being able to be successful in their life is to get a great start in their schooling another great leading indicator is if they have two parents that love them and care about them that
Are involved in their life at least trying their best and I don’t know that this kind of thing is going to help with with those issues perhaps uh on on the uh on the parenting and family side maybe there’s some opportunity there I that that’s my frustration but I want to
Be supportive of this because I do I see where the heart of where it comes from so that’s why I was asking the question just to be sure to understand and I really appreciate your answers uh Mr F leader and uh so uh that’s that’s all my questions thank you Mr President thank
You Senator all right question on the adoption of the favorable committee report any further discussion any objections without objection the favorable committee report is adopted are there any further amendments or any amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 482 is hereby ordered printed for third reading cler
Read the next bill Senate Bill 675 the president individual tax prepares code of ethics notification of actions enforcement and penalties stop scam tax preparers act favorable with two amendments recognizing senator from District 10 is the floor leader uh thanks Mr President uh colleagues that this departmental bill requires the State Board of
Individual indidual tax preparers by January 1 2026 to publish on this website a code of ethics and rules of professional conduct for engaging in the practice of individual tax preparation the bill prohibits an income tax prepare from willfully preparing assisting in preparing a causeing the preparation of
An income tax or a claim for refund without being properly licensed or registered there are two committee amendments amendment number one is technical amendment number two requires notification to the field enforcement Bureau only after a violation and requires the publication of code of ethics to be made after a period of
Public input by tax preparers Community uh I move the adoption of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report floor leader moves for the adoption of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report on the Amendments any discussion any objections without objection the two committee amendments are adopted
Question now is on the amended report any discussion any objections without objection the amendment report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 675 is hereby ordered printed for third reading clerk will read the next bill Senate Bill 882 cator
King growing family child care opportunities pilot program permanent establishment favorable Let’s uh senator from 43 Baltimore City County floor leader thank you thank you Mr President all good um this is a uh Senate Bill Mr President Senate Bill 882 uh growing family child care opportunities pilot
Program uh just simply this has been a wonderful program it’s worked really well um so we are uh deter uh making it permanent uh and and getting rid of the determination date um there is a modest fiscal impact uh it was passed unanimously by our committee so I ask
For the adoption of the favorable committee report floor leader movees for the adoption of the favorable committee report any discussion any objections without objection the favorable committee report is adopted are there any amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 882 is here by order printed for third reading clerk
Read the next bill Senate Bill 951 cator hlan business regulation electric vehicle Supply equipment regulations for retail use favorable with two amendments recognizing the chair of the committee’s the floor leader uh thank you Mr President the bill as introduced uh would require the com controller uh to
Adopt regulations for the retail use of electric vehicles Supply equipment in the State subject to a number of specified requirements um the bill does not apply to supplyment for the used for non-commercial purposes the focus is the retail sector uh the bill basically is stricken uh to make a into a work group
So again number one makes technical changes amendment number two removes most of the bill and requires the convening of an electric vehicle Supply equipment workg group to study and make recommendations for the ultimate adoption of electric vehicle regulations and then make some adjustments to the makeup of that work group Mr President
Um I’d ask for adoption of the favorable committee report and those amendments fur later move for the adoption of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report on the Amendments sh recognizes the minority leader thank you very much Mr President the floor leader could yield for just a
Couple questions s May proceed thank you very much it seems like every year we have one of these Workshop or workg group uh bills to study electric vehicle infrastructure um I think just two years ago we talked about another group that was supposed to address this as well too
What do we we what are we doing different here that we haven’t studied already you know I may yield uh to the sponsor because she put a lot of effort into constructing sort of the core mission of this moving it away from the bill as introduced but at the end of the
Day right now in the retail sector we have I think some inconsistencies between federal law state law there are gaps we don’t have uniformity in terms of standards as we ramp up uh EV use in the state but this focus is the retail sector not the at home EV Chargers but
You want reliability you want some guidelines but it’s a fairly a broad uh work group set of topics that I think is not covered by some of the other work groups uh but if I might yield to the sponsor she put a fair amount of time
Into this piece of leg thank you very much Mr President thank you very much Mr chairman so the impetus for this bill was um building on what happened last year in a work group and there was a piece of legislation that created in the interim a PSC Leed Le effort just to
Look at the utility companies and their charging stations right now in this state we have a variety of different charging stations managed and owned by different people we have the utilities we have private um and then we have NE funed ones that are overseen by Sha and the Maryland
Department of in of transportation and so we have all of these different entities and we have people going to charging stations and sometimes they’re not in use able to be used they’re faulty and so what we were thinking of is creating that somebody needs to take
Sort of a top- Down look at all these different entities that are involved and the consumer just wants to go to a charging station and get their car charged right they want to also it’s really important to know who is accountable for making sure that that
Station is up and running what is the uptime and so the thinking behind this is that there needs to be um all these different entities and different state agencies that have involvement I I don’t know if you know this but the Department of Agriculture actually is involved here
Because they’re in charge of weights and measures and so they have a role in all of our gas stations as does the com controller’s office that has a field enforcement Division and loads of people that go out to test the quality of the gasoline so since we have all of these
Different state agencies involved at some level or another we thought we should get them all together and figure out is there a way AC Ross all of these different entities that we can ensure accountability for our consumers especially since this is such an important effort as we’re trying to meet
Our climate Solutions goals so I hope that answers your question I I do appreciate the response um I’m just trying to understand why this is not duplicative of what we’ve already done um there is the Maryland zero admission vehicle infrastructure Council that we have um required as well too they just
Issued their 2023 annual report 66 pages long are we saying that the requirements that you have that are in this bill have not been addressed in that report I am told that they have not that that this state this is a pretty narrow look just at the stations
And the delivery to consum Consumers that is the goal um and kind of at those different steps how we ensure um accountability and long-term sustainability of those stations so why not just require that the council continue their mission and evaluate their report and come back and say we
Don’t think that certain uh issues have been resolved you’re already in place I think there’s 25 members on that as well too um and you know now we’re going to try to create a a a whole another work group of 20 plus members as well to respond to the these specific issues why
Not just keep the the the council that’s in place moving forward I have to go back and look at that Council but we again this is very state government look uh focused um as well as bringing in consumers as well as bringing in business um
So I was a lot of the people I talked to actually never made that recommendation um I was just going to say a lot of the members that you spoke about already or on there the department of planning department of environment Department of Commerce Public Service Commission Maryland Energy Administration Office of people’s
Council then we had fuel cell infrastructure infrastructure equipment manufacturers electric vehicle manufacturers electric companies MML moo this is again one of our colleagues from District 12 was on it uh delegate from district 15 was on it district 16 was on it I just why why recreate something if we have something
In place and can just charge them to move forward again this is the first time I’ve been talking to all of these different stakeholders no one has suggested that to me so this is just much narrower and focused and very time limited um it is something the PSC had
Said they can do internally we don’t have to wait for appointments and we’re hoping for a series of recommendations before next session so we wanted to be a little more targeted more Nimble and quick and I think it is smaller you you think what has been no I
Think what we’re trying to do from this in this legislation is is smaller a smaller group kind of it just seems like a lot of the same people two members of the Senate two members of the House Department of egg PSC comproller Department of Transportation mea Public Service Commission two
Representatives um non-governmental Le it just seems like a a it just seems very duplicative of what we have in place already but um there are amendments on it so if you don’t mind I’m just going to ask that the the bill and the Amendments lie over in the rule
And I’ll just take a look at this we’ll get back with questions all right the motion is in order the bill and the Amendments will lie over under the rule all right let’s go to finance committee oh I’m sorry we’ve got to we have a special order that was the
10-minute delay um that is if we could pull up that special order calendar Madam Clerk clerk will read the bill Senate Bill 429 Senator Bailey corporations and associations Protestant Episcopal Church dicese of Washington question is on the adoption of the favorable report uh let’s see the question is on the favorable report uh
Let’s hear from the floor leader questions on the report we’ve introduced the bill does the senator have an amendment let’s just say well that’s okay let’s go uh FL M FL if we Mr President I presented the floral report there were questions and then the bill was special ordered we’re laid over I
Can’t remember which one so I’m here to continue the conversation if there further questions all right uh let’s recognize the chair of the committee thank you Mr President I I’m aware that there’s another forthcoming amendment that is friendly uh but it is not ready yet so I wonder if we could special
Order this until the appropriate time this evening or we could have this debate right now and then I’ll just do the amendment later uh you know let’s let’s not do let’s let’s if we can avoid the debate until we have it let’s so let’s do the special order can be
Special order until to the evening or the evening session yes Mr President I consent to that all right without objection we will uh special order the bill to the appropriate uh time later this evening now we will actually go to the finance committee report number 26 clerk will read the first
Bill Senate Bill 13 Senator Jackson Maryland Pediatric cancer fund modifications favorable with two amendments recognizing senator from Carol County as the floor leader thank you Mr President Senate Bill 13 as amended limits the authorized uses of Maryland’s pediatric cancer fund to providing grants to eligible applicants to conduct pediatric cancer research
Only it’s authorization for funds to be used to provide grants for Pediatric cancer prevention and treatment are repealed amendment number one makes changes to the title purpose and function paragraphs amendment number two establishes a pediatric cancer research commission to oversee the award of comp of competitive grants uh from the fund I
Move the Amendments and the adoption of the favorable committee report floor leader moves for the adoption of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report on the two amendments any discussion any objections without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question Nows on the amended report any discussion any objections
Without objection the amended report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 13 is here by ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 714 Senator Kramer State Board of examiners for audiologist hearing a dispenser speech language the
Pathologist music therapist favorable recognizing the bill sponsors the floor leader thank you Mr President uh Senate Bill 714 specifies that the governor shall appoint the audiologist members of the State Board of examiners for audiologists with the advice of the Secretary of Health from a list submitted by the Maryland Academy of
Audiology there are no amendments there’s no fiscal impact the bill passed committee unanimously I move the adoption of this bipartisan uh bill and the favorable committee report FL moves for the adoption of the favorable committee report any discussion any objections without objection the favorable committee report is adopted are there
Any amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 714 is hereby order printed for third reading clerk read the next bill Senate Bell 765 Center Hayes economic development business diversity incubator program and fund established favorable recognize the bill sponsor is the floor leader thank you Mr President
Senate Bill 765 establishes the business diversity incubator program and Fund in the dep Department of Commerce for the purpose of providing grants to qualifi incubators to establish diverse effective business incubators in the State subject to competitive application process and other requirements a qualify incubator may receive a grant of $100,000 to
$400,000 the bill does not mandate funding for the program but does specify that the governor may include in the budget $5 million from fiscal year 20126 through 2031 the bill terminates after 7 years there are no no Amendment I move the adoption of favorable committee report floor leader moves for
The adoption of the favorable committee report any discussion any objections without objection the favorable committee report is adopted are there any amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 765 is hereby ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 804 Central Brooks Northwest Baltimore
County Sports tourism facility feasibility study favorable recognizing the vice chair is the floor leader yes uh thank you Mr President and members of the senate senate Bill 804 requires the Maryland stadium authority to study and make recommendations on the feasibility of establishing and operating a sports tourism facility at rers toown Regional
Park in Northwest Baltimore County amendment number one extends from July 1st to the 20 2025 to December 31st of 2025 the deadline for the stadium authority to report its findings conclusions and recommendations and Alters the effective date accordingly there was no opposition at the Committee hearing I move the amendment and the
Adoption of the favorable committee report floor leader moves for the adoption of the one committee Amendment and the favorable committee report on the amendment any discussion any objections without objection the one committee amendment is adopted question now is on the amended report any discussion any objections without objection the amendment report is
Adopted uh question now let’s see where are we any amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 804 is hereby ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 999 Center Bol certified nursing assistance licensing requirements and administrative updates favorable with one Amendment recognizing
The uh chair of the committee’s the flo leader thank you Mr President I’ll make this really easy we were the only state in the country that had a CNA certified nursing assistant and a GNA geriatric nursing assistant so this bill will now make everyone a c CNA um and there’s a
CNA 1 a CNA 2 based on when you were first licensed but going forward there’ll be one license for CNAs and and allow them to work in nursing homes and assisted living Amendment one Alters the Bill’s effective dates and deadlines under the bill is described strikes a provision authorizing an acute care
Training program to apply for a certain waiver related to instructor experience and makes other Technical and clarifying changes I move the Amendments and the adoption of the favorable committee report FL leader moves for the adoption of the one committee Amendment and the favorable committee report on the amendment any discussion any objections
Without objection the one committee amendment is adopted question now on the amendment report any discussion any objections without objection the amended report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing n incent a pill 999 is hereby ordered printed for third reading clerk
That we’ll do it on that let’s go to report number 27 clerk we’ll read the first bill Senate Bill 91 Center McCrae Workforce Development and adult learning leasing training program establishment favorable recognizing the vice chair of the committee is the floor leader thank you Mr President Senate Bill 91 establishes
The leasing training program in the Maryland Department of Labor and add is also creates the leasing training program fund the purpose of the new program is to train prepare and connect job Seekers with careers in the residential rental Housing Industry in the state competitive grants to toing $250,000 may be awarded to eligible
Designated Partnerships and one guarantee may be awarded the entire amount in one year the governor must include in the annual budget Bill an appropriation of $250,000 to the program Fund in fiscal 2026 through 28 the amendment does not require the governor to include the 25,000 in the budget I move the
Amendments and the adoption of the favorable committee report all right uh floor leader moves for the adoption of the one committee Amendment and the favorable committee report on the amendment any discussion any objection without objection the one committee amendment is adopted question now is on the amended report any discussion any
Objection with that objection the favorable committee report as amended is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 91 is hereby ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next bill bill 699 Center m Washington cannabis Community reinvestment repair
Fund distribution and use of funds for Baltimore City favorable with two amendments recognizing centor from Baltimore city’s of floor leader thank you Mr President Senate Bill 699 is a local bill that alters how funds from the community of reinvestment and repair fund are dispersed and distributed in
Baltimore City first funds will go to the city controller who may keep a portion of the administrative cost second the bill establish Equitable Community investment Council in in each state legislative district in Baltimore city which consist of the senator and one delegate from each district for the purpose of distrib Distributing
Community reinvestment funds in Baltimore City amendment number one is technical amendment number two is clarifying sets a specific Amil for administrative cost provides that the senator and delegate are non voting members instead of bylaws it requires a governance structure specifies the contents of the governor’s plan and
Strikes funding for the city office of equity and civil rights the bill is supported by the City senate delegation I move the Amendments and adoption in favorable committee report floor leader moves for the adoption of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report on the Amendments any discussion any
Objections without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question Nows on the amended report any discussion any objections without objection the amended report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 699 is hereby ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next
Bill Senate Bill 796 Senator Simon nir Maryland disability service animal program established favorable with two amendments recognized senator from MCG County the floor leader thank you Mr President colleagues this good bill establishes the Maryland disability service animal program in the department of disabilities to refer eligible individuals to selected nonprofit
Training entities to be paired with an appropriate service Animal Service animals uh are animals that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual ual with a disability the two amendments are technical alter the definition of eligible individual and alter the provisions for
Disqualification from the program there was no opposition at the Committee hearing I move the Amendments and the adoption two committee amendments in the favorable committee report on the Amendments any discussion any objections without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question now is on the amendment report any discussion
Any amendments or excuse me any objections uh without objection the favorable committee report as amended is is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 796 is here I ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 938
Center Augustine Maryland Department of Health Public Health campaign on prostate lung and breast cancer to prevention favorable with one Amendment recognizing senator from District 40 is the floor leader thank you Mr President Senate Bill 938 requires that the Maryland Department of Health to develop and Implement a three-year public
Education campaign on prostate lung and breast cancer prevention that tar communities disproportionately affected by those cancers details of the campaign include providing educational information promoting participation and cancer screenings and providing information on legislation that reduces cost barriers to Prevention Services for fiscal year 2026 through 2029 the governor must include in the annual
Budget and appropriation from the cigarette restitution fund for the public education Campa campaign the bill terminates September 30th 2029 the amendment specifies that the program will only promote screenings gives the department more time to implement the program and adds an additional reporting requirement and reduces the allocation
From the cigarette restitution fund to 7 $750,000 I move the Amendments and the adoption of favorable committee report floor leer moves for the adoption of the one committee Amendment and the favorable committee report on the amendment any discussion any objections without objection the one committee amendment is adopted question now on the
Favorable report uh recogniz senator from District 22 thank you Mr President I have a Amendment at the desk or coming around to the desk okay just give us one moment we have to on the report we can collect it but on the report any uh discussion any objections without
Objection the favorable committee report as amended is adopted we have the amended if the pages could distribute the Senator’s Amendment complicated one we have here senator may explain the amendment thank you Mr President um in honor of my three uncles who all had uh prostate cancer at
At the same exact time um I I actually removed this great amendment to add me as a sponsor of this um of this great Bill excellent Senator removes the amendment any objections without objection the amendment is adopted all right uh any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate
Bill not 938 is here by ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 106 Center Hayes hospital’s medical debt collection sale of patient debt favorable with two amendments recognize the bill sponsor is the floor leader thank you Mr President Senate B Senate Bill 1006 is an emergency bill
That authorizes a hospital to sell debt owned by a patient to a governmental unit or entity that is under the contract with the unit for for the purpose of cancelling the debt the contract between the hospital and governmental unit or contract or contractor purchasing the debt must include the written agreement from the
Patient allowing the debt to be sold the patient is not responsible to the hospital the government unit or the contractor for any amount of the debt that is sold or any interest fees or costs associated with the debt or the sale the bill terminates on December 31st 2026 amendment number one is
Technical and number two amendment number two is clarifying increases the income limit to increase the number of eligible patients and adds a subtraction modification for the purchase of the debt I move the amendment to the adoption of a favorable committee report floor later moves for the adoption of
The two committee amendments and the favorable committee report on the Amendments any discussion any objections without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question now on the amended report any discussion any objections without objection the amended report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title
Seeing none Senate Bill 106 is hereby ordered printed for third reading Clerk read the next bill sen 1103 the president hospitals and related institutions outpatient facility fee favorable with three amendments recognizing chair of the committee is the floor leader thank you Mr President Senate Bill 1103 is By Request of the
President because requested by the Office of the Attorney General as amend it makes changes to the required notice regarding the charging of facility fees the bill also requires the health services cost review commission to study make recommendations regarding Hospital outpatient facility fees and sub MIT a preliminary report by December 1 2024
And a final report by December 1 2025 Amendment one is technical Amendment two strikes a new definition and an altered definition in Le of the report’s findings and recommendations Amendment Three exempts the commission from a state procurement requirements only for the purpose of hiring a consultant to
Assist with the study I move the Amendments and the adoption of the favorable committee report floor leader movees to the adoption of the three committee amendments and the favorable committee report on the Amendments any discussion any objections without objection the three committee ments are adopted question Nows on the amended
Report any discussion any objections without objection the amended report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 1103 is hereby ordered printed for third reading let’s go to report number 28 clerk read the first bill Senate Bill 684 Senator Augustine
Health insurance mental health and substance use disorder benefit Sunset repeal and modification of reporting requirements favorable with six amendments six amendments let’s see Senate Bill six 84 Madam chair chair of Finance Madam CH I think 684 this excellent boy six Senate Bill 684 um alters and extends reporting requirements on health insurance careers
Relating to demonstrated compliance with the federal mental health and addiction Equity act a carrier must submit a report every two years that includes among other things information on non-quantitative treatments limitations required under the parody act and results from a comparative analysis conducted by the carrier um nqts are process or processes strategies
Evidentiary standards or other criteria that limit the scope or duration of benefits for services provided under a health plan the bill also gives the commissioner additional enforcement tools to hold carriers accountable Amendment one makes changes to the title of the bill amendments two and three among other changes established
Requirements relating to the comparative analysis performed by carriers required required submission of the reports every two years instead of annually and require that reports be submitted on each product offered by the carrier in the individual small and large group markets the report must include the results of a comparative analysis on not
Less than five nql selected by the commissioner amendments four and five among other changes Al to requirements on carriers when performing analysis requires the commissioner to take certain actions relating to the submission of data by carriers and expand the enforcement authority of the commissioner when carriers submit insufficient information to assess
Parity at compliance Amendment Six among other changes specifies that a carrier has the burden of persuasion in demonstrating that its design and application of an mqtl complies with the parody act the amendment also repeals obsolete provisions and makes the bill an emergency bill I move the Amendments and the adoption of the favorable
Committee report FL moves to the adoption of the six committee amendments in the favorable committee report on the Amendments any discussion any objections without objection the six committee amendments are adopted question now on the amended report any discussion any objections without objection the amendment report is adopted are there
Any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 684 is hereby ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next bill Senate Bell 791 Cent clme health insurance utilization review revisions favorable of three amendments recognizing Vice chair of the committee is the floor leader uh thank you Mr
President and members of the senate senate Bill 791 alters and establishes requirements and prohibitions relating to health insurance utilization review and prior authorization the process used by carriers to determine whether a requested Health Care Service is medically necessary it Alters requirements related to internal grievance and and adverse decision procedures and
Establishes requirements on payers and health care providers relating to the provisions of the patient benefit information the bill includes Provisions to incre increase transparency and communication during the review process among other requirements a carrier must state in detail when denying a healthcare Care Service the reasoning as
To why the service was not medically necessary and why it did not meet the carrier’s criteria and standards the bill also Alters the criteria and standards that carriers must use in conducting utilization review amendment number one makes clarifying changes amendment number two Alters a provision related to prescription drugs and
Reauthorization requires requirements a carrier must allow a patient to remain order was previously approved by the carrier and the prescriber attests that the drug continue to be necessary to effectively treat the patient amendment number three requires the Maryland Health Care commission to Monitor and report on progress towards implementation of electronic prior
Authorization and real-time benefit check technology instead of establishing a work group I move the amendments in the adopting adoption the favorable committee report and um Mr President um I would like this bill to lie over until later on this evening all right uh the motion is in order the bill and the
Amendments will lie over under the rule okay thank you thank you clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 1046 and County Senators an R County alcoholic beverages fees favorable two amendments uh recognizing senator from the 33rd District as a floor leader thank you Mr President Senate Bill 1046
Is a local Bill and it authorizes anunda County Board of license Commissioners to increase by 35% annual supplementary and other alcoholic beverage fees for specified licenses and permits in anonda County the fee for specified license transfers and renewal application fees for all alcoholic beverage licenses Amendment one makes changes to the title
Of the bill Amendment two strikes from the bill changes to fees for certain permits and limited purpose licenses and makes technical corrections I move the amend mend Ms and the adoption of the favorable committee report floor later moves for the adoption of the two committee amendments and the favorable
Committee report on the Amendments any discussion any objections without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question now is on the amended report any discussion any objections without objection the amended report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 1046 is hereby
Ordered printed for third reading all right small little non-controversial calendar here on jpr calendar number 19 clerk we read the first bill Senate Bill 134 Center hedelman office of Attorney General Correctional onsman unit favorable four amendments recognizing the bill uh chair the committee as the floor leader thanks for
Flagging that for the committee for the body Mr President um Senate Bill 134 as aend it establishes the office of the correctional Ombudsman so it separates this out creates an independent unit and then also takes the Juvenile Justice monitoring unit outside of the Office of the Attorney General slides it under the
Same umbrella um it also in addition to this it it uh to the current powers and duties of the Juvenile Justice monitoring unit um the correctional on will conduct reviews and assess the assessments of facilities and actions taken by the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services relating to incarcerated individuals Mr President
There are four committee amendments amendment number one adds co-sponsors amendment number two is technical amendment number three creates an independent unit of state government Amendment number four modifies the membership of the correctional Ombudsman Advisory Board Mr President i’ move for the favorable adoption of the four committee members and the favorable
Committee report FL moves for the adoption of the four committee amendments in the favorable committee report minority with on amendments can I ask the floor leader to yield the flo to yield senator may proceed so Mr M Mr chairman thank you uh last year we passed this bill a bill dealing with
This I voted for it we had an amendment to have there be a term on the correctional on budsman because they were being appointed by the attorney general and have them subject to ex itive nominations appointment what do we do with that in this bill sure so this
Is two separate things one is with the Juvenile Justice monitoring unit which currently resides within the office of Attorney General serves uh at the pleasure of the Attorney General we’re taking that out of the office of Attorney General putting it into an independent new structure which also the Ombudsman will be the correctional
Ombudsman so there’s a hard kind of line between the two second part of that is the correctional Ombudsman which will be under this new department or this new entity um that also that head of that will be appointed by the governor subject to approval from us the executive nominations both of them will
Now be appointed by the governor that’s correct and they’ll both be will they both be subject to Executive nominations executive nominations and and full approval of this body thank you very much all right on the Amendments any further discussion if not all in favor of the amendment say I oppose a the eyes
Have the four committee amendments are adopted question now is on the amended report any discussion any objections without objection the amended report is adopted chair has an amendment the pages will please collect and distribute the Senator’s Amendment senator may explain the amendment thank you Mr President so working in consultation with the
Department of Juvenile Services we wanted to make sure that there’s a clear delineation so that there are two separate entities kind of operating under this One Umbrella so that one was not subsumed into the other this is clarifying that the Juvenile Justice monitoring unit functions independently I’d like to move the
Amendment all right uh Senator is move the amendment any objections to the committee’s amendment without objection the amendment is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 134 is hereby ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 174 CM use child
Support suspension of driver’s licenses favorable with two amendments all right uh she recognizes the bill sponsor as the floor leader thank you Mr President this bill extends from 60 days to 120 days the period during which the holder of a non-commercial driver’s license may be out of compliance with a child support
Order um before the child support Administration is authorized to notify the motor vehicle administration we all know that it takes transportation to have jobs and uh when one license is suspended uh and they can’t pay their uh child support payments at least or other uh problems as well it also permits the
Obligor to make a request for a reinstatement of the license with CSA or the court and then three require CSA on the request of the obligor to request for uh MVA to expunge an obliger record of license suspensions for failure to pay child support there’s one amend two
Amendments the first is Technical and then the second amendment requires that the child support Administration proved by clear and convincing evidence to a court that uh he or she is more than 120 days out of compliance before determination that suspension uh of the obligo license is appropriate and B Alters the factors
That an obligor must prove by um a preponderance of the evidence before court may make a finding that uh suspension of the license is appropriate I’m Mo favorable the bill and the Amendments the floor leaders moved for the adoption of the two committee members the fa committee report and um
Senator we have a slight Logistics problem where we have the wrong copy of the committee amendments in the secretary’s office for some reason we have it from a different committee okay can we lay this over and we’ll take it up tomorrow we have plenty of time I
Mean not tomorrow later tonight when we figure out where the Amendments have G absolutely absolutely all right uh without objection or excuse me the the motion would be in order and the bill and the Amendments will lie over under the rule uh we have a set of house
Amendments in the bill F which who knows who knows um all right uh clerk we’ll read the next bill Senate Bill 319 cental West regulated Firearms Department of State policing reporting requirements favorable of two amendments recognizing the bill sponsor the floor leader thank you Mr President this bill is the very definition of
Aipl as amended the bill repeals the requirement that the Maryland state Commission on criminal sentencing policy report annually to the governor of the general assembly on the number of charges convictions and sentences for certain criminal violations and instead requires the Marland Judiciary to report that same information this is because
The Judiciary possesses the information and can report it without any cost to the state there were two amendments Amendment one is technical Amendment two substitutes Maryland judiciary as the reporting entity there was no opposition to the bill the committee voted unanimously in favor of it I hereby move
The adoption of the two amendments as well as the favorable committee report all right uh FL ler moves for the adoption of the two committee amendments in the favorable committee report on the Amendments and any discussion any objections without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question now is on the amended report
Any discussion any objections without objection the favorable report is amended is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 319 is here by ordered printed for third reading cler read the next bill set B 488 Center wall Striker civil actions public nuisances firearm
Industry members gun industry accountability Act of 2024 favorable two amendments recognizing the bill sponsor as the flo leader thank you Mr President this bill prohibits a firearm industry member from knowingly creating maintaining or contributing to harm to the public through the sale manufacturer distribution importation or marketing of
A firearm it also requires a firearm industry member to establish and Implement reasonable controls regarding the sale manufacturer distribution importation marketing possession and use of a firearm it establishes that a violation of these Provisions is a public nuisance and the bill authorizes the Attorney General to bring in action
Against a firearm industry member for a public nuisance caused by a violation of the bill Bill there are two committee amendments Mr President amendment number one is technical amendment number two substantially Narrows the bill striking a provision that permits a person who sustained an injury or loss as a result
Of the vi of a violation of the Bill’s Provisions to bring in action for damages against the firearm industry member it also requires the Attorney General in consultation with the Maryland State Police to study the legality and feasibility of a statutory requirement for firearm industry members to provide the Attorney General en with
Information about Trace requests received from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco firearm and explosives Mr uh president I move the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report F to moves moves for the adoption of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report on the Amendments chair recognizes the minority
Whip thank you Mr President I wonder if I could ask the floor leader to yield FL yield senator may proceed of course thank you uh so looking through this bill here this is a pretty drastic uh pretty far reaching bill it would allow the Attorney General of our state to go and
Sue any entity or person anywhere in the United States that he would have susp he or she depending on who the attor general was would have suspicion may have done something not not directly but somehow attributed to an event where a gun was used to break the law
Or would have to involve like a capital type crime or a murder what’s the dividing line of when that can if we pass this bill as it sits what what’s the dividing line of what activity had to have taken place in order for the Attorney General to say you contributed
To it so thank you for the question it’s it’s an important question just to be clear the Attorney General cannot Sue based on suspicion the Attorney General can only Sue based on the proof of the suit Beyond I excuse me by a preponderance of the evidence and so
This um structure that we create is not unique it requires the same civil torch standard that we utilize in every other civil tort matter um there in answer more direct answer to your question there needs to be a Nexus between the action of the firearm industry member
And the harm um that is um created here in Maryland and so if there is no Nexus between the action and the harm there is no lawsuit allowed under this bill it what is the Nexus because as I look at the bill it says a firearm member may not knowingly create maintain or
Contribute to harm to the public through the sale manufacturer distribution importation or marketing of a firearm product by engaging in conduct that is unlawful well it’s already unlawful so you can go after them because it’s unlawful awul or unreasonable under the totality of the circumstances I I don’t understand what
Marketing would would be considered number one I if they’re unlawfully marketing they’re already breaking the law as I look at things like marketing and even sale what would be unreasonable under the totality of circumstances in marketing about a firearm so um as as you indicate
Uh the torch system is uh based on an unreasonable standard so this is not a standard unknown to Maryland this is in fact the standard on which our entire Tor system is based and reasonableness is determined based on the totality of the circumstances so that’s not just
Indicated in the bill that is how our Tor system uh operates and so um we could engage in I’m sure any number of hypotheticals but the the portion of the bill you’re citing is the basis of every Tor lawsuit um in Maryland how does the sorry the Attorney General gets standing
Though to go into Montana or Michigan to go after a gun manufacturer how would they even have standing to I’m trying to get how we start how it starts like you identify that a that a that a gun store sold a firearm to somebody who then came back to
Maryland sold a in Pennsylvania sold a firearm to somebody who came across state lines into Maryland and committed some terrible act which of course is awful but how would the gun store then be because the person used a firearm purchase there and maybe they bought three or
Four firearms and that gun store should have known one person shouldn’t have bought that I mean how does how how does this work I don’t I just don’t understand good question so the bill does not Grant unique standing rules under its Provisions the standing for the Attorney General is the standing for
Any case that the Attorney General brings there must be a Nexus of harm to the people of Maryland uh here in this state but what I know you don’t want to engage in Mr President sorry I know the four leader does not want to engage in
Hypotheticals but I do have to ask what what would be a good example of something you’re we’re trying to allow with this bill so sure let’s uh I don’t think we’re going to engage in a lot of hypotheticals but but I think a basic
One is not unlike the one you um gave so let’s say an out ofate FFL uh sells knowingly to a straw purchaser and that straw purchaser harms a marylander in the state of Marilyn uh that would um be covered under this legislation because they did it
Knowingly we would have to prove that it was knowingly but isn’t that a criminal standard they’ are to they would have to been convicted that they knowingly did it correct or can you do can you sue over and I’m not an attorney um but can you sue over
I think they were knowingly let’s get into court and find out on a civil manner well just to be clear the Attorney General must have facts and evidence in order to prove their case under the Civil standard that this bill lays out um and yes the requirement of
Knowing doing so knowingly is in the legislation but a civil standard is a preponderance of evidence which I think it’s important for people in the watching listening and the body to know it’s different than a criminal standard preponderance just means it was maybe slightly more likely than less lik
Uh so it’s a much lower standard than than criminal um and just trying to understand functionally how I don’t want to get people in a situation where there’s they’ve they’ve sold a firearm they’ve sold several firearms legally under the law but somehow now because we don’t the states
Decided we really just don’t like Firearms the Attorney General doesn’t like Firearms again hypothetically they can bring suits against anyone operating in the gun space the firearm space in our state over time and tie things up in in court I know there’s a hurdle to get into court but it’s not
Such a high hurdle that an attorney general with the state’s taxpayer funded resources behind them couldn’t start going after anyone who’s involved in the firearm industry in the state as a means of silencing and and uh intimidating them into maybe getting out of the state I mean what what are there are there
Safeguards in the bill against that sort of behavior that’s right yes the the answer is yes um so the violation has to be done knowingly there has to be a Nexus between the knowing action and the harm here in Maryland um and they have to prove it by the preponderance of the
Evidence in court and they must have standing to do so so those guard rails are in the Bill are there any opportunities for the Attorney General to bring suit against so could attorney general in this bring a suit against a gang member that’s been convicted of um convicted of trafficking Firearms could
They bring a suit against a gang member who’s been or could they bring a suit against someone who committed a mass again I don’t I don’t say this lightly Mr President some sort of mass shooting or mass murder obviously some folks that do that may not have a lot of resources
But um some do uh in fact there’s a lot of kingpens that have resour could they bring a suit against those people under this bill so it the the bill allows the Attorney General to bring suit against a fire arm industry member which is a defined term under the bill if someone
Is not defined as such under the bill that doesn’t prevent the Attorney General from bringing suit they would be able to bring suit under current law because they are not uh that person is not current immunized under the pla Bill the federal bill that this um addresses
So this is an attempt okay number one that’s interesting has the Attorney General brought suit against anybody who’s perpetrated a shooting in Maryland recently so I don’t have that at my fingertips we know the Attorney General constantly brings criminal charges against dangerous criminals on our streets and has done so uh this attorney
General and previous attorney general as well I’m glad that they have but I don’t believe theyve brought civil suit against anybody in Maryland correct anybody that’s engaged in criminal activity in Maryland I I don’t have that facts those facts in front of me I think
The answer is probably no but we but we don’t know for sure I don’t know that I don’t have it on my fingertips either so this is to get around federal law for well should this is to go after folks who have been protected by federal law otherwise because they are engaging
In a legal and good they’re engaging legally in good faith in a in a constitutionally protected industry correct so just to be clear for the body we’re not getting around federal law we’re complying with the uh plaa federal law by creating what’s called a predicate exception okay okay Mr
President I probably have some other questions but I think there may be there may be some um some other folks who might want to take a crack at this this is this is a pretty far-reaching Bill and again I have to I have to hasten to add we’re making a little bit of
Progress on criminal going after the criminals this session and trying to get our laws a little tougher but we’ve still got a long way to go and this bill I don’t think gets us where where we need to be as far as actually getting the heart of of who’s committing these
Kinds of uh acts with with Firearms most of the time illegal Firearms but thank you Mr President I thank my my friend from judicial proceedings for his answers all right question remains on the two committee amendments any further discussion chair recognizes minority leader on the amendments thank you Mr
President if the floor leader would continue to yield please senator may proceed happy to thank you just following up a little bit on what my colleague was just talking about there are two very specifically identified um terms in this one is the firearm industry member which has been defined means a person engaged
In the sale manufacture distribution importation or marketing of a fire arm related product product so these are individuals that lawfully participate in the industry right well I I you know I guess reading the definition here it could also include people who are unlawfully doing so as long as they are participating in
The sale manufactured distribution importation or marketing of firearm related products but yes it does include those who are doing so lawfully okay and then there’s another definition here a firearm trafficker means a person who acquires transfer attempts to acquire or transfer a firearm for the purpose of
Selling or disposing of the firearm in violation of state or federal law so obviously those are individuals that illegally participate in the transferring of firearms right that’s correct okay so so then the bill the operative paragraphs of the bill here where we talk about what a firearm
Industry member may not knowingly do um that’s paragraph paragraph a and then there’s another paragraph that again relates to firearm industry members I’m trying to see where does the definition of a firearm trafficker come into this bill so in the reprint page 205 it references uh reasonable controls and
Reasonable controls means policies that are designed to prevent the sale or distribution of a firearm related product to uh one a straw purchaser to a firearm trafficker that was the question you asked okay three a person prohibited from possessing a firearm under state or federal law and four a person who the
Firearm industry member has reasonable cause to believe intends to use the firearm related product to commit crime excuse me Senator it’s just getting a little loud if we could take our conversations off the floor please or to cause harm to the person or another person okay so so we’ve defined a
Firearm trafficker so when we can later then say that reasonable controls mean that a uh a firearm related uh industry member cannot sell to a firearm trafficker is that what you’re saying that’s correct okay and in in going through this as well too again going back to the the paragraphs
That determine what they cannot do it it just says contribute to harm is is harm defined is that a legal definition yes so harm is is defined not in the legislation harm is is a innate part of our Tor system if you cannot prove harm you do not have a case and so
Even if someone were to wrong you um and you had a cause of action if you did not suffer any harm you would not have the ability to go to court and recover any from any Tor action okay um and then just finally I’m I’m I’m just trying to also I mean it
Again it seems like we are focusing this on the those again that participate lawfully in the industry but I’m I’m also trying to determine does does this address how um if somebody illegally obtains a firearm if if they illegally obtain it can can they be held
Accountable under this law as well so if they are a far if they are if they fulfill the definition of a firearm industry member and do so in an act that is illegal they would come under the bill if they are not a firearm industry member they are currently subject to
Civil suit because they are outside of PLA and I’m sorry but I don’t know what that means does that I apologize I can yep if you don’t mind yeah so uh placa is an acronym describing a federal law passed in 2005 um that essentially provides both federal and state level
Immunity for firearm industry members um but it provides an exception for the state um so that the state is not preempted when the state um uh passes a federal excuse me a state level predicate this is that bill this is the predicate exception so if I were to then
Ask you to explain it differently to me on what is this bill trying to do without using the words that you just used could you explain it that way please sure um as a policy this bill removes the federal immunity from uh firearm manufacturers and Industry uh
Players it it remute it removes an immunity in Ence that the manufacturers cannot be held liable right correct okay and then why is that necessary to remove that immunity um it’s it’s necessary because we want to punish bad actors like we would in any other industry so no other industry is
Provided with this immunity in every other industry we allow for civil action to incentivize better Behavior hold those who do bad acts accountable and recover on behalf of of of the people of their states but but what what bad actions are the manufacturers what what are they doing
That is would allow them to be classified as a bad actor so this goes back to the part of the bill that we just referenced so um so the reasonable control section would create a civil right of action where uh someone um sells to a straw purchaser a firearm
Trafficker a person prohibited from possessing a firearm under state or federal law a person who the firearm industry member has reasonable cause to believe intends to use the firearm related product to commit a crime or to cause harm uh to the person or another person and again we we don’t already
Have laws in effect for those that are in the industry if they illegally sell or they don’t go through the the hql or they don’t go through the 7day period we don’t have laws for that already we we have criminal laws to address that behavior but do we not we do not allow
Civil suit in those cases so this allows civil suit in those cases just someone that does that okay um okay I appreciate your responses thank you thank you Mr President all right on the two committee amendments any further discuss chair recognizes center from the 29th District on the committee
Amendments thank you very much Mr President very complicated uh bill I ask that the bill uh layer so I could read it all right the motion is in order the bill and the Amendments will lie over under the rule clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 729 Centra Carter
Security guards use of forest reporting healthcare related physical interventions favorable of two amendments uh let’s see where are we oh there we go okay recognizing the bill sponsor as the floor leader thank you Mr President president and members this bill the security guards use of force reporting healthcare related physical
Interventions um there are two amendments to the bill the first one is technical the second one strikes provisions of the bill and instead establishes the specified exception and Alters effective dates and so as amended the bill requires the employer of a security guard providing security guard services on the premises of a health
Care facility to submit reports every 7 days to the Secretary of the State Police on the number of incidents initiated for compatitive persons and initiated for security only responses as those emergency codes are identified in title 10 of the code of the Maryland regulations um I would move the two
Amendments the adoption of the two amendments and the favorable committee report fler moves for the option of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report on the Amendments any discussion any objections without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question now is with the amended report any discussion
Any objections without objection the amendment report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 729 is hereby ordered printed for third reading click read the next bill Senate Bill 1145 Senator saling public and non-public schools child sex offenders prohibition or impers
Attendance favorable of three amendments recognizing Vice chair of the committee is the floor leader thank you Mr President as amended this bill prohibits a child who has been convicted or adjudicated delinquent of rape or a sexual offense that if committed by an adult would constitute a felony from
In-person attendance at a public school or non-public school that receiv receives State funds each local school system must provide alternative educational options for affected students that align with existing law governing the schooling of school-aged children who are registered sex offenders there are three committee amendments amendment number one adds a co-p
Amendment number two is technical amendment number three adds felony third degree sexual offense to the list of offenses for which a local school system must be notified of the arrest of a child and the disposition of a resulting case Mr President I move the three Committee Member committee amendments
And the favorable committee report floor leader moves for the adoption of the three committee amendments and the favorable committee report on the Amendments any discussion any objections without objection three committee amendments are adopted question now is on the amended report any discussion any objections without objection the amendment report is adopted are there
Any amendments to the bill or its title seeing none Senate Bill 11:45 is hereby ordered printed for third reading let’s go to education energy and the environment report number 29 clerk we read the bill Senate Bell 818 Center Hester Information Technology artificial intelligence policies procedures artificial intelligence governance Act
Of 2024 favorable two amendments recognizing the bill sponsor is the floor leader thank you Mr President uh good afternoon colleagues today I’m reporting on our first major piece of legislation on artificial intelligence and it’s incredibly timely as yesterday the European Union approved its artificial intelligence act which ensures the
Safety and compliance of fundamental rights while boosting Innovation um for context colleagues uh you probably heard me talk about artificial intelligence the power of this technology is truly amazing um however it’s probably worth noting that there are risks and opportunities uh that we can’t even imagine yet um so the opportunities
Range from you know major breakthroughs in medicine to essential Public Services like 911 and education um and the risks you know that have been shown today are potential bias security of data amassed by these large language models and Workforce Readiness um so here in the United States colleagues in the absence
Of federal legislation um many state governments are stepping up to fill the void um and so Senate Bill 818 while only 18 Pages compared to the 900 in the EU AI act um takes our first step towards navigating the complexities of AI Technologies it has a narrow Focus
Only looking at our state government’s responsible and productive use of artificial intelligence it both recognizes ai’s transformative potential to holistically improve Public Services um it also does so in a responsible way uh colleagues I’d like to thank the members of The Joint Committee on Cyber information technology and biotechnology
And our amazing amazing staff who worked over the interm over 12 hours of public hearings on this topic I’d also like to thank the governor’s office um and their senior adviser of artificial intelligence who worked C collaboratively with us on this piece of legislation alongside the governor’s executive order so broadly speaking what
Does this bill do it provides the operational rigor necessary for state agencies to increase their use of artificial intelligence specifically the bill does four things colleagues first it codifies the governor’s artificial intelligence sub cabinet charged with developing and implementing a comprehensive action plan for the responsible and productive use of AI
Second it requires impact assessments of new safety impacting and rights impacting AI purchased by state agencies starting on February 1st of 2025 third it requires the state to produce an inventory of artificial intelligence systems this inventory will track vendors capabilities impact assessment use and whether or not the artificial
Intelligence falls into the high-risk category fourth it establishes that the department of Information Technology will set procurement guidelines and a pilot program um along with protocols for safe testing before use and procurement um there are two committee amendments colleagues the first one makes technical changes and adds co-sponsors the second one generally
Exempts state public higher education institutions participating and academic and research purposes it includes the definition of Rights impacting and system impacting AI it Narrows the scope of impact assessments um it requires state public higher education institutions to conform to doet policies and non-academic Partnerships with state government units it Narrows the scope of
Policies and procedures related to vetting an AI system before for procurement it modifies the frequency of system inventories and the timeline for impact assessments it requires a state public Higher Education Institute to submit an annual report on AI procured and deployed it modifies the role of the sub cabet cabinet it clarifies
Procurement for Duit technology modernization and it clarifies definition of proofs of concept procurements removes an interim report and requires a study by the sub cabinet to the general assembly and adds intent on evalu evaluating the feasibility of a virtual 311 portal as amended the fiscal note on this bill
Is significantly lower um and I would like and and the bill passed out of our committee unanimously I move the adoption of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report Flor leader moves for the adoption of the two committee amendments and the favorable committee report on the Amendments any
Discussion any objections without objection the two committee amendments are adopted question now whoopies on the uh two committee amendments are set on the favorable report as amended any discussion any objections without objection the amended uh report is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill or its
Title seeing none Senate Bill 818 is hereby ordered printed for third reading all right uh let’s go to actually if we could ring the bells it’s been a little while since we’ve done these but we have some third readers if we could do a Quorum call Mr President all right has everyone recorded their presence got a lot of activity on the floor things are moving that clerk will take the call with 45 members in the chamber at Quorum being presid and uh Senator Maryland remains in session let’s start with third reading calendar number 40 clerk will read the first
Bill Senate Bill 21 Senator a Washington education Public High School athletic and physical education facility study Senate Bill 21’s on third reading for final passage any discussion if not clerk will call the rooll Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote
Explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 46 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 21 having received a constitutional majority is declared passed clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 25 Senator CLA Meer property tax credit disabled or Fallen law enforcement officer or rescue worker
Alterations Senate Bill 25 is on third reading for final passage any discussion if not clerk will call the role Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 46 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 25 Haven
Received a constitution majorities declared passed clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 161 Cent a Washington Community Schools alterations Senate Bill 161 is on third reading for final passage any discussion if not CL will call the rooll Mr President as everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to
Change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 46 votes in the affirmative Senate 161 Haven received Constitution majorities declared pass clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 1 194 Senator Senator Hayes State procurement pref preferred provider requirements waiver Senate Bill 194 is
On third reading for final passage any discussion if not clerk will call the role Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 46 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 194 having received a
Constitution majority is declared passed clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 286 chair budget and Taxation committee homeowners and Homestead property tax credits application filing deadline extension Senate Bill 286 is on third reading for final passage any discussion if not cler will call the role Mr President has everyone recorded their
Vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 46 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 286 hav’t received a constitution majority is declared passed clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 320 Center Jackson State retirement and pension system administration clarification and
Technical correction Senate Bill 320 is on third reading for final passage any discussion if not clerk call the rooll Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 46 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 320 Haven
Received a constitution majorities declared passed let’s go to calendar 41 clerk read the first bill set of Bill 322 Center Jackson Maryland teachers and state employees supplemental retirement plans automatic enrollment Senate Bill 322 is on third reading for final passage and yes chair recognizes the senator for rall thank you um and I
Agree with savings I tell my kids to start early um but the way I understand this bill is it it’s an automatic deduction out of certain employees paychecks um and given the situation with the retirees and their drug prescriptions I always look at retirement bills um and review them and
Some have said uh looking at other states this is the first Step at getting rid of uh defined pension plans um so if the floor leader could uh stand for a question yield for a question the chair of the pension subcommittee yes I may proceed I missed
This on second re so I apologize no problem um so as far as the scope goes I think this is all state employees that includes legislature Judiciary is that correct yes supplemental folks everyone is in the supplemental system yes so it would include them okay and I also noticed it didn’t
Come out of the committee unanimously was there opposition to this bill that was testified or written and if so who was that yes that was opposition to the bill uh ask me opposition to the bill okay was was there any other or it just ask me I say it here who else
Opposition okay yes and the AFL Seattle okay was the Maryland State Education Association no okay were are there any amendments to address their concerns uh actually uh Mr President uh all those concerns were addressed there was a a uh response from the system uh and we addressed every concern that was
Brought up I think it was like five concerns that were brought up uh and each one of those concerns were brought up were addressed okay I didn’t see any amendments so so did the opposition come back staying neutral or favorable then um I’m not understanding what you mean
By addressed well I I will tell you that the testimony in committee addressed five uh concerns all five of those concerns were addressed um but that that particular unit had come in as unfavorable and they remained unfavorable as we move forward okay and I was just reading from the aflcio it
Said labor unions have seen a familiar Playbook emerging regarding cuts to retirement benefits the first step of this process is off Al often offering supplemental or optional 401K plans followed by making enrollment mandatory eventually offering workers a choice of opting out of traditional defined benefit plans ultimately resulting in
The outright elimination of retirement plans that actually guarantee retirement security and from what I understand that was not addressed is that correct um I’m not sure what you mean by address let me just say this let right that that is not a valid concern and let
Me let me address um part of the concern about automatic enrollment as as a former labor leader myself uh we relished the opportunity to have everyone who came into our system to have to enroll the Supreme Court decision with Janice changed that o that opportunity and so that is a concern now
So that’s this not a new uh process uh it may be since the Janet decision that is new that you can’t have folks to automatically enroll but this is a supplemental enrollment in addition that uh in addition to the already 7% that members in the state of Maryland have to
Uh as when they sign up when they’re hired U as an employee there’s an 11% um there there’s there’s 11% enrollment for their initial uh Retirement System retirement uh but this is in uh they have 90 days to opt out of this plan default enrollment and they have 90 days to opt
Out okay um and maybe you can help me with these other the Maryland State Education Association said basically a lot of people are living paycheck to paycheck and this would put a burden on them because I understand there’s a notice process but there’s like five
Paragraphs of what all has to be put in that notice which probably gets put in the mail sometimes you read it sometimes you don’t um so what I think the point they were saying is you know some people were just barely paying their rent and so forth and this is automatically going to
Take money out of their paycheck maybe up to $300 who knows well let me just ask you question how much do they take out because this is automatic how much of the employees pay is taken out the the initial uh payment here is $6 a year year a year that’s initial and then
There’s a 0.12% uh assessment fee for enroll being in the process that’s one point 0.12% of the salary uh and then there’s a determination uh M yes the minimum plan is $500 $500 annually $5 oh $5 $5 and well let me just drill down on that a little
Period in in the bill it says the amount is not specified it says it’s up to the board to set a rate and if this bill hasn’t passed I don’t know how they would set a rate for automatic withdrawal so this bill authorizes them I guess to go up 1% or
10% it’s it’s completely up to the board under this bill correct um one second I think on page two line 27- 29 says the amount deducted from the wages of an employee each pay period shall be the minimum amount set by the board unless they take affirmative
Action to do something um there is a a default amount uh at enrollment so you have again that can CH by employ the employee can change the amount so again we go to the original um when you get in there’s that default that’s the $5 and
Then you have the 0.1 2% and then it depends on which policy that you enroll in so you you have the ability to enroll okay and then you can either enroll or you could either uh back out of the system if you like okay and what I have a plan with my
Company or the company I work for and you can have very aggressive investment funds and very conservative so when they automatically enroll them what investment fund do they put them in it’s the there there’s a there’s a plan that’s bided on each year there’s a five-year um
Plan are you asking for who is the provider I think I know where you no I’m just saying who determines typically when I put money in for retirement I can say I want to put it in this aggressive fund because I’m feeling lucky or I want more conservatives because I’m getting
Closer to retirement who determines that the bo the board okay the board does that as well okay the member has then has the right to choose from those options and so let’s say the legislator’s part of this I have a defined benefit plan I choose I get this notice and I
Get I guess I have up to 90 days I see this big packet coming from from them I don’t get around to reading all the details that I was put in there I think up to 90 days you can withdraw the money no penalty is that correct correct and
Then after 90 days if I didn’t take any action I say oh more money’s coming out than I thought I want to get my money back can I take the money out you could but there would be a tax implication so you typically pay like a 10% tax
Penalty do depending on the plan okay and then the last piece of opposition I saw was talking about retention especially with teachers saying that when there’s a defined plan you have a much higher rate of retention of teachers but when you don’t the study shows that the retention level goes down
And we have an issue trying to keep teachers as is and with all this combined testimony saying that they’re going to be this looks like a path going to take away defined plans they’re concerns so my question last question is on the The Joint Committee of Pensions have
They considered or explored getting away from defined pension plans uh no and and Mr President if I might um just the your previous comment um you know there’s already a defined plan okay that’s a 7% when I when I got hired when the individual gets hired they’re they’re in
That defin plan it’s a 7% out of that this is a supplemental plan it’s a supplemental plan to help them enhance uh should they choose uh their retirement uh opportunities okay uh and and The Joint Committee your question about the Joint Committee no we did not discuss getting rid of defined plans
Okay I appreciate it thank you so much thank you all right on the bill uh recogniz the senator from the 45th District uh thank you Mr President I just wanted to um ask the floor lead a couple questions clarifying questions well so um Senator or Mr President recognizing that you’re a union leader
I’m in a labor union and being a 20-year labor union member I know that I also enjoy the benefits of a defined benefit plan but I also have an annuity so this wouldn’t prevent someone from still having a defined benefit plan right that’s correct there’s no secret agenda
From removing a defined benefit plan correct none at all so when I think about the retirement opportunities I also think about the tax shelters that come along with it if we were able or if folks that benefit from this respective plan they will still be able to enjoy
The tax shelters that many other folks that have retirement options be able to enjoy correct absolutely and then when I think about that population that isn’t always able to retire with dignity those folks typically are lowincome folks that aren’t able to be able to retire with dignity correct correct so I just say
And and Mr President I just want to lean in from a comment standpoint this was very important to me colleagues I read a book about a year ago and it was called the whiteness of wealth and it was talking about how the tax structure was working against black Americans and it
Talked about the tax shelters that come from our respector Retirement Systems and a lot of folks that don’t benefit from those tax uh shelters and I think about Auto enrollment and I thought about that very very clear because I don’t want to Auto anybody in it but I
Did think about all of the things that I enjoy the things that I want other people to enjoy and this is why I will be supporting Senate Bill 322 because I think that it is a very very rigorous opportunity for us to make sure that we push folks that may not have these
Opportunities in the right direction thank you thank you all right uh on the uh recognizing the uh floor leader are we ready on third reader final passage any further discussion if not clerk will call the role Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote
Explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 40 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 322 have received a constitution majority is declared pass all right clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 366 centor mounts employees and teachers retirement and pension systems Reemployment of retirees
Uh Senate Bill 366 on final passage recognize chair of the committee thank you Mr President can I special order this to appropriate time tomorrow any objections without objection so ordered cler read the next bill Senate Bill 368 Center wal Striker State retirement and pension systems military service credit eligibility uh
Senate Bill 368 is on third reading for final passage any discussion if not clerk will call the role Mr President as everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 46 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill
368 haven’t received a constitution majority is declared passed clerk will read the next bill Senate Bill 371 Senator lamb Maryland medical assistance program personal care aids wage reports Senate Bill 371 is on third reading for final passage any discussion if not clerk will call the rooll Mr President
Has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with for 34 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 371 having received a constitution majority is declared passed clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 376 Center King higher education empowering joint steering
Council funding Senate Bill 376 is on third reading for final passage any discussion if not clerk will call the role Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 42 votes in the affirmative
Senate Bill 376 I received a constitution majority is declared passed clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 394 Center Hester catalytic violation project tax credit alterations B 394 is on third reading for final passage any discussion if not clck recall the role Mr President has everyone recorded their
Vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not a clerk will take the call with 46 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 394 having received a constitution majority is declared passed let’s go to 42 clerk read the first bill Senate Bill 419 cator King therapeutic Child Care grant program
Funding alterations Senate Bill 419 is on third reading for final passage any discussion not cler will call the rooll Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not a clerk we’ll take the call 45 votes in the affirmative Senate
Bill 419 Haven received a constitution majority is declared pass CL read the next bill Senate Bill 436 Senator guile workplace fraud prevailing wage violations penalties referrals sen B 436 is on third reading for final passage any discussion if not CL call the rooll Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish
To change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 34 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 436 Haven received a constitution majority is declared passed clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 477 time to serve the president time to serve Act of 2024 all right uh Senate
Bill 477 is on third reading um on third reading final pass any discussion if not clerk will call the role Mr President everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not Kirk will take the call with 46 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 477 having received a
Constitution majority is declared passed clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 489 Senator Jackson State retirement and pension systems Board of Trustees responsibilities and duties Senate Bill 489 is on third reading for final passage any discussion if not clerk will call the role Mr President has everyone recorded their
Vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 46 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 489 having received a constitution majority is declared pass clck read the next bill Senate Bill 490 cator Jackson State retirement and pension system Consumer Price Index
Definition Senate Bill 490 is on third reading for final passage any discussion if not clerk will call the rooll Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take call with 46 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 490 haven’t received a
Constitutional majority is declared pass uh yes I missed one vote oh give us one more second let’s get through this calendar one last clerk read the next bill set a bill 491 Center Jackson State retirement and pension system transfer service Senate Bill 491 is on third reading for final passage any discussion
If not clerk will call the role Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 45 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 491 have received a constitution majority is declared passed Senators if if there’s no
Objections if we can go to 48 there’s a b oh uh calendar 48 there’s one we have to put an amendment on and bring it out a third reader um senator from district 6 yes uh uh wanted to uh be recorded in the green on Senate Bill 419 419 in the
The green any uh do we have the senator uh vote change slip I didn’t I this one I did not vote oh did not vote okay 419 in the green yes sir and but I do have one that I did change all right on the green on 419 any objections without
Objection so ordered and I did change vote and I did give them the paperwork sir uh Senate Bill 371 from a nay to a yay 371 nay to yay any objection I’m sorry well three this is why the slip’s so helpful 376 no 376 N
376a I need to I need to change that okay we’ll double check we’ll double yes senator from the 29th thank you Mr President like to change my vote on Senate Bill 376 to the green 376 to the green any objections without objection so ordered senator from the 38th uh Mr President Senate
Bill 376 um n to Y please any objections without objection so ordered senator from uh upper eastern shore I think I am the last of the four but out of respect to the majority leader Senate Bill 376 376 376 NAA any objections without objection so ordered
All right confus please all right on uh let’s see calendar 48 clerk will read the first bill set Bill 859 centor Zucker State Department of Education division of Rehabilitation Services funding Senate Bill 859 is on third reading for final passage any discussion if not clerk will call the role Mr President has everyone
Recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 46 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 859 Haven received a constitution majority is declared passed cler read the next bill Senate Bill 89 9 7 SE Senator cor Roa income tax subtraction modification
Death benefits law enforcement officers and firefighters this is an emergency bill Senate Bill 897 is on third reading for final passage Senators this is an emergency Bill any discussion if not clerk call the role Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote
If not the clerk will take the call with 46 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 897 have received constitutional majorities declared passed clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 970 cator gazon energy storage systems income tax credit and grant program Sunset extension Senate Bill 970 is on third reading for final passage
Any discussion if not clerk will call the role Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 46 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 970 Haven received a constitution majorities declared passed clerk read the next
Bill Senate Bill 973 Centra kazone hospitals Private Hospital grant program funding oh my Senate Bill 973 is on third reading for final passage any discussion if not clerk will call the role Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will
Take the call with 46 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 973 hav received a constitution majorities declared passed cler read the next bill Senate Bill 1027 Senator gazon property tax appeals definition of taxpayer this is an emergency Bill uh recognize the chair of the committee thank you Mr President can
I uh move to bring this back to Second reader for purpose of amendment Senators moveed to reconsider the vote by which the bill passed second reader any objections without objection the motion carries Senator has an amendment the pages will collect and distribute the Senator’s Amendment all right uh Senator
Mayel the amendment okay thank you Mr President um this uh is just a really in many ways a uh technical Amendment we um when we when we work to Define what a taxpayer was for purposes of the ability to appeal um assessments um this piece was already in law and this is just
Clarifying this piece that relates to leas Holders so I move the amendment Senator moves chairman moves the amendment any discussion of the amendment any objections to the amendment without objection the amendment is is adopted Senate Bill uh 1027 remains on second reader any further amendments to the bill or its
Title seeing none Senate Bill 1027 is ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 1033 CRA Carter Maryland B performance standards local requests for guidance religious considerations sen Bill 1033 is on third reading for final passage any discussion if not clerk will call the role Mr
President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 46 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 1033 haven’t received a constitution majority is declared passed clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 1058 cator Kramer education curriculum standards anti-hate Holocaust
Education educate to stop the hate Senate Bill 1058 on third reading for final passage any discussion if not clerk will call the role Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 39 votes in the affirmative Senate
Bill 1058 haven’t received a constitution majorities declared passed clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 1066 Center Zucker Sports wagering independent valuations of sports wagering content required Senate Bill 1066 the Magna cartter here it’s on third reading for final passage any discussion if not the clerk call the
Role Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish you change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 45 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 1066 haven’t received a constitution majority is declared passed and Senators if there’s no objection
We’re going to go to 51 51 also has a bill with a needed addition uh let’s see all right 51 clerk will read the first bill Senate Bill 7 Center Bailey public safety law enforcement agency’s positive Community feedback Senate Bill s is on third reading for final passage any
Discussion if not clerk will call the rooll Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 44 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill seven having received Constitution majorities declared passed clerk read the next bill Senate bill 14
Center Jackson Economic Development tourism zones designation of benefits Senate bill 14 is on third reading for final passage any discussion if not clerk will call the rooll Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call
With 46 votes in the affirmative Senate bill 14 haven’t received a constitution majorities declared pass cler read the next bill Senate Bill 34 Centra Carter courts jury duty Services disqualification Senate Bill 34 is on third read oh uh chair recognizes the minority whip thank you Mr President I
Just wanted to speak to this bill because as I understand it we’ve dealt with this issue before and I’m going to be voting red on the bill uh this bill allows for people who’ve been convicted of a large number of crimes to serve on jury do to serve on juries once they are
Once they they can’t be in prison uh but they can they can serve on it exempts I had some amendments last year on this bill that Exempted some people out that I think it’s good that we’ve Exempted like witness intimidation and and uh you know bribery and things like that but
Really you could have somebody who who has committed very serious crimes that now would be able to be on a jury and I understand there’s the arguments that why it’s not a big deal as well lawyers can strike them from the jury or different things but then they have to
Use up their challenges I just don’t think it’s we should do this I know there’s an issue with finding people to serve on juries but I think there should be a lot more people Exempted out if they’ve committed very serious crimes this bill allows you if you’ve served
For if you’ve had a sentence of a crime that’s over a year any sentence you could basically serve on a jury unless there’s there’s a few exceptions in the bill the exceptions do not include severe assaults and other um you know even things like murder and and and
Things of that nature a lot of those folks serve long prison sentences but even things like like vicious assaults and things you could be eligible and be getting onto a jury I just don’t think that’s the right step forward for our state so I’m going to be voting red all
Right on the bill any further discussion if not clerk will call the role Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish you change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 36 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 34 hav received a constitution majorities declared pass
Clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 287 chair judicial proceedings Department of State Police professional occupations application process Senate Bill 287 is on third reading for final passage any discussion if not clerk will call the rooll Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their
Vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 45 votes in the Senate Bill 287 have received Constitution majorities declared passed clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 345 Central wall Striker Transportation Vision 0o advisory commission establishment Senate Bill 345 is on third reading for final passage any
Discussion if not clerk will call the role Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 40 four votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 345 haven’t received a constitution majorities declared passed clerk read the next bill
Senate Bill 373 Center wall Striker criminal law theft mail and arrow key Senate Bill 373 is on third reading for final passage any discussion if not clerk will call the role Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote to explain their vote if not the clerk will take
The call with the 45 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 373 received a constitution majorities declared passed clerk read the next bill sen 402 Cent McKay correctional training commission membership alterations Senate Bill 402 is on third reading for final passage any discussion not clerk will call the role Mr President everyone recorded
Their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 46 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 402 hav received a constitution majority is declared passed clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 544 centr wal Striker corporations associations ratification of Defense of
Corporate acts alterations Senate Bill 544 is on third reading for final passage any discussion if not clerk will call the role Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 46 votes in the affirmative
Senate Bill 544 haven’t received a constitution majority is declared passed clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 643 Cent Carter Public Information Act surveillance images illegal dumping in Baltimore City Senate Bill 643 is on third reading for final passage any discussion if not clerk will call the role Mr President as everyone recorded
Their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 46 votes in the affirmative Senate Bill 643 and received a constitution majority is declared passed clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 839 cator sidor General Provisions damages
Or losses definition Senate Bill 839 is on third reading for final passage any discussion if not clerk will call the rooll Mr President as everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 46 votes in the affirmative
Senate Bill 839 have received a constitution majority is declared passed clerk read the next bill Senate Bill 965 Carol County Senators Carol County sheriff salary Senate Bill 965 is on third reading for final passage chair recognize the minority whip thank you Mr President I’d like to move that we reconsider the vote
By which this passed a third reader for the purpos of amendment Senator is move to reconsider the vote are there any objections to the motion without objection the motion carries the bill is now again before us on second reader and open to Amendment Senator has an amendment Pages please distribute the Senator’s Amendment
It’s it’s actually a explain the amendment thank you Mr President this as the bill came in we were the Carol County uh delegation was doing a shareff salary increase that was going to tie it directly to State Police Lieutenant what we’ve done instead with consultation with local government and others is it’s
Going to set it starting at at the start of the new term of whoever is Sheriff will go to 90% of State Police lieutenant and then a year later to 100% but it’s just at that current amount there’s no tie to it so uh we just a miscommunication with getting the
Committee the right amendments so ask for the body support in the amendment all right Senators move the amendment any objections without objection the amendment is adopted are there any further amendments to the bill Arts title seeing none Senate Bill 965 is hereby ordered printed for third reading clerk read the next
Bill Senate Bill 1022 Senator King Maryland higher education commission academic program approval and institutional mission statement requirement senville 1022 is on third reading for final passage any discussion if not clerk will call the rooll Mr President has everyone recorded their vote anyone wish to change their vote
Explain their vote if not the clerk will take the call with 46 votes in the affirmative Senate pill 1022 Haven received a constitution majorities declared passed recognizing the senator from district 7 thank you Mr President Senate pill 1068 106 I’m sorry 1058 uh red to Green
1058 and we have the there we have the all right red to Green any objections without objection so ordered senator from 29th thank you Mr President Senate Bill 1058 from red to Green 1058 we have the form all right any objections without objection so ordered senator from the
41st thank you Mr President on Senate Bill 345 I’d like to be recorded in the green please my button didn’t work 345 in the green any objections without objection so ordered senat from District 9 Senate Bill 345 recorded in the green please 345 in the green any objections
Without objection so ordered chair of uh senator for MCA County thank you Mr President on Senate Bill 7 my button didn’t work just green seven got to get that looked into Senate uh Senate Bill 7 any objections without objection so ordered any uh senator from the upper
Eastern shore thank you very much Mr President sen a bill 1066 uh button didn’t work green please it’s got a got a bug in the buttons 1066 in the green any objections without objection so ordered you know the story that was always used to be told of the sender who took a
Paperclip stuck it into the voting thing because you get paid if you had green having been there at the beginning of the day and the end of the day that was the only way you could get your perdum so took a paperclip stuck it in there in
The green so every time it would go on it would always go and was never on the floor so gotta love it all right um I think we’re going to call it I think that’s I think I think that’s all we got we’re getting loopy at this point
Uh all right great day we got through a lot we really did this is this is good work today um but it’s only round one so uh some I think most committees are going to be meeting we’ll come back probably at 5:30 5:30 is what we’re
Going to Target um so let’s check with Finance first thank you Mr President finance will meet almost immediately off the floor there’s lunch waiting for the committee um we are we will have seven bills here with 55 Witnesses and then we will vote on about 20 bills and we’ll be
Back at 5:30 all right that is busy thank you madam chair chair of Education energy and the environment um we a I’m not sure we have a delegation get together or whatever okay uh Triple E will meet at U 3:15 for uh voting session 3:15 315 for Triple E
Budget tax thank you Mr President we’ll do the same 3:15 3:15 for voting all the things judicial proceedings we’ll meet at uh 3:30 if we’re voting 3:30 all right 3:30 for jpr little catnap in between um all right uh let’s see standing committees select committees delegations montgomer County
Thank you Mr President immediately when we get off on the floor two bill Moco colleagues and we’re going to go over to the Red Room thank you excellent uh other delegations um any other announcements for the good of the order all right uh if not let’s do a
Quorum call before we adjourn Mr President has everyone Recorded okay uh has everyone recorded their presence if so the clerk will take the call with with 45 members in the chamber in ACC being president of the Senate Maryland remains in session uh Senators we’re going to we’re going to um secure the chamber so if anyone wants to leave
Anything here in between we’ll we’ll keep it secure so uh recognizing the majority leader thank you Mr President I mov the Senate of Maryland stand adjourned until 5:30 today excellent without objection so ordered have a wonderful afternoon and see you in a couple hours e
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