I believe day 60 actually falls on Sunday but I thought this a good time to see how the bills I highlighted last month have progressed. Just like in February, today I’ll look at the Democrats’ bills and tomorrow legislation proposed by the Maryland GOP. If you want a brief synopsis of each piece of legislation, that can be found on the original post.
HB115 passed the House on third reading 136-0 with a minor amendment placing the message on the check stub instead of the check. Oddly enough, Delegate Cane did not vote for the bill he co-sponsored, all of our other local Delegates voted in favor. The first reading in the Senate was February 25.
Delegate George’s HB288, a bill I mentioned briefly at the end of a recent post, awaits its hearing March 19. While this is primarily sponsored by Republicans, it’s included in the Democrat summary because locally Delegate Jim Mathias, a Democrat, is one co-sponsor.
HB358/SB819 is stuck in limbo on the House side, the Senate’s hearing is also March 19.
Out of the eight separate bills I cited which were placed by the O’Malley Administration to deal with the subprime mortgage crisis, only SB270 has progressed beyond the hearing stage. This was passed for third reading but heavily amended. Officially the vote will be recorded Monday, thus I do not have the tally at this time.
The speed camera proposal, HB364/SB269, apparently cleared the Senate yesterday as amended by Senator Kittleman. The amendment waters down the law to some extent but shortens the grace period for warnings.
HB368/SB268, another O’Malley initiative, has not made it past the hearing stage yet.
Another primarily GOP idea that Delegate Mathias co-sponsored, HB370/SB211, is also in post-hearing limbo.
Yet another O’Malley-backed bill divesting us from Iran (HB371/SB214) had hearings but no progression since, although the Senate hearing was just on Tuesday.
The suite of two House and two Senate bills related to energy usage in Maryland (EmPOWER Act and High Performance Buildings Act) are also stuck in neutral.
A victory against both race-based selection and extreme environmentalism was achieved when both HB451 and SB100 were defeated in their respective committees. The related HB508 and SB99 were also scrubbed.
The Affordable Housing Trust Fund bill, subject of a recent GOP press release I wrote about this week, also awaits further action after House and Senate hearings last month.
HB519 just had a hearing this week, and has now been joined by the crossfiled SB933. That will get a hearing on March 19th.
Another bill to establish yet another Commission, HB598, is also another bill that sits after it was heard last month.
HB613 recently picked up a crossfiled bill, SB998. The House hearing is Tuesday, no Senate hearing is scheduled.
Local farmers hopefully had their say last week when HB898/SB434 had its hearing. This is called the Incentives for Agricultiure Act.
Another crossover by Delegate Mathias is the combination of HB947/SB646. On Tuesday the House bill will get its hearing, but the slightly amended Senate version passed its third reading last Tuesday 41 to 5. At this time, I don’t have the voting breakdown.
The in-state tuition for illegals bill (HB1236) got its hearing on Tuesday.
Crossing over again, Delegate Mathias is a co-sponsor of HB1314, which got its hearing this past Tuesday. The crossfiled SB583 has its turn on March 11.
We’ll see if the death penalty repeal bill (HB1328/SB645) goes anywhere after the hearing process concludes with the House next week. The timing of this study was amazing, wasn’t it?
Finally, HB1416 has a hearing next week too.
So there’s been some movement on these proposals, but I’m surprised that more of the ones Governor O’Malley is backing haven’t progressed yet. Perhaps they’re trying to cram all of the votes in the last frenzied couple weeks of the session, since it’s mostly non-controversial bills which have passed.
Tomorrow I’ll look at how the Maryland GOP is faring.
