On their last day in Annapolis, Maryland lawmakers’ had one eye on Washington and the decisions made in that capital city about 30 miles west of their own.
With less than nine hours to go in the Maryland General Assembly’s annual 90-day session, House Speaker Adrienne Jones and Senate President Bill Ferguson announced the creation of a new “Joint Federal Action Oversight Committee.”
The committee will help the state navigate uncertainty surrounding decisions by the Trump Administration, Ferguson told reporters Monday.
“It will be a bipartisan committee that will look at how Maryland is being impacted by the actions of the federal government, that will meet through the interim to monitor the situation, on fiscal scenarios, on health care, on the environment, on basic public safety and on the stability of our communities,” he said.
Lawmakers separately passed on Monday a bill that offers laid-off federal workers financial assistance outside the normal unemployment insurance and creates an expedited process for those workers to get state government jobs. It also expands the state attorney general’s ability to file legal claims on behalf of federal workers and people who receive federal benefits such as Social Security and Medicare.
The bill aims to connect laid-off workers with existing vacancies in state government, Del. Jazz Lewis, the bill’s lead sponsor, explained Monday.
For example, the state has a large need for corrections workers, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons laid off a number of workers who would be well-suited to fill those jobs, Lewis said.
“We have a year's worth of [unemployment insurance] claims already for the state in the first three months of the year because of all the layoffs, and we're trying to do what we can to have a
response for Maryland.”
The bill was not popular among Republicans, who said the state should not spend taxpayer money to give special treatment to laid-off federal workers, who may also qualify for normal unemployment benefits.
Sen. William Folden, a Republican from Frederick County, noted that the legislature did not create a similar program for workers laid off from a Western Maryland paper mill or closed coal production facilities.
