Monday is “crossover day” for the Maryland General Assembly, marking a critical deadline for bills that lawmakers want to see reach the finish line this legislative session.
Bills need to pass in both the Senate and the House in order to be sent to the governor for final approval; crossover day is a timeline marker to ensure legislation from one chamber has enough time to be heard in the other before sine die – the last day of the legislative session – on April 13.
Monday is the last day for a bill to pass its final vote – known as third reading – in the chamber it originated in so it can be sent to the other chamber for approval.
All the bills that have stalled in committee or only received an initial vote – known as second reading – are theoretically dead.
However, crossover day is not a firm deadline; bills that clear their original chamber after Monday would simply be referred to the second chamber’s Rules Committee, meaning it would have an extra legislative step, but it could still be approved.
Here’s where the General Assembly stands on some key legislative items with only three weeks left before it adjourns.
Bill statuses may have changed by the time of this article’s publishing.
Dynamic Pricing
The Moore administration, legislative leadership and Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike put one word at the forefront of its policy agenda this year: affordability.
Gov. Wes Moore, House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D-Anne Arundel and Prince George’s Counties) and Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) kicked off this legislative session by announcing unified support for banning dynamic pricing in Maryland.
The “Protection From Predatory Pricing Act” would ban grocery stores from utilizing dynamic pricing or consumer surveillance data to set food prices.
While sometimes used interchangeably, dynamic pricing often refers to companies raising prices at peak demand times for all customers, while surveillance pricing refers to price setting based on personal data.
The bill would put a blanket ban on both pricing methods, requiring food retailers and third-party food delivery services – like Instacart – to keep food prices set for at least 24 hours.
The legislation provides an exemption for rewards programs that use personal data to provide discounts e.g. buy four coffees get your fifth one free.
The House version of the legislation, HB0895, was amended to require retailers that are not grocery stores to disclose if they are using dynamic pricing, but it would not prohibit the practice.
The House gave initial approval to the legislation Friday afternoon, meaning it will likely gain final approval Saturday or Monday.
The Senate gave initial approval to its version of the bill Friday morning, gearing it up for final approval either Friday evening or Monday.
A conference committee to reconcile any differences between the two versions will likely be needed before it reaches the governor’s desk.
Youth Auto Charging
Some iteration of a bill to reduce the amount of crimes that could qualify a youth to be automatically charged as an adult within the justice system has been circulating in the General Assembly for over a decade.
This could be the year lawmakers finally make progress on that proposal.
Sen. Will Smith’s (D-Montgomery County) Youth Charging Reform Act would reduce the list of quantifiable crimes for automatic charging from 33 — the highest of any state in the nation — to 28.
Those list of 28 crimes would apply to 16 and 17 year olds – 14 and 15 year olds remain eligible to be charged as an adult if they are charged with a crime that would result in life imprisonment for an adult, like first-degree murder or rape.
The crimes being removed from the auto charge list include: sale or transfer of a firearm, use of a firearm in a drug crime, use of a firearm if convicted of a drug felony, first degree assault and wearing, carrying or transporting a handgun.
The bill was also amended to prohibit a child from being held in an adult correctional facility without a secure juvenile detention area.
Federal law already requires a child held in an adult facility to be separated by sight and sound from adults, and Maryland is the largest offender of this violation in the nation.
The Senate gave final approval to its version of the bill earlier this month, but the House iteration has yet to receive a vote out of committee.
House Judiciary Chair and sponsor of the House version of the bill Del. J. Sandy Bartlett (D-Anne Arundel County) told reporters prior to the Senate’s passage of the bill that she was supportive of the adult detention restrictions added by the Senate.
However, the House version of the bill as written would reduce the list of quantifiable crimes from 33 to 11, compared to the Senate’s settled-upon 28.
A conference committee for the two bills would be needed in order to reach a compromise if the House version passed without being amended to mirror the Senate version.
But HB0409 does not appear on track to meet the crossover deadline.
The House is still able to take up the Senate’s version, SB0323, if it does not make progress on its own iteration of the bill.
Immigration Reform
Immigration reform has been another major focus of the legislature this year.
The General Assembly swiftly passed legislation to ban formal partnerships between local law enforcement and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – known as 287(g) agreements – in February.
That bill was promptly signed into law by Moore, but the two chambers have not been in lockstep in moving the remaining pieces of high-profile immigration reform bills.
The Senate opted to prioritize a face mask ban on all law enforcement operating in Maryland – including ICE – with limited exceptions, but the House has yet to vote its version of the bill out of committee.
The House has been prioritizing other pieces of immigration reform legislation, like the Data Privacy Act.
Filed as HB0711, the bill would restrict the release of personal data to the federal government within state databases that would solely be used for immigration enforcement purposes.
That bill gained final approval from the House, but the Senate version has not yet been voted out of the Judicial Proceedings Committee.
The House has also given final approval to bills that would set minimum health and safety standards for all correctional facilities within the state, including immigration detention centers, as well as legislation that would prohibit state and local governments from approving the use of a building as a private immigration detention center, unless it is explicitly zoned for such a facility.
The Senate has not moved on its version of the first bill, but it does appear to be moving an alternate version of the latter.
Filed as SB0984, the Senate version would go even further than the House’s and would ban state and local governments from approving private detention centers from coming into the state, regardless of zoning regulations.
“That's inclusive of immigration detention centers, but [it would ban] all private detention centers in Maryland. We believe that a broad applicability will withstand constitutional muster, and also it's good policy for us not to have private detention centers in Maryland,” Smith told members of the press on Friday.
But one bill that’s held up in both chambers is the Community Trust Act, which would take the existing 287(g) ban even further in restricting how local law enforcement can interact with ICE.
HB1517 and SB0791 would prohibit officers from asking about an individual’s citizenship or immigration status entirely, prevent the detainment of an individual for immigration enforcement purposes by local officers and restrict ICE agents’ access to local correction facilities.
Neither bill has received a vote in its respective committee.
We Are CASA, an immigration advocacy-and-assistance organization, lobbied at the State House on Friday for final passage of all of the bills.
“Maryland legislators, we need you right here, right now, to stand with us,” said Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, CASA chief of organizing and leadership. “If you are not like the [federal] administration of terror that continues to attack Black immigrants and try to silence their voices in the shadows, we need you to step up.”
When asked during a Friday media availability what he would say to those who call the focus on immigration bills this session "political signaling during an election year,” President Ferguson responded:
“What we are doing is responding to the threats that are being forced upon our community by the Trump administration,” he said. “In Maryland, we are building the protections in place to make sure that we are protecting all of our neighbors and all of our residents.”
Energy Bill
Earlier this week, the House passed its energy affordability package within one day, preparing it for debate in the Senate next week.
The 104-page package is titled the Utility RELIEF (Reducing Energy Load Inflation for Everyday Families) Act, backed by legislative leadership and the governor.
The bill’s most clear-cut cost-saving measure for ratepayers is the direction of $100 million to pay down Maryland’s EmPOWER program, which aims to incentivize energy efficiency and conservation efforts by subsidizing energy audits, weatherization and efficient appliances.
EmPOWER is no cost to qualifying households because all ratepayers help fund the program through an average $10 to $20 surcharge on their utility bill.
The $100 million downpayment is expected to save Marylanders at least $150 annually.
The Utility RELIEF Act would implement a heaping amount of additional energy policies, like prioritizing electric grid and transmission line enhancements, requiring more regional oversight of utility infrastructure projects and outlining loose expectations for data centers.
The Senate is expected to make a couple of tweaks to the House version, but Ferguson says the framework will remain the same.
“The overarching goal of our energy package is to maximize savings for the people of Maryland. We must reduce costs as much as is practically and politically feasible,” he said.
The Vax Act
Both chambers advanced the Moore administration-backed Vax Act on Friday, which would grant new authority to the Maryland Department of Health secretary to issue official recommendations for immunizations, screening and preventative services.
It would also decouple Maryland’s vaccine authority from the federal government, a move prompted by the recent Trump administration’s overhaul of the childhood vaccine schedule.
A federal judge temporarily blocked that schedule change on Monday, which cut the number of shots routinely recommended to children, including for flu and hepatitis.
The judge ruled the changes to be arbitrary and capricious, ignoring a long-used, well-regarded scientific process for developing vaccine policies.
In addition to allowing the state to set its own vaccine policies, The Vax Act would solidify insurance coverage of immunizations and the ability for pharmacists to administer vaccines.
Maryland also joined the Northeast Public Health Collaborative late last year following the new federal recommendations, enabling neighboring states to share evidence-based public health best practices.
The Senate and House are expected to give final approval to the legislation on or before crossover day.
Maryland Transit and Housing Opportunity Act
Moore’s primary housing legislation was given initial approval by both chambers on Friday, known as the Maryland Transit and Housing Opportunity Act.
The bill takes aim at current zoning and financing barriers in an effort to create more jobs and housing near transit hubs.
It would eliminate minimum parking requirements for certain transit-oriented developments, promote mixed-use development around key transit stations and give the state more authority over the development of state-owned land adjacent to transportation hubs.
“We know that we now have empty parking lots that frequently sit next to our Metro stations and our MARC stops, which is, frankly, just wasted opportunities to be able to address a fundamental issue,” Moore said during the bill’s committee hearing earlier this month. “This [bill] will be responsible for adding an additional 7,000 new homes by being able to leverage that land.”
The legislation would largely spur housing in Prince George’s County, Montgomery County, Baltimore City and Baltimore County — home to several frequent rail corridors.
The House and Senate are anticipated to give final approval to the legislation before or on crossover day.
Budget
The Senate passed its version of next fiscal year’s $70.7 billion state budget last week with some bipartisan support and no tax or fee increases.
It cuts around $127 million from the Developmental Disabilities Administration and makes some major fund transfers and bond-for-cash swaps in order to close a projected $1.5 billion cash shortfall.
The proposal would leave a cash balance of roughly $250 million.
It allocates $10.2 billion for public schools – including nearly half a billion dollars for new school construction –, as well as $4.6 billion for Medicaid.
“We know that residents are counting on us to reduce their costs, and this budget does just that,” Ferguson said.
The House is expected to make some slight changes to the budget next week, and a conference committee will be called to smooth out the differences before heading to the governor for signature.
Redistricting
While talks of early redistricting plagued the State House during the first half of the legislative session, the ambitious plan to redraw Maryland’s Congressional map to favor Democrats has sat quietly in a Senate desk drawer for weeks.
The legislation that would likely result in Maryland sending eight Democrats to DC – as opposed to the current seven – passed the House in early February, but it has not been taken up by the Senate Rules Committee
Ferguson has made it clear that his chamber has no intention of moving on the new map, in spite of pleas from Moore, Speaker Peña-Melnyk and even U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to bring it forward for a vote.
The bill has already “crossed over,” meaning Monday’s deadline does not logistically affect its status, but the Congressional filing deadline has come and went, which Ferguson believes renders the new map virtually impossible to implement before the 2026 elections.
However, Moore and Peña-Melnyk have not conceded defeat.
The House speaker has said, “Anything is possible until sine die,” referring to the Latin phrase used to mark the end of the legislative session on April 13. “I have seen bills pass here in one day, so anything is possible.”
The Washington Post reported an anonymous source with knowledge of a redistricting plan B confirmed the governor has an alternate proposal that could come forward, but the administration has not provided official comment on such a plan.
