Maryland lawmakers passed hundreds of bills on Monday, the last day of the 2026 legislative session, but several returned to the State House just hours after adjourning to see over 140 of those bills become law.
During the opening remarks of the bill signing ceremony, Gov. Wes Moore, House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D-Anne Arundel and Prince George’s Counties) and Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) all touted a legislative session that focused on lower costs and fighting back against Trump administration policies.
“Why I'm so proud of Maryland, is that in this moment, we did not just push back, we pushed forward. We protected our folks at a time when we were watching in Washington, D.C., that cannot find common ground or common cause, on common sense issues,” Moore said.
All three elected officials pointed to bills that aim to lower the cost of utilities, housing, childcare and groceries, although Moore did not sign any of those bills into law on Tuesday.
All bills that passed in both the House of Delegates and the Senate must be presented to the governor within the next twenty days, and the governor then has thirty days to either sign them into law or veto them.
Moore highlighted two bills at the signing ceremony: The Vax Act and the Jillian and Lindsay Wiener Short-Term Rental Safety Act.
Under The Vax Act, starting July 1 of this year, the Maryland Secretary of Health will be responsible for issuing their own statewide vaccine schedule with proof of science-backed recommendations.
Previously, as with all other states, Maryland relied on the federal vaccine schedule to determine which immunizations should be administered and when.
But under the leadership of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Trump administration opted to stop recommending COVID-19 vaccines, even for high-risk populations, and hepatitis B shots for most newborn babies.
A federal judge has since blocked those new recommendations, but Moore says Maryland will be taking matters into its own hands.
“This bill decouples the state's vaccine authority from the federal government's because our vaccine policy in the state of Maryland will be driven by science and not driven by Internet conspiracy theories,” the governor said.
The Short-Term Rental Safety Act is named for Jillian and Lindsay Wiener, two sisters who died in 2022 when their vacation rental unit with no smoke detectors caught on fire.
The bill requires fire detection and prevention equipment in every short-term rental in the state of Maryland, and it mandates annual inspections.
“It ensures accountability, because our job is to make sure that people are protected in their homes and in their communities and everywhere where they are. We're telling every family that has ever lost someone and turned their grief into action that your courage changes lives and your courage saves lives,” Moore said.
The bill will go into effect on Oct. 1, 2026.
Jillian and Lindsay’s mom was at the bill signing ceremony and was presented with the first pen of the legislative session.
