Shortened legislative session yields mixed bag, new dynamic for Maryland Catholic Conference

Taking stock of the Maryland General Assembly’s abbreviated 2020 Legislative Session, Jenny Kraska pointed not to wins and losses but to the novel dynamic imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, which shortened the session.

“Everyone tried to do the best they could in difficult circumstances and made the best of a difficult situation,” said Kraska, executive director of the Maryland Catholic Conference, the Annapolis-based lobbying arm of Maryland bishops.

Due to the pandemic and attendant precautionary measures, lobbyists and other outsiders lost access to the state capitol in the final days of the shortened session, which ended March 18.

“Obviously, for everyone, it was very new and very uncharted territory in terms of not having access,” Kraska said. “It was difficult trying to lobby and keep track of everything from a distance.”

Wins and losses were less clear-cut due to the truncated session. As always, the Maryland Catholic Conference supported some bills and opposed others. Bills from either category that had not passed both bodies of the General Assembly as of Wednesday were considered dead. Those that did pass await the signature of Maryland Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr., a Republican.

Kraska noted that both Maryland Senate President William C. Ferguson IV and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, both Democrats, had raised the possibility of a special session, potentially in the spring, to occur before the 2021 Legislative Session.

“They talked about dealing with education issues and what they called ‘local county issues,’” she said, adding that hot-button issues appeared less likely to be re-introduced before 2021.

“Anything is possible,” she said, “but those would have to be started from scratch.”

What passed

The Broadening Options and Opportunities for Students Today program, known as BOOST, received level funding at $7.5 million.

“BOOST was huge; every year there are challenges [in funding it],” Kraska told the Review.

The program provides scholarships for students from households with low incomes who wish to attend nonpublic schools, including Catholic schools in the Baltimore Archdiocese. The program serves students eligible for free and reduced-price school meals; as the scholarships are disbursed, students from households with the lowest incomes are served first.

Families must apply for the BOOST scholarships. Applications for the 2020-2021 school year are available at marylandpublicschools.org/boost; the deadline is April 24.

Kraska said she was especially thrilled with the funding in light of the assembly’s focus on the Kirwan Commission proposals, which were concerned with Maryland public education.

An article published by the Maryland Catholic Conference notes that the House of Delegates had attempted to bring BOOST funding down to $5.5 million while the Senate voted to increase it to $10 million. The two bodies agreed on level funding as a compromise.

The conference’s article also noted the passage of the Home Opportunities Made Equal Act, which prohibits landlords from discriminating against renters based on their source of income, including whether or not they receive rental assistance or housing vouchers.

The article highlighted a bill that added to crimes that may be vacated from the criminal records of human trafficking victims, provided those crimes were committed while the victim was under the influence of their trafficker.

“Practically, this bill allows survivors of human trafficking to remove convictions for low-level crimes that their trafficker forced them to commit, therefore removing barriers to opportunities that help them move on from their horrific trafficking experiences, such as education, housing and employment,” said Anne Wallerstedt, the conference’s associate director of social and economic justice, according to the conference’s write-up.

What did not pass

The End-of-Life Option Act would have authorized doctors and pharmacists to collaborate with patients in order to accomplish the death of the latter.

It was the bill’s fifth year before the assembly.

“Physician-assisted suicide is dead, for lack of a better word,” Kraska told the Review. “Thankfully, it didn’t go anywhere this session.”

Receiving much attention this session was State Sen. Susan C. Lee’s proposed constitutional amendment, adding a “right to privacy” to the Maryland Declaration of Rights. Many interpreted the proposed amendment – which included language similar to that in Roe v. Wade – as an attempt to enshrine abortion in the Maryland Constitution.

However, Kraska said, Lee was “forthright” in asserting that the proposed amendment was not about abortion but simply opposed the unauthorized collection of data by the government. The senator withdrew the bill minutes before it was to be heard before the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.

“There was a lot of confusion around it,” Kraska said. “We were glad it was withdrawn.”

The conference supported a bill that would have ended the criminal statute of limitations for preventing or interfering with the reporting of suspected child sexual abuse.

It opposed a bill that would have effectively lifted the civil statute of limitations for child sexual abuse for a two-year window, allowing plaintiffs to sue for damages between Oct. 1, 2020, until Oct. 1, 2022.

Both bills had not advanced through the assembly as the session ended.

Also failing to advance was a bill that, according to the conference’s write-up, would have provided up to 12 weeks of paid family leave for individuals to recover from illness or injury, give birth, or care for elderly family members

“It was a little ironic that that bill died as well,” Kraska told the Review, alluding to the apparent utility of such measures during the current coronavirus outbreak.

The conference was also disappointed that several immigration bills had failed to advance; the bills had aimed, according to the conference’s materials, to stop enforcement activity near schools, hospitals, places of worship and courthouses, as well as end contracts with the federal government for immigration detention centers in Maryland, among other measures.

Several conference-supported bills aimed at protecting the environment also failed to pass.

Looking forward

Kraska told the Review that, from here, the conference will prepare for the next session, whether it comes this spring or in 2021.

“I think we’re just going to wait and see if there’s a special session, and see what comes from that,” she said. “In the interim, we’ll just prepare to face these issues again.”

That work will include maintaining and creating partnerships as well as finding areas of commonality.

“It’s always good to get people together and identify areas of compromise,” Kraska said.

 

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