Priority Bills Heard and Bill Filing Deadlines Approach

Last week included committee hearings on priority bills related to criminal justice, immigration and climate change. Our Advocacy Teams have been on top of them all, and UULM-MD testimony was submitted for each bill. Thanks to Ashley Egan for coordinating everything!

House Judiciary Committee / Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee

• HB 25 - Rehabilitation and Education for All Prisons (REAP) Act

• HB 67 - Correctional Services - Step-Down Programs - Cause of Action

• HB 269 - Juvenile Law - Child Interrogation Protection Act (companion bill SB 53 was heard the previous week)

• HB 114 and SB 129 - Access to Counsel in Immigration Proceedings Program

House Environment and Transportation Committee

• HB 307 - Environment - Packaging Materials - Producer Responsibility

Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee

• SB 81 - Charter Counties - Enforcement of Local Building Performance Laws (Building Energy Performance Standards Act of 2022)

Voting sessions could on these bills at any time, so if you have a Senator or Delegate who sits on one of the above committees, now is the time to begin contacting them and asking them to vote in favor. Stay tuned for alerts from the Issue Leads.

Bill Filing Deadlines

Because of the filing deadlines, most bills will be introduced by the end of this week.

• Monday, February 7 - SENATE BILL INTRODUCTION DATE - Senate bills introduced after this date will be referred to the Senate Rules Committee

• Friday, February 11 - HOUSE BILL INTRODUCTION DATE - House bills introduced after this date will be referred to the House Rules and Executive Nominations Committee

We already know the numbers of almost all of our priority bills (see 2020 Session pages for each issue area), but the last should be available by Friday.

Hearings

The coming week will see committee hearing on one priority bill, HB 459 - Juvenile Justice Reform, as well as two priority bills from last year that we continue to support despite a lack of an advocacy team:

• HB 425 - Public Safety - Untraceable Firearms

• SB 275 - Labor and Employment – Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program – Establishment (Time to Care Act of 2022)