Legislative Agenda 2021

Priority Legislation Issues

1.  Maryland Essential Workers Protection Act
2. Medical Debt Protection Act
3. Psychological evaluation of officers before hiring, annually, and after any incident where a citizen was harmed SB42/ 194HR  
4.  Repeal of the Law Enforcement Officer’s Bill of Rights
5.  Climate Solutions Now Act 
6.  A constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision
7. Election Law – Institutions of Higher Education – Voter Registration and Voting by Students (Student Voter Empowerment Act of 2020)  
8. A ban on 3D printed guns and guns with no serial number
9. Commission on Universal Healthcare 
10. End of Life Act 
11. Inclusive Schools Act
12. Broadband expansion 
13. Marijuana legalization
14. Balloon Release Ban
15. Administrative name/gender change rights

Other Supported Legislation 

 Veto overrides 

• Overriding the Kirwan Blueprint veto
• Overriding the School Construction Bill 
• Overriding the HBCU funding veto
• Overriding the veto of the Background Checks for Long Guns
• Overriding the Chlorpyrifos ban veto

Covid-19 relief 

• COVID-19 Eviction Relief Act of 2021

Education 

• Banning BOOST voucher for programs that discriminate
• Reform Juvenile Services Education – young persons in Juvenile Services are not getting educated during the pandemic so there needs to be a plan - Luedtke’s bill
• Reporting Requirements for all Alternative Schools – more children with learning difficulties are being placed in alternative schools, which have no real oversight
• Reform Juvenile Services Education – young persons in Juvenile Services are not getting educated during the pandemic so there needs to be a plan - Luedtke’s bill
• Reporting Requirements for all Alternative Schools – more children with learning difficulties are being placed in alternative schools, which have no real oversight

 Environment 

• Climate Crisis Act, (a tax on carbon) which will raise money for the state to be used to fund environmental and other solutions 
• Constitutional Amendment for Environmental Rights, which will give everyone in Maryland the right to clean air, water, and a pollution-free environment
• Solid Waste Management – Prohibition on Releasing a Balloon into the Atmosphere   
• Electric Industry – Community Choice Energy (pilot for MOCO)
• Electricity – Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard – Qualifying Biomass          
• Maryland Recycling Act  HB164 (hear: 1/15) 
• Plastics and Packaging Reduction Act  (Plastic Bag Ban)
• Environment – Drinking Water Outlets in School Buildings – Testing for Elevated Level of Lead      

Elections and Democracy

• Campaign Finance Reform including the Small Donor Incentive Act
• General Assembly – Special Election to Fill a Vacancy in Office 
• Rank Choice Voting 
• Permanent Vote By Mail 
• Count in Mail-in Ballots as they come.  
• Ability to file electronic signatures for ballot petitions
• Governance of the State Board of Elections

Common-sense Gun Reform

• Restriction of firearm sales near schools
• Liability for manufacturers of guns

Health Care 

• Insulin price reduction and legislation affecting the need for emergency supplies of insulin
• Health Equity Resource Community Initiative, which is a resolution that addresses health inequities based on race, ethnicity, disability, and place of residence
• Time to Care Act, which provides family medical leave
• School-Based Health Centers
• Ensuring that insurance pay for mental health and telehealth
• Prohibition on consumer price gouging for Long Term Care Insurance 
• Mental health legislation
• Additional Vaping legislation

Transportation -

• • Studies for better public transportation for the Eastern Shore, Southern Maryland, Western Maryland, and between Maryland and Virginia 
  • Creation of an Inspector General for P3s

• Transportation Climate Initiative – a regional initiative to develop a green energy economy

• Commuter Buses for 1-270
• Transportation Equity and Assurances Act of 2021

Social and Economic Justice - 

• Housing 

• • • Social Housing, which includes tenant protections, affordable housing, and zoning changes that allow for duplexes, triplexes, and quarterplexes
    • Emergency relief for renters – extending protections through April 2022, pausing rent increases, Covid defense for evictions, just cause evictions, requiring notice for evictions
    • Housing for the homeless
    • Affirmatively furthering fair housing
  • Immigration – 
    • Public Information Act 
    • Trust Act 
    • Prevention of the use of driver’s license pictures by ICE 
    • Creation of an Office of Immigrant Affairs
    • Prohibition on new ICE facilities in Maryland

• Prohibition of forensic genetic searches 

• Women's Rights – 

• Protection of a woman’s right to choose

• LGBTQ Rights – 
  • Elimination of the panic defense

• Economic Justice – 
  • Debtor's Bill of Rights (tying the debt exemption to minimum wage like other states do) 
  • Child tax credit for low-income families
  • Collective bargaining for community college workers
  • Protect the first $2,600 in bank accounts from debt collection
  • Wage protection – retaliation – protections for $15 minimum wage
  • Eliminating body attachments
  • Decouple from Federal tax giveaways
  • Decouple from CARES Act giveaways
  • Capital Gains Surtax
  • Close the Carried Interest Loophole
  • Close the Pass-Through Loophole
  • Create Progressive Tax Brackets
  • Reform the Enterprise Zone Tax Credit

• • Criminal Justice Reform –
    • Eliminating the Unit Rule 
    • Pretrial release monitoring systems (GPS systems vs incarceration)
    • Women’s pre-release centers

• Policing –

• • • Public Information Act – allowing access to law enforcement records become public when there is misconduct
    • Removing School Resource Officers
    • Creation of Use of Force Standards
    • Prohibition of purchase of military-grade equipment by police
    • Creation of a duty to report misconduct and creation of a misconduct database
    • State Prosecutor investigation of police misconduct that ends in death or injury
    • Citations in lieu of arrests

• Workers’ right

• Opposing Right-to-Work