Members of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland, led by House Ways and Means Vice Chair Del. Jheanelle K. Wilkins (D-Montgomery), unveiled a sweeping package of bills Thursday in their 2025 legislative agenda. (Photo by Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters)
The Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland unveiled a sweeping legislative agenda Thursday that includes a number of issues that are back after they were debated in previous sessions but didn’t pass.
Caucus members said the measures are still worth fighting for.
“We are saying yes to our children. We’re saying, ‘Yes, you are human,’” said Del. J. Sandy Bartlett (D-Anne Arundel), speaking about one of those returning bills, to end the practice of youths being automatically charged as adults for certain crimes. “Yes, you deserve to not be automatically charged as an adult in certain circumstances.”
Bartlett, vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee, was speaking about the Youth Equity and Safety Act, or the YES Act. Not only would it end the practice of charging some youths as adults, but it would also make sure they’re housed in juvenile facilities.
That bill was sponsored in years past by former Sen. Jill Carter (D-Baltimore City), a champion of many criminal justice reform bills that have been backed by the caucus. Carter stepped down last month after being appointed to the state Board of Contract Appeals, but other lawmakers quickly stepped forward.
“We’ll be working fiercely to ensure that the bills that she worked on and all of the bills that we are championing are able to pass this legislative session,” said Del. Jheanelle Wilkins (D-Montgomery), who chairs the Black caucus.
Those bills are part of an ambitious agenda for the more than 60 members of caucus that includes efforts to expand health, housing, education, wealth and public safety and justice reform.
The YES Act, which was still being drafted Thursday, will be sponsored in the House by Del. Karen Toles (D-Prince George’s). The proposal to end the automatic filing of adult charges against youths in some instances has support from criminal justice advocates led by Public Defender Natasha Dartigue. Her office highlighted that measure as one of its several priorities at a rally Thursday afternoon at Lawyers’ Mall in Annapolis.
On the topic of health, the Black caucus will once again support expanding the authority of the state’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board.
Dels. Jennifer White Holland (D-Baltimore County) Bonnie Cullison (D-Montgomery) will serve as the lead sponsors of the legislation in the House. A cross-filed bill in the Senate will be sponsored by Sens. Dawn Gile (D-Anne Arundel) and Brian Feldman (D-Montgomery), chair of the Senate Education, Energy and the Environment Committee.
The drug affordability board is charged with determining how to bring down prescription drug costs for state and local government health care plans.
A recent poll by Gonzales Research & Media Services Inc. found that 83% of Marylanders surveyed believed that drug companies could lower the costs of prescription drugs without hurting drug research, by spending less on advertising and other expenses.
HB 424 is scheduled to be assigned to the Health and Government Operations Committee and SB 357 before the Finance Committee.
“We hope through this bill … to ensure that all Marylanders are able to see relief from the rising and skyrocketing costs of medications, which we know is even more significantly felt among Black Marylanders,” said White Holland, a member of the caucus.
A few other filed bills the caucus supports are:
- SB 292, sponsored by Sen. Charles Sydnor III (D-Baltimore County), would downgrade a number of current primary violations, that allow police to pull a motorist over, to secondary status, for which an officer cannot stop a driver without observing another violation if making a nonsafety-related traffic stop. A hearing is scheduled Jan. 28 before the Judicial Proceedings Committee. As of Thursday evening, the House version from Del. N. Scott Phillips (D-Baltimore County) had not been filed.
- SB 181 and HB 190, sponsored by Sen. Shelly Hettleman (D-Baltimore County) and Bartlett, respectively, seek to reform the state’s parole system on medical and geriatric parole. A hearing on the Senate version is scheduled Jan. 28 before the Judicial Proceedings Committee; no hearing scheduled for House version before Judiciary Committee.
- SB 107 and HB 392, sponsored by Sydnor and Bartlett, would let individuals who work as fair housing testers intercept a wire, oral or electronic communication in their investigations. The purpose is to ensure rental or housing agents aren’t discriminating against people of color or other protected classes of people under the law. A hearing was held Wednesday on the Senate version before the Judicial Proceedings Committee; no hearing has been set on the House version before Judiciary Committee.
A main education priority for the caucus remains sustained funding of the education reform plan known as the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, now in its third year.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Gov. Wes Moore (D) released a proposed $67.3 billion spending plan Wednesday that would freeze funding for community schools at fiscal 2026 levels, according to a budget summary, “while making strategic investments and policy changes to support a three-point plan to make Maryland’s community schools the best in the nation.”
Wilkins, the caucus chair, said that could impact 585 community schools expected to be up and running this year, mostly in communities represented by caucus members.
Community schools receive concentration in poverty grants, based on the number of students who receive free and reduced meals. They were scheduled to receive additional funding for the next several years as part of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan.
Some of the wraparound services students and their families can receive at those schools include food pantries, English language learner courses and vision and dental care. Each school also has a community school coordinator and a health care practitioner.
“We do look forward to working together to reverse that cut [and] to make sure that the students who are most in need are getting that funding,” Wilkins said. “The governor continues to be our close partner. We’ll work with the House and work with the Senate to ensure that we are restoring those cuts.”