Republicans in the House of Delegates Thursday said the chamber should avoid scaled back meetings known as pro forma sessions, but the rest of the House disagreed. (File photo by Bruce DePuyt/Maryland Matters)
A Thursday vote to set a Friday session of the House of Delegates was anything but pro forma.
House Republicans ramped up objections to meeting in a scaled-down floor session — a pro forma session — planned for Friday and forced a debate and vote on whether every delegate should attend, even though little work is likely to be done.
Del. Kathy Szeliga (R-Baltimore County), the lawmaker who mounted the challenge, said the pro forma sessions reduce the workweek for lawmakers to three days.
“In today’s challenging times with all the issues facing our state, it doesn’t send the right message,” Szeliga said after Thursday’s meeting of the full House of Delegates.
Republicans raised the issue earlier in the week, but Szeliga said they felt “we were dismissed” by Democrats. So Szeliga, backed by Republican colleagues, mounted a challenge to a plan for a three-delegate House session on Friday.
What followed was a 15-minute debate that doubled the length of Thursday’s floor session.
In a State House steeped in history and tradition, the pro forma session is a modern creation in Annapolis with roots in the 2021 pandemic session.
Along with masks and distancing, the House and Senate adopted rules that allowed the chambers to conduct some business with a minimal number of legislators.
Aside from health concerns, the sessions were meant to keep the legislature from running afoul of meeting requirements during the pandemic era legislative sessions.
Under the rules, the House and Senate can meet with three people — the presiding officer and the majority and minority leader or their designees. The trio are limited in the business that can be conducted and cannot pass bills.
The meetings have remained in the rules post-pandemic. Each chamber adopts those rules at the start of each 90-day session.
In the first full week of the 2025 legislative session, the House and Senate both have used the largely administrative pro forma meetings to free up time for committee briefings and other work.
Republicans said it makes it more difficult for the public to come to Annapolis to interact and gives lawmakers permission to cut out early or come to Annapolis late.
Del. Stephanie Smith (D-Baltimore City) wasn’t buying it.
“There’s a lot of ways people can reach you if you want to be reached,” Smith said. “So, I suggest everyone connect with their constituents and we’ll continue to do the work. Just because someone says the work only happens in here [in the House chamber], that is more of a reflection of their perception of the work than the reality of yours.”
Now, as during the pandemic, pro forma sessions are used more often at the start of the 90-day session when the floor sessions are relegated to introducing and assigning bills to committees.
“Any member of this body is free to be here on Monday and Friday — as I am every Monday and Friday — whether we have a pro forma or regular session,” said Del. Sheila Ruth (D-Baltimore County).
“But I also appreciate and I am grateful that I don’t have to be here when there’s not business I need to consider, because it gives me more time to serve my constituents,” Ruth said.
The House voted 99 to 35 along mostly party lines to keep the pro forma session as scheduled Friday. Two Republicans — Dels. Christopher Eric Bouchat (Frederick and Carroll) and Kevin B. Hornberger (Cecil) — voted with the Democratic majority.
It’s not clear that the vote ended the issue.
“We’ll see where it goes,” Szeliga said.