The joint hearing room in the newly opened Department of Legislative Services building can seat two Senate and two House committees and more than 200 people in the gallery. Photo by Bryan P. Sears.
Employees of the Department of Legislative Services never had it so good.
Legislative officials cut the ribbon Thursday on a 144,000 square-foot building opposite the State House that will be the new (and much improved) home of the agency that provides research, bill drafting and analysis to the General Assembly.
“This structure and institution behind me, it represents everything that we should be doing in public service, to invest in public service, workers who deserve the best possible class-A office space so that they can serve the people of Maryland in the highest quality fashion,” said Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore).
Construction of the new, environmentally friendly Department of Legislative Services building — and a tunnel system that connects it to the State House and the House and Senate office buildings — took two years. During that time, roughly 300 employees worked from home or were scattered over nearly every empty space in the House and Senate office buildings.
The new facility replaces a 92,000-square-foot, 1970s-era building that aged badly. It was plagued with mold, burst sewage pipes, foundation cracks, floods and a lack of space. The 300 employees were shoehorned into the various nooks and crannies of a building that had been reconfigured numerous times.
The old building was not compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act standards and included steep ramps in one hearing room that were treacherous for most people and likely dangerous to those who use a wheelchair or need assistance walking.
The new building includes a larger joint hearing room that can hold two full Senate and two full House committees — about 76 legislators. There is also seating for more than 200 people in the gallery. The room is ADA compliant.
The room is appointed with giant wall-sized screens as well as a stained glass dome that features a black-eyed Susan and Wye oak leaves.
There is also a gym available only to legislative services employees.
The project was originally expected to cost $120 million. That budget was ultimately lowered to $112.5 million. The final cost came in $3 million lower.
The project also exceeded the state’s 29% goal for minority business contracting, with more than 31% of the payments going to certified businesses, said Department of Legislative Services Executive Director Victoria L. Gruber.
Lawmakers told bills should have ‘no fiscal note’ this session
House Health and Government Operations Chair Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D-Anne Arundel and Prince George’s) issued sobering guidelines for the amount of money lawmakers should ask for when drafting legislation this year: None.
“Regarding bills that you introduce – please make sure that your bills this year particularly, have no fiscal note,” she said during a Thursday organizational meeting for the committee. “Or have a very, very, very small fiscal note.”
Peña-Melnyk’s goal is to avoid adding to a $2.7 billion budget deficit for fiscal 2026 that haunts the Maryland General Assembly this session. Senate and House leader have been prepping lawmakers to anticipate tough decisions, including program cuts and potential tax increases during the constrained budget year.
Peña-Melnyk told committee members that any funds they ask for from the general fund should be the minimum needed to enact their bills, to protect current programs that could already be on the line for budget cuts.
“My goal, really, is to maintain the programs we have — this committee has done a lot for Medicaid, for people that really need our help — and to not create any programs,” Peña-Melnyk said.
She also urged lawmakers to proactively evaluate bills to anticipate any hurdles, and overcome those challenges quickly.
“I would like you to please look at your bill. Look who you think will be against it, who will be for it, and bring them to the table early. Try to work it so that by the time you file it … you don’t open yourself to a lot of fights,” she urged.
“The more perfect your bill is when you file it, the better it is,” she said. “The more work you do this session, the better you will be.”
All you need is Love
State Sen. Sara Love (D-Montgomery) began the new year not just preparing for her first session as a senator after 6 ½ years in the House, but with a new title: chair of the tri-state Chesapeake Bay Commission.
The commission consists of state lawmakers and Cabinet officials from Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania, the three most critical states in the six-state Chesapeake Bay watershed (the District of Columbia is also in the watershed). The commission meets throughout the region to take input from the public and discuss policy and financial measures that could improve Bay health.
Love, who will continue to serve as chair of the Maryland delegation to the commission, takes over at a time when the Chesapeake Bay Program — the federal, state and local partnership dedicated to Bay cleanup — is about to be overhauled, as leaders establish a new set of goals and benchmarks.
“The Commission is uniquely positioned to provide vision and guidance not just to the General Assemblies of our member states, but to the entire Bay Program, as all stakeholders work together to deliver clean water and vibrant living resources for the benefit of the people,” Love said in a statement.
Hilary Harp Falk, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, hailed Love’s leadership position on the commission, calling her “a strong leader with a stellar track record on Bay issues.”
Love takes over the commission from Virginia Del. David Bulova (D), who is chair of the Old Dominion’s delegation. The Pennsylvainia delegation is led by state Sen. Gene Yaw (R), chair of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee there.
The long goodbye
Newly minted Baltimore County Executive Kathy Klausmeier returned for the second consecutive day to Annapolis and the State House where she served 30 years in the legislature.
This time, Klausmeier came to say her goodbyes — a tradition afforded at the end of a session to lawmakers who have announced they will not be coming back.
Over the next 15 minutes, the former senator from Perry Hall reminisced with former colleagues and thanked everyone she could remember — one by one — from the late Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. to the “print shop to the people that came in and emptied my trash and fixed my floors to make them look so nice, and to the mailman” and her family.
“We had many good times in the office,” Klausmeier said. “We had many serious times in the office, and I’ve had many good times in here, and many, many serious times in here. So, it’s been a wonderful, wonderful time that I have spent here.”
Klausmeier will have to return later this week to empty out her old office. Staff for the Senate president want to prepare it for when her replacement is selected.
“If anybody wants any mementos, they could stop by the office, because Joy would be happy for you to take them out of there, because she said, ‘Kath, I love you, but get out tonight,’” Klausmeier said. “But I’ll be out, Mr. President, by Sunday. I think I was going to have an online auction, but I didn’t think anybody would buy anything.”
Simonaire takes aim at “rat’s nest” of military laws
An Anne Arundel County senator laid up by an injury will lead the charge on an “the most comprehensive overhaul of Maryland’s military law in modern history.”
Sen. Bryan Simonaire (R-Anne Arundel) said Thursday he spent “hundreds of hours” building consensus around a package of proposals to update 230 sections of state law through 500 revisions.
If passed, Simonaire said, the proposals will restructure the state’s military law; ensure equal treatment and benefits among the eight branches of uniformed services; and expand the role of the Maryland Military Department to provide support to service members.
“The problem with Maryland law is that each article defines its own definition and is often inconsistent with other articles and outdated terms,” Simonaire said. “This creates unequal benefits among our service members.”
That includes ensuring that members of the Public Health Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees have the same benefits and treatment as other members of the military. That would include expansion of tax breaks offered to other retired veterans in the state.
“Many don’t realize, but PHS sent hundreds of their commissioned corps officers over to the Afghanistan conflict and help contain the Ebola outbreak in Africa to help … protect it from coming to America,” Simonaire said. “Also, another little-known fact is that the military coordinates with NOAA’s commission corps officers, or nearly every military exercise with their weather satellites, and during the war, they helped sweep the mines in the Persian Gulf.”
Simonaire said he got involved in sifting through the tangle of laws while convalescing following a foot injury.
“It really was a rat’s nest,” he told reporters.
The fixes — hundreds of them — may not be much cleaner. In the Senate, Simonaire will sponsor a package of bills that will be spread across all its standing committees.
In the House, a bipartisan group of Democrats and Republicans, all with connections to the military or veterans, will sponsor an identical package. Those bills will be heard in five of the House’s six standing committees, he said.