Friend,

Monday night at midnight, the 90-day session of the Maryland General Assembly adjourned "Sine Die." This was a historic session with unprecedented challenges for legislators and advocates alike legislating and organizing in a mostly virtual format with legislators casting their votes in person. I am so proud of our partner organizations, coalitions, advocates, legislators and advisors who worked tirelessly to advance important bills for youth justice reform, workers’ rights, an equitable economy, and climate justice. I am also grateful to our hundreds of supporters who sent us public comments and responded to our action alerts.

There is still much more to do-- many important bills were lost in the final hours including sweeping climate change legislation, eviction help for tenants, and anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ students. There will be more information to come in the following days, but I wanted to share some highlights of our session:

Strong Future Maryland provided testimony on 66 bills this session, and helped override vetoes on 8 bills. We saw 23 of our priority bills pass, including:

✅ SB494/HB409 - Juvenile Restoration Act
✅ SB9/HB486 - USM Collective Bargaining
✅ SB486/HB581 - Maryland Essential Workers’ Protection Act
✅ SB83/HB298 - Public Service Commission, Climate & Labor
✅ SB1/HB1 - HBCU Funding
✅ HB1210 - Corporate Board Diversity
✅ HB1211 - Tech Development Seed Builder Fund
✅ HB1213 - Alternative Measures of Creditworthiness
✅ SB674/HB1207 - Commission on Environmental Justice and Sustainable Communities
✅ SB172/HB463 - Health Equity Resource Act
✅ SB199/HH114 - Transit Safety and Investment Act
✅ SB137 - Zero Emission Bus Transition Act

For more details on these bills, other priorities that passed and those that didn’t, check out our Legislative Accomplishments.

There’s still a lot of work to be done to build the future Marylanders deserve. Strong Future Maryland is committed to building on the work from this session to enact progressive change next session and beyond. I hope you’ll join us and continue to support our work.

In solidarity,
Alice Wilkerson