Dear Friend:
Action in the General Assembly continues as we race toward “Crossover Day” (March 18), the date by which each chamber has to send the other the bills we intend to pass. The House has passed several significant bills which I have co-sponsored, including increasing the minimum wage to $15/hour by 2025. We also passed the End of Life Option Act, after an emotional floor debate which you can read about here.
In the last two weeks, we had hearings on my bills to expand cottage food business opportunity (HB527) and to incorporate restorative practices in schools to end the school to prison pipeline (HB725). I was honored to be joined by MCPS students and by John King, former Secretary of Education under President Obama and D20 resident, in the hearing on HB725.
My bill to adapt “complete street” design features to incorporate access to healthy food for people who live in food deserts passed the House and now heads over to the Senate.
On Friday, I was proud to stand with my colleagues and activists from across the state in our press conference for our bill to remove trash incineration from the list of industries the state subsidizes as “clean energy”. You can see press coverage here.
Several of you have reached out to me with concerns about the possibility of small cell tower technology being deployed without local control in zoning, a concern which I share. I am pleased to report that my committee has referred both bills related to small cell deployment to summer study. This means there won’t be state action on the issue until next session and there will be more time for broad discussion and consensus building.
You can see a summary and update on all of my bills here. Please follow me on Twitter for regular updates and come visit in Annapolis any time. My Annapolis office is Room 226 in the House Office Building at 6 Bladen Street in Annapolis and my office email address is lorig.charkoudian@house.state.md.us. My office phone number is 410-841-3423 and 301-858-3423.
Onward, Lorig Charkoudian