2025 Session Breakdown

Read Full Digest Here:

Last Monday, April 7, at midnight, the General Assembly adjourned “sine die” (with no appointed date to reconvene this year). Over the session, UUs submitted 1169 letters to their lawmakers. UULM-MD submitted 87 pieces of testimony. Our Lead Advocates identified 39 priority measures comprised of 66 bills (including eight of which we testified in opposition). At the end of the session, UULM-MD had seen 16 of its priority bills pass, covering 10 priority measures over 4 issue areas. Unfortunately, Medical Aid in Dying did not pass. 

You can check out the breakdown we sent last week here: End of the Session Breakdown

Please scroll down for a breakdown of the Immigration legislation and Climate Change bills that went through a few transformations over the last days of the session. 

Finally, watch our Take Action Page, where we will post actions for you to thank your lawmakers who voted for our priority bills. 

Immigration:

During the session, the Protecting Sensitive Locations bill passed the Senate. However, neither the Sensitive Locations nor the Data Privacy bill were reported out of the House Judiciary Committee. Instead, the House amended HB 1222, stripping the requirement to end 287g agreements and substituting stronger sensitive locations language and some data privacy language. This bill passed the House and Senate and will go to the Governor. 

While the bill retained its original title, it no longer dealt with ending the agreements between local law enforcement and ICE, it did enact two of UULM-MD’s other main priority measures for immigration. 

The final HB 1222 added the following provisions from SB 828- Protecting Sensitive Locations Act : 

1. Adds more locations as sensitive,

2. Requires ICE to produce a judicial warrant to enter these locations and

3. Requires the Attorney General to develop guidelines for state-funded sensitive locations, including schools, health facilities, courthouses and more that these agencies must use to develop policies on how to deal with ICE. Note: while the Trump Administration did remove protections from churches, Maryland's Attorney General requested that churches not be included in this legislation to preserve the separation of church and state.  

HB 1222 also adds some of the provisions of SB 977- Maryland's Data Privacy Act: 

1. These provisions require state agencies to create rules about how they share data in a way that protects privacy, this will build on previous legislative that protects the data in the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA).  

While we weren’t able to end 287g agreements between ICE and local law enforcement agencies. We will continue to advocate for an end to this program in Maryland.  In fact, during the session, four additional counties signed 287g agreements with ICE, so we now have seven counties that have agreements with ICE: Frederick, Cecil, Harford, Washington, Carroll, Garrett, and St. Mary’s. 

 Finally, a quieter fight (purposefully and strategically) was won–$5,000,000 was allocated in the budget to provide legal representation for detained immigrants. UULM-MD has long supported the Access to Counsel Legislation, in 2022, our Lead Advocate Jim Caldiero wrote "Legal representation can be the difference between winning and losing an immigration case in court and can mean the difference between life and death for those who have a credible fear of returning to their home country."   

Climate Change

Next Generation Energy Act (SB 937)

This Bill passed both Chambers and is on its way to Governor Moore. While UULM-MD inititally opposed this bill, portions of other bills that we supported were rolled into the final bill AND portions of the Environmetal Justice Issues that we opposed were walked back:

Nuclear Energy:

• Establishes that it is the policy of the State to encourage the development of nuclear power; 

• Requires the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA), in coordination with PSC and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), to pursue regional nuclear cost-sharing agreements with neighboring states and agreements with federal agencies regarding the siting of small modular reactors and establishes a related reporting requirement; 

• Establishes an application process for nuclear energy procurement overseen by PSC and a related reporting requirement.

Methane Gas:

• Establishes a solicitation, evaluation, and approval process for a minimum of approximately 3,100 megawatts of dispatchable energy generation and large capacity energy resources for expedited Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN). 

However, it also includes parts of other bills that we supported (good stuff!) including: 

1. Housing and Community Development - Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions - Issuance of Loans and Achievement of Targets (SB 247/HB 155) - this bill allows the Department of Housing and Community Development to issue loans in addition to grants for low-income energy efficiency improvements.

2. Ratepayer Protection Act (HB 419/SB 998) - Reforms the STRIDE law and addresses the impacts of multi-year rate plans on escalating utility costs. However, the Senate-passed bill weakened some consumer protections that ensure multi-year rate plans provide "cost-savings." 

3. Ratepayer Freedom Act (HB 960) - Disallows trade association dues and corporate jets from rates.

4. Reclaim Renewables Act (SB 10/HB 220) - Removes trash incineration from the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS).

5. Abundant Affordable Clean Energy Act (AACE Act – SB 316/HB 398) - Adds battery storage provisions to support procurement of 1,600 MW of transmission-level battery storage and 150MW of distribution level storage.

6. Data Centers Rate Schedule and Requirements (HB 900) bill -Requires utilities to set unique rates for new large load customers like data centers and prohibits co-location with an electric generator.