SESSION NEWSLETTER: CHOICE, PIMLICO, AND PUBLIC SERVICE

THREE BIG ACCOMPLISHMENTS

We have just concluded one of the most productive legislative sessions of my career.  We protected a woman’s right to make her own reproductive health care decisions, took important steps to preserve Pimlico Race Track for the Preakness and neighborhood redevelopment, encouraged public service, and made progress on several neighborhood issues.  These achievements are the culmination of years of work on my part, along with many others.

PRO-CHOICE

I have been a leader on pro-choice legislation throughout my service in the House of Delegates. This session I introduced HB 812, to protect the privacy of medical records of women who receive reproductive health care in Maryland, both those from out of state who journey to Maryland to obtain care and Marylanders who find themselves in need of health services when traveling.

This legislation, which was enacted, will protect patients and their health care providers by regulating the disclosure of medical information relevant to their reproductive health care by custodians of public records, health care providers, health information exchanges, and pharmacies.  Otherwise, they could be criminally prosecuted in certain states.

 

PIMLICO REDEVELOPMENT

The Preakness is staying, and major redevelopment will come to Pimlico.  It was my idea, seven years ago, to have the Maryland Stadium Authority study how the Pimlico site could be redeveloped to keep the Preakness and benefit the surrounding communities.  We passed legislation this session that creates a new authority to oversee the operation of racing.  “This authority is a monumental moment in the history of Maryland racing,” a long-time horseman told me.

The communities surrounding the race track will work with the Baltimore Development Corporation on the non-racing uses.  Nearly half of the property is ours to design.  At my initiative, neighborhood leaders have been meeting monthly to prepare for this.

 

PUBLIC SERVICE

I was fortunate to have no academic debt from college or law school.  I could follow the career path I desired.  My first job was in the Housing Authority of Baltimore City.  That’s where I learned how government can work for residents and their neighborhoods.

As a legislator, I’ve created programs that repay a portion of the academic debt for graduates who take public service jobs; provide one year’s tuition for students who have a public service job for a year; and pay the cost of internships with high tech businesses for college students.

I was the lead sponsor among House members of Governor Wes Moore’s bill creating the Department of Service and Civic Innovation.  Service placements will be provided mostly to recent high school graduates.  Service opportunities will be focused on state and local parks, public and community health, and clean and renewable energy.   I look forward to working with Governor Moore on this important initiative.

OUR STUDENTS AND OUR SCHOOLS

State support for public schools will total $8.7 billion, including a $1.5 billion increase for Baltimore City public schools.   More than $80 million will be devoted to summer learning and intensive tutoring in math and literacy. I have a long standing record of support for our public and nonpublic schools. The General Assembly this session again provided funding for lower-income parochial school students through the BOOST program, and we fully implemented the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future.  Public funding for parochial and public schools benefits all of our school children.  I will continue to support efforts to provide quality education for all Maryland students.

Through my efforts, City Schools officials committed to better coordination with the Fallstaff neighborhood on parking and other issues related to Northwestern Senior High’s use as a swing school for Poly.  I have arranged for similar discussions about the impact of Garrison Middle School being used by Douglass High School students.

NEIGHBORHOOD ISSUES

The Moore Administration has revived planning for the Red Line light rail system.  I am working with the residents of Edmondson Village to guarantee that no one’s residence will be condemned during this process.

If you drive through the intersection of Northern Parkway and Falls Road, you know what a bottleneck it is.  I worked with the surrounding neighborhoods to secure funding for traffic improvements.

A new Enoch Pratt Free Library branch in Park Heights, the Sinai Hospital Cancer Center, and the purchase and redevelopment of the Edmondson Village Shopping Center were funded this session.  I worked with my 41st District colleagues, Senator Jill Carter and Delegates Dalya Attar and Tony Bridges on these projects.

 

PROTECTING OUR RIGHT TO VOTE

The Passover holiday celebrates the Israelites’ exodus to freedom from Egypt. Centuries later, Election Day celebrates our fundamental right in a democracy — the right to vote.  Election Day for next year’s primary was the first day of Passover and in the midst of Ramadan.  I worked with Delegate Dalya Attar and Senator Shelly Hettleman to move the date to May.

My legislation, House Bill 410, was enacted.  It also makes it a crime to influence by fraud or intimidation someone’s decision whether to vote on Election Day, during Early Voting, or by mailed ballot.   Neighborhoods will also be provided with adequate notice if a change in their polling place is proposed.

DOMESTIC TERRORISM

We have seen the carnage from violent acts of domestic extremism, especially for minority communities. There were attacks against the LGBTQ community in Colorado Springs and the racism-motivated shooting in a grocery store in Buffalo.  The FBI intervened to thwart a plot by two neo-Nazis to target several BGE electric substations with gunfire in Baltimore County.

Important actions we can take to combat domestic terrorism in Maryland were recommended by the Task Force on Preventing and Countering Domestic Terrorism, created by a provision of mine in last year’s budget bill.

I introduced House Bill 1075, which would implement these recommendations and make clear that Maryland will vigilantly oppose all forms of violent extremism.

An  Office of Domestic Terrorism Response would work with federal, state, and local agencies to maximize the roles of colleges and universities in researching and developing professional training on how to combat violent extremism and to raise public awareness about violent extremism, hate crimes, domestic terrorism, and international terrorism.  My bill passed the House, but no vote was taken on it in the Senate.

 

PROGRESS WITHOUT PASSING A BILL

 

I proposed language promoting environmental justice in last year’s budget bill.  In response, Secretary of the Environment Serena McIlwain is taking several actions to prioritize and coordinate environmental justice issues across state government.

 

Introducing legislation can bring about positive change even if my bill does not pass.   Herman Berlin runs a family business that is 75 years old   His price on certain auto parts is lower than that of a national competitor.  However, since Auto Zone has a contract with the state, Herman has been unable to compete.

 

After I introduced House Bill 199, Herman and I met with state officials, who agreed to modify procurement policy to assist local businesses.  “This memo is exactly what I need,” Herman wrote me.

 

Now that I’m back home, I look forward to learning about the issues that concern you.  I will be attending community meetings throughout the 41st District in the coming weeks.  I can also be reached at delsandy@aol.com.

 

We face great challenges.  We have the opportunity to accomplish a great deal – together.

Choice is no longer a “settled issue”

“Some [states] have recently enacted laws allowing abortion, with few restrictions, at all stages of pregnancy.”

Regrettably, we have come to expect such misleading rhetoric in political debate.

That false characterization was made of Maryland’s law during floor debate in Annapolis.

One does not expect to see it in a draft opinion written by an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the  United States.

But this is a draft opinion joined by jurists who misled the U.S. Senate and the American public when they testified under oath about their position on Roe v. Wade.

The Alito draft declares that abortion is “fundamentally different…from the rights recognized in past decisions involving matters such as intimate sexual relations, contraception and marriage.”

No litigator or legislator should rely upon that statement.

The U.S. Senate will vote next week on a bill to enact the holding of Roe v. Wade.

Everybody involved knows that the bill won’t pass.  It will put 100 senators on record on the issue.

The pro-life movement is already strategizing about federal legislation to ban abortions.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/02/abortion-ban-roe-supreme-court-mississippi/

They should not be underestimated.

What should we do in Maryland?

If a resident of Texas comes here to have an abortion, the recently enacted Texas law authorizes a private individual to sue the health care providers in a Maryland court.

Connecticut has passed a law prohibiting such actions in its courts.

I will be working with the drafters of that bill on a Maryland version.

Protecting a woman’s right to choose is no longer a “settled issue,” as some have characterized it.

Candidates for governor and the General Assembly must speak to how we should respond to the decision that the Supreme Court will hand down in June.

Standard but misleading rhetoric

This letter to the editor didn’t require much effort on my part.

I helped to write it more than 20 years ago.

The Sun had run an op-ed on abortion with the standard but misleading right-wing rhetoric.

Or as President Obama said of the gun lobby after the background check was defeated, “They willfully lied.”

I let the words of our law speak for themselves.

 

Dear Editors:

I write as someone who supports making reproductive choices available to all women, not as one of “those who support ‘choice’ at all costs,” one of many misleading characterizations in Marta Mossburg’s op-ed.

“Abortion is virtually available on demand throughout a pregnancy,” she asserts.

Under Maryland law, if the fetus is viable, an abortion may be performed only if “necessary to protect the life or health of the woman or if the fetus is affected by genetic defect or serious deformity or abnormality.”

“A doctor can override the requirement [for parental notification] for almost any reason,” Ms. Mossburg writes.

Our law provides that a physician may not give notice if “in the professional judgment of the physician, notice to the parent or guardian may lead to physical or emotional abuse to the minor, the minor is mature and capable of giving informed consent to an abortion; or notification would not be in the best interest of the minor.”

The people of Maryland have already passed judgment on these statutes.  They approved them by a 62-38% margin after they were petitioned to referendum in 1992.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-abortion-letter-20130509,0,1345277.story

Mitt Romney is not the problem

The Republican nominee is being thrown under the bus for saying that he lost the election because, in part, free contraceptives were among the gifts President Obama gave to Democratic constituencies.

However, Mr. Romney is not outside the mainstream of today’s Republican party, as the following examples demonstrate.

When the Maryland General Assembly adopted the marriage equality bill, only one Republican senator and two Republican delegates voted yes.

Twenty years ago, when the legislature enacted the law protecting a woman’s right to choose,  three GOP senators and ten delegates voted yes.

Three years ago, I successfully introduced a bill dealing with the removal of human remains from a burial site.  Among the people who can arrange for the reinterment is a domestic partner of the decedent.  For that reason, 28 Republican delegates and all but one of the GOP senators voted no.

The Supreme Court has agreed to decide the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  That provision applies to states and localties with a documented history of discrimination in their election laws.

Consequently, they must obtain approval from the Justice Department or a federal court before making any changes to their laws.  This past month, several states were prevented from implementing voter-identification laws or changes in early voting.

If the Court rules that this requirement is unconstitutional, the Obama administration would introduce legislation to protect voting rights.  When President Johnson sought Republican votes for civil rights legislation, he appealed to their membership in the “party of Lincoln.”

Absent a major reversal, such a plea today would fall on deaf ears.

  • My Key Issues:

  • Pimlico and The Preakness
  • Our Neighborhoods
  • Pre-Kindergarten
  • Lead Paint Poisoning