high tech – Sandy Rosenberg

Even after a bill passes, the work continues.

We took the final legislative action today on my bill modifying the law authorizing state funding of internships for college students with high-tech companies.

Governor Hogan funded the internships this year, after I suggested that this could demonstrate to Amazon the state’s commitment to creating a well trained high-tech workforce.

I emailed the people at UMBC that I worked with on the bill.

House just concurred in the Senate amendment. Two dates need to be scheduled:

1. Bill signing [by the Governor]

2. Luncheon for the first High Tech Interns. [UMBC administers two public service internship programs that I sponsored. I get to speak to the group every year.]

Excellent work all around.

The response:

We are delighted to hear this!

We are already giving thought to a fall event where we can hear about the experiences of the first cohort and their employers.

At that event, I’ll learn if the program needs to be improved – with a bill or otherwise.

I’ll be working with Governor Hogan on behalf of one of his work force development initiatives next year.

The governor announced this week that he will “fund the Maryland Technology Internship Program [MTIP] for the first time in state history, which provides matching funds to companies for internship stipends.”

I introduced the bill that created MTIP in 2014. It authorizes a state payment for college students interning with a high tech company.

This fall, I met with the Governor’s staff to lobby for funding for the program as part of the incentive package presented to Amazon on behalf of Port Covington as a site for the company’s new headquarters.

This won’t be the first time that I’ve worked with a Republican administration on legislation. I introduced the William Donald Schaefer Scholarship, which provides a one-year college scholarship in return for a one-year commitment to a public service job.

Governor Ehrlich funded the program from the outset. Future State Senator Bill Ferguson was one of the recipients.

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“We’ve lost the South for a generation.”

President Johnson said that after signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

LBJ knew how to count votes, but in this instance he was wrong.

The Solid South for the Democrats did become Richard Nixon’s Southern Strategy and the transformation of the South into a solid bloc of Republican states.

But it took 53 years, from July 2, 1964, until this past Tuesday, more than a generation, for a Democrat to win the Senate election in Alabama.

It also took the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for African-Americans to be able to register to vote in the South.