A flurry of hearings in the Assembly this week tries to beat a deadline for bills to cross from one chamber to another in order to pass. Several factors, including Del. Lisanti's vow to remain in the House despite her censure for using a racial slur among colleagues, could slow those bills down.

At a news conference Monday evening the coalition urging a "clean $15" minimum wage bill -- one that does not exclude tipped workers and other marginalized groups -- made their case forcefully and with testimony from affected workers. The Senate, they said, should repair the damage done by the House.

A top issue for Progressive Maryland, the Fight for $15 as a minimum wage statewide, has been passed by the House but with Economic Matters Committee amendments that make it narrower and less helpful to working people than the original bill. Progressives will fight to keep the Senate version “clean” and persuade House members that they should accept the better bill when it comes time to reconcile their version with the Senate bill.  Tonight, Monday, Mar. 4, we’ll be visiting the offices of House members with that message. after the news conference (see below).

Progressive Maryland members who have been mobilizing for a Lobby Night March 4 will shift our focus to a news conference that evening at 6 PM in the House Office Building (Room 142) to urge Del. Mary Anne Lisanti’s resignation and follow it with a mass distribution of information for House members as the Fight for $15 moves to the full Assembly.

Progressive Maryland activists and allies are going to lobby their legislators in Annapolis the evening of Monday, March 4, and you should be among them.

Why does citizen lobbying matter? "...companies, trade groups and organizations spent $44 million on 153 lobbyists" and it takes numbers to fight cash. See more, read on, and sign up.

Prescription drugs cost too much. Everybody who needs medication for a chronic or recurring condition knows what a burden the increasing costs of prescription drugs are for them and those like them. And all prescription drug buyers -- that's all of us, sooner or later -- get sticker shock while Big Pharma keeps raising prices. Two Maryland legislators are proposing a new law that would bring these costs into line with what people can afford. Here, in a guest column for Maryland Reporter, they outline the bill’s purpose and effects.

The Maryland General Assembly has just hit the halfway point on the way to the April 8 sine die and Progressive Maryland, in harness with many progressive allies, is working to advance a progressive agenda during the session as well as in all of 2019.

Members of the powerful House Economic Matters Committee are scheduled to vote on their House version of the $15 minimum wage bill – statewide, no exclusions for tipped workers – on Monday (Feb. 25). The National Employment Law Project explains why it should stay that way, with no exclusions or "carve-outs."

The statewide $15 minimum wage bill with no exclusion for tipped workers that is backed by progressives is heard tomorrow (Thursday, Feb. 21) by the General Assembly's Senate Finance Committee, an important stop on the way to floor debate and passage during this Assembly session. Progressive Maryland's Jennifer Dwyer is among those testifying in support, and the organization's testimony is previewed here. As Dwyer notes, the measure has wide popularity among Marylanders across party lines.

The General Assembly session is finishing up its first of about three months of sausage-making, and there is a lot to be concerned about. We are tackling our broader progressive agenda, prioritizing the fight for the $15 minimum wage at Progressive Maryland’s own Lobby Night March 4. See more below.