As the General Assembly tries to wrap up its work today, known as Sine Die, news comes that a federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that the Salvadoran Maryland resident was wrongly deported to a notorious mass-incarceration facility in El Salvador and must be returned tonight. Definitely a stay-tuned day as worldwide stock markets crash for a third day, more DOGE firings loom and the prez plays golf (while charging the Secret Service for their lodging at... Mar-a-Lago) and many thousands rallied Saturday all over the US in what was called a "THE RESISTANCE ARRIVES" moment.

HERE IN MARYLAND

Breaking News as of lunchtime Monday: Appeals court refuses to block order requiring Maryland man’s return from El Salvador prison: An appeals court on Monday refused to block a court order requiring the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to a notorious El Salvador prison. With hours left before a midnight deadline to effectuate Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S., the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to override the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision. Baltimore Sun

And today is Sine Die (adjournment) for the 2025 Maryland General Assembly session:

GA Leaders Agree To Budget Compromise With $1.6b In Taxes: House and Senate fiscal leaders reached final agreement Friday on a compromise budget that includes $1.6 billion in annual taxes and ends a one-year experiment with a racing authority tasked with modernizing a storied racetrack and preserving an industry. Maryland Matters via MD Reporter

House Oks Bills To Speed Energy Generation: The House passed a potentially transformative package of energy reform bills Saturday that are aimed at hastening new power generation in Maryland and curtailing costs for ratepayers. The move tees up the three-bill package, backed by General Assembly leadership, for final passage, even if it may come on the 90-day session’s final day. Maryland Matters. via MD Reporter

As Session Nears End, Lawmakers Debate Flurry Of Bills: After a jam-packed three months, Maryland lawmakers deliberated a flurry of bills during rare Saturday sessions, with several major policies still unsettled before the legislative session ends Monday. Legislators in both the House and Senate debated a wide range of topics Saturday, from immigration to elections and energy.  Baltimore Sun via MD Reporter

 Homeless Services Brace For Shakier Future: Maryland’s homeless service providers are bracing for a shakier future after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development began delivering recent grant funding weeks behind schedule. The state’s nonprofit shelter and housing providers say they have weathered the HUD delays without making service cuts, but state officials warn that may not last.  Capital News Service/Maryland Reporter.

Maryland’s Dem Lawmakers Decry Tariffs, Stock Market Tumble: Maryland Democratic lawmakers expressed dismay Thursday over President Donald Trump’s tariffs on all imported goods, a move that caused the financial markets to tumble and some manufacturers to announce layoffs. “For years, we’ve been told to take Donald Trump seriously, but not literally. We were told his incoherent economic philosophy and outrageous rhetoric were merely negotiating tactics for a master in the art of the deal,” Rep. Steny Hoyer said. Capital News Service/Maryland Reporter.

Prescription Cost Control Boost Advances, But Family Leave Deferral Looms (Again) As Session Ends: A bill that would expand the authority of a state board that is working to lower certain prescription drug costs is ready for the governor’s consideration, after the Senate passed House Bill 424 on party lines Friday evening. The Prescription Drug Affordability Board is currently tasked with finding ways to reduce the cost of prescription drugs on the state’s health plan, saving some taxpayer dollars in the process. The 2025 bill would expand the board’s authority to set what are called upper-payment limits on prescription drugs in the commercial market.  Also as the session drew to a close,  the Senate Finance Committee passed a bill – somewhat reluctantly – to delay the implementation of the state’s paid family leave act, a program that has been pushed off twice already. The Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) program is set to begin in July. But amid a $3 billion budget shortfall and rapid-fire policy decisions from the Trump administration, the administration proposed delaying the start of the program by 18 months, with benefits going out in 2028. Maryland Matters

IN THE OTHER 49

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Bills banning so-called deepfake images are gaining steam. Lawmakers in Kentucky and South Dakota have enacted bills banning AI deepfakes related to elections, the 22nd and 23rd states to do so. New Jersey became the 33rd state to ban intimate deepfakes, and similar legislation is on the table in Connecticut, Montana, Oklahoma and Tennessee. (Pluribus News) [paywalled]

MORE: The Connecticut House Judiciary Committee has approved a housing bill that would ban the use of some AI algorithms in setting rental rates. The measure comes after Attorney General William Tong (D) joined federal officials and other states in suing six large landlord companies over the use of algorithmic pricing software. (CT News Junkie) via Pluribus

DISASTER RELIEF: A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction in favor of 23 states [including Maryland] that sued the federal government over a plan to pause state disaster relief aid. Judge John McConnell said the halt appeared to be a “covert” effort to punish states over immigration rules. [the states almost uniformly had Democratic attorneys general ] (Courthouse News) via Pluribus

DEI BAN: Florida may enforce a law eliminating general education courses that teach “identity politics” at the state's institutions of higher education while a lawsuit filed by professors plays out, a federal judge has ruled. The 2023 law limits general education course classifications and funding for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, the Florida Phoenix reports. Stateline Daily

TRANS RIGHTS: The Connecticut House Judiciary Committee has approved legislation adding legal protections for doctors who provide reproductive and gender-affirming care via telemedicine. The bill extends an existing shield law that applies to doctors who provide abortion and reproductive care to patients in other states. (CT News Junkie) via Pluribus

MORE: The Indiana Senate has given final approval to legislation banning transgender women from playing in women’s college athletics. The bill now heads to Gov. Mike Braun (R) for a likely signature. The legislature approved a ban on transgender girls in K-12 sports in 2022. (Indianapolis Star) via Pluribus

EDUCATION: The New York State Education Department has told the Trump administration it will not abide by federal orders to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs. In a letter to federal officials, the agency said there are no state or federal laws prohibiting DEI principles. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) threatened legal action if the Trump administration suspends funding. (New York Times)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE: The Mississippi legislature unanimously approved a bill requiring hospitals to perform rape kit tests on sexual assault victims in the emergency room. The bill will require hospitals to stock rape kits and have a provider present to perform the tests. (Associated Press)

Nevada Democrats tee up eviction reform Lombardo vetoed two years ago  Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed legislation in 2023 that would have reformed Nevada’s eviction laws, considered some of the nation’s most tenant-hostile.  

GLOBAL, NATIONAL, DC AND THE FEDS

FROM OUR COMMONPLACE BOOK:

As the tariffs escalate the trade war, a libertarian Cato Institute (!) economics analyst said to POLITICO Playbook, surprise surprise, “Some companies, he said, will even use the trade war as an excuse to raise prices.”

And who’s exempt from the tariffs? No surprise here, either; Big Oil, a favored Trump donor class,  gets off scot-free, as the Guardian (UK) reports

We hear Congress throwing around ten-year tax plans involving tens of trillion$; Monday Bloomberg pegged three days in April; “the three-day wipeout in global equity value to about $9.5 trillion” since the tariff announcements. One possible sneaky rationale for Trump’s tanking of the market: to make the rich (now, less rich) more appreciative of their coming tax breaks. Meanwhile, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities crunches the numbers on which working families prosper or suffer. They warn of the triple threat: “This three-part agenda — legislation, executive action, and tariffs — the Trump Administration and congressional Republicans are pursuing will reduce the living standards and raise costs for millions of families with modest incomes while helping pave the way for tax cuts skewed to the wealthy.”

And how to make those expenditure cuts so rich people can get tax relief: Republicans in Congress are eyeing cuts to Medicaid. But what does Medicaid actually do? Maryland is one of many states using the federal program as part of its health-care package. Stateline Daily has this de-confusing primer about how it works.

Is the general public still sticker-shocked and numbed by finding out that Trump really meant it about tariffs and DOGE? The news brightens up here…

POLITICO Playbook Sunday: “THE RESISTANCE ARRIVES: The first mass protests of the Trump 2.0 era arrived yesterday, the capstone of a week in which opposition to the president seemed to roar to life after months of hibernation.

“At more than 1,300 locations throughout the U.S. — rural small towns and big cities, from Anchorage to Palm Beach — demonstrators gathered in a show of both force and breadth, wielding signs voicing their outrage over policies they alleged betrayed something fundamental about America. The president was a frequent object of their ire, of course. But so was Elon Musk. Homemade placards targeted tariffs and tyranny, deportations and DOGE. They defended vaccine science and abortion rights and Gaza and Ukraine. (“So many issues, so little cardboard,” as one sign in Milwaukee put it.)

“The crowds: Organizers said more than 600,000 people RSVPed for the events; CNN pegged the number of attendees in the “millions.” … 1,000 in Anchorage, per ADN. … 3,000 in Charlotte, per the Observer. … 5,000 in Raleigh, per CBS17. … 6,000 in Florida’s Palm Beach County, per the Palm Beach Post. … 7,000 in Des Moines, according to the Register. … At least 7,000 in Seattle, per the Seattle Times. … 10,000 in Denver, per the Colorado Sun. … 20,000 in Atlanta, per the AJC. … 25,000 at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, per the Star Tribune. … 25,000 in Boston, per GBH. … 30,000 in Chicago, per WBEZ. … In New York, the protest stretched along Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue for “nearly 20 blocks,” per the NYT. … In Washington, organizers estimated the crowd exceeded 100,000 — roughly five times larger than they’d predicted, per WaPo.”

Enough chatter from us. Here is the DC doings bulletin from Megan E, federal affairs director for our national affiliate, People’s Action, with more info access:

Over the weekend, the Senate passed a new version of the budget resolution that gives two different topline numbers to each house. Somehow the bill got worse. Sen. Lindsey Graham decided to change the rules of budget reconciliation and announced that they wouldn’t count the $4.6 TRILLION in deficit spending for tax extensions AND they are adding another $1.5 trillion in tax cuts to the bill now totaling $7 trillion dollars in tax cuts for the rich and spending to boost mass deportations! Republicans are saying it’ll cost $1.5 trillion only, which is fake math. The parliamentarian will have to rule on this decision at some point and Republicans will then have to decide if they are going to overrule her or fire her. 

Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky both voted against the measure. Paul in opposition to the massive deficit spending in the bill and Collins expressed concerns about potential Medicaid cuts. 

This bill has to pass the House this week so the committees can begin working on the details of the budget reconciliation next week. Far-right House Republicans who “care” about growing the deficit are complaining about how much the bill will grow the deficit but it’s likely that Trump will get them in line by Friday. If the House passes the bill, House committees are expecting to move quickly after the two-week April recess to put a bill together that Speaker Johnson wants to pass in May. The Senate may just take up the House bill and skip the committee process. As of last week, Republican Congressional leadership seemed very aligned on the process but the plunging stock market could impact their unity.  

As if that isn’t enough news for one weekend, global stock markets continued to plunge around the world due to Trump’s sprawling and ill-conceived tariffs. The tariffs operate as a sales tax on working and middle-class people, effectively raising taxes on us while Congress works to pass a tax cuts for billionaires and corporations. The tariffs are expected to cause inflation and some economists are predicting a recession. Some Senate Republicans are starting to push back on Trump regarding the tariffs. Sen. Grassley (R-IA) & Sen. Cantwell (D-WA) have a bill to give Congress authority to review the tariffs.  

Trump Administration Threatens to Withhold Funds from Public Schools: State education officials will be required to verify that they have eliminated all programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion that the administration deems unlawful, according to a new memo.

Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg is lobbying Trump in an attempt to avoid an antitrust trial that his company, Meta, could face later this month. 

There were over 1,300 "Hands Off!" rallies across the country over the weekend. [see our excerpt from POLITICO Playbook, above]

What’s on tap for activists this week.

APRIL CONGRESSIONAL RECESS: Start planning your April recess events now! Congress members will be at home again in their districts for April Recess between April 15th and April 24th.

Here is our resource toolkit (still being updated):APRIL RECESS RESOURCES

ENDORSE MEDICARE FOR ALL: Please consider endorsing the House Medicare for All bill by filling out this form. There are no changes to the bill since the last Congress. This is a good opportunity for Democrats to show what they are for - how they are for Reintroduction will be on April 29th. We’ll send along new resources soon, for now you can pull from NNU’s 2023 toolkit. 

ISSUE UPDATE: CLIMATE

Republican wants oil and gas tax relief in reconciliation [Oklahoma’s Lankford, not the worst GOP senator by many measures, is gonna defend his state’s fossil treasures.] The legislation would roll back a tax code change from the Democrats' climate law [and give drillers a tax break].

ISSUE UPDATE: HEALTHCARE

Carly Morton with the Care Over Cost Campaign authored this oped! Please share! Opinion: I’m chronically ill, but can hold a job at Sheetz thanks to Medicaid. Cuts would put me at risk. Carly writes about relying on Medicaid to survive and work, and underscores the devastating consequences of Republicans' proposed cuts to Medicaid.

ISSUE UPDATE: HOUSING

Housing agencies begin closing offices, escorting employees out: HUD and FHFA are shutting down some functions, with more cuts expected soon and power consolidation already underway.

This Land Bank Is Buying Property To Protect Altadena From Displacement By Private Investors -- As corporate buyers swoop into LA’s African-American enclave Altadena after it was devastated by wildfires, community members have just saved their first property from the speculative market.

ISSUE UPDATE: IMMIGRATION

NILC resource published  a new resource entitled “10 Ways the Budget Reconciliation Bill's Immigration Enforcement Funds Put Us All At Risk."

In solidarity, Megan