General Assembly members appear to have wrestled Maryland's budget deficit to a draw though maybe only a temporary respite. But as April and the mad rush to adjournment approaches, patches are still being applied and injured constituency groups still in full cry. Meanwhile, Marylanders took up the No Kings cause with anger and enthusiasm, along with an estimated 8 million Americans nationwide, protesting the Iran conflict-of-choice, the often lethal misbehavior of poorly trained ICE goons in disfavored Blue cities around the nation, and the general violation of constitutional rights and the balance-of-power system by Trump's reckless misuse of presidential power. Federal and district judges are sharpening the language in their opinions about the flood of cases rising from Trump's hyper-aggressive seizure of authority, the New York Times suggesting this is a symptom of " a growing sense among district-court judges that President Trump’s second term is an all-hands-on-deck constitutional emergency." No Kings, indeed. It's News You Can Use.

HERE IN MARYLAND

This Year’s Lawmaking: As the General Assembly approaches April and sine die, the Maryland Legislative Coalition has a menu of good bills that need a boost in the other chamber.  And here are Upcoming Hearings where you can still get your voice heard on bills. And check Progressive Maryland's latest update of recommendations.

Budget Shortfall Is Fixed, But Fiscal Woes Continue: Lawmakers are putting the finishing touches on the state government’s nearly $71 billion budget, funding programs that range from improving public schools to staffing state agencies. The plan turns a $1.4 billion deficit into a $250 million surplus and a $2 billion rainy day fund through cuts and one-time maneuvers to shuffle money around — avoiding unpopular tax hikes. But the budget does not address long-term imbalances in the state’s finances. Baltimore Banner.

Lawmakers Push To Enshrine Access To Emergency Abortions: After two years of struggling to get over the finish line, advocates hope this is the year they pass legislation ensuring Marylanders have access to emergency abortions during severe, life-threatening medical complications. Maryland Matters.

Marylanders Turn Out For No Kings Events: Thousands of No King protesters on Saturday afternoon in Columbia’s Symphony Woods heard speeches and music before sign-waving along Little Patuxent Parkway in downtown Columbia. “Give yourselves a round of applause. This is what democracy looks like,” Rep. Sarah Elfreth, the 37-year-old freshman congresswoman, told the crowd. Maryland Reporter >> They were political heavy-hitters and grandmothers, candidates and musicians, activists and several hundred regular Joes. They were angry about a litany of Trump administration policies, but particularly focused on recent immigration raids. There was chanting and costumes and signs. Lots of signs. Hand-drawn and angry, often funny and just as often rude and not suitable for a general audience. Maryland Matters >> At one No Kings action in Baltimore yesterday, some went with quotes from, or riffs on, our greatest thinkers: There was founding father Thomas Paine (“In America, the law is king”), poet Robert Frost (“Two roads diverged in the woods and America took the psycho-path!”) and beloved children’s television personality Mr. Rogers (“Look for the helpers! Vote for the helpers!”) Baltimore Brew.

Half Of School Districts Fall Short Of Minimum Teacher Salary: Under the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future law, all Maryland school districts must reach a minimum teacher salary of $60,000 by July 1 this year. With three months left to get there, half of the state’s 24 districts are still figuring out how to meet the threshold. Baltimore Sun.

State Highway Kicks Off Weeklong Cleaning Effort: This week, Maryland State Highway Administration crews kicked off its all-hands-on-deck, weeklong litter cleaning mission called “Operation Clean Sweep.” So far, crews have picked up everything from fast-food containers to mattresses. Piles of tires have been found dumped in the wooded areas along highways.  Baltimore Banner.

EPA Proposes “Significant” Cuts to Chesapeake Bay Cleanup Advisory Effort: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing deep spending cuts on the Chesapeake Bay cleanup that critics say will undermine the effort’s scientific integrity and public outreach. The federal agency published a “notice of funding opportunity” on March 10 seeking applicants to support the advisory effort, with far lower funding. On an annual basis, that would amount to a one-third cut from the total spent in 2025, according to figures provided by the EPA. Bay Journal

BWI Hit with Extra Long Lines as TSA Agents Work Elsewhere: Baltimore’s “easy come, easy go” airport was not so easy as spring break travel crowds swamped the place Friday and Saturday, with security lines stretching more than four hours long and drawing national and international attention. With TSA agents going unpaid and seeking other ways to make money, their absences came as nearly 29,500 passengers departed from BWI on Friday, the highest number since just before Christmas. Flight volumes remained steady over the weekend. Baltimore Banner. >> But: BWI security lines stabilize after chaotic weekend of TSA delays , ICE agents remain on site as staffing rebounds. Baltimore Sun

THE REGION AND THE OTHER 49

NEXT DOOR: SCHOOL VACCINES: Attorneys for the West Virginia Board of Education have asked the state Supreme Court to reverse a circuit court ruling allowing families with a religious or philosophical objection to the state’s school vaccination requirements to attend school, West Virginia Watch reports. The ruling enjoined the school boards from preventing kids from enrolling in class or extracurricular activities because of their vaccination status. Stateline Daily

How Trump’s expansion of federal power threatens states’ authority Ahead of the country’s 250th birthday, the bedrock principles of federalism — the uniquely American system of power sharing between Washington and the states — are being tested. Stateline Daily

HOUSING: A bipartisan push to make housing more affordable is exploding across legislatures, where Democrats and Republicans are embracing a growing playbook of pro-housing policies. Lawmakers in 40 states have filed more than 400 bills aiming to spur homebuilding. In many cases, local governments seeking to preserve their own control have become the biggest impediment to new bills. (Pluribus News) [paywalled]

Medicaid review finds few immigrants: Federal officials ordered states to reverify the immigration status of hundreds of thousands of Medicaid enrollees, but seven months later states have found few undocumented immigrants. States Newsroom/Maryland Matters

GA: Georgia Senate passes budget with funding boost for services for people with disabilities | Georgia Recorder via Stateline Daily

WA: Pharmaceutical giants sue Washington over new drug pricing law | Washington State Standard via Stateline Daily

NH: Legislation to improve oversight of New Hampshire's disability system passes Senate, heads to House via Stateline Daily | New Hampshire Bulletin

IL: Illinois lawmakers seek measure to make small-scale plug-in solar panels available to renters via Stateline Daily | Capitol News Illinois

 GLOBAL, NATIONAL AND THE FEDS

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Here is the federal roundup as of today by Megan E, federal affairs director for Progressive Maryland’s  national affiliate, People’s Action.

Hello People’s Action!

Congratulations to all on another successful No Kings Day! Organizers say 8 million people turned out. There was a lot of focus on the Iran war and the abusive, violent immigration raids. 

Senate Democrats had a short-lived victory last week when they cut a deal with Republicans to pass a bill funding most of the Department of Homeland Security but no ICE and border patrol money – but without any constraints on ICE goons’ behavior.

Many of us on the outside wanted Democrats to refuse that funding in the first place but some moderate Democrats preferred to only ask for changes to the law. In the end moderates held the line on that demand with Senator Angus King (I-ME) leading the negotiations with Schumer. Republicans were trying to push a deal that only withheld ICE enforcement and removal operations but Democrats refused that deal and held out to exclude the additional border patrol money as well.  The Senate passed the bill and then Speaker Johnson announced at the end of the day that he would not put the bill to a vote. It likely would have passed with Democrats’ support but Johnson is scared of losing his speakership by a vocal opposition and a razor thin majority. 

Trump also said Friday that he was going to figure out how to pay TSA through executive action. We’ll see.

Last week’s deal was also a win because Majority Leader Thune (R-SD) talked Trump into letting him move off the SAVE Act, which the Senate was debating around the clock for close to two weeks but didn’t have the votes to meet a 60 vote threshold. Thune promised to put some pieces of the SAVE Act in a budget reconciliation bill (that requires no Democratic votes) along with funding for ICE & border patrol. The SAVE Act is mostly policy (and a real threat to fair elections) and they will have trouble including it in budget reconciliation, which has to contain budgetary items. They may make some grants for states but the states themselves would likely have to pass laws that limit access to the ballot for Americans in order to access the money. Things could change but that’s the most likely scenario. 

That is a possibility but it is not an easy process for them. Remember HR1 was a budget reconciliation bill and took a long time and required Trump to do arm twisting of Republicans to get it passed. This is an election year and Trump’s approval ratings are at record lows so the dozens of Republicans who are at risk of losing their election won’t be happy to vote for unpopular policies. 

It’s important that Republicans are also forced to fund the Iran war through budget reconciliation. Some moderate Democrats will need to be pushed to oppose the funding. Despite Congressional Democrats being universally against the war, their instincts will be to pay for it to “support the troops.” They will need to hear a lot from constituents to oppose Pentagon funding (including from veterans). Republicans will have trouble finding the votes on their own because the fiscal hawks in their party won’t want to deficit-spend and the Republicans in close races won’t want to cut spending on programs again. 

And the war continues. Trump tweeted this morning that he’s trying to end the war but if they don’t, Trump threatened to commit the war crimes of taking out Iran’s electric grid (that’s what Russia is doing in Ukraine) and desalination plants, which clearly target civilians. The Pentagon is reportedly planning targeted ground operations with U.S. troops. On that, Bloomberg opined this morning “The risks are immense: for US forces, first and foremost. But also to the global economy, for any sense of order left in the Middle East, for Republicans and for US politics.”

The stock market tanked last Friday due to rising oil prices and the cascading economic consequences around the world, particularly in struggling Asian ally countries that rely on Middle Eastern oil. Gas prices in the U.S. are expected to keep rising.

There has been much talk about MAGA world being divided with many of the big names on the far-right like Tucker Carlson, Meghan Kelly and others speaking out against the war. A poll was released that only 10% of self-identified MAGA voters oppose the war. They are only a portion of Trump voters and as the war goes on, that number will probably erode. 

What You Can Do This Week

Tuesday, March 31st at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT Join National Nurses United, People's Action and Health Care Now for a Patients Over Profits National Organizing call Tuesday, March 31st at 8pm ET to learn how to get involved and organize more elected officials and candidates to take the Patients Over Profits pledge to not take donations from greedy CEOs for corporate insurers, Big Pharma, or private hospitals or their lobbyists. Please consider joining or sending your members! We're looking to get more candidates up and down the ballot to sign the pledge! Working people can't afford their bills, and corporate greed in health care from claims denials and price gouging is a major contributor to the affordability crisis. We need Medicare for All and to win it we need to get corporate health care money out of our politics!

In solidarity, Megan