>>>>>>>>>>>>Note: no News You Can Use blog until January so practice your info-scavenging skills...<<<<<<<<<<<<<

It'll be money week in several respects. The General Assembly will have a special session to elect Del. Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D-Prince George’s) as new House Speaker -- but it will also be a flurry of veto overrides. Gov. Moore, who has promised no new taxes to overcome a $1.5BN budget deficit, is juking around with minor budget items to take some of the sting out of what will be pretty rugged overrides. Meanwhile, many states are thumbing their noses at Trump's EO forbidding existing or future state laws that restrict AI, largely on the grounds that the feds have done zilch on this pressing subject. The Maryland Assembly won't have a regular session until January but they are almost guaranteed to have a better 2025 than Congress, which is about to slink home without having done anything about skyrocketing health care premiums for the Affordable Care Act (see Megan E's holiday post below).

It's News You Can Use. See you in 2026, and the best of the holiday season.

HERE IN MARYLAND

Summaries from Maryland Reporter

Moore Pledges No Taxes As State Faces Another Massive Budget Gap: Gov. Wes Moore (D) told a gathering of county leaders in Cambridge Thursday that he will not propose tax increases to close a projected $1.5 billion budget gap in the coming fiscal year. Maryland Matters.

Kilmar Garcia Returns to Maryland Home  Kilmar Abrego Garcia arrived at his Maryland home Thursday after being released from ICE custody in Pennsylvania following a judge's order. CBS News.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia Has Been Released from an immigration detention center in Pennsylvania following an order from a federal judge issued Thursday, according to his attorney’s office. Associated Press.

Moore Announces Second Round Of Enough Act Funding to Fight Child Poverty: Gov. Wes Moore on Thursday announced nearly $20 million to address the root cause of concentrated and childhood poverty in Maryland's most marginalized communities. WBAL 11 News. 

State Revenues Up Slightly, Emphasis On Slight: Maryland's revenue outlook improved slightly in recent months, but nowhere near enough to stave off the "hard choices" next year when lawmakers face a $1.5 billion budget shortfall. Maryland Matters

David Trone Will Challenge April Mclean Delaney To Win Back Seat: David Trone wants his Western Maryland congressional seat back and announced he will challenge incumbent Congresswoman April McClain Delaney in next year’s Democratic primary. WYPR.

In Reversal, Moore Funds Climate Change Study He Previously Vetoed -- Move comes just days before legislators are set to take up veto overrides during special session. Gov. Moore (D) vetoed the RENEW Act in May over its cost, but announced Friday that he will allocate nearly the same amount of money to achieve the same goals as in the bill, -- nearly $500,000 to study the costs of climate change in the state. Maryland Matters

Data Center Impact Study Was Vetoed; Lawmakers Wonder If It Was A Mistake: At the end of Maryland’s legislative session earlier this year, Gov. Wes Moore vetoed some 29 bills, looking to shave off extra costs as the state faced budget constraints. Just six months later, a growing bipartisan coalition of both lawmakers and advocates across the aisle is worried that one of these vetoes — the Data Center Impact Analysis and Report bill, or Senate Bill 116 — was a critical mistake. Baltimore Sun.

THE REGION AND THE OTHER 49

Democrats Make a Fresh Push to Win State Legislatures

The arm of the party that focuses on statehouses is targeting hundreds of seats and more than 40 chambers, according to a strategy memo, reflecting Democrats’ new optimism. NYT

HOUSING: Florida Rep. Juan Carlos Porras (R) has introduced legislation allowing homeowners to propose referenda to dissolve homeowners associations. The bill would allow a vote to dissolve the associations if 20% of homeowners sign a petition to abolish them. About 45% of Florida homes are covered by HOAs, the highest in the nation. (Pluribus News) [paywalled]

LABOR: Utah lawmakers have voted to repeal a ban on public sector collective bargaining less than a year after its initial passage. Gov. Spencer Cox (R) signed the repeal measure following opposition from both teacher’s unions and more conservative police and firefighters unions. (Associated Press) via Pluribus

Florida is new champ in executions

With falling public support for capital punishment, the majority of states no longer carry out executions. But among those that do, Florida was an outlier, accounting for 40 percent of all executions this year. The dozen states that did hold executions put between one and five people to death, except for Florida, which executed 19 people, according to figures released in Monday’s report from the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonpartisan research group that tracks data on capital punishment. That was the largest number since Texas put 24 people to death in 2009. WaPo

States will keep pushing AI laws despite Trump’s efforts to stop them

38 states have adopted or enacted artificial intelligence measures this year, and more are expected in 2026. Trump signed an executive order Thursday evening that aims to override state artificial intelligence laws. He said his administration must work with Congress to develop a national AI policy, but that in the meantime, it will crack down on state laws. But despite those moves, state lawmakers are continuing to prefile legislation related to artificial intelligence in preparation for their 2026 legislative sessions. States News

GLOBAL, NATIONAL AND THE FEDS

Terminator Forecasts? AI-powered weather forecasting is increasingly good at predicting extreme weather, Nature reported. Models that use both AI and traditional physics-based simulation models are predicting extreme heatwaves and storms more accurately and faster than either system could on its own. And [speaking of damage control] a huge database of all the world’s buildings — 2.75 billion of them — has been unveiled, allowing much more precise estimates of the impacts of any disaster, we learn from Semafor.

THE UPDATE FROM DC – from People’s Action Director of Federal Affairs Megan E

Hello People's Action!

The Senate failed to pass the three year extension of Obamacare subsidies last week at the 60 vote threshold needed to move the bill forward. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK), and Josh Hawley (R-AR) voted with all Democrats on the bill (remember the latter three voted to cut almost a trillion dollars from Medicaid earlier in the year and want to pretend they are for health care funding). 

Republicans in close races next year are continuing freaking out about the expiring health care tax credits. There are a few Republican-led discharge petitions in the House related to the subsidies. Discharge petitions require 218 signatures in the House to force a vote on a bill. It’s considered a rebellion against leadership when people in their own party sign them and they are very rarely successful (though that’s how the Epstein vote happened). The number of discharge petitions circulating with Republican support under Speaker Johnson shows he’s exceptionally weak right now with razor-thin vote margins. 

Minority Leader Hakim Jeffries (D-NY) is circulating his own discharge petition on a three- year extension of the ACA advanced premium tax credits. 

On Friday, House Republican leadership offered a package of “alternatives” to the ACA subsidies that includes some opportunities for employers to offer lower quality coverage along with some smaller subsidies that are not terrible but not nearly enough to make health care affordable. The House plans to vote on it Wednesday and frontline (those facing tough reelection) Republicans are being promised an amendment vote on ACA extensions that is expected to fail. 

The general crisis of affordability in this country and the specific debate around making Affordable Care Act plans affordable is creating a new opening in the Democratic party for Medicare for All. Some Democrats understand that Democrats lost the 2024 election due their inability to offer and deliver real solutions to the fact that half the people in this country can’t afford to pay their bills with the wages they earn (while the top 800 billionaires break wealth records daily while causing the demise of our democracy). With Republicans defunding health care and Democrats rightly choosing health care as the key national fight to wedge Republicans, a key vulnerability is coming to the fore. The Affordable Care Act does not actually solve our health care problems. 

The far-right members of the House Republican caucus are saying they don’t want to throw good money after bad at health insurance companies. Of course they don’t want to spend a single dollar on health care for people. But there is a truth wrapped around the lie. People are angry at their health insurance companies and investments in the ACA plans are subsidies that go to shareholders and CEOs. Doubling down on ACA subsidies -- while necessary to prevent harm in this moment -- will not make health care affordable and available to everyone. Even some of the more moderate Democrats in Congress are starting to ask about broader solutions to the health care crisis. 

In the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen a slew of new cosponsors on Medicare for All.  Due to the great work of Progressive Maryland in organizing their members and allies, Senator Chris Van Hollen announced that he was cosponsoring Medicare for All a few weeks ago (watch & share his great video). Senator Tina Smith quickly followed (another self-identified progressive who had been reluctant to join). Moderate Rep. April McClain Delaney (D-MD), a moderate Democrat in a competitive seat, cosponsored the bill followed by moderates Julie Johnson (D-TX) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) last week. All of these House members are facing primary challenges (only one of them from the left; the others are distinguishing themselves from other milquetoast candidates who formerly held their seats).  

As we continue to defend against authoritarian consolidation of power, we need to continue to build towards real, bold alternative solutions that will improve people’s lives.  If your organization has not already endorsed Medicare for All, you can endorse the bill here and join our coalition! [Progressive Maryland has of course endorsed, but maybe your own community or statewide organization, union etc. has not] You can find more information on how to organize for Medicare for All in this toolkit. If you’re interested in working to get one of your Members of Congress on board with Medicare for All, please reach out to me. I’m happy to support. If you’d like to ask electeds or candidates at any level of government to sign on to the Patients Over Profits pledge to refuse to take health care industry money, check it out here! There are folks in our network signed on along with Mayor-elect Mamdani! 

Our office will be closed for two weeks and unless something wild happens, like Congress passes a health care law,  this will be my last update in 2025. 

I’m very ready to say goodbye to 2025. I’m also thankful that if I had to defend our democracy against fascist takeover, I get to do it alongside the incredible organizers, leaders and members, in the People’s Action network. I hope that everyone gets some good time off with friends and family and to do some things that are restorative for you. 

Happy Holidays!

-Megan

If you appreciate the work that People's Action does, please consider helping me reach my fundraising goals with a small donation: Megan's fundraising page. 

Megan Essaheb (she/her/hers)

Director of Federal Affairs 

People's Action | People's Action Institute

www.peoplesaction.org

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