Tuesday, April 13th, 2026 marked the end of a hard fought 2026 Legislative Session. While we are celebrating a few key wins, we must also take a moment to reflect on a few losses and the corporate influence on our politics that obstructs strong people-centered policies from prevailing.

But first, thank you for being a supporter of Progressive Maryland (PMD). We are a grassroots, member-led organization. Our work to oppose corporate influence and pass progressive legislation is only possible through the power of our organized membership. If you share our vision and are excited by what you read below, the most important thing you can do is become a member. 

We belong to an ecosystem of organizations that together, under We Are CASA and ACLU of Maryland’s strategic leadership, ended both formal (banning 287(g) programs) and informal collaborations with ICE by pushing the Community Trust Act to the finish line. This is a HUGE win and a reflection of organized people power. Thanks to community members like you, the Senate felt an intense amount of heat, and under the pressure of the election year, yielded to the working people of Maryland! Organizing WORKS!

Although we cracked the Senate for immigration protections and secured a few additional wins, the fact remains that the state's political landscape remains hostile towards people-centered policies. It should not have taken the Maryland General Assembly so long to enact these immigrant protection policies and in this current climate, defined by a worsening crisis of affordability, rollback of civil rights, and white ethnonationalist sentiments, we need elected majorities that will act swiftly and in favor of working people, not corporate actors. This election year, you can be the difference between a legislature that continues its legacy of stalling on people-centered policies or a legislature that is responsive to the needs of everyday Marylanders.

With that in mind, let's dive in.

Healthcare Justice: Safe Staffing Finally Advances but Senate Stalls on Protecting Medicaid 

PMD brought our newly formed Reclaim Medicaid campaign to the legislature for the first time, demanding that the state drop middlemen Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) to manage our Medicaid system in order to save money and better serve Medicaid enrollees and providers. Connecticut made the transition to fee-for-service in 2012 and has saved $4 billion in wasted MCO overhead costs (including profits) since. Our proposal got folded into a larger bill, HB1112, dealing with other ways the state can respond to federal cuts to health care. HB1112 passed the House unanimously but unfortunately did not get taken up by the Senate. We appreciate House Speaker Peña-Melnyk, Health Committee Chair Bagnall, and our sponsor Vice Chair Cullison’s efforts on HB1112. 

PMD Healthcare taskforce leaders at Lawyer’s Mall in Annapolis 

The next phase in our Reclaim campaign is organizing to increase our grassroots support and to put public pressure on the Maryland Health Insurance Coverage Protection Commission to review this option for the state. Cuts and changes to Medicaid under Trump’s administration could cost the state $3 billion annually in losses and 270,000 Marylanders could lose Medicaid in the near future. One in four Marylanders get their health care through Medicaid - we have to protect them. 

 PMD Healthcare, Housing, and Annapolis taskforce leaders and staff outside of the House Health Committee after providing testimony in support of Reclaim Medicaid provision on February 26, 2026 

While we prepare for the next phase of this fight, we also secured an important victory this session. We won passage of the Safe Staffing Act, SB411, after 3 years of organizing and lobbying! It’s not the version we hoped for but the law will ensure that hospitals start creating worker committees who can share their ideas about staffing practices that support workers and patients who have been dealing with long Emergency Room wait times. Thanks to all the PMD supporters and leaders who worked on this issue. We are grateful to be part of the Patient Worker Collaborative with critical allies like 1199SEIU and Marylanders for Patient Rights.

Together, we prevailed and will continue to work together to hold Maryand hospitals and the Maryland Hospital Association accountable. 

Environmental and Energy Justice: Utility Reform Advances While Clean Energy and Environmental Justice Bills Face Mixed Outcomes

PMD members also flooded Senate Education, Energy and the Environment Committee Chair Feldman’s office with calls in staunch support of SB2/HB1, a bill that would (1) outlaw the practice of for-profit utilities using ratepayer dollars to cover executive pay and (2) cut down on monthly costs for ratepayers. This measure was incorporated as a provision in a broader bill, HB1532, The Utility Relief Act, which successfully passed the legislature. 

The Utility Relief Act drew criticism for its cuts to the EmPOWER energy efficiency program. This program offers different incentives to reduce energy consumption, decrease energy bills, and subsequently, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the state of Maryland. HB1532 reduces the annual GHG reduction target from 2.5%, to 1.75% for the next three years which means that utilities are not on the hook to meet as high of an emission reduction goal and not as inclined to promote energy efficiency and as a result, energy savings for their customers. Furthermore, the bill stipulates that utilities can count already operating community solar projects in their service areas toward this goal, thus disincentivizing any additional effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The bill does, however, create a process for determining whether a third party administrator will be more suitable for running the program as opposed to having utilities continue to manage their individual energy efficiency programs. While the EmPOWER provisions are not ideal, we are enthusiastic to see the executive pay provision absorbed into the bill, sending a clear message to the utility companies–hard-earned ratepayer dollars should not be covering their corporate expenses! 

PMD also closely followed the Affordable Solar Act, a bill aimed at ensuring that funds from the Strategic Energy Investment Fund are used for their intended purpose: to support solar projects. It would also make balcony, or “plug-in” solar accessible to renters who do not own their homes and cannot otherwise install solar panels. This bill was paused and did not progress this session, though there is still interest in re-introducing it next session. 

Iman Habib, Progressive Maryland Climate Policy Analyst, delivers a presentation on reducing energy bills to Prince Georges County PMD tenant association members in Oxon Hill on March 19, 2026.

Our final environmental justice priority, the CHERISH Act, or the cumulative impacts package bills, SB780/HB1287 and SB781/1268, sought to ensure that the state of Maryland deny permit applications for polluting industries posing a threat to the health and environment of surrounding communities. This is a critical piece of legislation that Maryland must adopt to protect its overburdened and underserved communities . However, the bills did not pass due to last-minute efforts from industries to defeat them. The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE), the would-be implementation agency for SB781/HB1268, introduced a last-minute draft bill which made exemptions for large polluters and ultimately, did not protect underserved and overburdened communities.

Housing Justice: A Partial Victory for Tenant Funding as Key Eviction Protections Stall in the Senate Again

We are also celebrating a limited win on the budget with addition of $6 million in funding for the Community Schools Rental Assistance Program (CSRAP). Thanks to the hard work of our tenant leaders in negotiations with House and Senate leaders, this represents a little over a 100% increase in proposed funding, for a total of $11 million. While this falls short of the $25 million we initially requested, it nonetheless represents a significant win in a year where the state is facing steep budget cuts across the board. As the only state program that directly aids families with children facing eviction, CSRAP funding is crucial for our organized tenants.

Progressive Maryland’s Enclave Tenant Association President Tonia Chestnut emceeing Renter’s United Maryland (RUM) rally in support of the Community Schools Rental Assistance Program and a clean Good Cause Eviction bill March 10, 2026. 

The ​​Good Cause Eviction protections bill, one of the most widely supported housing advocacy bills and arguably the most prominent, passed the House but again failed in the Senate for the second time in three years. This common-sense legislation would require landlords to provide a valid reason for not renewing a tenant's lease, helping to reduce arbitrary and unjust evictions. In states where Good Cause laws have been enacted, eviction rates have dropped significantly. 

Despite strong backing from housing advocates and city and county elected officials across the state, this bill died in the senate due to senators' refusal to move a clean bill without attacking local rent stabilization ordinances. Rent stabilization in Montgomery County remains one of the most popular legislative measures in the county and enjoys consistently high approval ratings from residents. Marylanders are feeling the impact of the cost of living and housing affordability crisis and are demanding more renter protections. The Senate must be responsive to working people and not rollback the few protections tenants have won on the local level.

Immigration Justice: Historic People Powered Victory 

Finally, we are joining our immigrant justice partners ACLU of Maryland and We Are CASA in celebrating the final passage of SB245, which banned 287(g) agreements across the state to limit ICE's ability to detain and harass Marylanders. During last year’s 2025 Legislative Session, the house passed the bill but the senate refused to push it through to the Governor’s desk. Since the Senate’s refusal to pass the bill in 2025, close to 5,000 people in Maryland were arrested by ICE, about three times higher than in prior years. Over 200 of those arrests stemmed from formal collaborations with ICE under the 287(g) program.

Erica Puentes, Progressive Maryland Legislative Coordinator emcees immigrant protections rally, calling for the passage of the Community Trust Act at Lawyers Mall in Annapolis on February 16, 2026

This year, thanks to community pressure and the heightened political stakes of an election year, the Senate President relented and the legislature pushed the bill through as an emergency measure. The bill was signed into law by the Governor early on in session. Although Maryland political leadership attempted to wash their hands of any responsibility to further protect the immigrant community, Marylanders fought back. We knew that the legislature needed to enact the Community Trust Act to also end informal collaborations with ICE. Of the 5,000 ICE arrests made in Maryland last year, 1 in 3 resulted from local, voluntary informal collaboration. So we rallied, we called, we emailed, we went to Annapolis, we lobbied in person and did not let the weather stop us and even lobbied virtually during Progressive Maryland’s 2026 Annual lobby night - and just a few days before Sine Die, the Senate finally gave in and started moving the bill. This victory belongs to the people! We made it loud and clear that Marylanders will not stand idly by while our immigrant community members are funneled into the carceral and deportation machine.

Progressive Maryland Annapolis Taskforce leaders Yakie Palma and Tamara Zuniga demanding passage of the Community Trust Act at Annapolis immigration protections rally on February 16, 2026.

We also pushed for and are celebrating the passage of the Data Privacy Act, which will limit the personal information of Marylanders that can be collected and shared with immigration enforcement. Unfortunately, HB 1262, which sought to codify existing constitutional protections against racial profiling by explicitly forbidding law enforcement from racial profiling, did not pass. This is especially disappointing given the conservative-leaning SCOTUS decision Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem last summer which authorized federal agents to terrorize groups and individuals based on their perceived race and ethnicity.

A Crisis We Can’t Ignore: What Comes Next

The terror campaign on our Maryland communities continues: from ICE ripping families apart, to Medicaid patients losing their coverage, to the swift rollback of our constitutional and civil rights, and to the worsening affordability crisis. Although we can point a finger at the current federal administration, we must also understand the role our state and local elected bodies have historically (and continue) to play in reproducing these problems. 

We are celebrating the passage of the 287(g) ban bill and the Community Trust Act but it took the senate far too long to pass this. The senate refused to act last Sine Die 2025, and stood idly by as 5,000 people in Maryland were arrested by ICE. Meanwhile everyday Marylanders were working with mutual aid groups like the IRCs to support our immigrant family and neighbors, becoming legal observers, joining rallies, calling their legislators and gearing up to push local and state legislation. Marylanders demanded protection against Trump’s terror campaign and the Senate lagged behind more than people realize. These measures were first introduced in Maryland over 10 years ago.

Maryland could have had safeguards in place to protect its residents from a federal administration like this one, but it was unprepared. These safeguards are only achieved with progressive people-centered policies. Even given the chance to meet the moment now by redrawing our maps, the senate took a knee before Trump’s aggressive power grabbing redistricting plan. The General Assembly also failed to pass living wage legislation that would have increased the wage for all Marylanders to $25/hour over the next four years. This is critical legislation necessary to tackle the ongoing crisis of affordability. But what good is increasing the wage if everyday working Marylanders' paychecks are immediately swallowed up by greedy landlords? We need more tenant protections and progressive policies across Maryland like rent stabilization. And we need responsive elected bodies at the local and state levels to implement them swiftly. We do not have years to wait. 5,000 Marylanders were arrested by ICE last year. 270,000 Marylanders are projected to lose their Medicaid coverage in the near future. Over 50% of Maryland renters are cost-burdened now. The data only reflects what the people already feel and know: Maryland is in a crisis and we need to act now. If we do not change the state and local political landscape, we risk another 4 years of status quo slow and unresponsive legislators.

To learn about how you can get involved in organizing efforts to push people-centered policies to the finish line, hold elected officials accountable, and make a difference this election year, join us for a virtual event on April 21st.