We have to sympathize with members of the General Assembly, even the ones whose stances and votes we generally don't like. How do you take a role in keeping the State of Maryland afloat and surviving when the national "leadership" keeps the engines of the economy in a high state of uncertainty, grinding out a war of choice that persistently has a vanishing off-ramp, and (in the case of Trump) keeps the planet off-balance with his bizarre behavior and mood changes. Nevertheless, the last full week of the session of the session is upon us (and them, too, the legislators) and the lack of certainty about expectations of revenue and costs of running a state leave everyone in a state of confusion.

HERE IN MARYLAND

Legislative Priorities -- As we enter the last 8 days of the General Assembly session, Progressive Maryland and its allies are looking  to propel important bills that risk getting stuck or stalled. The Maryland Legislative Coalition has these details and you’ll find Progressive Maryland’s list of endangered good bills in this week’s Memo.

Summaries from Maryland Reporter:

 ICE Says It Won't Use Hagerstown Warehouse For Detentions, For Now: Immigration and Customs Enforcement no longer has imminent plans to renovate a Washington County warehouse to detain prisoners, according to the agency’s Thursday filing in the U.S. District Court for Maryland. But the agency also asked a federal judge to lift the stop-work order so they can continue retrofitting the facility for administrative use.  Baltimore Sun.

Maryland Nonprofit Hospitals Avoided Tax, But That Is Under Review: Instead of buying policies from insurance companies, nonprofit hospitals created their own for-profit insurance companies and set them up in places such as the Cayman Islands. Those companies did not pay the state’s 3% tax that other insurers did. Now, a bill moving forward in the General Assembly that would pause the tax and study it for two years. The House has yet to act on the bill.  Baltimore Banner.

Two Amendments Added To 'Good Cause Evictions' Bill: “Good Cause Evictions” legislation, to protect tenants from being kicked out of their housing without justification, continued its comeback tour Friday, as delegates debated for around 90 minutes on a bill that was as good as dead earlier in the week. The House accepted two Republican amendments to the bill, one of which adds another “good cause” for why a landlord can decide against renewing a lease with a tenant. The other exempts short-term rentals from the legislation. Maryland Matters.

Advocates Hope To Pass Youth Charging Bill: Few are thrilled about a bill to limit the number of offenses for which youth can be automatically charged in adult courts. Some Democrats said Senate Bill 323 doesn’t do enough to protect juveniles, who they say should only be tried in juvenile court. Republicans think it does too much and are likely to try to amend it when it comes up for a final vote, possibly as early as today. But others note that it took more than a decade to get the measure out of either chamber and it’s time to “take the victory that you’ve made.” Maryland Matters.

THE REGION AND THE OTHER 49

Catastrophic sewage spill followed years of delay on repairs, Post review finds

A Washington Post investigation reveals that a prolonged environmental review pushed back work on the Potomac Interceptor that was initially proposed in 2018. The D.C.-area utility responsible for a massive sewer line that failed catastrophically in January had planned to reinforce the aging section years ago but repeatedly delayed construction as federal officials studied potential environmental impacts, including risks to a blue wildflower and an endangered bat species, a Washington Post investigation found. D.C. Water asked the National Park Service for permission to fast-track repairs in 2018, but the National Park Service’s environmental review dragged on for years and was still not complete when the pipe collapsed. WaPo

From Politico Playbook Monday Afternoon: By the numbers: During Trump’s second term, nearly 20,000 people have been arrested by ICE in the D.C. region, WaPo’s Joe Heim and Emmanuel Martinez report. “By comparison, in the last full year of President Joe Biden’s administration, ICE recorded nearly 3,800 arrests in the region.” Since December, the rates have fallen.

Maryland, over 20 other states sue Trump to oppose his Executive Order against voting by mail: Maryland was one of 23 states that sued Friday over President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting mail ballots, in what critics called an extraordinary attempt by the president to assert authority over elections. The suit, filed in federal district court in Massachusetts, argues that the order violates the Constitution, which gives states the responsibility to run elections and allows Congress, not the president unilaterally, the power to override state regulations. Maryland Matters/States Newsroom

NURSE CREDENTIALS: Kansas Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly allowed loosened academic expectations for college nursing faculty to become law, the Kansas Reflector reports. The law will forbid the Kansas Board of Nursing from requiring instructors have credentials more than one level above the degree sought by the students they teach. Individual nursing schools can adopt standards above the new baseline. (Stateline)

CHURCH FUNDING: Florida Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier won’t enforce part of the state constitution that bans government funding for churches and other religious groups on the theory it violates the First Amendment, he wrote in a legal opinion. His push to widen the state and church intersection comes amid a broader conversation about whether it is appropriate to spend taxpayer dollars on religious schools, the Florida Phoenix reports.  (Stateline)

NH: Tunnel crossings eyed in New Hampshire as a fix for deadly reptile, amphibian roadkill hotspots | New Hampshire Bulletin (Stateline)

AR: ‘Arkansas Alcatraz’ mega prison project gets national scrutiny | Arkansas Advocate (Stateline)

MS: The Mississippi legislature approved, then took away, a pay raise for teachers | Mississippi Today (Stateline)

SOUTH CAROLINA: Democrats have fielded candidates for all 124 seats in the state House, the first time in a generation in which every seat will be contested. Republicans own a supermajority of seats in the legislature. (Charleston City Paper) via Pluribus

GLOBAL, NATIONAL AND THE FEDS

News from the Pennsylvania Ave Strip Mall, via Punchbowl: "Welcome to the second week of congressional recess. Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune are lucky that Congress is out of session this week. The House had scheduled a pro forma session today at 10 a.m, while the Senate has one at 1 p.m.

"The Department of Homeland Security is still shut down. It’s Day 51 for those keeping track, the longest agency shutdown in U.S. history.

"House GOP leaders aren’t planning to come back into session until next week for action on a Senate-passed bill that would fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP. Trump issued an executive order on Friday paying all the DHS employees that he hadn’t done earlier with his TSA emergency order. This has eased the pressure among Republicans to get a long-term solution."

Keeping up with Trump "Tracking and understanding Trump right now is very difficult, especially on the Iran war. It’s like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall. He’s all over the place on every issue — domestic policy, international affairs and Iran specifically — presenting Republicans with a political mess.

"Had Congress been in town, every Republican would’ve been forced to respond to Trump’s threat to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages where they belong” during his White House speech last week. Or his shockingly angry Easter morning Truth Social post.

"Yes, Trump isn’t judged by the same standards as his predecessors. But even for him, Trump’s statements during the last few days have veered wildly from presidential norms, especially on an issue as serious as a U.S. military conflict. Democrats responded with outrage to Trump’s remarks, while GOP leaders stayed silent.

"House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries slammed the 'Disgusting and unhinged Easter message from Donald Trump.'

" 'Something is really wrong with this guy,' Jeffries added.

"Other Democrats said Trump’s Sunday threats would violate the Geneva Conventions if carried out.

"But the GOP-run Congress largely has been a mere bystander in this conflict — and only has itself to blame for this outcome.

"There hasn’t been a single public congressional hearing about the war since it began Feb. 28. The Republican leadership hasn’t been probing the administration’s goals or strategy. GOP leaders have either lined up with Trump or ducked questions entirely, merely saying they “trust Trump.” Mostly they’ve been out of town."