Black History Month Spotlight:

Shirley Nathan-Pulliam is a Jamaican-born nurse and longtime Maryland legislator who has dedicated her life to public service. After immigrating to the United States, she built a career in healthcare before being elected to the Maryland House of Delegates and later the State Senate, where she became one of the first Caribbean-born women to serve in the General Assembly. Throughout her tenure, she championed healthcare access, public health equity, and support for working families. Her leadership reflects the profound impact Black immigrant women have had on Maryland’s policy, healthcare systems, and political landscape.

2026 Legislative Session: The People's Agenda

Economic Justice:

Maryland Living Wage Increase (HB1229/SB886): Declares a human right to a living wage, repeals exemptions for tipped workers, and raises Maryland’s minimum wage to $25 by 2030, with annual inflation adjustments.

Progressive Taxation (HB801, HB880, HB1080, HB926, HB930): Stops tax breaks for the wealthy, closes capital gains loopholes, prevents new corporate incentives, and ensures Maryland invests in the people, not the 1%

Immigrant Justice:

Community Trust Act (HB1575/SB791): Ends state and local collaboration with ICE; ensures residents are not transferred to immigration detention without a judicial warrant.

End Racial Profiling (HB1262/SB854): Codifies a ban on racial profiling by all law enforcement, including federal agents.

Data Privacy Act (HB711/SB504): Expands privacy protections to stop ICE from exploiting government and private databases.

Healthcare Justice:

Reclaim Medicaid (HB971): Phases private insurance out of Medicaid to save overhead and protect enrollees.

Safe Staffing Act (HB624/SB411): Establishes frontline worker committees in hospitals to address chronic ER understaffing.

Universal Health Care Program (HB1316): Launches a study on single-payer feasibility in Maryland.

Housing Justice:

Community Schools Rental Assistance Program (State Budget): Provides emergency funding to prevent evictions for families with children, aiming to increase from $5 million to $25 million in 2027.

Good Cause Eviction (HB774/SB462): Allows local jurisdictions to pass eviction protections and hold landlords accountable.

Environmental Justice:

Gas & Electric Companies Cost Recovery Limitations (HB1/SB2): Prevents utilities from using ratepayer dollars to fund executive bonuses and perks.

CHERISH (HB1268/HB1287 & SB781/SB780): Strengthens state permitting protections to prevent polluting industries from disproportionately targeting Black and brown communities.

Task Forces & Issue Campaigns Updates: 

Healthcare Justice Task Force:

Protecting and funding Medicaid is our top healthcare priority. Medical Assistance is a lifeline for one out of four Marylanders. The Republicans in Congress cut $1 trillion dollars in Medicaid funding in the 2025 federal budget. The biggest impact will be seen in 2027 and 2028. According to health officials, our state stands to lose as much as $3 billion in yearly funding. 

It’s critical for Maryland to identify revenue to replace the loss of federal dollars. About half of the children in our state use Medicaid for health coverage. We need to support them and their families!

HB 971, sponsored by Del. Jamila Woods, along with 12 other Delegates, offers a timely and smart solution to the Medicaid funding problem. The bill initiates a process for the state to weigh the option of getting rid of middlemen insurance companies who manage a considerable part of our state’s Medicaid program. These MCOs take on average 13 cents of every Medicaid dollar for their profits and overhead. Maryland could save hundreds of millions of dollars by adopting a fee-for-service model instead. Connecticut has saved $4 billion since 2012 when they dropped the use of Managed Care Organizations in favor of fee-for-service.

Take action today to support the bill:

• Sign our petition to state legislators

• Get your association, organization or group to sign on in support 

• Tell us your concerns, take our survey.

Contact Patty for more information, to get a briefing for your group about HB 971, or to get involved.  

Local Chapter Updates: 

Frederick County

Calling Frederick County Renters!

Join us at our next Town Hall to hear about getting Rent Stabilization in Frederick County. 

Click here to sign up!

Assembly, Moore fight ICE collaboration as legislature hits prime hearings time

So far so good -- but, as one veteran legislator used to say, it takes three or four years to get a good bill through the Assembly -- but only one year for a bad one. How can you make a difference?

Many Marylanders find themselves surprised by how much they can learn, and do, at the website of the Maryland General Assembly. All the bills are there and all the hearings where the fate of those bills may be decided. You can be heard in those hearings, and without going to Annapolis to do so. The website language is carefully neutral and therefore a little deceptive about which bills are important and highly supportable. That's where outfits like Progressive Maryland and the Maryland Legislative Coalition step in. You can get weekly accounts of the bills that need passing at our Weekly Memo (you can get it in your inbox here or get our virtual Annapolis Task Force briefing on how to be heard on bills here. The Maryland Legislative Coalition's weekly roundups during session keep you up on the bills and hearings that really matter. Advocacy organizations in climate/environment, social justice, education and community solidarity all have ways of keeping you up during our top-speed legislative sessions. The legislature is entering one of the most active parts of their session, so don't get ambushed after April by bills that are bad for you and your community.

Below you can see how states (and the feds) are managing their governance, for better or worse. Might be some lessons there, pointing in both directions. That's why we call it News You Can Use.