Last Updated: March 22, 2026
For more on any bill, go to mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite
This week’s additions:
HB831/SB922 — Collective Bargaining – Local Government Employees and Public Employee Relations Act
Status: Still in committee in both chambers
This bill would establish collective bargaining rights for public local employees, making those public employee unions even stronger, and giving them even more power to wrangle ever-higher wages and benefit packages from politicians in exchange for campaign contributions, and all at the expense of hardworking Maryland families.
The bill would also establish arbitration procedures for collective bargaining between public employee unions and their employers, which would in Maryland is guaranteed to involve very progressive, union friendly authorities to provide the arbitration. This would ultimately be yet another loss for Maryland taxpayers.
From Previous Editions of the Bad Bill Tracker (Updated as needed):
Anti-Immigration-Enforcement Related:
SB245/HB0444 – Prohibition on Immigration Enforcement Agreements
Status: This bill unfortunately passed in both the House and the Senate, and was subsequently signed by Governor Moore, making it law.
This law technically bans formal agreements (known as 287G agreements) between local law enforcement agencies and ICE. 287G agreements allow and direct local police to cooperate with ICE by informing them when illegal immigrants are being held in local detention, so that ICE can come and take custody for purposes of immigration enforcement. This law makes these agreements illegal in Maryland, which will result in criminal illegal aliens – some of whom have committed violent crimes – being released back into the local community. This will force ICE to arrest these people in homes, businesses, and on the street, potentially inviting the same kind of chaos we’ve seen in Minnesota.
The good news is, this law cannot stop and has not stopped local law enforcement from picking up the phone and telling ICE when they have criminal illegal aliens in their custody, and when they are set to be released.
SB791/HB1575 — Correctional Services – Immigration Enforcement – Prohibitions
Status: Still in committee in both chambers
This bill would prevent cooperation between Maryland’s Correctional Services (i.e., the prison system) and federal immigration enforcement. This would result in illegal immigrants who have also been convicted of non-immigration crimes being sent back into the community instead of being deported. This would force ICE to arrest these people in homes, businesses, and on the street, inviting the same kind of chaos we’ve seen in Minnesota.
HB1017/SB984 — Private Immigration Detention Facilities – Zoning Requirement
Status: Passed in the House and will next be introduced in a Senate Committee; Passed out of Committee in the Senate.
This bill would prevent private buildings from being used as immigration detention facilities
HB1018/SB985 — Immigration Detention Facilities – Minimum Mandatory Standards
Status: Passed in the House and will next be introduced in a Senate Committee; Still in committee in Senate
Seeks to establish onerous and impractical minimum standards for detention facilities so as to make detention facilities impractical or impossible to operate and maintain
SB1/HB0155 – Prohibition on Law Enforcement Officer Face Coverings
Status: Passed in Senate and will next be introduced in a House Committee; Still in committee in the House
This bill targets ICE agents with a ban on face coverings (masks), which are often worn by ICE agents to protect their anonymity in the face of threats to their lives and their families by left-wing agitators. It is a naked attempt to make the lives of ICE agents more difficult and dangerous in an attempt to scare them away from performing their lawful duties in the state of Maryland, by facilitating threats of violence against them.
HB832 — ICE Breaker Act of 2026
Status: Still in committee in the House; Never filed in the Senate
The ICE Breaker Act of 2026 would make any ICE agent or officer hired under the Trump administration ineligible to ever serve as a law enforcement officer for any Maryland state agency or law enforcement department. This bill is vindictive, discriminatory, unreasonable, and almost certainly unconstitutional.
General Woke Nonsense Bills:
HB1488 — Constitutional Language – Modernization
Status: Still in committee in House; Never filed in Senate
This bill would rewrite the Maryland Constitution to scrub it of any male nouns or pronouns – even a reference to God as “Him.” It is a waste of time, energy, and money, it reflects an obsession with woke ideology, and it disrespects the beauty and tradition of the original language. We don’t need to cancel the original, traditional language of our State Constitution – we’re all capable of understanding that the original use of traditional language does not negate equal rights for all, and that the traditional reference to God as “Him” does not deny anyone His love, mercy, or grace.
Anti-Police/Anti-Law & Order/Anti-Public-Safety Related:
HB835 — Criminal Procedure – No-Knock Search Warrants
Status: Still in committee in House; Never filed in Senate
This bill would ban No Knock search warrants, stripping officers of the element of surprise, even when such surprise is needed to maximize safety or protect evidence and the integrity of the crime scene. It denies the police an important tool in effective and legitimate law enforcement, and aids criminals in their attempt to hide, destroy, or dispose of evidence before a search can be conducted. It’s another attempt by Annapolis Democrats to coddle criminals and hamper the efforts of law enforcement.
HB409/SB323 — Youth Charging Reform Act
Status: Passed in Senate and will next be introduced in a House Committee; Still in Committee in the House.
This bill seeks to reduce accountability of youth felons by returning jurisdiction to juvenile court, thereby effectively making it impossible to charge them as adults, and banning life-without-parole sentences for many very serious felonies, including rape and some homicides, for teenagers aged 14-17. It further seeks to reduce the sentences of felons currently serving life-without-parole sentences for crimes committed before turning 18.
As reported by the Baltimore Sun – “Under current law, 14- and 15-year-olds are automatically charged as adults in Maryland for any crime punishable by a life sentence if committed by an adult. 16- and 17- year-olds are automatically charged as adults for 33 offenses. The Youth Charging Reform Act would eliminate automatic charging for 14- and 15-year-olds. If the bill passed, 16- and 17-year-olds would no longer be automatically charged for abduction, kidnapping, robbery, attempted robbery, or third-degree sex offenses, regulated firearm offenses, using a firearm in a drug crime, first-degree assault and several offenses involving handguns and machine guns.”
Note that many crimes for which youth offenders could no longer be charged as adults or be sentenced to life in prison are gun crimes – this from the same Democrats who work tirelessly to make life difficult for lawful gun owners.
HB351 — Constitutional Rights – Violations and Digital Unmasking
Status: Passed in the House and will next be introduced in a Senate Committee; Never filed in the Senate.
This bill would expose federal law enforcement officers to lawsuits in State court brought by individuals who believe their civil rights were violated during federal law enforcement actions. It is really aimed at ICE and is simply another shameful attempt to undermine the enforcement of immigration law and to harass ICE and its agents.
It also allows for the use of various digital technologies to identify and name federal agents, exposing them to doxing dangers and threats to themselves and their families, again in an attempt to intimidate and harass them.
We tried to amend this bill to make it a little less bad, but our amendments were voted down by the Democrat supermajority.
HB0332/SB346 — No Kings Act
Status: Passed in the Senate and heading to a House Committee; Still in House Committee
This is a thinly-veiled anti-ICE bill, and could also be categorized under “Immigration-related bills.” It would expose federal law enforcement officers to lawsuits in liberal Maryland state courts, weaponizing those courts against federal officers as part of the Left’s political policy battles with the current (and any future) conservative presidential administration, undermining federal supremacy, public safety, and effective law enforcement.
The bill violates the Supremacy Clause’s bar on state interference with lawful federal authority. Maryland would be effectively asserting its own oversight regime over federal operations inside the state. Such oversight belongs to Congress and the federal courts, not to Maryland state trial judges.
The Act would likely turn Maryland courts into venues for national political fights—immigration raids, environmental enforcement, firearm rules—encouraging activists to sue federal officers whenever they dislike a federal policy and exposing officers to personal liability every time they make a close call on the street. That threat would deter proactive policing, encourage hesitation in dangerous situations, and make Maryland less safe.
HB432/SB463 — Municipalities – Vagrancy – Repeal of Authority to Prohibit
Status: Passed in House; Expected to pass in Senate
Would strip cities and towns of their authority to deal with public homelessness, such as sleeping on the streets.
Allowing vagrancy and all its attendant problems is not kindness or compassion – it is unsafe, disorderly, and lawless. It strips law abiding citizens of the safe, pleasant, and lawful enjoyment of the public spaces THEIR tax dollars support and maintain.
SB55/HB81 — Motor Vehicles – Police Stops – Secondary Enforcement and Excludable Evidence
Status: Still in committee in both chambers
This bill would reduce eight minor motor vehicle offenses (mostly tag/registration or headlight/brake light/signal light related) to secondary offenses, meaning that officers could not stop a vehicle for any of these offenses alone, but could still charge the offense if the traffic stop was for some other (primary offense) reason. Officers would have to document all reasons for the initial stop, to verify compliance, under penalty of evidence exclusion at trial.
This bill represents an unnecessary burden on police, and strips them of a legitimate and important tool in keeping our communities safe. Supporters justify the bill on equity/DEI grounds, complaining that the racial makeup of violators is not to their liking, and therefore they wish to handcuff police efforts to enforce these laws.
HB360/SB483 — Clean Slate Act of 2026
Status: Passed in the Senate and heading to a House Committee; In committee in House
Would hide criminal records for many convicted criminals; Would impede employer/landlord access to information on criminal records, and thus impede assessments of risk when considering applications; This bill would force an automatic, system-driven, bulk approach to expungement (erasure and hiding) of criminal records
HB169/SB525 — Expungement of Records – Good Cause
Status: In committee in both chambers
Allows expungement (requested by petition) of misdemeanor and felony records; This bill takes a more targeted, one-at-a-time approach to expungement, by petition of the convicted criminal. But it would still hide key criminal history information from people who need it and undermine incentives to avoid criminality.
HB824 — Expungement for Convictions of Distribution of Controlled Dangerous Substance
Status: Still in committee in the House; Never filed in the Senate
This bill would facilitate the expungement (erasure) of drug dealing convictions from the records of convicted felons, thereby hiding those convictions from people, companies, and organizations that have a need to know.
We need to get tougher, not softer, on crime and criminals. The expungement of dangerous felonies like drug distribution from the records of criminals sends the wrong message about Maryland’s commitment to public safety and the rule of law.
HB1073/SB937 — Maryland Fair Chance Housing Act
Status: House/Senate version differ slightly; Each is still in committee
Another expungement bill. This one would hide criminal records from landlords, and prohibit landlords from even inquiring about criminal histories.
HB1489/SB679 — The Vincent Anthony Fisher III Act
Status: In committee in both the House and the Senate
This bill is yet another push by Annapolis Democrats to reduce or commute the prison sentences of many convicted felons serving lengthy terms for serious crimes, thereby undermining accountability, upsetting and frightening victims, and reducing the deterrence power of incarceration, while putting dangerous criminals back on the street to offend again.
We need to be tougher on crime, not softer. We should be focused more on protecting and helping victims, and less on returning dangerous felons to the street.
HB52/SB89 — Voting Rights for All Act (Also listed in Voting-Related section of this list)
Status: Still in committee in both chambers
This bill would allow convicted felons to vote while still serving their sentences in prison.
Education related:
HB627 — Commission on History, Culture, and Civics in Education – Establishment
Status: Still in committee in House; Never filed in Senate
This bill would create a woke, bureaucratic, intersectionality-obsessed commission to “examine” and “make recommendations” regarding how to redirect the study of history to focus solely on the contributions of minorities and various oppressed people groups in educational materials. The bill specifically states that the Commission will examine the “contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals.” This is, of course, a long, detailed list of which oppressed and woke groups and special interests must be represented by members of the commission. It’s another example of the Annapolis Democrats’ obsession with woke identity politics.
HB930 — Income Tax – Decoupling From Federal Changes – Education Expenses
Status: Still in committee in House; Never filed in Senate
This bill seeks to punish hard working Maryland families who wish to use their 529 education savings accounts to pay for private K-12 education — as those accounts are now allowed by federal law to be used – by leveraging the Maryland tax code to restrict and disincentivize such use through punitive taxation. The bill also would strip Marylanders of much of the advantage of the new Trump Accounts (530A accounts) by making the employer contributions taxable to the employee (which the federal government and other states do not).
This bill is yet another example of Annapolis Democrats being so blinded by derangement and hatred of Donald Trump that they will strip away from Marylanders any advantage they might have received from any policy enacted by the Trump administration, even policies designed to help pay for education or to build generational wealth in ALL families. It is a shocking display of prioritizing political hatred ahead of Marylanders’ well-being.
Election/Voting related:
HB52/SB89 — Voting Rights for All Act (Also listed in anti-Public Safety section of this list)
Status: Still in committee in both chambers
This bill would allow convicted felons to vote while still serving their sentences in prison.
HB0488 — Election Districts – General Assembly and Representatives in Congress (i.e. Redistricting)
Status: HB0488 unfortunately passed in the House and is now under consideration in the Senate. However, the Senate President has made it clear he has no intention of moving this bill forward in the Senate.
This bill would gerrymander Maryland’s US Congressional district map to eliminate the state’s only red-leaning, Republican-majority district, removing all Republican representation from the state to the US Congress.
So far, Senate President Ferguson — a Democrat! — has is holding firm in his opposition to this terrible gerrymandering bill. Now that the deadline for candidate filing has passed, it becomes significantly less likely that this bill will move forward.
HB350/SB255 — Voting Rights Act of 2026 – Counties and Municipal Corporations
Status: Passed in Senate; House version still in committee in House
This bill would facilitate frivolous and financially ruinous lawsuits against local municipalities and counties for vague and arbitrary charges of “diluting” the votes of a “protected class.” It would effectively strip local jurisdictions from running their own elections and subject them to the punitive whims of Annapolis.
Of course, there are no Voter ID requirements in this so-called “Voting Rights Act,” despite the fact that an illegally cast vote indeed dilutes the votes of ALL valid and legal voters.
HB641 — Election Law – Curbside Voting – Pilot Program
Status: Still in committee in House; Never filed in Senate
This bill would establish the Curbside Voting Pilot Program to test the viability of curbside voting in the State. For those of us concerned about election integrity, this bill takes us in the opposite direction.
HB580 — Montgomery County – Voting Methods MC 1-26
Status: Still in committee in House; Never filed in Senate
Authorizes Montgomery County to use a ranked-choice voting method for local elections.
HB1163 — Howard County – Voting Age – Board of Education Elections Ho. Co.
Status: Still in committee in House; Never filed in Senate
This bill would lower the age of voting from 18 to 16 in Howard County for Board of Education elections. This would surely lead in future legislative sessions to attempts at similar voting age reductions for other elections in Howard County and beyond.
Dems Hate Trump & Republicans related:
SB962 – Jan 6 — Prohibition on Service in Certain Government Roles
Status: Still in committee in Senate; Never filed in House
This bill would bar anyone convicted on any Jan 6-related charge – apparently even a simple trespassing misdemeanor, as there is no exception listed to the “convicted of a crime” language in the bill — from serving in state government, or on any board, committee, task force, workgroup, etc. created by state law. This stands in stark contrast to many other bills proposed by the Democrat supermajority in Annapolis this year which seek to expunge the records of violent criminals and wipe their records clean, with the usual justification that “no one should be defined by their worst day.”
While I don’t condone the worst actions of January 6, this bill is way over the top, casts much too wide a net, and is yet another example of how the Democrats’ white-hot hatred for Donald Trump and anyone who voted for him blinds them to their own hypocrisy and derangement.
Abortion Related:
HB1131 — Pregnancy Outcome Protection Act
Status: Still in committee in the House; Never filed in the Senate
This bill would shield from investigation or prosecution those who caused the death of their own fetus through such actions as a self-inflicted abortion. The bill has been watered down from its original pre-bill form, and the full text of the new bill is not readily available as of Feb 11.
Maryland’s General Assembly has regrettably already enshrined the sad and ghoulish act of abortion in the state’s Constitution, offering it the highest level of advocacy and protection possible, but that hasn’t quenched its thirst for an ever-more-radical stance on the practice, as evidenced by this bill.
Anti-Semitic Bills:
HB1382 — State Procurement – Prohibited Certifications – Boycotts of Foreign Countries
Status: Still in committee in House; Never filed in Senate
This bill would repeal Governor Hogan’s Executive Order which prohibits the State from entering into contracts with companies or organizations that boycott Israel. It reflects the growing antisemitism in the state and national Democratic Party.
HB1184 — Civil Actions – Nonprofit Organizations – Unauthorized Support of Israeli Settlement Activity (Not On Our Dime Act)
Status: Still in committee in House; Never filed in Senate
This bill seeks to prevent charitable organizations from giving aid to Israel or Israeli citizens, threatening huge, ruinous minimum fines and revocation of charitable status. It nominally blocks charitable aid used to support Israeli “settlement activity,” but is written so broadly, with no explicit exceptions or exemptions, that it’s clearly meant to prevent any and all charitable spending for Israeli causes.
The bill is antisemitic, targeting ONLY Israel (the region’s only full democracy), despite the existence of autocratic and terrorist states in the same region which are not targeted in this (or any other) bill in any similar way. And this bill features intentionally broad language designed to allow nearly any charitable support to Israel to be categorized as illegal.
Finally, it is almost certainly unconstitutional, as it attempts to override the federal government’s foreign policy prerogatives.
Second Amendment Related:
SB118/HB0197 – Excise Tax on Firearms and Ammunition
Status: Still in committee in both chambers
This bill is an attempt to abridge Second Amendment freedoms through the back door, by increasing the cost of firearms and ammunition in an attempt to artificially make their purchase more difficult. Revenues from this new tax are tentatively targeted for a bunch of Democrat-favored charities and NGO’s, mostly with anti-gun agendas.
The Second Amendment says that the right to keep and bear arms “shall not be abridged,” thus prohibiting any curtailment, lessening, or infringement of the right. It does not say “shall not be denied,” which would only prohibit a complete ban. This bill clearly represents an abridgement, as it intentionally makes firearms more difficult and less practical to purchase, thus “abridging” 2A rights.
SB181/HB1067 – Phase-Out (toward an eventual ban) of Lead Ammunition for Hunting
(The House and Senate versions differ slightly)
Status: Moving and likely to pass in the House; Still in Committee in the Senate
This bill is an attempt to abridge Second Amendment freedoms through the back door, in this case by increasing the cost of ammunition by phasing out the most affordable type, making ammunition purchases artificially more difficult than they otherwise would be.
SB0020/HB83 — Family and Law Enforcement Protection Act
Status: Passed in the House and heading to a Senate Committee; Senate version still in Senate Committee
This bill would dramatically expand mandatory firearm surrender/confiscation tied to civil protective orders without appropriate due process protections.
It would make gun and license surrender automatic at the interim and temporary protective‑order stages, often based only on one‑sided “reasonable grounds” findings before any full hearing. It would remove existing language that ties firearm seizure to actual threats or use of a gun, replacing it with blanket disarmament for a wide range of “abuse” allegations having nothing at all to do with any firearm.
If this onerous bill becomes law, respondents would have only 24 hours to surrender all targeted firearms and credentials, with no appeal or due process. It would even push law enforcement to verify “compliance” for every case and move toward search warrants and home seizures of firearms rooted in mere civil proceedings.
SB775 — Gun Buyback Program – Destruction of Firearms
Status: Passed in Senate and heading to a House committee; Never filed in the House
This bill would require all guns purchased in a gun buy-back program to be completely destroyed.
HB577/SB334 — Criminal Law – Firearm Crimes – Machine Gun Convertible Pistols
Status: Passed in Senate and heading to a House Committe; Still in committee in House
This bill would criminalize pistols that are readily convertible into so-called “machine guns,” by which they mean a gun with some type of rapid-fire mechanism, even if such conversion is not done or planned.
This is yet another attempt by the Democratic supermajority in Annapolis to effectively abridge our Second Amendment rights by continuously chipping at the edges of this foundational constitutional right to gun ownership.
Housing and Zoning Related:
SB267 — Building Affordably in My Back Yard Act
Status: Passed the Senate and heading to a House Committee; Never filed in the House
This bill would throw red tape at landowners in an attempt to restrict their private property rights and force the development of so-called “affordable housing” on the land.
HB239/SB36 — Starter and Silver Homes Act of 2026
Status: Still in committee in both chambers
This bill would strip counties and municipalities of their rightful ability to enact and enforce zoning restrictions on house size and type, and lot size and usage. The Democratic supermajority in Annapolis believes every county and municipality should be forced against its will to allow dense developments with lower-priced homes, like you might expect to see in inner city urban neighborhoods. Once again, Annapolis thinks it knows best and believes that it can and should bully every town, neighborhood, and citizen into doing its radical bidding and pursuing its progressive utopia.
Trans/LGBTQ Related:
(Note: The first two bills listed in this section are categorized under Trans/LGBTQ because of the ridiculous requirement that their provisions apply to men’s as well as women’s restrooms, which is clearly an outgrowth of woke trans ideology.)
HB457 — Provision of Menstrual Hygiene Products – Requirement
Status: Passed in House and heading next to a Senate Committee; Never filed in the Senate
This bill would require the provision of free feminine hygiene products into ALL restrooms (not just women’s restrooms) on Maryland college campuses. UPDATE: Prior to passing the House, the bill was amended to make sure free feminine hygiene products are available in student health centers (which are not gender specific) and no longer bathrooms. A big win!
HB941 — Public Health – Public Buildings – Hygiene Products
Status: Likely to pass House soon; Will then move to Senate Committee
This bill would require the provision of free feminine hygiene products into ALL restrooms (not just women’s restrooms) in non-school public buildings in Maryland. (HB457 would extend this requirement to all Maryland colleges.)
HB1589/SB626 — Birth Certificate Modernization Act
Status: Advancing and likely to pass in Senate; Still in House Committee
This bill would direct the Secretary of Health to issue new birth certificates — and place original birth certificates under seal — for so-called transgender individuals.
Surgery and drugs do not convert men into women, nor vice versa, and the state of Maryland should not be participating in the delusion that such conversion is possible or desirable.
Affordability Related:
HB1229/SB886 — Food Service Facilities and Minimum Wage
Status: In committee in both chambers
Would raise the minimum wage to $25/hr PLUS eliminate employers’ ability to count tips toward that minimum wage; Also places the enforcement burden and expense on local jurisdictions. This would make life miserable for restaurants, many of which are already struggling. It would also be frustrating to restaurant customers, who would see prices rise quickly, and to restaurant workers, who would probably see restaurants discourage tipping in favor of service fees added automatically to checks. This would be perhaps the most aggressive minimum wage law in the country.
Medical Related:
SB385/HB637 — Vax Act of 2026
Status: Passed in the House and heading to a Senate Committee; will likely pass the Senate soon
This bill would require the Secretary of Health to issue recommendations for certain immunizations, screenings, and preventive services; would alter the authority of pharmacists to administer certain vaccinations; and would alter the health insurance coverage requirements for certain immunizations, screenings, and preventive services.
This is an unnecessary, performative bill aimed at throwing shade on changes in vaccination recommendations made by the federal Department of Health under the Trump administration.
Green Agenda Related:
HB167 — Gasoline-Powered Leaf Blowers – Prohibitions
Status: Passed in House; In committee in Senate
This bill would effectively ban gas powered leaf blowers for general use in Maryland.
