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The 449th session of the Maryland General Assembly will be convened on Wednesday, January 14, and is slated to wrap up on Monday, April 13. During the 90-day legislative session, state senators and delegates will introduce and deliberate on thousands of bills, passing on average about one-third of them in both chambers before they go on to the governor to be signed into law or vetoed.
As the 2026 session approached, senators and delegates who represent Voice readers in districts 31 and 33 shared about the bills on which they are working and issues facing Maryland residents this year.
“My centerpiece legislation is focused on helping our military and their families when they are deployed to Maryland. Anne Arundel County is home to thousands of service members, veterans and their spouses,” Simonaire shared.
He explained that his 118-page bill required coordination with numerous departments, organizations and military advocates, and if passed, will allow active-duty service members and their spouses who are deployed to Maryland to work under their current home state occupational license as long as they are in good standing.
“This legislation will allow deployed service members and their spouses to seamlessly transition into our state and align with federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act requirements,” Simonaire added, noting that he has many other bills in the works to help the military community. He has also been working on bills aimed at helping Maryland families, teachers, seniors and others.
Three of Simonaire’s bills could have hyperlocal impact as well. Two of them pertain to helping uniformed service members receive additional benefits when it comes to deferring their property taxes with 0% interest and expanding their benefits in business. The third bill addresses transparency when the port authority wants to pursue a project in Anne Arundel County by requiring the entity to give advance notice to the General Assembly’s county membership about plans to acquire or develop county land.
“My whole focus this session is going to be on energy and affordability, and they go hand-in-hand,” Chisholm said. He elaborated on three of the bills he plans to introduce.
“One is I want to repeal portions of what’s considered Senate Bill 1 from 2024 … what it essentially does is allow consumer choice back into the state of Maryland,” he shared. “So, we had 289 different what they consider retail energy companies in the state of Maryland prior to SB 1 being filed. When SB 1 passed and went into effect, we now have zero retail choice; they’re all gone.”
Chisholm’s second bill involves removing Maryland from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), intended to reduce carbon emissions from the power sector. Ten northeastern states are participants. Chisholm contends that all RGGI states are now emitting more carbon, and that the initiative is a “tax and trade” that is passed on to ratepayers and is driving energy prices up even more.
Lastly, Chisholm hopes to end the EmPOWER Maryland program. “I think we can halt that program completely because it is no longer being used for what it was intended,” he said. “I think it’s wasteful and I think people are smart enough to keep their own money to figure out how to live more efficiently, because that’s how that program was initially rolled out. It was going to be a program to help people become more efficient with their energy use, and it has not become that at all. It has become a complete initiative to stop production and use of natural gas.”
Chisholm anticipates the legislature will address Maryland SNAP and Medicaid processes as well during the session.
“I think the most important thing that needs to be addressed this session is the outrageous increase in the cost of electricity in our state,” Kipke stated.
He shared that he believes the growing costs are due to energy policy that has been too heavily weighted toward wind and solar, resulting in the closure of numerous power plants without replacements. He added that artificial intelligence has become a major drain on the grid as well. Referencing legislation from last session, Kipke believes investments in natural gas and nuclear power as new energy sources is the right solution.
“Legislation will be introduced by the House Republican Caucus, which I am co-sponsoring, that will help, but the majority party who controls energy policy in the state needs to make right by ratepayers and not just make right by environmental groups pushing for wind and solar,” he said.
Another priority for Kipke this session is reform for Maryland’s foster care system. He referenced a 2025 audit that exposed serious issues including children staying in lightly supervised hotel rooms for long periods of time, registered sex offenders living at addresses approved as guardianship homes, kids missing required medical and dental exams, and more.
Kipke will co-sponsor legislation introduced by Delegate Mike Griffith, who represents District 35A, aimed to prohibit placement of foster children in homeless shelters or unlicensed settings such as hotels; and to require training, licensing and ongoing criminal background checks for some individuals involved in the foster care system. Kipke is also the lead sponsor of a resolution to educate the leaders of the legislature on the failures of the foster care system.
Nkongolo shared that her legislation for this session is largely constituent-focused, addressing things brought to her attention by community members.
She will again bring forth a bill that she introduced last session that would require insurance companies to pay for scalp cooling treatment, which helps prevent hair loss for individuals undergoing chemotherapy.
“The reason why we weren’t successful last session is because Maryland requires a cost analysis for anything that would increase the cost of health insurance,” Nkongolo explained. “We believe that it is going to be successful because it’s little to no cost to insurance carriers for this treatment to be included.”
She is also introducing two bills related to protecting children online.
“One is the Safe Kids Act, which will allow parents or caregivers of minors to file civil lawsuits against any adult website that has their child’s image or any video of their child online that they are now monetizing because that’s been a growing concern,” Nkongolo said.
The second is the App Accountability Act, which would add an additional layer of authority for parents to give permission before their child downloads any app. “That came about because of my mental health background,” Nkongolo said. “I’m starting to see a growing trend in adolescent boys becoming more addicted to pornography and online sports betting, so we really want to make sure the parents know what apps they are downloading.”
Nkongolo is also working with Senator Simonaire on bills regarding property taxes for disabled veterans and ensuring that unclaimed homeless veterans receive proper burials.
Constituent concerns are also the focus of the bills Gile will introduce, including rising costs, student safety in schools, and access to health care and community supports.
Gile shared that one of her bills involves energy costs and the effects of Senate Bill 1, noting that it was intended to be a consumer protection measure but resulted in all retail energy suppliers leaving the Maryland market.
“Another priority that I’ve been working on is related to when abuse allegations happen in our public schools,” Gile said. “I’ve been working on a bill regarding crisis support and requiring our local school systems to have clear crisis response protocols in place that give transparency, communication, and accountability to the schools … Not to place the blame certainly on schools, but instead to make sure that the parents get accurate, timely information when serious incidents occur in schools.”
Gile also has been working with Delegate J. Sandy Bartlett, who represents District 32, on a bill related to grooming behaviors, particularly in public schools. “Sometimes warning signs are often unaddressed until after harm occurs, so it’s intended to close that loophole,” she said.
Women’s health care is at the top of Gile’s priority list as well, including a bill related to insurance coverage for menopause treatment. Another of Gile’s bills aims to address perinatal mental health and support for parents during pregnancy and after birth.
Bagnall also is working on legislation related to women’s health care. She referenced a study conducted roughly 20 years ago that she said was flawed and resulted in a lack of proper public education and clinician training regarding menopause and perimenopause.
“So, we are working on a bill that has a management component to ensure access to a full range of management care, a training component for providers and clinicians, and an education component for the public,” Bagnall said. “That’s probably my biggest effort this year, because we have an entire generation of women who are in the workforce who are going into perimenopause and menopause with very few resources (and) little information.”
Bagnall is also working on protections for adolescents regarding AI and social media, fueled by concerns over deteriorating mental health and suicidal ideation among youth. “We do have telemedicine now, but there are a lot of mental health platforms and apps that are being created and there’s not a lot of transparency around who is on the other side of these apps, whether it’s a person, whether it’s a clinician, whether it’s an algorithm,” she explained. “So those are the consumer protections that I’m looking at.”
Other top priorities for Bagnall this session include potentially establishing an ombudsman for youth and families; reforms for advance directives and emergency petitions process; and crisis response legislation cross-filed with Senator Gile.
Although Maryland faces rising energy costs, a budget deficit and other challenges, officials expressed optimism about the upcoming 90-day session.
“As challenging as I think this session is going to be, and last session was pretty challenging, I am still incredibly optimistic about the expertise and the dedication of the people that are sitting in these seats,” Bagnall said. “I continue to be incredibly proud of the work that we’re doing to forward the future of Maryland in a time when I think it would be easy to go backwards or to feel very defeated.”
Nkongolo said, “We’re facing a deficit. We’re facing the Key Bridge rebuild that’s costing us more than double what we had anticipated. So (I’m) definitely concerned about affordability.”
She added, “I think that we’re going to have to come together, Republicans and Democrats alike, and just listen to the needs of people. It doesn’t have to be where we’re finger-pointing or fighting each other; it shouldn’t be about party. It really should be about our community and our constituents. So, I look forward to working with my colleagues across the aisle to get things done for the good of the people.”
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