The Maryland House Judiciary Committee met April 5 and took action on three Senate measures: it voted not to concur with the House on Senate Bill 608 (U visa) and Senate Bill 181 (geriatric and medical parole), appointing House conferees to each matter, and approved Senate Bill 154, which extends a funding mechanism for legal services in eviction cases through fiscal 2028.

Committee leadership opened the session by calling for a motion "not to recede" on Senate Bill 608, Senator Augustine’s U visa bill. The committee said it would appoint three House conferees to the conference committee; the names listed were Moon, Embry and Valentine. "All those in favor of the motion not to recede, please raise your hands," the chair said. "We are not receding on that."

Committee discussion about Senate Bill 608 included procedural clarification about the conferee appointments and no extended debate on policy details recorded in the transcript.

On Senate Bill 181, the committee again voted not to concur and appointed three House members to the conference committee: the vice chair, the chair and Kaufman. Members discussed the statutory wording at issue. "There's a word and words matter and yeah so there's a word that needs to be fixed—we're going to fix it and that's the problem," the vice chair said. Committee members said the House wording currently would read more broadly than intended; one member explained the House intent was to limit case review requirements to people on geriatric parole, not to require reviews for every incarcerated person. That member cautioned that broader language "would be massively expensive when it was the intent for it only to relate to those people on geriatric parole."

The committee next considered Senate Bill 154, a secondary referral to Appropriations that deals with funding for access to counsel in eviction cases. A committee presenter identified as Holly summarized the measure: as amended, SB 154 "extends through fiscal 2028 the requirement that there's an annual distribution of $14,000,000 from Maryland's abandoned property fund to the Access to Counsel and Eviction Special Fund. It's administered by the Maryland Legal Services Corporation" and it transfers responsibility for certain task-force appointments from the Office of the Attorney General to the Department of Housing and Community Development. The committee moved on the bill and, after roll-call responses, the chair said, "Motion is adopted."

Votes at a glance
- Senate Bill 608 (U visa; Senator Augustine): Motion not to recede adopted; House conferees appointed: Moon, Embry, Valentine. (Motion mover/second not specified in transcript.)
- Senate Bill 181 (geriatric and medical parole): Motion not to recede adopted; House conferees appointed: vice chair, chair, Kaufman. (Motion mover/second not specified in transcript.)
- Senate Bill 154 (access to counsel and evictions funding; secondary to Appropriations): Motion adopted. Bill as amended extends annual $14,000,000 distribution from Maryland's abandoned property fund to the Access to Counsel and Eviction Special Fund through fiscal 2028 and shifts certain task-force appointment authority to the Department of Housing and Community Development. (Recorded roll-call responses occurred during the committee's vote; the transcript records individual yes/no responses but does not provide an explicit final numeric tally.)

What the actions mean
- For SB 608 and SB 181, the committee's votes "not to recede" mean House conferees were appointed and the matter will proceed to a conference committee that will attempt to reconcile House and Senate language.
- For SB 154, the committee approved the secondary referral action; the bill proceeds in the legislative process with the extension of the specified distributions and the staffing-change provision described by the presenter.

The chair closed the session by alerting members that there may be a voting session at 8:30 a.m. Monday and thanking members for their flexibility. "This has been the House Judiciary Committee; enjoy the rest of your weekend," the chair said.