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Senate Bill 900 hearing: sponsors seek delay of first report on 988 crisis integration to 2026
Summary
Senator Malcolm Augustine presented Senate Bill 900 on integrating 988 crisis lifeline services; an amendment adopted in the Senate delays the bill’s first report from 2025 to 2026 at the request of Montgomery County Health Department and Department of Health support; committee recorded no vote.
Senate Bill 900, which would integrate Maryland’s behavioral health crisis response system with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline network and require outcome evaluation, was presented to the Health and Government Operations Committee by Senator Malcolm Augustine.
Augustine told the committee that the Senate adopted an amendment — requested by the Montgomery County Department of Health and supported by the Maryland Department of Health — to delay the timing of the bill’s first required report. "There was a request from the Montgomery County Health Department that was then supported by the Department of Health that the report, not the first report occur in 2026 instead of in 2025 and that was an amendment that was put on in the, in the Senate," Augustine said. When asked whether the amendment changed the fiscal note, Augustine replied, "No, it makes no change. All it does is delay, the requirement for when the report is due from this year, which would have been 4 months from, until the following year for the report."
Delegate Hill asked whether the Senate amendment would be carried over to the House bill; Augustine said he would coordinate with the House sponsor if the committee preferred keeping the Senate language. The committee did not record further debate or a vote on the bill in the provided transcript; Chair Jocelyn Pena Milne concluded the hearing without questions.
The transcript records the sponsor’s request for a favorable report and the Senate amendment delaying the first report to 2026; no committee vote or final action was recorded in this hearing record.
