Appropriations Committee hears bills on transportation oversight, local road funding, BWI firefighters and behavioral health grants

The Maryland House Appropriations Committee convened a multi‑hour bill hearing on Oct. 27 that addressed a range of policy items including transportation procurement oversight, restoration of local highway user revenues, labor and public safety concerns at Baltimore‑Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI), continued funding for community behavioral health crisis response, and proposed continuity‑of‑care requirements for child advocacy centers.

The meeting opened with testimony on House Bill 14‑32, a bill from Chairman C.T. Wilson to recast Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) programs into a race‑neutral “small disadvantaged business” coordination office; Wilson said the change responds to recent Supreme Court rulings and aims to preserve federal funding while maintaining outreach and accountability for businesses in enterprise zones. "And again, just wanna reemphasize that we do have to turn a corner. The Supreme Court has made that very clear through its Harvard decision and its USDA decision. And we can do so in a race neutral way," Chairman C.T. Wilson said.

Transportation procurement and local roads dominated the earliest panels. Delegate N. Scott Phillips and Treasurer Derek Davis urged the committee to support House Bill 5‑78 to remove a long‑standing blanket exemption that prevents the Board of Public Works (BPW) from reviewing many Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) capital procurements. Treasurer Derek Davis said that, as a member of BPW, "this means that the legislature and the public have limited visibility into the process and specifications for these important transportation projects." Supporters said bringing high‑value MDOT contracts before BPW would increase public oversight without unduly delaying projects; opponents, including MDOT witnesses in other hearings, warned that added reviews could create inefficiencies and require additional staff.

On local road funding, Delegate Nick Allen and Baltimore County Public Works Director Lauren Buckler pressed for House Bill 6‑37, which would restore highway user revenues closer to pre‑2009 distributions to counties and municipalities. Buckler told the committee: "From 1999 through 02/2009, Baltimore County received between 27,000,000 and 43,000,000 annually through this program. In fiscal 2010 this amount dropped to 1,950,000.00." County and municipal officials from Mako, the Maryland Association of Counties and the Maryland Municipal League testified that local governments still face a large backlog of paving and bridge work and that predictable, multi‑year funding is needed for planning and safety.

A panel on House Bill 5‑99 focused on public safety labor relations at BWI. Christian Rejonas, president of BWI Airport Professional Firefighters Local 1742, and other Local 1742 leaders asked the committee to require binding interest arbitration for the airport's fire and rescue employees after collective bargaining impasses. Rejonas argued that "when you're a firefighter at BWI Airport, collective bargaining really amounts to collective begging" and cited the sector's inability to strike as a reason arbitration is needed to resolve impasses over safety, testing and exposure mitigation (including long‑running concerns about PFAS exposure and related health screenings).

Behavioral health providers and county officials testified in favor of House Bill 10‑49, a three‑year extension to dedicate $5 million per year for the Behavioral Health Crisis Response Grant Program. Delegate Jessica Feldmark and county and vendor witnesses said the grants support mobile crisis teams, walk‑in clinics, crisis residential beds and school‑based responses that divert people from emergency departments and law enforcement. Sam Richburg, chief of programs at Affiliated Sante Group, said the grants support services that are not reimbursable through Medicaid (for example pre‑dispatch preparation and transit time) and argued year‑to‑year uncertainty jeopardizes staff continuity and overnight coverage.

Higher‑education labor policy drew extensive testimony on House Bill 6‑61, which would enable collective bargaining for faculty at University System of Maryland institutions, Morgan State and St. Mary’s College. Faculty, adjuncts and union advocates said the bill provides an option for untenured and contract faculty who currently lack an explicitly negotiated collective bargaining framework; supporters described repeated shared‑governance frustrations and concerns about job stability, adjunct pay and academic freedom protections. University and system officials opposed the bill, saying existing shared‑governance, grievance and promotion processes function and warning the change could add costs and disrupt campus governance.

The hearing closed with a panel on House Bill 14‑80, which would require child advocacy centers (CACs) to maintain and publish continuity‑of‑care plans and to file those plans with the Department of Human Services; the bill would also designate DHS as a repository for complaints about continuity of care. Several licensed therapists described a 2020 incident at a Maryland CAC in which multiple clinicians said they were terminated and hundreds of children temporarily lost mental‑health continuity; those clinicians and mental‑health advocates urged the committee to require written continuity policies and a local complaint pathway so families and clinicians have a clear, confidential way to raise problems. Maryland Children's Alliance and several CAC directors opposed the bill, saying licensed clinicians already fall under professional licensure boards and that the National Children’s Alliance accreditation framework and existing local agreements provide oversight. Opponents also said mandating parent notification in all cases could endanger children when a parent is the alleged maltreater. Supporters and DHS staff said the draft language anticipates confidentiality exceptions.

Other bills heard included: HB 14‑29 (authorizing Youth Services Bureau access to national criminal history checks); HB 13‑52 (sickle cell disease supports on campuses); HB 9‑21 (state employee colleague bereavement leave); HB 9‑14 (four hours paid leave for cancer screenings for state employees); MC 16‑25 (a $50,000 parking‑mitigation grant proposal for Silver Spring businesses affected by Purple Line construction); House Bill 10‑57 (childcare stipends for private treatment foster care families). Committee members asked detailed fiscal and implementation questions across hearings; in several panels legislators pressed for written follow‑ups on the cost, estimated savings or potential administrative workload for state agencies.

What happens next: These were bill hearings — witnesses testified and senators and delegates asked questions; the committee did not record final votes during the session covered by this transcript. Sponsors and agency staff typically work to refine bill text and fiscal projections before the committee issues a formal report and schedules floor consideration.