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Appropriations Committee advances four House bills, withdraws one
Summary
The Appropriations Committee approved four House bills — including adjustments to education funding formulas, a $2,000,000 funding substitution for long-term care ombudsman support, expanded scholarship eligibility, and a one-year foster care transition grant starting FY28 — and withdrew House Bill 1215 as unfavorable.
The Appropriations Committee held a voting session and approved four House bills while withdrawing one as unfavorable.
Delegate Smith, speaking when HB 490 was called, summarized the bill as "concerning the blueprint for Maryland's future in various fiscal revisions," and described amendments that extend the compensatory-education enrollment calculation through fiscal 2029, remove certain dual-enrollment and workforce-development changes and transfer them to a separate bill, and require the State Board of Education and MSDE to report on methodologies for counting low-income students for specific funding formulas.
The committee adopted the technical amendments and then took a roll-call vote. The Clerk read members' votes and the Chair announced the bill passed.
On HB 671, Delegate Jones told the committee there were two amendments, and described Amendment 2 as "striking provisions related to the Medicaid quality assessment, replacing the funding source with 2,000,000 from the remittance MCO medical loss ratio." The committee adopted the amendments and passed the bill on roll-call.
HB 852, introduced by Delegate Smith, expands eligibility for the Maryland police officer and probation agent scholarship to include correctional officers and clarifies certificate programs are eligible. A single technical amendment was adopted and the bill passed following a roll-call vote.
For HB 628 (foster care transition grant), Delegate Jones said Amendment 2 "reimagines the program as a foster care transition grant program, a 1 year grant to help young adults transition from foster care into an independent and productive adulthood." During debate Jones offered an oral amendment to change the program start date to fiscal 2028, which the committee adopted. Several members were recorded as cosponsors during that process. The committee then voted unanimously to pass HB 628.
House Bill 1215 was recorded as "unfavorable withdrawn" and the committee took no further action on it.
Votes at a glance: HB 490 — passed (committee recorded 'yay' votes); HB 671 — passed (committee recorded 'yay' votes); HB 852 — passed (committee recorded 'yay' votes); HB 628 — passed unanimously; HB 1215 — unfavorable, withdrawn.
The Chair adjourned the session and reminded members the committee will reconvene the following day.
