In The News
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday she would press ahead early next year with a campaign finance and elections overhaul, even as the measure may face the same Senate fate it did this Congress: doom. House Democrats passed their signature overhaul measure in March 2019 and dubbed it HR 1, indicating its priority. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked it in his chamber, however. Even though the Senate majority for the 117th Congress hinges on two runoff elections in Georgia, Democrats and their outside allies said they would still push for the measure, spotlighting McConnell’s resistance. “The strategy is to keep pointing out that McConnell is the one blocking the bill,” Maryland Rep. John Sarbanes, the lead sponsor of the overhaul measure, said Monday during a call with reporters. “He sort of crossed his arms on the Senate side from Day One and said that this legislation will not see the light of day. That’s not a reason not to continue the fight and to amp it up, which is what we’re doing here. Sarbanes acknowledged that even with a Democrat in the White House, the measure’s future was uncertain. If Democrats had won the Senate majority outright, it would likely have been atop the chamber’s agenda in the new year. As it is, if Democrats win both Georgia Senate seats, the chamber would only be tied with a Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote. “We don’t know when and how the opportunity to move this will present itself, but the key is to be ready,” Sarbanes said. Pelosi and Sarbanes said during the call that they expect the House to move early next year to pass a bill similar to the current measure, which stretches hundreds of pages. It would set up an optional program to match contributions candidates receive from small donors with six times that amount from the government. It would also institute same-day voter registration and early voting nationwide, and impose new ethics requirements on government officials, among other provisions.
On Friday, U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Congressmen Steny H. Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes, Kweisi Mfume, Anthony G. Brown, Jamie Raskin and other lawmakers announced $2,337,908 in federal funding to improve maternal and child health care services across the state. Funding comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It will help the Maryland Department of Health’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau lower maternal mortality, reduce infant mortality and enhance the delivery of maternal care. “The alarming rise in maternal and infant mortality across the country – especially among communities of color – demands swift and urgent action,” the lawmakers said. “This critical federal funding will help to both improve the delivery of care to expecting mothers and newborns, and address some of the glaring inequities in our health care system. Team Maryland will continue working tirelessly to secure federal resources that improve the quality of health care for every family in our state.”
In terms of the Chesapeake Bay cleanup effort, the Trump EPA failed to crack down on Pennsylvania for dumping on its downstream neighbors. This triggered a lawsuit against EPA by Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, and the District of Columbia. New Biden-appointed leadership at the EPA could put more pressure on Pennsylvania to impose rules on its farmers to keep their manure and fertilizer out of streams. However, it is worth noting that the last time a Democrat was in the White House, the Obama/Biden EPA was equally unwilling to impose any serious penalties on Pennsylvania, even though it was also obvious back then that the state was falling down on its Bay cleanup obligations. Congressman John Sarbanes of Maryland said he and colleagues are committed to pressuring the Biden EPA harder this time around because a deadline in EPA’s Bay cleanup plan is now looming in the year 2025. “Members who care about the Chesapeake Bay – we’re going to be speaking with one voice, pushing on the Biden Administration to make a clean break from the policies of this Trump Administration,” Sarbanes said. “And even to make a break from the kind of, you know, lesser action we saw previous to that when it comes to Chesapeake Bay programs.”
Democrat Joe Biden, who won Maryland's 10 electoral votes, won the race for president, NBC and the Associated Press projected Saturday morning. Reaction came swiftly.... U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes, D-District 3, released a statement, saying: "In a historic moment for our nation, the American people -- in record-breaking fashion -- voted to elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House. During this challenging time for our country, this is the team to unite us in the fight against COVID-19, work with Congress to provide critical assistance to millions of American families and small businesses and put us on a path to sustained economic recovery. "I look forward to working with President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris as we restore the promise of American democracy by cleaning up corruption, instilling a culture of ethics and accountability in our government and protecting and expanding the sacred right to vote. Uprooting the entrenched special interests in Washington will pave the way for a progressive agenda that includes lowering the cost of health care and prescription drug prices, ending police brutality and advancing the cause of racial justice, tackling the climate crisis, providing every American with the opportunity to secure a good-paying job with a living wage, enacting critical gun safety reforms and improving our education system so that every child can succeed."
Members of the Maryland Congressional Delegation have let Gov. Larry Hogan know their concerns regarding the Purple Line Project, a public transit project mired in construction delays and legal disputes. In a letter to Hogan and Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) Secretary Greg Slater, the Democratic delegation, including U.S. Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin, as well as Reps. Steny Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes, Kweisi Mfume, Anthony Brown, Jamie Raskin, and David Trone expressed concern for the disruptions the project was causing Maryland businesses and communities. The delegation asked Hogan to resolve the project’s ongoing issues, finish construction, and answer several questions surrounding the project.... The delegation also asked the governor to respond with how he intends for his administration to move forward as MDOT takes ownership of the project from the PLTP.
This week, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen led members of the Maryland delegation, including Senator Ben Cardin and Congressmen Steny H. Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes, Kweisi Mfume, Anthony Brown, Jamie Raskin, and David Trone (all D-Md.) in sending a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue urging him to immediately implement fixes to the Farmers to Families Food Box program, as recent changes to the program are leaving Maryland families and food vendors behind.
Baltimore County released two proposed routes and operating hours for the Towson Circulator pilot program, a free bus that would offer travel in and out of downtown Towson. The county also submitted an order for a fleet of 12 buses, Americans with Disabilities Act accessible, expected to be delivered in 2021, County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. said during a Wednesday news conference. The buses would hold up to 25 people with space for wheelchairs and bikes.... Olszewski’s fiscal 2020 budget included $100,000 in planning money for a Towson Circulator, and the project was granted $1,651,720 from a competitive U.S. Department of Transportation grant process in November of last year, supported by U.S. Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, and Reps. Dutch Ruppersberger and John Sarbanes. The federal money helped pay for the purchase of buses and other costs related to the Circulator, along with county funding that also funded a contract with Columbia-based engineering firm Sabra & Associates to determine the feasibility of the bus system.
Maryland members of Congress are putting the full court press on Gov. Larry Hogan regarding the Purple Line project, which appears to be at a near standstill after Purple Line Transit Partners gave notice it was leaving the jobsite. Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin along with Reps. Steny Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes, Kweisi Mfume, Anthony Brown, Jamie Raskin and David Trone signed a joint letter to Hogan urging him to find a way to complete the Purple Line. “We are writing today to express our deep concern about the future of the Purple Line project.... Now that it is clear that the Purple Line Transit Partners (PLTP) intend to leave the project and began to demobilize and secure the construction sites.... our concerns about the fate of the project have grown exponentially,” said the letter. PLTP is packing up due to delays that have resulted in $800 million in cost overruns. Maryland has taken control of a few of the Purple Line subcontractors, but has not announced how the project will be executed moving forward. The lawmakers want to know how many contracts the state has taken over, their dollar amount and whether or not the state has the ability to manage the contracts effectively.
Members of Maryland’s congressional delegation wrote to Gov. Larry Hogan (R) on Wednesday, saying that their “deep” concerns about the fate of the Purple Line “have grown exponentially” since the consortium managing the project terminated its contract. In a letter to Hogan, the nine Democratic lawmakers urged the Maryland Department of Transportation to negotiate with the private consortium, Purple Line Transit Partners, over hundreds of millions in unpaid cost overruns. Meanwhile, they said, the state should simultaneously continue to make “the necessary arrangements to transition the project to MDOT if a settlement is not reached.” “It is imperative to find a path forward as these delays mean that Maryland residents are the ones that suffer,” the letter said.... The letter is signed by Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin, and Reps. Steny H. Hoyer, C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, John P. Sarbanes, Anthony G. Brown, Jamie B. Raskin, Kweisi Mfume and David Trone.
The democratic members of Maryland’s congressional delegation are pressing Gov. Larry Hogan to find a way to complete the Purple Line, after the private partner building the light rail project began packing up work sites. In a letter to the Republican governor, the members wrote, “We are writing today to express our deep concern about the future of the Purple Line project… Now that it is clear that the Purple Line Transit Partner (PLTP) intend to leave the project and began to demobilize and secure the construction sites… our concerns are about the fate of the project have grown exponentially.” PLTP left the project because of $800 million in cost overruns and several delays. Both parties are suing each other in court. Democratic Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin signed the letter asking with Democratic Reps. Steny Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes, Kweisi Mfume, Anthony Brown, Jamie Raskin, and David Trone. Republican Rep. Andy Harris did not sign the letter.