The Maryland General Assembly adjourned Sine Die (from the Latin “Without Day”) on Monday, April 13th at midnight. My priority remained the same as in past sessions – protecting our Shore way of life by supporting legislation and policies that promote affordability, accountability, and public safety. We as members of the Eastern Shore Delegation were successful in our efforts to support our small business operators, farmers and poultry growers, watermen and their families, and special needs constituents.
As an Eastern Shore Delegation, we worked together to pass emergency legislation to support the Shore’s poultry industry, to establish a legacy Charles J. Otto Maryland Agricultural Education Promise Act, to assist watermen and their families with a new Maryland Seafood Industry Financial Assistance Fund, and to secure $5 million in the state capital budget for a Kennedy Krieger special education school to be located in Wicomico County and to serve the Shore region. The Healthy Minds for Shore Coalition was key to this success.
The 2026 legislative session also brought missed opportunities by not moving forward with budget and energy policies that make revisions to mandated programs and spending, and by not providing real ratepayer relief or passing policies that would increase public safety in our home communities, but rather the opposite.
