Bill Watch List / 2025 Session

SUPPORT:

• HB108 – Introduced – Prohibits the abortion of an unborn child when a heartbeat can be detected.
• HB373 – Introduced – Requires the Maryland Department of Health to submit any data regarding abortion to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

• HB12 – Hearing – Economic Matters – 2/18 at 1:00 p.m. – Prohibits the sale or distribution of certain products that contain tetrahydrocannabinolm; authorizes the Executive Director of the Commission to seize, destroy, or confiscate a certain unlawful product. (Companion to SB214)
• SB214 – Hearing – Finance – Held on 1/30 – Result Pending – Prohibits the sale or distribution of certain products that contain tetrahydrocannabinolm; authorizes the Executive Director of the Commission to seize, destroy, or confiscate a certain unlawful product. (Companion to HB12)

• HB282 – Hearing – Ways and Means – Held on 1/23 – Result Pending – Prohibits sexually explicit materials in public school libraries.

• HB353 – Hearing – Judiciary – 2/12 at 1:00 p.m. – Constitutional Carry Act of 2025. Removes the requirement that a person have a permit before he carries, wears, or transports a handgun.

• HB95 – Introduced – Prohibits a health care provider from using the health care provider’s reproductive material when providing assistive reproductive treatment without the consent of the recipient of the treatment.

• HB1 – Hearing – Environment and Transportation – Held on 1/24 – Result Pending – Requires the Maryland Department of Transportation to develop or identify and implement a training program for transportation–sector employees on the identification and reporting of suspected human trafficking victims. (Companion to SB7)

• HB156 – Hearing – Ways and Means – Held on 1/29 – Result Pending – Prohibits biological boys from competing in girls’ sports and vice versa.

• HB5 – Hearing – Judiciary – 2/04 at 1:00 p.m. – Defines “computer–generated image” to include images created through AI software related to child pornography.
• HB364 – Hearing – Judiciary – 2/04 at 1:00 p.m. – Prohibits a person from possessing, viewing, or distributing child pornography including child pornography created by artificial intelligence that looks like a real person.
• HB394 – Hearing – Judiciary – 2/05 at 2:00 p.m. – Requires a commercial entity that knowingly or intentionally publishes or distributes obscene material on the internet to use reasonable age verification methods to verify that the individual attempting to access the material is not a minor.
• HB670 – Hearing – Judiciary – 2/19 at 1:00 p.m. – Makes it illegal to send explicit content, if they sender knows that the recipient did not consent to receiving such material.

• SB310 – Hearing – Education, Energy, and the Environment – 2/12 at 2:00 p.m. – Alters the requirements of the Youth Suicide Prevention School Program to increase pupil awareness of the relationship between gambling and youth suicide.

OPPOSE:

• SB1 – 1-21-25 Hearing canceled. – Extends legal immunity to a wide range of morally dubious practices, including rent-a-womb surrogacy arrangements, that often favor abortion to eliminate “unwanted” babies.

• HB568 – Hearing – Economic Matters – 2/17 at 1:00 p.m. – Allows an alcoholic beverages license to be issued to an establishment that is within 300 feet of a place of worship or school in Dorchester County.

• HB2 – Introduced – Removes the word “church” and “synagogue” from Maryland code and replaces it with “faith institution” in most instances or “place of worship in a few instances.”

• HB544 – Hearing – Judiciary – 2/11 at 1:00 p.m. – Criminalizes “offensive contact” which means “nonconsensual physical contact that a reasonable person would find offensive. The definition of “offensive contact” does NOT include contact that results in physical injury or a risk of physical injury, a domestically related crime or a sexual crime.

• HB204 – Hearing – Economic Matters – 2/18 at 1:00 p.m. – Establishes a wholesaler cannabis license. (Companion to SB221)
• HB413 – Hearing – Judiciary – 2/04 at 1:00 p.m. – Authorizes a person to manufacture a small amount of cannabis products or concentrated cannabis for personal use.
• SB221 – Hearing – Finance – Held on 1/30 – Result Pending – Establishes a wholesaler cannabis license. (Companion to HB204)

• HB52 – Hearing – Ways and Means – Held on 1/21 – Result Pending – Allows children 16 or older to vote in Board of Education Elections, encouraging minors to manipulate the education process instead of focusing on learning.
• HB161 – Hearing – Ways and Means – Held on 1/29 – Result Pending – Requires each county board of education to create an “age–appropriate” comprehensive health education curriculum that includes among other things, instruction on family life, human sexuality, gender identity and sexual orientation. Each county board must also establish procedures for a parent or guardian to opt their student out the family life and human sexuality topics, but they may NOT authorize the parent or guardian to opt their student out of the HIV and AIDS prevention curriculum. (There is no mention in the bill of allowing or not allowing a parent or guardian to opt their student out of the gender identity and sexual orientation topics.)

• HB334 – Hearing – Health and Government Operations – Held on 1/29 – Result Pending – Mandates the Department of Health to create a universal newborn nurse home visiting program to be available for all families, requires data collection and reporting, and obligates insurers to cover and reimburse these services. (Companion to SB156)
• SB156 – Hearing – Finance – Held on 1/29 – Result Pending – Establishes a program to provide universal newborn nurse home visiting services to all families with newborns. (Companion to HB334)

• HB387 – Hearing – Ways and Means – 2/13 at 1:00 p.m. – Increases the state sales tax on firearms, firearm accessories, and ammunition from 6% to 11%.
• SB443 – Hearing – Judicial Proceedings – 2/05 at 2:00 p.m. – Makes transporting a regulated firearm into Maryland for the purpose of unlawfully selling or trafficking the firearm a felony.

• HB17 – Hearing – Ways and Means – 2/10 at 11:00 a.m. – Legalizes certain forms of internet gambling. (Companion to SB340)
• SB340 – Hearing – Budget and Taxation – Held on 1/29 – Result Pending – Establishes the authorization and implementation of internet gaming within the state. (Companion to HB17)

• HB417 – Hearing – Health and Government Operations – 2/06 at 1:00 p.m. – Establishes a State universal health care program to provide health benefits to all residents Maryland through a single–payer (Government funded) system.

• HB487 – Hearing – Judiciary – 2/12 at 1:00 p.m. – Allows the homeless to engage in activities, such as sleeping, eating, or resting in public spaces, without fear of penalties and increases their defense against charges such as trespassing or disturbing the peace if the charges are related to their homelessness. (Companion to SB484)
• SB484 – Hearing – Judicial Proceedings – 2/06 at 1:00 p.m. – Allows the homeless to engage in activities, such as sleeping, eating, or resting in public spaces, without fear of penalties and increases their defense against charges such as trespassing or disturbing the peace if the charges are related to their homelessness. (Companion to HB487)

• SB514 – Hearing – Judicial Proceedings – 2/06 at 1:00 p.m. – Prohibits landlords from requesting or using certain criminal history information when evaluating prospective tenants.

• SB314 – Hearing – Finance and Judicial Proceedings – 2/05 at 2:00 p.m. (Finance) – Allows a person to change the sex on their birth certificate, institutes a new category identifying a person’s sex as “unspecified or another”, and requires that the altered birth certificate give no indication that any change was made.

• HB380 – Hearing – Judiciary – 2/04 at 1:00 p.m. – Eliminates the prohibition to sell contraceptives in a vending machine at a kindergarten, nursery school, or elementary or secondary school.

• HB324 – Hearing – Ways and Means – Held on 1/29 – Result Pending – Requires members of County Boards of Education to complete the same antibias training program currently required for most school employees including instruction on ways to achieve schools that are inclusive and tolerant of a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity. (Companion to SB293)
• HB696 – Hearing – Health and Government Operations – 2/25 at 1:00 p.m. – Eliminates citizenship requirements for state boards, committees, commissions, task forces, and workgroups and establishes that, to the extent practical, the same groups reflect the full diversity of the state.
• SB293 – Hearing – Education, Energy, and the Environment – Held on 1/29 – Result Pending – Requires members of County Boards of Education to complete the same antibias training program currently required for most school employees including instruction on ways to achieve schools that are inclusive and tolerant of a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity. (Companion to HB324)