In the eleventh hour of an annual 90-day session defined by major uncertainty on several fronts, the Maryland General Assembly was set to tie up consequential education, energy and civil rights policy legislation on Monday night.

Lawmakers in Annapolis were working feverishly to meet their midnight deadline before gaveling out “Sine Die,” an occasion normally marked with confetti and balloons on the House and Senate floors.

The celebratory mood was evident at the State House Monday — but so, too, were warnings that much is still unknown about what could happen in the nine months that are typically the legislature’s offseason.

New federal oversight committee

Addressing the press around 4 p.m., Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat, said the legislature had “a lot left to do” in its dwindling hours as the world outside the State House reeled from President Donald Trump’s newly imposed tariffs on the nation’s allies.

“I haven’t had a chance to look at the stock market today, but I think, if any indications of the last few days as we see our economy getting destroyed, Maryland is facing similar risks,” Ferguson said. “We have been working this year to protect the state of Maryland against the draconian slash-and-burn actions of the Trump administration and with Elon Musk, who has been talking about efficiency but really destroying Marylanders’ lives.”

Ferguson and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, a Baltimore County Democrat, announced Monday afternoon that they will be launching a bipartisan, joint Federal Action Oversight Committee to monitor Trump’s actions and allow state leadership to respond quickly when the legislature is not in session.

“From public education, to health care, and our federal workforce, we have already witnessed how recent federal actions threaten the economic stability of our State. We know these threats will continue after the General Assembly’s 2025 Legislative Session adjourns,” Jones said in a statement. “The Joint Federal Action Oversight Committee will allow legislative leaders to responsibly respond to federal acts even when we are not in Session.”

The uncertainty pushed many decisions about how to resolve the roughly $3.3 billion state budget deficit until the last minute on Monday and, as a result, other major policy debates that lawmakers tackled this year.

Education

That included the first major changes to the landmark Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the decade-long education reform plan passed in 2020.

Understanding that Maryland was in dire fiscal straits, Gov. Wes Moore’s administration brought forth legislation to alter the state’s landmark education reform policy. The proposal paused funding increases for schools that receive Concentration of Poverty Grants, also known as community schools, for two years and delayed the implementation of teacher collaborative time for four.

The House passed Moore’s bill in early March, but not without restoring community school funding increases and lowering the collaborative time pause from four years to one. Striking a balance between the desires of the House and the governor, Senate lawmakers greenlighted the bill with restored community school funding while maintaining Moore’s four-year delay on collaborative time.

The House passed the negotiated bill to Moore’s desk around 5:30 p.m., with the maintained community school funding and a two-year collaborative time funding pause for fiscal years 2026 and 2027.

Immigration

In their work to combat President Donald Trump’s plethora of executive orders, House and Senate lawmakers also took on consequential immigration policy in 2025, introducing a series of bills to protect people’s data and limit where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents can go to execute detainers.

Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee Chair Will Smith, a Montgomery County Democrat, sponsored the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act, which sought to limit the ability of ICE agents to enter public schools and libraries, mental and physical health care facilities, and courthouses.

The House passed Smith’s bill during a rare weekend session Saturday — but not without amending it to eliminate current and existing partnerships between local law enforcement and ICE through the federal 287(g) program.

Seven Maryland counties are expected to have entered into 287(g) partnerships with ICE by the end of April. These partnerships allow local jails to run the names of incarcerated people through a database to check for immigration enforcement actions.

Under the amended bill, those existing and future partnerships would be null and void. Instead, Maryland would have a statewide standard requiring that local jails hold people who have been convicted of crimes of violence, any offense that requires them to appear on the sex offender registry, driving under the influence, or engaging in gang activity for 48 hours only to facilitate ICE detainers. If ICE does not retrieve them within that time, the individual would be released.

The amended bill mirrors legislation sponsored by Del. Nicole Williams, a Prince George’s County Democrat. During a news conference Friday, Smith said his “preference” is to eliminate 287(g) programs, but worried that Maryland could face financial consequences from a retaliatory Trump administration for their discontinuance.

By 5 p.m., the Senate had yet to send Smith’s bill to Moore’s desk.

The state is receiving national attention as the Trump administration battles a federal court order mandating it return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who a judge determined was wrongfully deported to an El Salvador detention facility, back to Maryland.

Ferguson said Monday afternoon that he “can’t even fathom the fear that a number of our neighbors are feeling because of what’s happening from the Trump administration.”

“It is fundamentally unbelievable that we’ve created this toxic environment around people who are investing in our communities, who are part of our workforce, our kids are in school together,” he said. “We are moving toward protections that we know will have a meaningful impact on protecting them from unlawful actions of the federal government, protecting their data, making sure that, when they’re in church or when they’re in the hospital, that they are protected.”

Energy

Since the session’s early days, presiding officers from the House and Senate tasked themselves with addressing constituents’ sky-high utility bills and increasing Maryland’s reliance on the 13-state energy grid it is connected to.

The Senate gave final approval to the Next Generation Energy Act Monday, which is poised to provide stricter regulations on utility companies’ rate plans and provide rebates for residential customers.

Under the bill, sponsored by Jones and Ferguson, the Maryland Public Service Commission would issue a request for proposals to secure new energy generation sources to fulfill the power needs of peak summer hours, allowing the state to phase out coal and oil and maintain enough energy generation for when those plants eventually shut down.

The bill does not mandate the closure of existing oil or coal plants.

The Next Generation Energy Act also seeks to lower utility costs for ratepayers by allowing the Maryland EmPOWER program to issue loans in addition to grants, having the state provide utility bill rebate payments based on usage by residential electrical customers during peak winter and summer months, and prohibiting utility companies from filing multiyear rate plans unless the Public Service Commission determines they benefit ratepayers.

The Senate sent the bill to Moore early in the day, though Republicans raised concerns that it did not help ratepayers as much as it could have.

“I think there’s been a lot of good work done in some ways, but we’re still not meeting the need to bring down the cost of electricity and to get more supply, in my view,” said Sen. Justin Ready, a Republican representing Carroll and Frederick counties.

Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey, an Eastern Shore Republican, said he didn’t see how any differences were made.

Sen. Malcom Augustine, a Prince George’s County Democrat, argued that lawmakers provided an “immediate” refund to state residents and saved “millions of dollars” with changes to the multiyear rate plan.

Hershey maintained his stance that the legislature “fell woefully short” in trying to protect Maryland ratepayers this year.

Environmental advocates applauded the legislation’s passage, saying it demonstrates Maryland lawmakers’ commitment to clean, in-state energy generation.

“We commend the Presiding Officers as well as the Chairs, Vice-Chairs and members of the House Economic Matters Committee, and the Senate Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee for rising to the challenge of addressing Maryland’s energy needs this legislative session, Brittany Baker, the Maryland director of the Chesapeake Climate Network Action Fund, said in a statement after the bill’s passage.

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