The storm after the calm: Placid final day erupts in final minutes in House, Senate

by Danielle J. Brown, Christine Condon, William J. Ford and Bryan P. Sears, Maryland Matters
April 14, 2026

What had been a busy but predictable final day of the legislative session, filled with light-hearted moments and sentimental farewells to departing lawmakers, took a sharp turn toward ugly in the final hour Monday.

Tensions spilled over in the Senate after Republican senators slow-walked bills for much of the evening with the clock ticking. And chaos erupted in the House at four minutes to midnight when House leaders tried to cut off debate on a voting rights bill and lawmakers began shouting over each other as the speaker tried to keep the process moving.

The House explosion came over Senate Bill 255, the Maryland Voting Rights Act of 2026, that supporters have said is needed to preserve voting rights ahead of Supreme Court rulings this summer that are expected to gut the federal Voting Rights Act.

Republicans spent close to an hour in a House session Saturday debating the bill that they called biased and partisan. But when they tried to continue that debate late Monday night, Democrats called the question, essentially shutting off debate.

House Republicans erupted in opposition, demanding to debate the issue further, and Democrats shouted back. House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel) said the motion was not debatable, but the ruckus scarcely died down until midnight, when Majority Leader David Moon (D-Montgomery) moved that the House adjourn Sine Die.

Peña-Melnyk, speaking to reporters early Tuesday, attributed the outburst to the stress that comes with the final hours of a legislative session.

“You know that always happens on Sine Die. You know why? It is because everyone is stressed,” she said. “It is the last day and the clock is running.

“Moving forward, again, my job is to run the floor in a way that is respectful and civil, which I’ve done, and I stand by that, because I was very intentional about that. And my friends across the aisle, they’re my friends,” Peña-Melny said.

The Senate was more of a slow burn, as Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) grew frustrated with some Republicans slowing down the passage of bills.

Sen. William Folden (R-Frederick) was among those frequently questioning bills and offering amendments throughout the day, as the clock was ticking.

Tensions reached a boiling point with minutes to go before midnight, as Folden rose again to ask questions about Senate Bill 623 — a bill creating a premium cigar lounge liquor license for tobacco shops — on what would ultimately be the last bill of the session.

“Please stop. You’ve embarrassed yourself enough,” Ferguson said from the rostrum, interrupting Folden’s line of questioning. With just two minutes left, Ferguson dropped the bill and moved into a brief line of thanks before adjourning.

Folden said he was upset because he had been working with Senate leadership to pass a salary increase for the Frederick County Sheriff, by attaching it to a bill about the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney, but that leadership abruptly reversed course.

“At the last minute, apparently they weren’t happy about that,” Folden said. “They don’t like the sheriff of Frederick County. They made it a personal matter.”

He said he didn’t begrudge Ferguson for his stern remarks Monday night.

“It’s a high-tension time. I don’t have any ill will to the Senate president,” Folden said. “I’m operating within what I have left as a super minority member. That’s all I got.”

Despite the high-volume arguing in the last moments of the 2026 session, the House and Senate were able to come together during the rest of the day to finalize dozens of bills and send them off to the governor for consideration.

Stillbirth tax credits

A third attempt to grant a $1,000 tax credit for parents who have faced the loss of a child through stillbirth faced an uncertain future just a week ago, but now it’s on its way to the governor’s desk.

Sen. Jeff Waldstreicher (D-Montgomery) last week called on the House to move Senate Bill 356  which had not been voted out of the Ways and Means Committee. But committee Chair Jheanelle K. Wilkins (D-Montgomery) expressed concerns over whether a tax credit was the most appropriate offer to grieving parents.

As of Monday, the committee had not voted on the legislation, holding it up in the legislative process.

Instead of waiting for a committee vote, Waldstreicher added the stillbirth tax credit language to House Bill 547, which concerns an income tax subtraction for agricultural equipment. It would require the agriculture secretary to report to the legislature and the governor on recommendations for which types of equipment should qualify for an income tax subtraction modification.

The House ultimately accepted the amended version, sending both the agriculture-related tax benefit and the stillbirth tax credit to the governor’s desk.

Waldstreicher called it “a historic moment of recognition for parents who have been through incredible trauma.”

“This has been a five-year labor of love,” he said, recognizing Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City), Wilkins, and the parents of stillbirth children who “never gave up” and continued to advocate for the legislation.

Transit-oriented housing bill back on track

Gov. Wes Moore’s priority housing bill, on Transit-Oriented Housing, would encourage new housing development around transit-oriented locations by restricting parking minimums and other local decisions in specific situations. Senate Bill 389 and House Bill 894 would also prohibit the collection of certain county taxes until a project is close to completion.

But the bills got hung up between the House and Senate in a dispute over so-called project labor agreements (PLAs).

The administration bill originally included language calling for PLAs, collective bargaining agreements between a project developer and labor unions establishing the terms for employment on a project. Developers looking to apply for the state’s Transit-Oriented Development Capital Grant and Revolving Loan Fund would get a boost if the project included a PLA, under Moore’s proposed legislation.

The House wanted to keep that language, while the Senate stripped it out. Ultimately, the House deferred to the Senate. The bills approved Monday say developers applying for a state grant to help fund their projects can include so-called project labor agreements (PLAs), but they won’t earn extra consideration by state officials for doing so.

No vacations for Cayman Island insurance tax

The Senate agreed with the House that a complex tax issue on so-called captive insurance should be left up to state insurance officials to decide whether hospitals should have been paying taxes on potentially billions sheltered in the Cayman Islands — at least for the time being.

“Captive insurance” is when a organization forms its own insurance company — a captive — to help cover claims that may not be covered by commercial insurance.

Maryland does not have a regulatory framework to let companies establish captives within the state. So decades ago, Maryland nonprofit hospitals set up captives in offshore locations such as the Cayman Islands. The hospitals believe those captives are not subject to a 3% state tax on out-of-state insurance premiums, but state insurance officials aren’t so sure.

Senate Bill 890 had proposed a two-year pause on the tax to give the Maryland Insurance Administration time to study the issue. But the pause in tax collections was stripped out by the House Ways and Means Committee, and the amended bill was given a preliminary OK by the full House Friday.

The Senate agreed to remove the proposed two-year pause Monday.

“So if MIA does a study and decides that the taxation is correct and should be done, then they can go ahead and charge the tax,” Finance Chair Pamela Beidle (D-Anne Arundel) said before the chamber approved the bill on a unanimous vote.

Elopement bills see some successes

A legislative package known as the LEAD Act, to provide greater resources for people with disabilities who “elope,” or wander away from caregivers, made notable strides this year, with lawmakers passing two out of five first-time bills.

‘Elopement’ bills boost resources for times when people with autism, dementia wander or run off

The LEAD Act — for Laila’s Elopement Awareness and Dissemination Act — is named after a young autistic girl whose elopement at age 6 inspired the bills to give caregivers more resources when their loved one wanders away, a common occurrence for people with autism, dementia and other disabilities.

On Monday, the Senate approved House Bill 634, to require law enforcement training on how officers can better locate and interact with an individual who has “eloped.” The Senate version of the bill Senate Bill 745, was passed and sent to the governor’s desk last week.

The Senate on Monday also gave final approval to House Bill 1434, which prompts the Maryland Department of Health to set up a resource webpage for family caregivers.

Other bills passed the House, but got stuck in Senate committees. They would have let schools coordinate the use of locative devices with parents of autistic kids prone to elopement and increased school mapping data to include nearby bodies of water, among other measures.

Megalodon lives in Maryland

After some concerns on whether the megalodon shark bill would resuscitate from the depths of the Maryland General Assembly recycling bin, it rose up within another piece of legislation.

On the last day of the session, the Senate concurred with amendments made by the House to unanimously approve Senate Bill 35 sponsored by Sen. Carl Jackson (D-Baltimore County).

The bill became a commemorative and state designation to not only make the prehistoric megalodon the state shark, but also for the governor to proclaim Oct. 1 as “Purple Lights Night” to honor individuals who are domestic violence survivors.

The previous version of the bill just proposed to make the Natural History Society of Maryland the state’s official natural history museum. That remained included in the bill.

“I guess [I’ll] be the shark guy now,” Jackson said early Tuesday morning after the Senate adjourned Sine Die. “But definitely happy to bring the Maryland State Natural History Museum to Baltimore County. It’s been a long time coming, and I’m really excited about it. It’s been a journey.”

As for the megalodon (formerly called “Otodus megalodon”), the legislation almost became shark bait.

It became revived through the House Government, Labor and Elections Committee which incorporated the museum, megalodon and domestic violence survivors all into one measure.

Shark support came not only from two legislators who sponsored the measures — Sen. Jack Bailey (R-Calvert and St. Mary’s) and Del. Todd Morgan (R-St. Mary’s) — received some additional support from fourth-grade students from Beltsville Academy in Prince George’s County. They submitted letters and drew shark pictures to the Senate Education, Energy and the Environment Committee.

“I think it was extremely important that in the divisiveness of the world today, when it comes to politics, that we were able to influence the hundreds of children that wrote testimony to this bill to learn about how an idea becomes a law,” Bailey said early Tuesday morning. “I was just proud to be able to work with them and the school systems across all Southern Maryland to be able to bring this to fruition. It’s history.”

A study on second jobs

Less than a week after Sen. Ron Watson (D-Prince George’s) presented legislation on reducing restrictions for legislators to obtain second jobs in state or local government, it turned into a study.

In the previous version, Senate Bill 618 sought to would ease the current limits on a state lawmaker holding another state job or working for a county or municipal government, if that person had served at least one full term in office and “objectively satisfied the minimum education, licensure and experience requirements” of the job.

The bipartisan legislation, which also had Sen. Johnny Ray Salling (R-Baltimore County) as a sponsor, was voted by the Senate 32-10 on March 23.

It appeared Watson had a receptive audience when he presented the bill April 7 before the Government, Labor and Elections Committee, but the committee voted Saturday to advance the measure in a different format.

The committee touched upon a group labeled the Task Force on Legislator Employment.

The House granted preliminary approval on the amended bill and passed the measure 101-36 on the same day Monday. The Senate had to concur with the House changes, but it never happened, according to the bill’s landing page.

If approved, the task force would’ve examined current provisions of the Maryland Public Ethics Law, studied the impact of current legislator employment rules on members of the General Assembly and the legislative process and reviewed recusal requirements for legislators who are employed by state or local government or a quasi-governmental entity.

Some of the members would’ve included the five members of the public chosen by the Senate president and another five the House speaker, chairs of the Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics and a representative with the Maryland Association of Counties (MACo).

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org.