Maryland General Assembly Begins Special Session on Redistricting Monday
Maryland lawmakers will meet in special session this week to discuss redistricting. House Bill 2100 (see below) is a constitutional amendment to consider a bill amending the rules for drawing new congressional districts. It will ask voters to decide through a referendum question whether the wording that addresses how congressional district maps are drawn should be changed. This referendum question would be on the ballot in the November General Election.
The Republican caucus says that the intention of the special session and HB 2100 is to eliminate Republican voices in Maryland and guidelines posted last week indicate significant limits on the public’s ability to testify on legislation that will disenfranchise more than one million Marylanders. The guidelines posted on the General Assembly website indicate that oral testimony will be limited to 50 individuals in total and, if more than 50 witnesses sign up, the Committee chairs will select who gets to testify.
The Joint Republican Caucus will hold a press conference on Monday, August 3rd at 11:15 am in the State House rotunda to discuss this last-minute Special Session. The General Assembly will convene at 10am Monday for the start of the special session – which is scheduled to run through Wednesday, August 5th. It was said when the special session was announced that no other actions will be considered, however a second bill, SB 2101, has been added for consideration which deals with arbitration for state employees.