Maryland General Assembly Session Coming to An End

Frederick County Delegate Ken KerrSine Die is Monday, April 8th at midnight.FREDERICK, MD. (LG)  The last day of the Maryland General Assembly Session is Monday, April 8th, 2024.  Frederick County Delegate Ken Kerr says bills that have already passed are moving ahead to its’ opposite chambers. “As you know, the bills have to pass both Chambers by Monday at midnight. So we are trying to, as efficiently as possible, work to continue due diligence, in case some changes need to be made with amendments on some Senate bills that we can take care of over here,” said Kerr.If both houses approve a bill, it then goes to the Governor. The Governor has three choices. He can sign the bill into law, allow it to become law without his or her signature, or veto it. A governor’s veto can be overridden by a two thirds vote in both houses.Other bills that have moved on includes Maryland’s Alcohol Legislation. “Because of the nature of Maryland’s alcohol measures, every year we have several clean up bills that we do just to modernize the alcohol business, as it is transacted in Frederick, and all of those have moved on,” continued Kerr.It looks like the Sepsis bill has passed both Chambers, according to Delegate Kerr. “It just came back to my Chamber today. I had crossed filed with Senator Karen Lewis Young and her bill crossed over to the House and back over to the Senate. And mine just made it back over to the House, so that is as good as on the Governor’s desk right now”.The legislation is called “Lochlin’s Law”.  Frederick County Delegate Ken Kerr is one of the sponsors.  It’s named after a five-year-old Frederick boy who died in 2020 because he was not properly diagnosed for sepsis.The new law requires hospitals and urgent care centers to develop procedures and protocols to diagnose and treat sepsis in their patients.”For example, Frederick Health Hospital put their Sepsis protocol in about a decade ago, and they went from a 16% mortality rate to a 4% mortality rate. We are just asking for all of the other hospitals to do the same.”According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), sepsis happens when an infection triggers a life-threatening chain reaction in the body.The Maryland General Assembly concludes its’ Session at midnight, on Monday, April 8th.By Loretta Gaines