Much Work Needs To Be Done Before The Md. General Assembly Adjourns

The 2023 Sessions adjourns on Monday, April 10th at midnight.Frederick County Delegate Jesse Pippy (Photo From Md. General Assembly)Annapolis, Md (KM) Time is growing short for the Maryland General Assembly to complete its work before adjourning for the year on Monday, April 10th at midnight. Frederick County Delegate Jesse Pippy says both the House of Delegates and the State Senate have passed legislation and they entered their opposite chambers. But he says many committee chairmen have not brought these measures forward for a hearing and a vote.”You have hundreds and hundreds of bills that have passed the House that have been sitting on the Senate side. The Senate chairs have been literally sitting on these bills. I don’t know if it’s to hold the House hostage,.” he says.”They’re still negotiating on the budget. There’s been no kind of consensus among the House and Senate,” Pippy continues. “They’ve haven’t released the capital bond projects yet. So I think there’s a little bit of a stalemate at the moment.”Earlier this year, Pippy was elected to chair the Frederick County Legislative Delegation. He was also picked at the Minority Whip in the House by the Republican Caucus. Because of that, Pippy says he has the duty of getting  the local Delegation’s bills through the General Assembly as well as those of the 39 members of the GOP Caucus.But he did manage to introduce two bills. One would prohibit a person from conducting visual surveillance with prurient interest in residence or private accommodation without the consent of the individual. . It would also alter the penalties for the offense of visual surveillance with a prurient interest with a camera if the victim was a minor at the time of the offense, and is at least four years younger than the offender. A violation could lead to five-years imprisonment or a fine of $2,500, or both.The second bill deals with indecent exposure. An individual committing the common law offense of indecent exposure would face a penalty of three years incarceration and/or a fine of up to $1,000. It would also prohibit persons from committing indecent exposure within sight of a minor who is at least two years old and at least than four years younger than the offender. The penalty would be up to five years imprisonment and/or at fine of up to $10,000.”Both of those bills passed the House committee unanimously. Both passed the House floor unanimously, and have been over on the Senate side,” Pippy says. “From what I’ve heard is that they’re supposed to be scheduled for a hearing and a possible vote soon. So we’ll have to see.”These two pieces of legislation were sent to the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.Pippy hopes activity begins to pick up over the next several days. “They’re gonna have to because there’s a tremendous amount of work that’s not completed and we are running out of time,” he says.By Kevin McManus