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Maryland lawmakers will return to Annapolis next week for a special session to elect a new House speaker, but they will also take up veto overrides in a session that could veer into other business.
Gov. Wes Moore (D) on Tuesday afternoon issued an executive order for the legislative session that said the session is being called to “elect a new House Speaker following Adrienne A. Jones’s announcement last week that she would step down following six historic years in service to the speakership.”
Moore called for the session to begin Dec. 16 – the same day the House Democratic Caucus is scheduled to meet in the morning to pick a replacement for Jones from its ranks. The presumptive front-runner is House Health and Government Operations Chair Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel), who emerged as the top candidate over the weekend after three competitors withdrew from consideration and pledged their support to her.
Left open is the potential to consider other legislation.
By law, the House and Senate also have to take up veto overrides during the special session. Moore in May vetoed 30 bills, including one that would have created a commission to study reparations. He also vetoed a bill that called for studying the financial impacts of climate change in Maryland and the potential effects of data center development, as well as a bill to create a planning office focused on the state’s energy needs.
All three are likely targets for overrides, but the reparations bill, in particular, is expected to draw a sharp rebuke from lawmakers, who passed the measure by veto-proof majorities in the House and Senate. Moore said in his veto message that the state does not need another study on “the legacy of slavery in our state,” saying it is time to act. But many critics were like then-Speaker Jones, who said “our past is not some distant chapter” but that “reconciling the pain and injustice of the past is our moral obligation and essential to progress.”
The House and Senate are not limited in other legislation they could consider. Traditionally, the House and Senate have limited their work in special sessions. Other bills typically are banished to the Rules Committee.
This year could be different.
First, Moore has left on the table the possibility of using a special session to pass midcycle congressional redistricting. The Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Commission has met three times to take public testimony, and has a fourth hearing Friday, but so far has not produced any recommendations or any proposed redistricting maps.
The redistricting push was sparked by Texas’ decision, at the urging of President Donald Trump, to redraw boundaries of its congressional districts ahead of the 2026 elections to give Republicans a chance to pick up five more seats in the state. Since then, other states have followed suit, with blue states like Maryland being pressured to act to offset the Texas changes.
The Maryland House has appeared poised to move on a bill. The fate of the legislation in the Senate is less certain. Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) is opposed to midcycle redistricting, which he said could backfire on Democrats who currently hold seven of the state’s eight U.S. House seats. Ferguson appears to have the backing of his caucus and is unlikely to allow such a bill to reach the floor.
The House and Senate could also consider legislation next week directed at federal policies, including bills on 287(g) agreements — which allow sheriff’s departments to act in conjunction with federal immigration authorities — as well as prohibitions on the use of masks by federal agents and other legislation.
The calling of a special session will also mean that not only will lawmakers likely have to revise any personal travel plans they may have had, but they will also have to cancel any scheduled fundraising events while the legislature is meeting.
Lawmakers and the state’s constitutional officers including the governor, comptroller, attorney general and treasurer, are barred from soliciting or accepting donations during any session of the Maryland General Assembly.
