2022 Legislative Preview by District 36 Delegation, Part 1

Peter Heck • February 1, 2022

On Monday, Jan. 10, the Kent County Chamber of Congress hosted its annual legislative preview, giving the District 36 delegation a chance to talk about the upcoming session of the Maryland General Assembly. The session, conducted online via Zoom, featured State Senator Steve Hershey and District 36 Delegates Jay Jacobs (Kent County), Jeff Ghrist (Caroline) and Steve Arentz (Queen Anne’s). All four are Republicans. The event was also sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Kent County.

Chamber Vice President Barbara Foster introduced the delegates, then turned over the mic to moderator Kate Van Name. As one would expect given the Chamber’s orientation, many of the questions concerned economic development and ways legislation can affect business on the Shore.

Van Name opened by asking how the General Assembly will conduct business during the pandemic, and how legislators can help businesses stay open as new covid-19 variants emerge.

Hershey noted that it had been two years since “we were all physically together” for the Chamber’s legislative preview. The General Assembly is dealing with the same conditions, he said. “Our committee hearings, at least for the first month, will be held virtually.… We will not be all in the room together for these committee hearings, we will be in Zoom meetings.”

Citizens testifying to the committees will do so virtually, he said. He said the delegates recognize the need to protect the public and each other from the pandemic, but he added, “I think all of us believe that we have much better and more interactive committee bill hearings when people are there in person, when we have the ability to question and get responses from people in person.”

The voting sessions will be held in person, but without public attendance, he said. The sessions will be streamed. Hershey said he felt the lack of in-person public participation in the hearings was often detrimental to the delegates’ understanding of the issues at stake.

Arentz agreed that the lack of in-person input was unfortunate. The good news, he said, is that the number of people who will be able to testify in House hearings has been increased this year.

Jacobs said the legislators want to hear what challenges businesses are facing. “Anything that we can be of help with, we certainly want to know right away.” He said his office is still dealing with a number of unemployment cases, including cases of unemployment fraud.

Ghrist said those seeking to testify to a committee hearing can no longer sign up the same day as the hearing. He said the various delegates’ offices would be available to help anyone who wants to testify to sign up in advance.

Van Name asked what plans the state has to promote economic development on the Eastern Shore.

“I think we’re going to continue to see the promotion of Maryland in its entirety as a place that we can attract businesses to,” Hershey said. Promotion of the Shore takes place mainly on the county level, he said. He cited the I-95 corridor in Cecil County and KRM Development in Chestertown as success stories in local development. He said the state could help by keeping down taxes and fees, which he said businesses often cite as hurdles to locating here.

Last year the Assembly saw a lot of legislation related to unions and prevailing wages, issues he said are not business-friendly. He said that right-to-work laws, which allow workers to choose not to join a union or pay union dues, would help attract business. Allowing counties to enact such laws independently of the state could help build the economy, he said.

Ghrist said the biggest challenge businesses are currently facing is staffing. He said the Democratic majority in the Assembly wants to allow people to work from home, “or not work at all, and still get paid.” He said that if there is another supplemental unemployment benefit, “we need to fight that down.” He suggested that the omicron variant of covid-19 is not as dangerous as previous strains, “so folks need to work. We need to make sure that we have productive citizens.”

Arentz said the number of people who have dropped out of the workforce is unprecedented. “We need to find out where those people have gone, and what we need to do to bring them back for good.”

Jacobs confirmed that the lack of workers was a major problem. “It’s not just in our four counties, it’s statewide,” he said. “It’s especially tough for us over here.”

Van Name asked how the state can address those issues, especially in such areas as healthcare.

Hershey said many healthcare workers have told him that having their children out of school was a problem. He said the workers are forced to choose between working, staying home with their children, or finding childcare help. He noted recent problems in Chicago, where the teachers’ union has insisted on safe working conditions. On the plus side, he said, “We’re still on track with the Chestertown hospital, in creating the aging and wellness center there,” which would mean the retention of ICU and inpatient beds.

Arentz agreed about the importance of keeping children in schools. “They are the least vulnerable, as far as major concerns with [the pandemic],” he said. He said closing schools has a negative effect on the workplace, and that working from home has hurt worker productivity.

He suggested that education is a key to workforce development, and spoke in favor of a vocational/technical school on the Shore to help create skilled workers. He said “the businesses have stepped up” by offering attractive wages and working conditions. But the environment on the Shore favors smaller businesses and farms rather than the big employers the rest of the state has. “I think we need to find a better way to attract those people into those markets,” he said.

Ghrist said legislation was passed a couple of years ago allowing the five counties in the Chesapeake College service area to build a regional tech school. He said the idea was building momentum. Creating such a facility in small counties presents challenges. It’s not easy to fill a classroom. Finding the money and resources to build a good facility is also harder in smaller jurisdictions.

He said that Delaware was doing a better job than Maryland with tech education facilities. However, he said, Chesapeake College has a state-of-the-art nursing school; “The facilities there are nicer than a lot of the hospitals out there,” he said. He said expanding the ability of high school students to get training in trades and in healthcare should produce positive results.

Van Name asked if the proposed wind energy project off the coast of Ocean City was likely to have positive economic impact on the Shore.

“I think that remains to be seen,” said Hershey. Legislation authorizing the project was passed in 2013, but to date there has been no resulting “economic boom.” “I think we’re still probably a few years away from getting the first turbine in the water,” he said. He said the project has been subsidized “to the tune of over $400 million that will come from ratepayers in the form of increased electric costs,” which will have to be weighed against possible economic benefits.

Arentz said that wind has been more effectively developed in other countries than in the U.S. He questioned why Maryland needs to spend money reinventing technology that Europe already has.

Van Name asked how energy policy as a whole will affect the Shore.

Arentz said “As far as renewables, I think that’s a great idea. I think most of us would support it.” His committee sees a lot of bills related to energy independence, “but the problem is that we don’t really have the ability to do that.”

Buying from out-of-state increases the cost of energy to users, he said, and it isn’t easy to tell whether the energy is being generated in a renewable manner. The higher cost is especially a problem for those who are economically challenged and may not live in an energy-efficient home, he said. He also noted that the Shore has a lot of land that is ideal for renewable energy generation, but that conflicts with its value as farmland. “It needs to be looked at harder,” he said.

Jacobs said the “massive” energy bill introduced in the legislature last year had “so many moving parts” that the legislators couldn’t tell how much it would cost. In the end, the bill was split up and parts of it were passed piecemeal as attachments to other legislation. He said that the Shore was being looked at for solar fields, at the potential cost of losing productive farmland. “It’s really a contentious issue,” he said. “You can’t just put solar fields anywhere you want.”

Hershey said the benefits to the environment need to be weighed against the cost to consumers. He said the state will always be a net importer of energy. Solar power will be only a small fraction of the renewable energy the state needs. He noted that Delmarva Power was going before the state’s Public Service Commission to request increases in energy rates amounting to $27 million for its customers on the Shore, an average annual cost of $130 per customer.

This is Part 1 of the report on the legislative preview from the Eastern Shore’s District 36 delegates. Look for Part 2, focusing on the state budget, implementation of the Kirwan plan for education, and the impact of climate change on the Shore, in an upcoming issue of Common Sense.

Peter Heck is a Chestertown-based writer and editor, who spent 10 years at the Kent County News and three more with the Chestertown Spy. He is the author of 10 novels and co-author of four plays, a book reviewer for Asimov’s and Kirkus Reviews, and an incorrigible guitarist.

< Older Post

Newer Post >

Mail

Common Sense for the Eastern Shore

“Liberty: The Promises and Paradoxes”

By John Christie • March 3, 2026

Just up the road from Maryland’s Eastern Shore lies Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. Administered by the National Park Service (NPS), the park is dedicated to the preservation of historical structures and properties associated with the American Revolution and the founding and growth of the United States. The centerpiece of the park is Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted by America's Founding Fathers in the late 18th century. Nearby is the Liberty Bell, an iconic symbol of American independence, displayed in the Liberty Bell Center. In the park as well is what’s called the President’s House, an exhibit on the site of the first official residence of the president of the United States. President Washington occupied the Philadelphia President's House from 1790 to 1797. His successor, John Adams, lived there from 1797 to 1800. Although the original structure no longer exists, the exhibit includes a view of the foundation of the house where our first two presidents lived with their families. Research has turned up information about nine enslaved Africans owned by Washington and brought to Philadelphia’s presidential residence during his time there. To commemorate the lives of those slaves, their names are etched in a wall in the exhibit: Oney Judge, Austin, Christopher Sheels, Giles, Hercules Posey, Joe Richardson, Moll, Paris, and Richmond. The site includes exhibits on how their struggles for freedom represented this country’s progress away from the horrors of slavery and into an era where the founding ideals of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” could be achieved for every American. An intended theme of the President’s House exhibit is “Liberty: The Promises and Paradoxes.” “The promises of liberty and equality granted in the founding documents present a paradox: not only were they ideals to strive for but they were unfulfilled promises for people who struggled to be fully included as citizens of our nation.” ------------------------------------------------------------ On March 27, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14253, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” EO14253 stated in part: “Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our nation's history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.” In order to “restore truth in American history,” EO14253 directed the Secretary of the Interior to ensure that all public monuments, memorials, or similar properties within the Department of the Interior's jurisdiction do not contain descriptions or other content that “inappropriately disparage” Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times) and instead focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people. In response to this order, on January 22, 2026, the NPS suddenly removed 34 educational panels and video exhibits that referenced slavery and provided information about the individuals enslaved at the President’s House. The day these exhibits were removed, the City of Philadelphia filed a lawsuit in the federal district court in Philadelphia against Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, the Department of the Interior, Acting Director of NPS Jessica Bowron, and the NPS itself, claiming that the removal of the displays was unlawful agency action. On February 16, Judge Cynthia Rufe ordered the Trump administration to restore the slavery-related exhibits at the national park site, holding that NPS lacked the power “to dissemble and disassemble historical truths.” In court, the government asserted it alone had the power to erase, alter, remove, and hide historical accounts on taxpayer and local government-funded monuments within its control. According to Judge Rufe, to claim that “truth is no longer self-evident, but rather the property of the elected chief magistrate and his appointees and delegees, at his whim to be scraped clean, hidden, or overwritten” comes right out of George Orwell’s 1984. In her opinion, no government agency can “arbitrarily” decide what is true, “based on its own whims or the whims of the new leadership.” “It is not disputed that President Washington owned slaves.” Moreover, Judge Rufe determined the removed displays were not mere decorations to be taken down and redisplayed; rather, they were a memorial to the “men, women, and children of African descent who lived, worked, and died as enslaved people in the United States of America.” Each person who visits the President’s House and does not learn of the realities of founding-era slavery receives a false account of this country’s history. Removal of the crucial interpretive materials strips the site of that truth and deprives the public of educational opportunities designed to be free and accessible. For Judge Rufe, the abrupt elimination of historically significant educational material is like “pulling pages out of a history book with a razor.” John Christie was for many years a senior partner in a large Washington, D.C. law firm. He specialized in anti-trust litigation and developed a keen interest in the U.S. Supreme Court about which he lectures and writes.

Run for Something Endorses Megan Outten for Wicomico County Council District 7

By CSES Staff • March 3, 2026

Last month, Megan Outten, candidate for Wicomico County Council District 7, was endorsed by Run for Something (RFS), a national organization that recruits and supports the next generation of progressive leaders for state and local office. The organization’s slate of newly endorsed candidates includes young, diverse progressives from across the country who are ready to lead in their communities. Outten said, “This campaign has always been powered by our community. By parents, teachers, small business owners, and neighbors who know we can do better. Run for Something’s endorsement affirms what we already know here in Wicomico: when everyday people step up to lead, we change what’s possible. Together, we’re building the kind of local government that plans ahead, listens first, and puts families at the center of every decision.” “Bold leaders like Megan are at the forefront of the fight for our rights and freedoms at a time when they have never faced greater threats,” said Amanda Litman, Co-Founder and President of Run for Something. “Run for Something is proud to endorse Megan Outten as part of our latest class of young leaders working to secure lasting change in their communities.” Outten’s platform is rooted in real data and shaped by direct community engagement. With Wicomico now the fastest-growing school system on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and 85% of students relying on additional resources, she points to the county’s lagging investment as a key area for action. “Strong schools lead to strong jobs, thriving industries, and healthier communities,” Outten said. “Our schools and infrastructure are at a tipping point. We need leadership that stops reacting after things break — and starts investing before they do.” About Run for Something: Amanda Litman and Ross Morales Rocketto launched RFS in January 2017 with a simple premise: to help young, diverse progressives run for state and local offices in order to build a bench for the future. RFS aims to lower the barriers to entry for these candidates by helping them with organization building, connecting them with a robust community, and providing access to the trainings they need to be successful. Since its founding, RFS has helped elect over 1,600 candidates across the country — including 43 candidates in red-to-blue seats in the 2025 election cycle. Today, RFS has the largest database of any Democratic organization, with nearly 80,000 people reaching out since November 2024 with interest in running for office. In total, over 250,000 young people from across the country have signed up to run and gained access to RFS’s resources since the organization launched — a powerful signal that a new generation is showing up to lead.

DHS is Violating a Court Order that Prohibits Warrantless Immigration Arrests in D.C., New Filing Alleges

By Liam Bowman, Capital News Service • March 3, 2026

The Trump administration is still arresting immigrants in D.C. without warrants or probable cause despite a judge’s previous ruling that the practice was unlawful, a coalition of immigrant rights groups alleges in a recent court filing. A federal judge ruled in December that the administration’s use of warrantless immigration arrests likely violated federal law and issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting such arrests without probable cause. The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by immigrant rights groups and four migrants who were arrested without warrants last year during President Donald Trump’s law enforcement surge in the capital. But federal immigration officials in D.C. are failing to comply with that order, continuing to make warrantless arrests “without the required probable cause determinations,” according to the Feb. 19 motion by plaintiffs. The lawsuit alleges immigration authorities began operating under an “arrest first, ask questions later” policy to comply with arrest quotas imposed after Trump took office last year — and started to ignore the probable cause requirements under immigration law. Click here to read the rest of the article , on the Capital News Service website. The article also details the arrest stories of the plaintiffs who were tricked, and concerns about D.C. police cooperation with immigration authorities. Capital News Service is a student-powered news organization run by the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism. For 26 years, they have provided deeply reported, award-winning coverage of issues of import to Marylanders.

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free”

By John Christie • February 17, 2026

These are the words from Emma Lazarus’ famous 1883 sonnet “The New Colossus” inscribed on a bronze plaque on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. In 1990, Congress reaffirmed this vision of America by establishing the Temporary Protected Status program. TPS is designed to provide humanitarian relief to foreign nationals in the United States who come from disaster-stricken countries. In its present form, the TPS legislation gives the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security responsibility for the program. However, the legislation prescribes the kind of country conditions severe enough to warrant a designation under the statute, the specific time frame for any such designation, and the process for periodic review of a TPS designation which could culminate in termination or extension. All initial TPS designations last from six to eighteen months. Before the expiration of a designation, the statute mandates that the Secretary shall review the conditions in the foreign state to decide if the conditions for the designation continue to be met, following consultation with appropriate agencies of the government. Extension is the default; the designation “shall be extended” unless the secretary affirmatively determines that conditions are “no longer met.” ------------------------------------------------------------- A massive earthquake devastated Haiti in January 2010, and precipitated an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Shortly after, then-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, after consultation with the State Department, designated Haiti for TPS due to “extraordinary conditions.” Haitian nationals in the United States continuously as of January 12, 2010, could thus apply for TPS, and obtained the right to remain and work in the U.S. while Haiti maintained its TPS designation. Napolitano set the initial TPS designation for 18 months. As Haiti’s deterioration worsened, successive DHS secretaries have extended this program. Gang violence and kidnappings have spiked. In 2021, a group of assailants killed Haiti’s then-President Jovenel Moïse. In 2023, another catastrophic earthquake hit Haiti. In 2024, in response to these conditions, then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas once again extended and redesignated Haiti for TPS, this time effective through February 3, 2026. During the 2024 election cycle, the GOP candidate, Donald Trump clearly indicated that time had not tempered his views on Haiti, characterized by him as a “shithole country” during his first term. He stated that when elected, he would “absolutely revoke” Haiti’s TPS designation and send “them back to their country.” On December 1, 2025, Kristi Noem, DHS secretary in the second Trump administration, announced, “I just met with the president. I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies. Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom, not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owned to Americans. We don’t want them, not one.” So says the official responsible for overseeing the TPS program. And one of those (her word) “damn” countries is Haiti. Three days before making the above post, Secretary Noem announced she would terminate Haiti’s TPS designation as of February 3, 2026. Five Haitian TPS holders filed suit in federal court in Washington initially seeking an injunction against the termination of the Haitian TPS program pending the completion of the litigation. These plaintiff TPS holders are not “killers, leeches, or entitlement junkies.” They are instead a neuroscientist researching Alzheimer’s disease, a software engineer at a national bank, a laboratory assistant in a toxicology department, a college economics major, and a full-time registered nurse. The case was assigned to district court judge Ana Reyes who granted the plaintiffs’ injunction request on February 2, 2026, by way of an 83-page opinion. The plaintiffs charge that Secretary Noem preordained her termination decision because of hostility to non-white immigrants. According to Judge Reyes, “This seems substantially likely. Secretary Noem has terminated every TPS country designation to have reached her desk — twelve countries up, twelve countries down.” Judge Reyes also decided that Noem’s conclusion that Haiti (a majority non-white country) faces only “merely concerning” conditions cannot be squared with the “perfect storm” of “suffering and staggering” humanitarian toll described in page after page of the record in the case. In Judge Reyes’ view, Noem also ignored Congress’s requirement that she review the conditions in Haiti “after consulting with appropriate agencies.” Indeed, the record indicates she did not consult other agencies at all. Her “national interest” analysis focuses on Haitians outside the United States or here illegally, ignoring that Haitian TPS holders already live here and legally so. And though Noem states that the analysis must include “economic considerations,” Judge Reyes concluded Noem ignored altogether the billions that Haitian TPS holders contribute to the economy. The administration’s primary response in the litigation has been to assert that the TPS statute gives Secretary Noem “unbounded” discretion to make whatever determination she wants, any way she wants. Yes, Judge Reyes acknowledges, the statute does grant Noem some discretion. But, in Judge Reyes’ opinion, “not unbounded discretion.” To the contrary, Congress passed the TPS statute to standardize the then ad hoc temporary protection system; in Judge Reyes’ words, "to replace executive whim with statutory predictability.” The administration also argued that the harms to Haitian TPS holders were “speculative” if they are forced to return to Haiti. Because the State Department presently warns, “Do not travel to Haiti for any reason,” the administration asserts that harm is “speculative” only because DHS “might not” remove them. However, according to Judge Reyes, this argument fails to take Secretary Noem at her word: “We don’t want them. Not one.” The public interest also favors the injunction, in the opinion of Judge Reyes. Secretary Noem complains of the strains that unlawful immigrants place on our immigration-enforcement system. Noem’s answer is to turn 352,959 lawful TPS Haitian immigrants into unlawful immigrants overnight. Noem complains of strains to our economy; her answer is to turn employed lawful immigrants who contribute billions in taxes into the legally unemployable. Noem complains of strains to our health care system. Noem’s answer is to turn the insured into the uninsured. “This approach is many things – but the public interest is not one of them,” according to Judge Reyes. The opinion of Judge Reyes concludes: “Kristi Noem has a First Amendment right to call immigrants killers, leeches, entitlement junkies, and any other inapt name she wants. Secretary Noem, however, is constrained by both our Constitution and the law to apply faithfully the facts to the law in implementing the TPS program. The record to-date shows she has yet to do that. The administration has already appealed. John Christie was for many years a senior partner in a large Washington, D.C. law firm. He specialized in anti-trust litigation and developed a keen interest in the U.S. Supreme Court about which he lectures and writes.

Gov. Moore Signs Legislation to Prohibit Md. Jurisdictions from Deputizing Officers for Federal Civil Immigration Enforcement

By Office of the Governor • February 16, 2026

Gov. Wes Moore signed legislation on February 17, 2026, to prohibit State and local jurisdictions from deputizing officers for federal civil immigration enforcement activity. The law, created under SB 245/HB 444 , is effective immediately. “In Maryland, we defend Constitutional rights and Constitutional policing — and we will not allow untrained, unqualified, and unaccountable ICE agents to deputize our law enforcement officers,” Moore said. “This bill draws a clear line: we will continue to work with federal partners to hold violent offenders accountable, but we refuse to blur the lines between state and federal authority in ways that undermine the trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve. Maryland is a community of immigrants, and that's one of our greatest strengths because this country is incomplete without each and every one of us.” “As an immigrant, this bill is deeply personal to me,” said Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller. “Immigrants make Maryland stronger every day, and our communities are safer when everyone feels protected and valued. This legislation ensures that our law enforcement resources remain focused on keeping Marylanders safe, not on actions that create fear in our neighborhoods. I thank the bill sponsors and Governor Moore for their leadership in ensuring Maryland remains a place where dignity and opportunity go hand in hand.” U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE, established its 287(g) program to authorize local law enforcement officials to perform federal civil immigration enforcement functions under ICE’s oversight. Under SB 245/HB 444, State and local jurisdictions in Maryland are prohibited from engaging in such agreements. Any local jurisdictions with standing 287(g) agreements must terminate them immediately. The legislation does not: Authorize the release of criminals Impact State policies and practices in response to immigration detainers that are issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Prevent the State or local jurisdictions from continuing to work with the federal government on shared public safety priorities, including the removal of violent criminals who pose a risk to public safety Prevent State or local jurisdictions from continuing to notify ICE about the impending release of an individual of interest from custody or from coordinating the safe transfer of custody within constitutional limits State and local law enforcement will also maintain the ability to work with the federal government on criminal investigations and joint task forces unrelated to civil immigration enforcement. Any individual who is charged with a crime is entitled to due process and, if convicted, must serve their sentence.

Farmers Now Owe a Lot More for Health Insurance

By Sarah Boden and Drew Hawkins, Gulf States Newsroom • February 16, 2026

And now, the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that many Americans, including farmers, relied on to purchase health insurance are gone, having expired at the end of December.