House OKs parole reform, expanded PDAB gets Senate approval, more political notes

Yahoo

14-03-2025

The House of Delegates chamber in session in a file photo. (Photo by Bruce DePuyt/Maryland Matters)
The House voted 101-38 for final approval Thursday night on a parole reform measure that advocates have said will not only allow more people to be released from state prison and other correctional facilities, but will also diversify the state's Parole Commission.
House Bill 1156 would increase the current 10-member Parole Commission to at least 15 members but no more than 20. Instead of being appointed by the secretary of Public Safety and Correctional Services, as is the case now, new Parole Commission members would be appointed by the governor, who would draw from a list of nominees prepared by a 12-member nominating panel. That panel would include three people from the general public, a prison rights advocate and law enforcement and education officials.
The bill, sponsored by Del. N. Scott Phillips (D-Baltimore County), would take hearing examiners out of the process of recommending parole approval or denial. Under the current law, the commission can skip a hearing on a parole case and accept the hearing examiner's recommendation as final, if there are no objections from the inmate or the department.
Prior to the vote, House Minority Whip Jesse Pippy (R-Frederick) said the bill's fiscal note of more than $1 million makes it too costly, especially as the state faces a nearly $3 billion budget shortfall for fiscal 2026. According to the note, the money would be spent on 10-full time commissioners and another 11 employees.
'I don't think the change is there, or necessarily the best interest of public safety, in my opinion,' Pippy said.
But Phillips, pointing to the roughly $60,000 the state spends per year to care for each incarcerated person, said the savings would more than make up for the money cited in the fiscal note.
'We could clear up the backlog for those persons who deserve to be released,' he said. '[Releasing] those individuals will actually, over the long term, be reducing the cost. For that reason, I think we need to vote for efficiency and effectiveness of our parole system.'
The bill now heads over to the Senate.
Both the House and Senate have now approved bills that would expand authority of the Prescription Drug Affordability Board to help bring down drug costs in Maryland – and days before crossover day, the key deadline for legislation to be approved.
The Senate, in a Wednesday night session, voted 35-12 to pass Senate Bill 357, sponsored by Sen. Dawn Gile (D-Anne Arundel) and Sen. Brian Feldman (D-Montgomery). The bill would expand the authority of PDAB, which is currently tasked with finding ways to reduce the cost of prescription drugs on the state's health plan, saving some taxpayer dollars in the process.
The bill would expand the board's authority to set what are called upper-payment limits on prescription drugs in the commercial market. Doing so would limit how much drug purchasers could spend on certain medications, which supporters hope would result in savings for more Marylanders.
The Senate vote came almost three weeks after the House voted 94-38 on party lines to pass its own version of the bill — but not before debate devolved into a partisan shouting match. After Republicans argued that the bill would limit access to health care for some, Majority Leader David Moon (D-Montgomery) said the real threat to health care were the cuts being made to federal health agencies by the Trump White House.
The two-chamber approval of companion bills is an improvement over last year, when similar legislation stalled in committee. But it's not a done deal: The Senate bill passed Wednesday is slightly different than the House version, and those differences will need to be worked out before lawmakers can agree on a final bill to send to the governor for his signature.
The Senate version has provisions that expand the size of the board's stakeholder council to include more perspectives from different points of the prescription drug industry. It also issues different reporting requirements on how the PDAB's actions affect access to certain drugs.
Despite the differences, health care advocates are energized by the legislation's progress, calling the Senate vote 'amazing news.'
'Too many people in our state struggle to pay for their essential medications, and we must do more to make drugs affordable for all,' Vincent DeMarco, president of Maryland Health Care for All, said in a written statement Wednesday.
The LifeBridge Health board of directors said it will mount a national search to replace President and CEO Neil Meltzer, who announced plans to retire after 37 years at the company, 12 as its head.
The company operates five acute care centers in Baltimore City and Carroll and Baltimore counties, and more than 130 offices throughout Central Maryland, according to its website. It said the $2.2 billion nonprofit system has doubled in size during Meltzer's tenure, adding Carroll Hospital in Westminster and Grace Medical Center in Baltimore in that time.
LifeBridge Board Chairman Lee Coplan said the board is 'deeply grateful to Neil for his extraordinary leadership and lasting impact on our organization and community.'
'Neil has led LifeBridge Health with a bold vision, creating seamless connections across the continuum of care—from a fitness and wellness center to long-term and specialty care,' Coplan said. 'His leadership has strengthened our ability to serve our community holistically.'
Meltzer joined Sinai Hospital of Baltimore in 1988, eventually becoming president and chief operating officer a decade later. He became CEO of LifeBridge Health in 2013. He is currently chair of the Advisory Panel on Outreach and Education for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and serves on the boards of the Greater Baltimore Committee, the Maryland Hospital Association, among others.
Meltzer will continue to serve as CEO until a successor is in place.