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Catholics focus on education funding, protecting life and more in new session of Maryland General Assembly

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Annapolis
Annapolis, Md., town skyline at Chesapeake Bay with the United States Naval Academy Chapel dome. Getty Images.

The 441st legislative session of the Maryland General Assembly began Jan. 8 with legislators, advocates and members of the public converging on the state capital to mark the start of 90 days of state policymaking.

Maryland’s annual legislative session runs each year from January to April during which time many issues come before legislators. The last day of the session is April 6.

As of the opening bell, more than 50 House bills and 120 Senate bills were pre-filed. Legislators are expected to introduce as many as 3,000 bills during the 90-day session.

Among the top priorities for the Catholic Church during are:

Education funding. The conference will support increasing funding for the BOOST Scholarship Program and for expanding access to pre-kindergarten to all Maryland 4-year-olds.

Protecting life. The Conference will oppose any efforts to enshrine abortion in Maryland’s constitution and to legalize the practice of physician-assisted suicide.

Support for our most vulnerable. The conference will support efforts to protect immigrants, provide for the poor, curb human trafficking, protect the environment, provide services to individuals with disabilities, and violence protection programs.

To stay up-to-date on the work of the conference in the next 90 days, be sure to visit the www.mdcatholic/legislation, the hub for conference activity. Testimony submitted by the conference is shared on the site as well as a tracker of all bills of interest.