The final hours of the Maryland legislative session

“We’ve put forth a really aggressive agenda almost all of which looks like its going to get done,” said Maryland Governor Larry Hogan.

It was crunch time for Maryland’s General Assembly as they worked around the clock to get hundreds of bills passed by midnight which marked the end of the 90 day legislative session.

“There’s almost a thousand bills that they’re trying to get done by midnight tonight its crazy but most of the important things that we focused on has already gotten done,” said Hogan.

So far both the house and senate have made significant progress in approving several important pieces of legislation including the approval to enhance school safety across the state.

“No mom or dad should ever have to worry when they send their kids off to school whether their son or daughter is going to come home safely and I think everybody agreed,” said Hogan.

“When we’re talking about their safety that is of the upmost importance they have spoken about more resource officers, metal detectors more education for the school personnel to interface with crisis situations de-escalation also making sure we have mental health providers in our schools,” said Maryland Delegate Sheree Sample-Hughes.

Both chambers also approved public safety and violent crimes initiatives,supported by Governor Hogan, that included harsher and longer penalties for repeat violent offenders.

“We need to make sure in the same breath that we’re taking care of victims that there is restitution made for when somebody does something wrong to another person,” said Maryland Delegate Carl Anderton.

But both the Senate and the house still had important pieces of gun control legislation to get to including the red flag bill, that’s designed to get guns out of the hands of those who may be a danger to themselves or to others.

“The bill I think right now is being amended or dealt with in the house I think the house rejected the senate’s amendment so I think that’s going to be interesting to see what happens and if it comes back to us but there’s still more work to be done on that tonight,” said Senator Addie Eckardt.

Hogan added that he was extremely happy with the progress both the house and the senate had made, and that this was one of their most successful sessions out of all four years.