Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) offer support for the Blueprint for Maryland's Future education reform bill during a hearing in February. Photo by Danielle E. Gaines.
The presiding officers of the General Assembly are looking ahead to the upcoming session ? now just five weeks away ? with a mixture of uncertainty over the logistics and agenda but with a sense of optimism that things in Maryland will soon get better.
“We are facing a one in one hundred year moment in time,” Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) said Wednesday. “The good news is, there is a very clear light spot at the end of this tunnel. The bad news, is the next four months” will be difficult.
Ferguson and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) spoke virtually Wednesday to a session preview convened for the clients of the lobbying firm Harris Jones Malone. They both described how the session will be organized with multiple protocols designed to keep lawmakers and the public safe as the coronavirus rages ? and laid out tentative agendas for combating the devastation wrought by COVID-19.
“Everybody wants to know what session during a pandemic is going to look like,” Jones said. “Your guess is as good as mine. We are in uncharted territory. …What is certain is that this session will be unlike any other.”
