Commentary

I served in the Maryland House of Delegates for 24 years, from 1995 to 2019. At the end of each General Assembly session, I’d send a letter to my constituents summarizing the bills that passed or failed. The media covered the high profile and controversial issues, so my report included a section of “Unsung Legislative Actions.” These were items that didn’t get headlines but were important. These two bills — both enacted in the 2022 session — initially may seem remote or technical in nature, but they will impact the health and well-being of every Marylander with minimal cost and substantial benefit. You should know about them.

The Climate Solutions Now Act sets up a huge potential for Maryland to go even further in its goals to eliminate the vast majority of emissions.By allowing the Climate Solutions Now Act to become law, Governor Larry Hogan and the Maryland General Assembly have thrown down the gauntlet. We as a state are now required by law to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions 60% by 2031 and 100% by 2045. We should be proud of our leadership in the General Assembly and the many advocates who worked for the bill’s passage.

At a time when reproductive rights are under unprecedented attack across the country, Maryland took a significant step to increase access to abortion statewide. Not only will women in Maryland benefit from the forward-looking legislation that lifts outdated barriers on who can perform abortions, but also the expansion of access could help women from other states where laws are being passed to restrict or ban abortions in anticipation of a Supreme Court ruling soon on a Mississippi case challenging Roe v. Wade.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently authorized a second booster shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for those age 50 and older. The recommendation follows a study out of Israel recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The Israel study reports a modest relative risk reduction in COVID-19 infections for those receiving a second booster compared to those who have gotten one booster, on the order of 1.5 times lower, with this benefit waning over the length of the study period, or around two months.

“In my life,” Eric Schuster said, “except for my father and father-in-law, there has been no man I respected more than Judge Joseph W. Hatchett.” Schuster is an attorney with Funk & Bolton in Baltimore, specializing in financial law and, specifically, creditor rights. In 1983, after he graduated from Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, he scored a clerkship with Hatchett, who at the time sat in Tallahassee on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. (Judges on the 11th Circuit review and rule on cases from Florida, Georgia and Alabama.)

Children and adolescents in our country are in crisis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released a comprehensive survey that chronicled a startling decline in adolescent mental health from 2009 to 2019. According to that report, more than 1 out of every 3 high school students had experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in 2019 — a 40% increase since 2009. This is not an occasional bad day.

Like most mothers, some of my first thoughts every morning are about my children. I have two daughters, both now adults, who are deaf. I am immensely proud of them, and as their mother, I am no less concerned with their happiness, health and safety today than when they were little. Like other families of children with disabilities and special health care needs, our thoughts never stray too far from concerns that our kids have continued access to the resources they need to thrive.