Commentary

It’s been an unusual, difficult year for all of us. But despite the atypical times, this year’s legislative session went as it usually does, with Democrats in the Maryland General Assembly overriding Gov. Larry Hogan’s vetoes to deliver results for our state. The unusual year compounded high expectations coming into the 2021 session; Maryland faced intertwined economic, public health and racial justice crises that required immediate action.

With the change in presidential administrations, some are demanding that President Biden fire the current Commissioner, Andrew Saul, of the Social Security Administration (SSA), appointed by President Donald Trump. Under current law, Commissioner Saul may stay in office through the end of his term (another four years), although a recent Supreme Court decision does put the law around independent agencies into constitutional question. Legal and political issues aside, what is, as a matter of good public policy, the correct governance and political structure for this massive, critical federal agency, with considerable decision-making authority and policy responsibility?

We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to pass a new law, the For the People Act, that secures our elections, protects our freedom to vote, gets big money and special interests out of politics, and cleans up government. The For the People Act, introduced as H.R. 1 and S. 1 to indicate its high priority, is the most transformative pro-democracy bill introduced in Congress since the Watergate era. It is the bold action that Americans want and deserve, and Congressman John Sarbanes has been championing this comprehensive effort through Congress.

On a drizzly Saturday morning, when spring seemed to have hit the “pause” button and the TV news was just as dreary, a friend and I drove to Dundalk. We thought we’d mosey around the Plaza Flea Market, maybe get some face masks, light bulbs, new sweatpants. What we found instead was dazzling diversity. The Plaza Flea Market’s logo is a silhouetted farmer driving an Amish-style buggy.

David Fowler, Maryland’s former longtime chief medical examiner, drew national attention recently when he testified in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted on murder and manslaughter charges for killing George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for more than 9 minutes last May. It was Dr. Fowler’s opinion that the victim died not of a lack of oxygen, as Minnesota medical experts had explained, but by a suddenly erratic heartbeat brought on, in part, by breathing in carbon monoxide fumes from a nearby vehicle exhaust. Given the overwhelming nature of the prosecutorial evidence, including a video of Mr. Floyd repeatedly pleading that he could not breathe, this struck even the most casual observer as somewhat suspect. But, some fear, it may have been much worse than that.

We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to pass a new law, the For the People Act, that secures our elections, protects our freedom to vote, gets big money and special interests out of politics, and cleans up government. The For the People Act, introduced as H.R. 1 and S. 1 to indicate its high priority, is the most transformative pro-democracy bill introduced in Congress since the Watergate era. It is the bold action that Americans want and deserve, and Congressman John Sarbanes has been championing this comprehensive effort through Congress.