Politics

A key leader in the Maryland Senate will vacate his seat of nearly three decades to join the new Wes Moore administration. Sen. Paul Pinsky, D-Prince George’s and chair of the Senate Education Health, Education and Environmental Committee, will leave the chamber to become the new director of the Maryland Energy Administration. Gov.-elect Moore announced Pinsky’s selection and the appointment of Mollie Byron as director of intergovernmental affairs in an email Tuesday. The announcement sparked a flurry of rumors earlier in the day and is expected to factor into what will be a major announcement on changes in Senate leadership in the next 24 hours.

Congress unveiled a $1.7 trillion spending package early Tuesday that would fund the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year, completing the annual process that began this spring when President Biden sent lawmakers his budget request. Biden’s chief budget official in a statement urged Congress to speedily pass the massive measure before a Friday deadline and send it to the president. The omnibus, as it’s known, is likely to be the last significant piece of legislation lawmakers will push through during the 117th Congress.

Environmental groups won a victory Tuesday in their fight for more pollution controls on Maryland’s Conowingo Dam. when a federal court invalidated a 50-year license for the hydroelectric dam. By voiding the license, issued last year by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals is sending it back to the agency for further review. Local environmental groups, including Waterkeepers Chesapeake and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, considered the license a missed opportunity to regulate how the dam’s operator manages the polluted sediment trapped behind the dam, which bridges the Susquehanna River between Harford and Cecil counties.

Several regional environmental groups have filed suit against the Maryland Department of the Environment, arguing the latest iteration of its stormwater permit covering hundreds of industrial facilities statewide is insufficient. In three separate suits filed Friday and Monday in Baltimore County Circuit Court, the nonprofits argued that Maryland officials failed to adequately consider factors such as increased rainfall due to climate change while drafting the new permit — and that it won’t do enough to slow pollution flowing into state waterways.

The lobbying arm of the Catholic church in Maryland is making a partial concession to legislative reforms that would help victims of priest sexual abuse sue the church decades later. The Maryland Catholic Conference, which represents the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the Archdiocese of Washington and the Diocese of Wilmington, Del., announced Monday it will support legislation to erase the statute of limitations for future victims to sue the church.

Gov. Larry Hogan has declared this Friday will be a state holiday for Maryland state government agencies and offices. “This year, I am declaring Dec. 23 as a holiday so that our hard-working employees can spend more time enjoying the holidays with their loved ones,” the outgoing governor said in a news release. “This is just another way to show our appreciation to our dedicated state workers who have worked tirelessly to serve their fellow Marylanders and help us to truly change Maryland for the better.”