Politics

Outgoing House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said he has not ruled out running for Congress in 2024. When asked during CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday morning whether he plans to run for reelection in 2024, the Maryland Democrat said, “I may. I may.” Host Dana Bash asked, “You’re not onto the exit ramp yet?” He answered, “No.”

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on Thursday was elected ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform for the 118th Congress — a powerful position once held by his friend and fellow Marylander, the late Rep. Elijah Cummings (D). After winning the endorsement of the House Democratic Steering Committee last week, Raskin was elected by a 133-75 vote of the full Democratic caucus Thursday, defeating Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly. He succeeds outgoing New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who was defeated in a Democratic primary earlier this year.

On the final day of testimony in her eight-day disciplinary hearing, Prince George’s County Board of Education Chair Juanita Miller spoke for herself Wednesday. A state administrative judge will determine whether Miller should be removed from serving on the school board — but a decision isn’t expected for at least a few months. Since Miller’s appointment as chair in January 2021, the board has experienced frequent disagreements, many of which surfaced publicly. The current board leader said she wanted to establish a team effort but recognized there was already some “discourse” that imperiled efforts to unify the board members.

The Senate passed a massive $1.7 trillion spending bill Thursday that finances federal agencies through September and provides another significant round of military and economic aid to Ukraine one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s dramatic address to a joint meeting of Congress. The bill, which runs for 4,155 pages, includes about $772.5 billion for domestic programs and $858 billion for defense and would finance federal agencies through the fiscal year at the end of September.

Maryland’s hospital emergency rooms have the longest wait times in the country, according to a Dec. 21 investigation by Meredith Cohn in the Baltimore Banner. That’s a bad distinction for our state to have at any time, and especially when multiple winter viruses are slamming ERs nationwide. Cohn cites data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finding that Maryland’s average wait time has reached an astounding 228 minutes. Nearly four hours before you can get seen in the emergency room? Better hope it’s not an emergency!

Citing state and federal rules that protect grand jury materials, a Baltimore judge ordered proceedings to remain secret in the legal effort to release an investigation into the history of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church of Baltimore. Circuit Judge Anthony Vittoria on Thursday denied two appeals from survivors of priest sexual abuse who sought to have the proceedings opened up.