The 447th session of the Maryland General Assembly begins on Wednesday, January 8th, at 12:00 PM, as mandated by the Maryland State Constitution. During this session, it is anticipated that over 3,000 bills will be introduced. Of these, nearly 1,000 are expected to pass both chambers and be presented to Governor Moore for his signature to become law.
Many of these new laws could significantly impact your business or organization. Fortunately, the Maryland legislative process offers numerous opportunities for engagement. You can monitor proposed legislation, submit written or oral testimony (either electronically, in person, or virtually), and stay actively involved as bills progress through the state legislature.
To begin, consider setting up a bill tracker on the Maryland General Assembly website to stay informed and engaged throughout the session.
Creating an Account:
- Visit https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/
- Click on the MY MGA link in the upper right corner of the page and select Register from the drop down menu
- Fill out your information and create a new My MGA Tracking Account, and you will receive an email from no-reply@mlis.state.md.us to verify your email address
- Exit and reenter the MY MGA link
Creating and Managing your Bill Tracker
- Select the Add List button at the top of the page and create a name for your new list.
- Choose your preferred format, email preferences and update your notification preferences. Be sure to hit Save!
- On the LIST page, select the Edit List Items button
- Search the list of filed bills, and chose and Check mark the bills you’d like to add to your tracker. You can filter bills by keyword/file code based on what you think is important to your business. We recommend the following filing codes for general business information, but also be sure to look up keywords specific to your business or industry!
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- Economic Development (c8)
- Taxes – Miscellaneous (q7)
- Business Regulation (c2)
- Corporations and Associations (c1)
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- Once you’ve filtered bills, you can select the Check all button at the top of the page to select all the bills for that file code type or keyword.
- Once you’ve checked all of the bills you’d like in your Tracker, select the Save button
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- Please Note: you can also add or delete bills from your tracker throughout the session using the steps above
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From the Bill Tracking List page, you can now select the Run Report button, and you’ll receive an updated list of the actual daily status of ALL of the items on your Tracker. This will include information on the “reader” status, committee hearing schedule, and other pertinent information on all of the bills you’ve added to your Tracker. This information is updated daily by the Department of Legislative Services beginning on January 8, 2025 at 12:00pm.
Finally, be sure you are signed up to receive our weekly newsletter, where we’ll be covering important advocacy issues throughout the entire process!
Frederick Chamber Insights is a news outlet of the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce. For more information about membership, programs and initiatives, please visit our website.