House and Senate leaders: Only redistricting bills will be drafted for special session

MARYLAND (WBFF) — When Maryland lawmakers return to Annapolis in two weeks for a special session focused on congressional redistricting, some delegates are hoping to use the gathering to address other issues.

“We did end the session with a lot of unfinished business,” Del. Ryan Nawrocki, (R) Baltimore County, said. “We have now the second worst economy in the country. There’s issues in respect to data centers that have come up. If we’re going to play this silly game of partisan redistricting we should talk about the other things our constituents really want us to work on.”

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But, House and Senate leaders are moving to limit the scope of the Aug. 3-5 special session.

In a letter to lawmakers, leaders wrote: “As presiding officers, we have directed the Department of Legislative Services to accept bill drafting requests for the Aug. 3-5 special session ‘only’ if they relate directly to the purpose for which the Maryland General Assembly is being reconvened: consideration of legislation concerning congressional redistricting standards.”

Political analyst John Dedie said leadership wants to keep the session narrowly focused.

“Leadership does not want to get sidetracked. They want to do redistricting and get out of town,” Dedie said.

Dedie said limiting the session to redistricting could also create political complications, particularly from members of the disability community who had hoped lawmakers would use the special session to restore millions of dollars in budget cuts.

“That could backfire because there may be a lot of advocates who remember who didn’t support them and who didn’t want to do these types of things,” Dedie said.

Despite the directive from leadership, some lawmakers said they still hope leaders will reconsider a redistricting-only approach.

“I don’t think these are partisan issues. I would hope both Democrats and Republicans would want to talk about more than just furthering the governor’s political future,” Nawrocki said.