Senate Committee

A Senate committee voted 8-3 Friday to approve a measure decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, sending it to the full chamber next week. The bill would replace criminal penalties for possession of up to 10 grams of the drug with a $100 civil fine that would be handled much like a parking ticket. Maryland law now makes possession a misdemeanor with penalties of up to 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $500. The legislation, which has bipartisan sponsorship, is expected to pass the Senate but faces an uncertain future in the House, which killed it last year after the upper chamber approved it. The House has a work group studying the broader question of how to treat marijuana in state law, including proposals to allow expanded medical use of the drug.

Carolyn W. Colvin's nomination to lead the Social Security Administration cleared the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, queuing up a final vote for the Maryland native later this year. The committee voted 22-2 to advance her nomination to head the Woodlawn-based agency, where she has served as acting commissioner since early last year. "Colvin has vast management experience and a steely resolve to complete successfully whatever mission she is assigned," Sen. Ben Cardin, a member of the committee, said in a statement.

A bill that would have imposed a moratorium on the use of hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas in Maryland was defeated Wednesday night in a Senate committee. The Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee voted 6-5 to reject the bill, which would have barred "fracking" in the state until the state Department of the Environment completes a study of the practice's environmental impact and issues appropriate rules. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Robert A. Zirkin, a Baltimore County Democrat.

The Social Security Administration applies inconsistent criteria when deciding whether to close its field offices, and it rarely involves local officials or the public in the process, a Senate committee says in a bipartisan report to be released Wednesday. The Woodlawn-based agency, which serves nearly 57 million beneficiaries, often fails to adequately study the impact that closing an office has on a community and whether people can easily access the next-closest site — factors Social Security says are priorities — the Senate Special Committee on Aging found.

A change in the membership of a key Maryland Senate committee could hand Gov. Martin O'Malley a long-sought victory on a measure to foster development of a wind power industry off Ocean City. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller has replaced Sen. C. Anthony Muse on the Finance Committee with Sen. Victor R. Ramirez, Miller's office confirmed Thursday. The switch, which replaces one Prince George's County Democrat with another, was first reported on the Washington Post's web site.

Carolyn W. Colvin's nomination to lead the Social Security Administration cleared the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, queuing up a final vote for the Maryland native later this year. The committee voted 22-2 to advance her nomination to head the Woodlawn-based agency, where she has served as acting commissioner since early last year. "Colvin has vast management experience and a steely resolve to complete successfully whatever mission she is assigned," Sen. Ben Cardin, a member of the committee, said in a statement.

Behind-the-scenes jostling for committee chairmanships in the U.S. Senate has left Maryland Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski poised to take over the Senate Intelligence Committee — a move experts said Tuesday could bolster the role cybersecurity plays in the state's economy. But depending on what more senior lawmakers decide, the Maryland Democrat could also be in line to lead the committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which oversees the Silver Spring-based Food and Drug Administration and would direct the reauthorization of key education programs.

A Senate committee listened Tuesday to the pros and cons of expanding Maryland's sales tax base to include more services, as well as goods purchased over the Internet. The Senate Budget and Taxation Committee spent the day in Annapolis receiving briefings on taxes, the federal debt ceiling, education funding and toll increases. Legislative committees meet occasionally between the 90-day General Assembly sessions. Tangible products, but few services, sold by Maryland retailers are taxed at 6 percent.

ANNAPOLIS -- A bill intended to prevent physicians from sending patients to facilities in which the physician has a financial interest died yesterday in a Senate committee.House Bill 1374, the so-called "physician self-referral" bill, failed to win a single vote once members of the Senate Finance Committee agreed there was little time to consider all the amendments offered.The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, the state physicians' society known as Med-Chi, had pushed for the bill as a way to contain health-care costs.

A state Senate committee passed a death penalty reform bill yesterday designed to streamline the lengthy appeals process, but rejected the governor's request to limit the scope of Maryland's harshest punishment.In a 9-2 vote, the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee passed the bill, which proponents say would reduce the time from sentencing to execution to six years.Fourteen people are on death row in Maryland, some of whom have been there off and on for at least the past decade. No one has been executed since 1961.

The General Assembly session ends Monday, and already lawmakers have sent to Gov. Martin O'Malley's desk a number of important pieces of legislation, including a bill banning discrimination against transgender individuals, reforms to Baltimore's liquor board and new protections against domestic violence. But a few major issue remain to be decided during the next few days, including: •Minimum wage. The most important item on Governor O'Malley's agenda has gotten steadily watered down.

Ending a standoff that had stalled the governor's top legislative priority, General Assembly leaders said Wednesday that they have reached a deal to raise Maryland's minimum wage, while also boosting the pay of workers caring for the developmentally disabled. Under terms unveiled by Sen. Thomas M. Middleton and approved by the Senate Finance Committee, the minimum wage would rise incrementally to $10.10 by July 2018, two years later than Gov. Martin O'Malley proposed. At the same time, funding for state-paid workers who care for the developmentally disabled would increase by about $30 million a year starting in fiscal 2016, Middleton said.

Nearly 100 medical marijuana dispensaries could be opened across Maryland under a bill approved by a key Senate committee Tuesday. The measure approved 10-1 by the Judicial Proceedings Committee would create a medical marijuana program significantly different than the version approved by the House of Delegates. The House plan calls for 10 licensed pot growers that would also operate all dispensaries. Senators said they worried the House version would create a monopoly of pot growers who could control medical marijuana prices and wield considerable political power.

Thank you for your editorial describing Dr. Vivek Murthy's qualifications to serve as our nation's next surgeon general. Moreover, thank you for chastising the National Rifle Association's irrational, unfounded attacks on Dr. Murthy ( "Another NRA victim," March 20). Let me offer a few facts and my firsthand observations of Dr. Murthy's skills and abilities. As your editorial notes, he truly is accomplished in several key aspects of delivering health care directly to patients, teaching medical students, conducting research and setting up innovative private sector information systems for doctors.

One bill sought by the Brewers Association of Maryland was killed in a Senate committee this week, while another was approved only after being sharply cut back. Some of the breweries most active in seeking the legislation came out losers. The panel voted down a bill that would have increased the amount of beer the holder of a brewpub license could produce. The main beneficiary of the bill would have been Evolution Craft Brewing in Salisbury. The Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee approved a bill allowing micro-breweries to offer samples and sell beers at farmer's markets only after severely limiting which brewers could participate, according to brewers association executive director J.T. Smith.

A Senate committee voted 8-3 Friday to approve a measure decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, sending it to the full chamber next week. The bill would replace criminal penalties for possession of up to 10 grams of the drug with a $100 civil fine that would be handled much like a parking ticket. Maryland law now makes possession a misdemeanor with penalties of up to 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $500. The legislation, which has bipartisan sponsorship, is expected to pass the Senate but faces an uncertain future in the House, which killed it last year after the upper chamber approved it. The House has a work group studying the broader question of how to treat marijuana in state law, including proposals to allow expanded medical use of the drug.

2/3 TC ANNAPOLIS -- A proposal to privatize the troubled Charles H. Hickey Jr. School for juvenile delinquents moved a step forward yesterday when a Senate committee voted to abolish state jobs associated with the institution but not the money.The Budget and Taxation Committee also recommended that Dr. Nancy S. Grasmick, secretary of the Department of Juvenile Services, be given maximum flexibility in determining the school's future operation."The good people will find other jobs in the system, and the bad ones shouldn't find other jobs," said Sen. Barbara A. Hoffman, D-Baltimore.

Efforts to toughen penalties for young bomb-threat pranksters were dealt a serious blow yesterday when a Senate committee approved legislation that a House committee has twice rejected.There may be too little time for the House and Senate to work out a compromise before the scheduled end of the General Assembly session Monday."Realistically, it's probably not going to be worked out," said Sen. C. Edward Middlebrooks, a Severn Republican whose bomb-threat-penalty bill was voted down by the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

A Senate committee voted to approve Gov. Martin O'Malley's nomination of a former employee of a New Jersey utility company to the Public Service Commission over the protest of a group of Montgomery County consumers. Opponents expressed concern that Anne E. Hoskins, who was appointed to the powerful regulatory body in August, would be too supportive of power companies and not sympathetic to ratepayers. Sen. Delores G. Kelley, chair of the Executive Nominations Committee, said she had received letters supporting and opposing Hoskins' continued service on the PSC. Hoskins has been serving in a provisional capacity since her appointment.

The Maryland Senate passed one of the governor's proposals to combat domestic violence Thursday, sending to the House a bill that would make it easier for assault victims to obtain permanent court orders telling their abusers to stay away. Meeting despite the snow, senators approved the measure that would add second-degree assault to the list of crimes that can trigger a protective order. There was no debate or dissent. A similar measure is scheduled for a hearing in the House next week.