Senate Version

Sen. Ben Cardin used a roundtable discussion in Prince George's County on Thursday to call on House Republicans to pass the Senate version of a bill that would reauthorize hundreds of millions of dollars of spending on domestic abuse shelters and violence prevention programs. Both chambers of Congress have passed legislation to spend $660 million a year over five years to combat violence against women -- funding programs that have been reauthorized twice before with bipartisan support.

Maryland's pit bulls remained in peril Wednesday as two legislators clashed over a lingering House-Senate impasse on a bill that would invalidate a court decision labeling the bill as inherently dangerous. Del. Luiz R. S. Simmons took advantage of a House hearing on the Senate version of the bill to fire question after question at Sen. Brian E. Frosh, chairman of the Judicial Proceedings Committee, over changes that panel made to a compromise the two Montgomery County Democrats struck early in this year's session.

One day after a decisive Senate vote, a House of Delegates committee swiftly approved yesterday a proposal to ban discrimination against gays and lesbians in Maryland. The House Judiciary Committee voted 13-8 to send the measure to the full House, where it is expected to be easily approved. The committee amended the bill to exactly match the version that cleared the Senate 34-12 Tuesday. "The fact is, if there is one case of discrimination that can be prevented or one case of discrimination that needs to be adjudicated, then we need to have the law in place," said Del. Kenneth C. Montague Jr., a Baltimore Democrat.

The House of Delegates moved closer to abolishing Maryland's death penalty Wednesday night as it rejected changes that attempted to turn Gov. Martin O'Malley's bill into something less than full repeal. In the first of several key tests, delegates voted 77-61 to reject an amendment that would allow capital punishment for inmates already incarcerated for murder who kill again. The House worked into the night rejecting amendment after amendment — most offered by Republicans — before giving the bill preliminary approval shortly before 9 p.m. The bill is likely to come up for a final vote in the House Friday.

The state's House of Delegates recently passed by a 134-to-0 vote a bill that would make it easier for homeowners to refinance mortgages at today's low rates. The bill, modeled after a law Virginia adopted more than a decade ago, would allow homeowners to proceed with refinancing a first mortgage without permission from a second mortgagor. The process of seeking such approval can be costly, confusing and time-consuming, according to the bill's sponsors. “Too many homeowners struggle to make payments on more than one mortgage,” said Del. Sam Arora, a Montgomery County Democrat who co-sponsored the bill, HB 88. “We have a real opportunity to help them by removing an unnecessary barrier to locking in lower interest rates and stay in their homes.” For the law to apply, the principal of the second mortgage would have to be $150,000 or less.

This is the status of the Schaefer administration's 1992 legislative package as of Friday:*Assault weapons ban: House version amended and passed. Senate version killed in committee. House version could pass Senate if it can get one vote in committee.*Requiring guns to be stored away from children: Passed by House. Senate version amended and sent to floor. Passage likely.*Higher penalties for taking prison guards hostage: Passed both houses.*Increased protection for battered women: House version pending in committee.

Maryland Del. James E. Malone Jr. was motoring down I-97 the other day when he came up behind a car doing about 40 in the fast lane. When he moved to pass the car on the slow side, he looked over and noticed the driver was a woman with four dogs in her lap. "I think one of them was driving," he says, still incredulous. "Four different dogs. I'm like good grief. You just look at them and shake your head. " But, hey, that sort of thing is still legal in Maryland. Lawmakers just foiled Malone's bill that would have made driving distracted by animals illegal, an offense punishable by a $500 fine.

WASHINGTON - A divided House approved an intelligence agency overhaul bill yesterday that differs sharply from a Senate version passed earlier and sets up a showdown between the two chambers over the shape of the final bill. Opponents said the House bill, which passed 282 to 134, was laced with anti-immigrant provisions that had little to do with intelligence or national security. GOP leaders said their bill would not only reform intelligence gathering, but also strengthen border security, help prevent identity theft, improve the ability of the Homeland Security Department to block terrorist travel and create a new post inside the department to head up cyber security.

Updated with comments from Harris and Bartlett. In a rare intra-delegation, across-the-aisle nudge, Sen.Barbara A. Mikulskion Tuesday called on the state's two Republican lawmakers in Washington to support a Senate version of an overhaul of theU.S. Postal Servicethat would save a pair of mail sorting facilities that just happen to be located in the lawmakers' districts. The move instantly put Republican Reps. Andy Harris and Roscoe Bartlett on defense, forcing them to either support the bipartisan Senate version of the postal legislation -- which is not popular with Republican House leaders -- or acknowledge that the Postal Service must be allowed to trim costs and close plants, even if the cuts are made in their own districts.

With the U.S. Senate's approval of a landmark immigration bill last week, setting up a showdown with the House, some policymakers say moving forward depends on looking back. Twenty years back, to be precise. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed a sweeping immigration reform bill featuring, among other things, widespread legalization of illegal immigrants, tougher border enforcement and measures aimed at eliminating the hiring of unauthorized workers. The current Senate proposal includes similar features.

Howard County Executive Ken Ulman lent his support this week to a pair of bills in Annapolis that would make cyberbullying a crime in Maryland. "The insults and accusations that rush through the cyber-sphere can be beyond anything with which we adults are familiar," said Ulman in written testimony submitted for a March 7 hearing before the House Judiciary Committee. A House version of the bill, the subject of Thursday's hearing, is sponsored by Del. Jon Cardin, a Baltimore County Democrat.

The state's House of Delegates recently passed by a 134-to-0 vote a bill that would make it easier for homeowners to refinance mortgages at today's low rates. The bill, modeled after a law Virginia adopted more than a decade ago, would allow homeowners to proceed with refinancing a first mortgage without permission from a second mortgagor. The process of seeking such approval can be costly, confusing and time-consuming, according to the bill's sponsors. “Too many homeowners struggle to make payments on more than one mortgage,” said Del. Sam Arora, a Montgomery County Democrat who co-sponsored the bill, HB 88. “We have a real opportunity to help them by removing an unnecessary barrier to locking in lower interest rates and stay in their homes.” For the law to apply, the principal of the second mortgage would have to be $150,000 or less.

Editor: The recent Special Session convened in the Maryland General Assembly dealt with two proposed bills in which four days of debate were spent. Senate Bill II was designed as the supposed answer to the recent Maryland Court of Appeals ruling in Tracy vs. Solesky regarding pit bull dogs and Senate Bill I was the controversial expansion of a sixth casino forPrince George's County.  The Senate took what was a bad ruling in Tracy vs. Solesky and made it much worse by deciding that all dog owners would be liable for injuries to victims.

Former Gov. Robert L. EhrlichJr.used a bit too much dramatic license in claiming that the Transportation Security Administration was the brainchild of the "left" ("The left and right view the world in predictable ways," Aug. 5). My recollection is that the TSA was put into motion by former PresidentGeorge W. Bush, who could not be considered a member of the "left" by any reasonable measure, and that the actual creation of the agency reflected the bi-partisan spirit in Congress that existed immediately after the9/11terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

Sen. Ben Cardin used a roundtable discussion in Prince George's County on Thursday to call on House Republicans to pass the Senate version of a bill that would reauthorize hundreds of millions of dollars of spending on domestic abuse shelters and violence prevention programs. Both chambers of Congress have passed legislation to spend $660 million a year over five years to combat violence against women -- funding programs that have been reauthorized twice before with bipartisan support.

Updated with comments from Harris and Bartlett. In a rare intra-delegation, across-the-aisle nudge, Sen.Barbara A. Mikulskion Tuesday called on the state's two Republican lawmakers in Washington to support a Senate version of an overhaul of theU.S. Postal Servicethat would save a pair of mail sorting facilities that just happen to be located in the lawmakers' districts. The move instantly put Republican Reps. Andy Harris and Roscoe Bartlett on defense, forcing them to either support the bipartisan Senate version of the postal legislation -- which is not popular with Republican House leaders -- or acknowledge that the Postal Service must be allowed to trim costs and close plants, even if the cuts are made in their own districts.

ANNAPOLIS -- Demonstrating the increasing popularity of environmental issues among legislators, the House of Delegates overwhelmingly approved yesterday a Senate bill designed to protect Maryland's remaining forests from the chain saws and bulldozers of developers.Introduced at the request of Gov. William Donald Schaefer and approved 121-14, the heavily amended measure now is headed for a joint conference committee where Senate conferees hope to convince their House counterparts to accept strengthening amendments.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate rejected Democratic attempts yesterday to scale back expansion of the government's powers to monitor phone calls and e-mail as part of its efforts to fight terrorism. Senators also voted to immunize telecommunications companies from lawsuits for their role in aiding the government's warrantless eavesdropping program. The bill, comprising amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, now goes to the House for a potential showdown. The House version offers no protection for the telecom industry and more restrictions on government power.

The Senate Budget & Taxation Committee has rejected a controversial amendment the House attached to an administration bill creating a new framework for public-private partnerships before sending its own version of the the legislation to the Senate floor. Sen. Edward Kasemeyer, the committee chairman, said his panel did not adopt language from the House  bill that would have allowed expedited appeals in a pending case involving a $1.5 billion partnership for the redevelopment of the State Center office complex in Baltimore.

A bill to lift the age for compulsory education in Maryland to a student's 18th birthday got a nod from the House of Delegates today, but still needs final approval from the Senate. The legislation would raise the age for compulsory education from 16 to 17 by the 2015-2016 school year. And, by the start of school in 2017, students in Marylanders would have to stay in the classroom until their 18th birthday. "We have to have a policy in this state saying children are children and can't make adult decisions that will affect their livelihood," said Del. Aisha N. Braveboy, the Prince George's County lawmaker who sponsored the House version of the bill (HB 373)