On Wednesday, January 11, 2023, Senator Bailey was sworn in for another term serving to residents of District 29 as the Maryland General Assembly convened for this year’s regular session. The Senator looks forward to continuing to provide available, approachable, and committed leadership for St. Mary’s and Calvert Counties and working to advance our priorities in the Senate again this year. He is also looking forward to his new committee assignment serving on the Senate’s Budget and Taxation Committee. This will help Senator Bailey to continue advocating for our District’s funding priorities as well to provide oversight of our State’s fiscal policies and work for lower taxes for Marylanders.
We are happy to share that the General Assembly complex will be open this year for all Marylanders to observe their legislature and participate in bill hearings. Here are a few helpful tips on how to contact the Senator’s office and to follow and testify on legislation this session.
Contacting Our Office:
As in previous years, the best way to contact Senator Bailey’s office continues to be by e-mail at jack.bailey@senate.state.md.us. This will ensure the most efficient review of and response to your question, comment, issue, or scheduling request.
Meetings with Senator Bailey or his staff during the legislative session are held by appointment and can be conducted in-person in our Annapolis office or virtually. Meeting requests should be submitted to the Senator’s office by e-mail at jack.bailey@senate.state.md.us. Please be aware that requests for meetings during the session will often be greater than available time, particularly as the session goes on. Due to the volume of requests, we recommend that, if possible, you first send written information on the topic that you want to meet about to the Senator’s office at the above email address.
New Annapolis Office:
If you are visiting Annapolis during the session, please be aware that Senator Bailey’s office has moved to Room 401 in the James Senate Office Building.
Testimony on Legislation:
While committees will be meeting in person this year for bill hearings will be in-person this year, testimony can be submitted and presented either in-person or virtually. If you are interested in submitting testimony on a bill being considered by the Senate, please be sure to review the Senate of Maryland’s 2023 General Witness Committee Guidelines, which can be found at https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/Pubs-current/2023%20Senate-Witness-Guidelines.pdf. Each Committee also has its own rules and procedures to follow when testifying on a bill. Please see the Committee’s page on the Maryland General Assembly website to read and review their Witness Guidelines.
We encourage you to use the Maryland General Assembly’s website (mgaleg.maryland.gov) to follow legislation and review schedules for committees and the Senate floor. As always, if you have any questions, please contact our office.
Calvert County Delegation Meeting
Today, Senator Bailey joined members of the Calvert County Delegation to meet with the Calvert County Board of County Commissioners to discuss their local priorities for the 2023 Legislative Session. This follows a similar meeting that Senator Bailey participated in last month with the St. Mary’s County Delegation and Commissioners. Senator Bailey strongly believes in the importance of having all levels of government work together, and these discussions with local leaders are critical to these efforts.
Update on Maryland Route 5
The State Highway Administration has provided our office with the following update on the Maryland Route 5 intersection improvement project at Abell Street and Moakley Street in Leonardtown:
“We appreciate the patience of town and county residents as we move this project forward. Recently, the current contractor ceased work on-site to address administrative matters for the project. Consequently, they were not allowed to work on-site until they resolved some of those matters. This delay impacted the project’s construction schedule, including the final resurfacing. The contractor is resuming work this week.
MDOT SHA crews will monitor the pavement and work zone condition through the winter as we prepare to resurface this spring.”
We will continue to monitor this project and provide you with updates as available.