The governor was disappointed, some of the biggest bills got put off to the last day, last-minute wrangling doomed some bills and saved some others, and it all ended at midnight with balloons and confetti raining down from the galleries to mark the end of 90 days of work.

In other words, just another Sine Die.

It was a final day that proceeded at the usual hectic pace but with little of the usual drama. When lawmakers convened on Jan. 8, the big issues were the state’s budget, utility reform and possible changes to the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the state’s sweeping education reform plan. When they adjourned Monday, those issues were still hanging around but passed with little fuss beyond Republican carping.

Scores of low-profile bills were pushed across the finish line, while scores more quietly died. Some of the biggest attention went toward some of the least-consequential bills, to make chromite the official state mineral and to make orange crush the official state cocktail.

And while adjourning “sine die” — literally, “without day” to meet again — means eight to nine months of peace, lawmakers could find themselves back in Annapolis in a matter of months coping with the impact of federal cuts on the state budget they just spent three months crafting.

Here, in no particular order, are the moments and the measures that made for Sine Die 2025.

Moore’s not mad , just disappointed

Balloons and confetti had barely settled on the floors of the House and Senate when Gov. Wes Moore (D) let it be known that he did not get everything he had hoped for this year, after two years of bragging about going “10 for 10” on his legislative agenda.

In a statement posted at 12:06 a.m., Moore praised efforts to reform the state tax code — an effort that looked very different from the one he proposed — and the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future (which the House remade in its image). But he pointed out that the Democratic majority just did not do enough.

“We also introduced legislation centered on addressing the issues that Marylanders tell me they care about the most — from housing to small business growth to energy rates,” Moore said in his statement. “Yet, the General Assembly did not pass our bill that confronted, head-on, the challenge of producing more affordable housing in our state. The General Assembly also missed an opportunity to make Maryland a more attractive destination for businesses. And the General Assembly failed to make nuclear energy a core part of the state’s clean energy strategy, so we could add more capacity to Maryland’s energy portfolio.”

In a mid-afternoon meeting with reporters, he gave no hint of his sour view of the General Assembly’s performance, saying instead that his administration focused on building strong relationships with lawmakers.

“I don’t think there’s anyone who could argue that this is the administration that doesn’t just believe in coalition building, but the way that we coalition-build, in comparison to what has happened before in the state of Maryland, that it’s been a night and day shift,” Moore told reporters Monday afternoon.

It remains to be seen how Moore will address his concerns. In recent weeks, he has hinted at the potential of using his veto pen. On Monday night, Moore repeated those nonspecific warnings.

“I wanted to make sure that we were making Maryland more economically competitive, making us more business friendly, and continue the trend that we’re seeing when new business starts,” Moore told reporters. “I was not going to deal with other things that I felt contradicted that, and we had to make sure we are investing in our people, and so that is going to be the lens that I started the session with.”

And, he said, that would be the lens through which he viewed each bill sent to him.

“If things violate or do not make sense with that in the context of what’s happening right now, especially what’s happened with the federal government, it will not get my signature,” Moore said.

Finally, medical parole done

It was never certain, but after several years of trying, lawmakers were able to push through reforms to the state’s parole system Monday for incarcerated individuals who are ill or aging.

Passage came after the House and Senate agreed to changes that make House Bill 1123, sponsored by Del. J. Sandy Bartlett (D-Anne Arundel), and Senate Bill 181, sponsored by Sen Shelly Hettleman (D-Baltimore County), sync.

The amendments that would reform the medical and geriatric parole process include raising the age from 60 to 65 for incarcerated individuals to seek parole, and increasing the time served from minimum of 15 years to a minimum of 20. The final version of the bills also added a five-year pause between petitions for parole from those incarcerated. Minor technical amendments included changing the title from “medical and elder” to “medical and geriatric.”

“Sen. Shelly Hettleman deserves so many props on this. I just came in and carried the football,” said Bartlett, who served as the lead sponsor on this measure for the past two years. “This is going to help so many people.”

This was the fourth year Hettleman worked on legislation to reform the medical and geriatric parole process. She said the legislation could help hundreds of people.

“These are people really ill and people who are much older, who have served their time,” she said. “I do think it will make substantial, important reforms that are long overdue.”

The bills, if signed by the governor, would take effect Oct. 1.

Couldn’t put housing together again

The bill formerly known as the governor’s Housing for Jobs Act was amended to unrecognizability. But despite efforts from lawmakers, county officials and other interested parties to build a bill that would help expedite housing development in certain areas without stepping over local zoning authority, those challenges could not be surmounted before the clock struck midnithg Monday.

Upon introduction in January, House Bill 503 was framed as an expansion of Moore’s housing package from last year. The original version aimed to expedite housing development by requiring counties to automatically approve most qualifying housig project requests in areas where the state determined there was an imbalance between housing and jobs.

The House stripped that bill in its entirety and replaced it with all new language that would have prompted the Department of Housing and Community Development to set 10-year housing targets for the state, its counties and every municipality, and report on their progress annually.

But the House and Senate appeared to disagree on language that would have granted “vesting rights” so that a housing developer with an approved project proposal would retain the right to develop the property. The bill got stuck in the Senate Education, Energy and the Environment Committee, where it stayed until time ran out, killing the bill for session.

‘Chaos’ at House Democrats press gaggle

What if House Democrats held a meeting with reporters and Republicans showed up?

It’s no longer a hypothetical question: It’s just what happened in the waning hours of the 2025 session when House Majority Leader David Moon (D-Montgomery) and House Majority Whip Jazz Lewis (D-Prince George’s) met with reporters outside a State House press room to talk about the 90-day legislative season.

During that conversation, Moon and Lewis were asked about criticisms leveled by Republicans that conservative voices were being minimized and cut off during debates by House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County).

“I actually think it’s a mischaracterization to say that there’s been complaints from the Republicans about this,” Moon said. “I think there’s been complaints on the floor from the same very small handful of Republicans in the Maryland House that are specifically attempting to emulate their chaos-making friends down on Capitol Hill.”

Moon’s comments were a reference to the Freedom Caucus, a hard-right subgroup of congressional Republicans, that some have dubbed the “Chaos Caucus.” The moniker was adopted by some in Annapolis — a pejorative to describe the seven-member Republican House faction that was officially recognized earlier this year as the state-level version of the Freedom Caucus.

As if on cue, Del. Kathy Szeliga (R-Baltimore County), vice chair of the House Freedom Caucus, arrived and staked out a position in a doorway near Lewis and Moon. Soon, three other members of the newly formed subgroup of the House Republican Caucus arrived and listened from a stairwell.

And when Lewis and Moon left, the Freedom Caucus swooped in to the cameras and microphones. Szeliga, with Dels. Matt Morgan (R-St. Mary’s), Mark N. Fisher (R-Calvert) and Brian Chisholm (R-Anne Arundel), used the opportunity to offer their views on the session.

“This is Maryland’s largest tax increase we’ve ever had in our state’s history,” Morgan, the caucus chair, said of the budget lawmakers passed earlier in the day. “Neighboring states are not in that position. These are Maryland’s policies coming home to roost.”

Members went on to offer opposing views on a number of other policies.

“We have the highest energy prices in the entire region. Did Annapolis Democrats solve that problem? No, they didn’t,” Fisher told reporters. “Did they solve the problem of making Maryland more business friendly? Did Gov. Moore’s policies get through to make Maryland more business friendly? No, they didn’t.”

Members of the caucus spoke to reporters for nearly 10 minutes. And apparently reporters do not have to wait for the next State House mash-up press conference.

“When we started this at the beginning of the session, we said we want to help you guys,” Morgan told reporters. “We want a good relationship and reboot our relationship with the media.”

Nuking the nuclear bill

A bill from the governor (House Bill 505) that would have allowed nuclear energy to count toward the state’s clean energy goals also failed to pass both chambers before midnight, after passing the House of Delegates in April.

Lawmakers stripped the bill for parts, however, adding provisions procuring new nuclear energy for Maryland into the larger Next Generation Energy Act, sponsored by House and Senate leadership. As amended, the bill would have raised the state’s renewable energy targets, but allowed nuclear to fulfill the goals.

In a statement Monday night, Moore bemoaned that the “General Assembly failed to make nuclear energy a core part of the state’s clean energy strategy, so we could add more capacity to Maryland’s energy portfolio.”

Prescription Drug Affordability Board expansion to governor

House Bill 424 and Senate Bill 357, which would expand the authority of a state board to lower prescription drug costs, is now officially on the way to the governor’s desk for his consideration. The board current has authority to look for ways to reduce the cost of certain drugs for people on the state’s health care plan, but the two bills would grant the board authority to place cost reduction efforts on purchasers for private insurance plans.

FAMLI delayed — again

The Senate gave final approval to another delay in the implementation of statewide a paid family and medical leave benefit for another 18 months. The program had been slated to start in July, after being delayed twice already.

House Bill 102 passed the Senate 42-5, pushing off the start date for the Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) program. Under the bill, benefits would not be available until 2028.

It’s been marked as one of the “tough decisions” the Moore administration had to make as the state grappled with a budget deficit and with the “uncertainty” and “instability” of federal policies, according to Maryland Department of Labor officials.

Recent polling suggests that more Marylanders would like to see the program go through on its original timeline, but with both chambers approving the measure, the governor will likely approve the delay his administration suggested.

GED English and Spanish

Maryland can now join the rest of the nation in allowing individuals take the General Educational Development test, also known as the GED, in English or Spanish.

House Bill 325 was sponsored by Del. Greg Wims (D-Montgomery), who said Maryland was the only state that did not offer the test in both languages. His bill received approval Thursday after the House concurred with a Senate amendment to have the bill go into effect July 1.

Senate Bill 451 sponsored by Sen. Nancy King (D-Montgomery) garnered approval Monday evening after the Senate unanimously accepted two technical amendments offered by the House Ways and Means Committee. The one sentence in the bill now reads: “Allow an individual to choose to take all components of the examination in either English or Spanish.”

The state Labor Department, which administers GED tests, said 9,131 people whose primary language was Spanish enrolled in programs it offered in 2023-24. Of those individuals, 4,177, or 46%, did not have a high school diploma.

“This is one of the most important bills of the session,” Wims said after the House adjourned Sine Die early Tuesday morning. “In my district, we have newcomers and immigrants. A lot of them, English is a second language, but they’re hard workers. This will help thousands of young people over the next decade or so.”

The 1980s want its legislature back

As the hour grew late on Sine Die, things devolved in the House of Delegates. All the way back to the 1980s, that is.

The episode began when Del. Lauren Arikan (R-Harford) rose to challenge Senate Bill 930, which allows local governments, as a pilot program, to purify their wastewater effluent and inject it into the groundwater aquifer to bolster water supply.

Arikan called the bill “nasty” and labeled it “crazy town.” Then Del. Matt Morgan (R-St. Mary’s) asked House Environment and Transportation Committee Chair Del. Marc Korman (D- Montgomery): “Do you have any concerns about this at all?”

“If I had concerns, I’d have to get in my DeLorean, because this bill — the House version — is already on the governor’s desk,” Korman said, referring to car that was a key part of the 1985 hit film “Back to the Future.”

Then Del. Robin Grammer (R-Baltimore County) piped up: “What’s a DeLorean?” he said, as laughter broke out in the chamber.

“All I know is: When it gets to 88 miles per hour, you’re going to see some serious stuff,” Korman replied.

A few minutes later, Del. Tom Hutchinson (R-Middle Shore) kept the joke going, declaring with a grin that his amendment number was “867-5309,” referring to the 1981 song from Tommy Tutone.

Later on, Hutchinson had to change his vote on the bill (Senate Bill 979).

“I think Jenny confused me,” he said.

Chromite carries crushes to state symbol list

Chromite joins two dozen other official symbols of the state as the official state mineral.

Passage of the bill was an 8-year effort for 18-year-old David Shore. Shore’s irrepressible enthusiasm landed him bill sponsors and a pro bono lobbyist. Eight short years later, he got his bill.

“I’m glad chromite finally got the recognition it deserves as a key part of Maryland’s history, and I am grateful to Senator Zucker and Delegate Korman for seeing the bill through despite a long and rocky road,” Shore said. “The endeavor had fresh youth support this time around, and I hope the success of the chromite bill will inspire other Maryland kids to bring their ideas to the State House.”

The House and Senate last month unanimously passed identical bills designating the mineral, first discovered in Baltimore County in 1808, as the state mineral. More than two dozen states have an official mineral. Only Maryland has bestowed such a designation on chromite.

The official list of state symbols includes a state sport and team sport, dinosaur, dog and cat, and crustacean, among others.

The last state symbol added was rye whiskey in 2023. It was the first time in 15 years that a new state symbol made the list. In 2008, the legislature approved an official state exercise (walking) and official dessert (Smith Island cake).

In the waning hours, the House bootstrapped another state symbol into the Senate version of the chromite bill. The amendment designated the Orange Crush as the official state cocktail. The cocktail bill was headed toward defeat before its legislative resurrection as an amendment.

The governor now has the option of signing the clean version of the House chromite bill or the amended Senate version, with the cocktail. He could also sign or veto both. Neither bill is expected to land in front of Moore when he signs the first batch of bills Tuesday morning.

Two other proposals, one designating the persimmon as the official state fruit, and another that would name the Purple Pitcherplant the state’s carnivorous plant, died in committees.