2019 Legislative Priorities

Each year WISE develops a list of legislative priorities by asking each of our twelve issues-based huddles to choose a few bills central to their mission they would like WISE to advocate for. Our 2019 legislative priorities include bills focused on environmental justice, affordable healthcare, protecting victims of sexual assault, and other diverse issues central to our mission. Please read our 2019 Legislative Priorities Brochure for details on all the bills we are supporting.

Women’s Issues

• HIV Prevention for Rape Victims. This would provide rape survivors with emergency medication to prevent HIV. The current law provides victims with free emergency medical treatment following a rape, but not medication to prevent HIV.
• Expansion of Maryland’s Vacatur Law for Survivors of Human Trafficking. This bill would expand on Maryland’s current “vacating convictions” law to allow criminalized survivors of human trafficking to remove crimes other than prostitution from their criminal records and would significantly increase the ability of survivors to access employment and stable housing, and heal from trauma.
• Salary History Information Disclosure. Ensures women do not carry lower earnings and pay discrimination from job to job by prohibiting employers from seeking and relying on job applicants’ salary history and by requiring employers to disclose salary range for a position upon request. 

Protecting Vulnerable Populations

Public Safety

• WISE supports closing the background check loophole on long guns. Currently, Maryland law requires criminal background checks for all handgun sales. This law would close the background check loophole for all rifle & shotgun sales. 
• SB882/HB740 Ban on Ghost Guns, Senate Bill 8. This ban includes DIY Kits, guns without a serial number, and 3D printed guns. Such weapons can only be used a few times and are not traceable because they lack serial numbers making them good weapons for criminals and poor tools for self-defense. 

Environmental Justice

• SB285/HB109 Ban on Expanded Polystyrene (EPS). This bill would ban EPS foam food packaging throughout Maryland. As litter, EPS foam never biodegrades; it breaks into increasingly smaller pieces, posing a threat to our waterways and marine life as it absorbs more chemicals than any other plastic and is often mistaken for food by fish.
• A Healthy and Green Maryland Amendment. This bill proposes a constitutional amendment to explicitly protect our right to a healthy environment now and in the future by enshrining it in the state Declaration of Rights. The bill proposes lasting protections for breathable air, drinkable water, and makes the state a fiduciary for equal access to a healthy environment for present and future generations.
• SB516/HB1158 The Clean Energy Jobs Act. This bill addresses the climate change crisis by doubling the State’s Renewable Portfolio Standard policy to 50% renewable electricity by 2030, determining the best plan to achieve 100% renewable electricity by 2023, and implementing that plan by 2040. This campaign builds on past successes in Maryland, including the 2016 Clean Energy Jobs Act, achieving a 25% renewable electricity standard by 2020.

Animal Welfare

• Maryland Cost of Animal Care Act. Animal cruelty cases in Maryland, such as hoarding or animal fighting, can involve the seizure of dozens or even hundreds of animals. Financially strapped shelters can be forced to turn away or euthanize adoptable animals because of resource limitations. The Maryland Cost of Animal Care Act prevents animal control agencies from incurring debilitating costs in animal cruelty cases, saving tax dollars and animal lives.

Education and Poverty