Senator Kagan’s sponsor-only bills move through committee with little opposition

ANNAPOLIS — Vice Chair Cheryl Kagan presented a set of sponsor-only bills to the Senate Education, Energy and the Environment Committee that drew brief explanations and limited questions before the committee closed each hearing.

Kagan said Senate Bill 93 updates statutory language to be more inclusive by replacing gendered phrases and broadening references to faith venues beyond "church," and that the measure carried no fiscal note and was not controversial. On Senate Bill 5, Kagan described a proposed constitutional amendment to require special elections for many legislative vacancies, with a 55‑day‑before‑filing rule to ensure vacancies are filled by voters when feasible; counsel clarified the bill would not bar appointed placeholders from later running in interim elections.

She also introduced Senate Bill 29 to require plain‑language ballot questions after citing 2022 ballot-dropoff data, and Senate Bill 65 to increase transparency for exploratory campaign committees by requiring disclosures about large donations and specifying permissible uses of funds. Several senators thanked Kagan and offered few substantive objections; no formal votes were recorded in the hearing record.

Kagan said many of the measures had passed the committee unanimously in prior years and were returning for routine consideration. The committee moved on to additional bills after the sponsor presentations.