By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews
“We warned them. We asked them. They said no.”
ANNAPOLIS — Maryland’s presiding officers have moved to limit what can even be introduced during the Aug. 3-5 special session, and House and Senate Republican leaders say they saw it coming, tried to head it off, and got shut out anyway.
The Letter
In a memo to colleagues dated July 20, Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk directed the Department of Legislative Services to accept bill-drafting requests for the special session only if they relate directly to the purpose for which the Maryland General Assembly is being reconvened: consideration of legislation concerning congressional redistricting standards.
The memo cites the Maryland Constitution’s authorization for each chamber to determine its own proceedings and state law placing DLS under the Presiding Officers’ direction as the legal basis for the restriction. It acknowledges that affordability, energy costs, and other issues facing Marylanders remain important, and says members may continue to develop and submit legislation on those matters for the 2027 regular session — just not this one.
Republicans Say They Asked First
According to a joint press release from House and Senate Republican leadership, this wasn’t a surprise to them. House and Senate Republicans sent a letter to the presiding officers last week, before the DLS memo went out, urging them to allow consideration of other legislation, including bills addressing the cost of living and energy prices, during the special session. The presiding officers’ answer, in effect, arrived today: no.
Four Republican leaders responded on the record.
House Minority Leader Jason Buckel called the decision “quite frankly, appalling,” saying that Marylanders have continued to struggle with rising energy prices and gas taxes since the legislature adjourned in April, and that the message from Democratic leadership amounts to “the modern equivalent of ‘let them eat cake.'”
Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey reprised the framing his caucus used when the special session was first announced on July 7: “This has nothing to do with Maryland’s future and everything to do with Governor Moore’s own,” he said, arguing the three days in Annapolis should be spent “on the kitchen table issues Marylanders are actually losing sleep over, not his political map.”
House Minority Whip Jesse Pippy called it “shameful that we are wasting taxpayer money to come in for a three-day legislative session solely to disenfranchise more than [a] million Marylanders,” adding: “The fact that we are now prohibited from providing any kind of relief to our citizens just adds insult to injury. That tells you everything you need to know about their priorities.”
Senate Minority Whip Justin Ready drew the sharpest through-line, connecting today’s restriction to the redistricting fight itself: “First it was the congressional map, now it’s the rules of a special session itself. When Democrats don’t like the rules, they change them,” he said. “Every other special session in recent memory, members could file whatever legislation they thought mattered. Now, suddenly, that’s changed too… They’ll keep changing the rules until they get the outcome they want.”
The release also notes that, in every recent special session, members have been free to file legislation on any subject regardless of the session’s stated purpose — and says this is the first time Democratic leadership has restricted that practice, without offering Republicans an explanation why.
It Wasn’t Just Republicans Asking
Republicans weren’t the only ones hoping to use the special session for something other than redistricting. Three days before the DLS memo went out, Green Party gubernatorial candidate Andy Ellis and running mate Owen Silverman Andrews called on the General Assembly to use the Aug. 3-5 session to pass a bipartisan, veto-proof statewide ban on new data center construction, permitting, and planning.
Ellis’s July 17 release pointed to results from last month’s primaries as evidence of public will: in Frederick County, Council President Brad Young lost his bid for renomination after backing a data center-friendly zoning overlay, and in Calvert County, voters ousted all three sitting commissioners who had voted against a data center moratorium — both outcomes independently confirmed by multiple news organizations, including Maryland Matters and WTOP. Ellis also cited New York’s newly enacted statewide moratorium: the state legislature passed the Responsible Data Center Development Act by a vote of 44-16 in the Senate and 102-39 in the Assembly on June 4, and Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order halting permitting for large data centers on July 14 — both figures confirmed against multiple outlets and New York’s own executive order text.
Ellis’s release also noted that a bipartisan, veto-proof majority on data centers already exists in Annapolis: in December 2025, the General Assembly overrode Gov. Wes Moore’s veto of a bill requiring a state data center impact study, by a vote of 44-0 in the Senate and 109-21 in the House. That House figure is worth flagging directly — some wire coverage at the time reported it as 111-24, but the Maryland General Assembly’s own floor action record for that day confirms the override passed 109-21, matching Ellis’s release.
Like the Republicans’ affordability push, Ellis’s data center demand falls outside the “congressional redistricting standards” scope the July 20 memo restricts DLS to drafting for. Whether Ellis’s campaign received a response from the presiding officers is not addressed in his release, and this reporter has not yet asked.
The Base Reacts
Rank-and-file Republicans amplified the release within hours. Del. Matt Morgan (District 29A), who chairs the Maryland Freedom Caucus, posted a sharper-edged reaction on social media the same evening, calling Ferguson and Peña-Melnyk “our Overlords in Annapolis” and arguing the special session “isn’t for you — it’s for them.” Morgan’s post repeated the substance of the leadership release — no gas tax relief, no help with electric bills — while adding his own framing around a $3 billion state deficit and declining public trust. This reporter has not independently verified the $3 billion deficit figure Morgan cited, and it does not appear in the official leadership release.
What’s Still Unclear
The DLS restriction governs what bills the department will draft and accept for introduction — it is a legislative-branch procedural directive, not a ban on Republicans discussing other issues on the floor or in committee during the session. Whether Republicans attempt to raise affordability issues through other procedural means once the session convenes — floor speeches, amendments, or points of order — remains to be seen. It’s also unclear whether the July 20 memo was distributed publicly or only to members, and this reporter has not yet confirmed independently that DLS has begun rejecting specific bill requests under the new directive.
Sources: Memo from Senate President William C. Ferguson IV and House Speaker Joseline A. Peña-Melnyk to Maryland General Assembly members, July 20, 2026; joint press release, “Republican Leaders: Special Session Will Deliver Nothing for Marylanders,” House and Senate Republican Caucuses, July 20, 2026; Del. Matt Morgan (@MattMorgan29A), social media post, July 20, 2026; press release, “Green Party Candidate for Governor Andy Ellis Calls on General Assembly to Stop New Data Centers in August Special Session,” July 17, 2026; Maryland General Assembly Floor Actions, House Proceedings No. 1 A, Dec. 16, 2025; Maryland Matters, WTOP, and Maryland Daily Record reporting on the June 2026 primaries; New York Executive Order No. 62.
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