By Tashi McQueen
AFRO Staff Writer
tmcqueen@afro.com
The Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland (LBCM) released their 2026 legislative priorities on Feb. 12 in Annapolis, Md. Their legislative priorities span five key areas including health and environmental justice, education, justice and public safety, economic empowerment and housing justice and civil rights.
Key bills addressed during a press conference where they unveiled these priorities include a bill that would prohibit immigration enforcement agreements, a bill that aims to end appraisal biases and legislation ending the automatic charging of youth as adults.
Delegate N. Scott Phillips (D-Md.-10), the new chair of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland, led the unveiling, sharing the caucus’ history and offering insight into how members selected this year’s key priorities.
“Since 1970, under the leadership of Delegate Lena K. Lee, our caucus has really been focused on five decades of sponsoring legislation which impacts Black Marylanders specifically,” said Phillips. “We focus along the areas of social, cultural, and economic progress for Black Marylanders.”
Phillips pressed that the 2026 priorities were created not in isolation, but collaboration.
“They are the result of a deliberate process–input from members, a full caucus retreat, working sessions and legislation drafted by members themselves,” he said. “What we present today is not a wish list. It is a unified legislative agenda grounded in community and informed by policy expertise.”
Health and environmental justice
Within the health and environmental justice priority, the LBCM is focusing on legislation that aims to create a dementia service program and clinical toolkit and incorporates bills that aim to address perinatal mental health conditions.
“What we know is that dementia is–particularly in the Black community–under-reported, but a higher incidence than it is for the general population,” said Sen. Malcolm L. Augustine (D-Md.-47). “This is an area where we know that we must do more to educate people, because there are actually some treatments that are available, and that’s what this piece of legislation does.”
Education
Laws that the caucus has sponsored concerning education include a bill that would ensure children in foster care have can get a proper education while in group homes,
Improve education around sickle cell disease and a bill about the school psychologist interstate licensure compact.
“Essentially what the School Psychologist Interstate Licensure Compact does is that it’s going to allow school psychologists from particular states to come into Maryland a little more quickly,” said Delegate Bernice D. Mireku-North (D-Md.-14). “It allows the states to share licensing and background information and also allows Maryland to continue to exercise full authority of whoever gets a license regarding the scope of practice, discipline, standards for the profession as well.”
“Right now, in Maryland, there’s one school psychologist for every 1,053 students,” said Mireku-North. “The national preferred recommendation is one for every 500. We seek to benefit from that, especially with the school system that’s becoming more Black and Brown.”
Justice and public safety
Under the justice and public safety category, the caucus will focus on reform laws around automatic youth charging, keep children out of adult detention facilities and prevent traffic stops for minor offenses.
House Bill (HB) 409 and Senate Bill (SB) 323, known as the Youth Charging Reform Act, would require most youth criminal cases to begin in juvenile court instead of being automatically charged as adults, expanding juvenile court jurisdiction.
Delegate J. Sandy Barlett (D-Md.-32), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, further explained the Youth Charging Reform Act.
“This bill affects 14- and 15-year-olds who have been alleged to have committed a crime that would be punishable by an adult,” said Barlett. “It brings them to juvenile court jurisdiction first. The bill does not affect anyone who is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree rape, or armed carjacking.”
Economic empowerment and housing justice
Members of the LBCM will support a list of legislation that tackle economic empowerment and housing justice for Black Marylanders. They will include a bill on safe and stable housing for all and a package of bills that will fight against appraisal biases.
“This legislative session, the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland, will continue our efforts to combat housing discrimination and unfair housing practices,” said Delegate Kym Taylor (D-Md.-23). “In particular, we have reintroduced four bills that seek to address the issue of appraisal bias. The first is legislation that seeks to mimic the Veterans Administration’s Tidewater Initiative, which provides a reconsideration of the value process for home loans.”
Taylor said the second bill would require newly constructed home sales to be entered into the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) or another public database so they can be used as comparable sales. She added that the Legislative Black Caucus is also advancing two bills aimed at increasing the number of Black professionals in the appraisal industry.
“Black appraisers make up less than 5 percent of the appraiser industry in the United States,” said Taylor. “We hope to drastically improve those numbers in Maryland by creating pipeline funding opportunities.”
Civil rights
The civil rights legislation includes a bill that would prohibit 287(g) agreements in Maryland and the Voting Rights Act of 2026. The 287 (g) bills, HB 444 and SB 245, have both passed from their respective chambers and have been sent to the governor’s desk for a signature. If Gov. Wes Moore (D) signs the bill, it would immediately go into effect.
“287 (g) agreements are voluntary agreements that local law enforcement can enter into with ICE (United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement),” said Delegate Nicole A. Williams (D-Md.-22).
Williams argued that 287 (g) encourages law enforcement to engage in racial profiling.
“The majority of individuals who are picked up under these agreements,” she said, “have either not committed any crime whatsoever if they are charged with a crime, about 80 percent of them have been charged with low-level offenses, whether it’s loitering, busted taillight or really low-level misdemeanor charges.”