[MD-AtLarge] Update: Accessible Prescription Labels - HB 456 and SB 940

[Maryland President]

Hi Everyone,
The Senate passed out SB 940 earlier this week, and it is now at the House
Rules and Executive Nominations Committee waiting to be assigned to the
House and Government Operations Committee.  Everything that gets passed past
a certain date goes to Rules first and the relevant committee with
jurisdiction has to pull it into their committee.  Stay tuned, as if the
bill does not get assigned to HGO early next week, we'll need your
collective action.  The current legislative session ends in 10 calendar
days.

HB 456 is in the Senate Finance Committee and is scheduled for a vote on
Monday.  We'll keep you posted on our progress.



Ronza Othman, President
National Federation of the Blind of Maryland
443-426-4110
Pronouns: she, her, hers

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Subject: Update: Accessible Prescription Labels - HB 456 and SB 940

Hi All,
Congratulations!  On Saturday, the Maryland House passed HB 456, Accessible
Prescription Labels for Blind, Visually Impaired, and Print Disabled
Patients.  This bill was sponsored by our good friend and advocate, Delegate
Michele Guyton.  

It moved to the Senate on Monday and we are very hopeful about it's chances.


We had our hearing in the Senate on the cross-file of HB 456, which is SB
940 this past Tuesday.  Yesterday, the Senate Finance Committee issued a
favorable report on SB 940, and it'll come to the full Senate for two rounds
of vote starting this morning.

What will happen next is that either the Senate will vote on whether to
adopt the House bill, or provided the Senate bill passes out of the Senate,
the House will vote whether or not to adopt the Senate bill.  One chamber
needs to adopt the other's by April 10 when the 2023 legislative session
ends.

Stay tuned, but for now, we celebrate!


Ronza Othman, President
National Federation of the Blind of Maryland
443-426-4110
Pronouns: she, her, hers

-----Original Message-----
From: president at nfbmd.org <president at nfbmd.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, March 7, 2023 7:28 PM
To: nfb-maryland at nfbnet.org; nfbmd at nfbnet.org; greater-baltimore at nfbnet.org;
nfbmdtlc-chapter at nfbnet.org; central-md-chapter at nfbnet.org;
md-atlarge at nfbnet.org; md-sligo at nfbnet.org; nationalharbor at nfbnet.org;
mabm at nfbnet.org; mdabs at nfbnet.org; mdpobc at nfbnet.org; NFB of Maryland,
Baltimore County List <md-baltimore-county at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Progress on Guide Dog Bill

Hi everyone, we have some significant progress on our guide dog protection
in housing legislation. The Senate Judicial  Proceedings Committee has voted
the bill out of the committee with a favorable report. That means in the
next few days, the bill will be considered by the full Maryland senate. The
Senate will have two opportunities to consider the bill and debate it. If,
on the second review, they vote to adopt it, it will then move over to the
House of Delegates for their consideration. We will keep you posted as
things progress, and hopefully things will move quickly now 

Ronza Othman, President
National Federation of the Blind of Maryland
443-426-4110
Sent from my iPhone