Late Friday the State Senate's Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee voted on Senate Bill 393 and gave it a favorable report. There were three amendments added by the committee.

• On page 1, in the sponsor line, strike "and Greenip" and substitute ", Greenip, Hollinger, Conway, Britt, Dyson, Grosfeld, Pinsky, Stone, Colburn, Schrader, and Brochin".

  That's every single member of the committee plus Senator Brochin added as sponsors!

• On page 1, in line 8 after "districts;" insert "providing for the application of this Act; requiring the Governor to allocate certain resources to implement the requirements of this Act;".

  This (along with Section 3 in the next amendment) directs the Governor to do as the act says, plus forces him to fund it. The committee is saying, "This is important - find the money for it."

• On page 2, after line 25, insert:

  "SECTION 2. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That this Act shall apply to each election occurring on or after November 1, 2004, that is required to be conducted in accordance with the Election Law Article.

  SECTION 3. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That the Governor shall allocate the resources required to implement the requirements of this Act, including any gift received by the State for the purposes of this Act under §2-201 of the State Finance and Procurement Article, or any federal or other special funds or grant received by the State in accordance with federal and State law for the purposes of this Act.";

  in line 26, strike "2." and substitute "4."; and in line 27, strike October and substitute, "June".

  This is a big deal – it says that the law will apply to the coming general election!

The Senate bill as amended is all we could ask for and more. A big thank you to the original sponsors, Andrew Harris and Janet Greenip, to the members of the committee for listening to their constituents and doing the right thing, to True Majority for running the ad in the Baltimore Sun, and to all of our volunteers who testified, called, and helped to apply pressure to the committee. Special thanks to Kevin Bell for walking the halls in Annapolis and finding this out.

Our next stop is Delegate Sheila Hixson and the House Ways and Means Committee. We testified back in February in favor of the companion bill HB53. We just got word that HB53 has been reported on favorably by the subcommittee, and is ready for a vote by the full committee. Stay tuned for more actions to push forward on the House side and on to the Governor's office.