Annapolis, MD — Gov. Wes Moore brought five bills before the Maryland General Assembly for the 2026 session, with policies ranging from health care to increased economic mobility and consumer protection.
But where has his legislation landed after Crossover Day on Monday? The deadline was the last day of session when a bill can pass and is guaranteed a hearing in the opposite chamber.
Only one piece of Moore’s agenda — the Lower Bills and Local Power Act — was not voted out of committees in either the House of Delegates or the Senate. The remainder were amended differently in each chamber, leaving lawmakers to meet and iron out their differences in conference committees at the session’s end.
Here is where the governor’s four passing bills have landed, policy-wise.
The Vax Act
As it was introduced, the Vax Act would detangle Maryland’s vaccine authority from the federal government, authorizing Maryland’s health secretary to electively use federal guidance provided by federal health agencies.
She then would have the ability to issue recommendations for immunizations, screenings and preventative care services based on clinical guidance and science from health organizations like independent recommendations issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Colleges of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The legislation would also ensure insurance coverage for vaccines and allow pharmacists to administer them.
In both chambers, Moore’s bill was amended to require the Maryland Department of Health secretary to hold a 30-day notice and comment period, obtain an analysis from the Maryland Health Care Commission and cite the organization that promoted a health care policy before adopting it if it is not an immunization recommended by a federal agency.
The Vax Act was amended in the House to require insurance companies to extend coverage periods after the secretary makes her recommendation.
The Maryland Transit and Housing Opportunity Act
This bill was introduced with measures to eliminate minimum parking requirements within a quarter-mile of transit stations, specifically rail stations that conduct all-day service; allow for mixed-use development half a mile from those stations; and give the state an increased ability to develop land adjacent to transit.
It would also fold existing transit-oriented sites into Maryland’s Enterprise Zone Program, making them eligible for tax and other financial incentives, and would free approximately 300 acres of state-owned land adjacent to transit stations for housing development.
In the House, Moore’s bill was amended to allow local jurisdictions to collect excise taxes and impact fees and prioritize projects that redevelop projects near Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority stations.
In the Senate, the bill was amended to require local approval before Transit Oriented Development areas are designated as Enterprise Zones and allows for the restriction of street parking in certain locations upon the completion of a parking study.
The Protection from Predatory Pricing Act
As introduced, this legislation would ban the use of dynamic factors and surveillance data to set individualized pricing in grocery stores. It would also ban the use of information obtained based on observations regarding consumer behavior or characteristics in automated systems that set prices.
The Senate defined dynamic pricing as “a discriminatory practice of offering or setting a personalized price for a good or service that is specific to a consumer based on the consumer’s personal data, regardless of whether the seller collected or purchased the personal data.”
As amended in the chamber, the legislation would bar food retailers or third-party food delivery companies from using customers’ personal data or engaging in dynamic pricing to increase the price of goods and services, as well as prohibit the use of protected class data in a way that can withhold or deny consumers advantages or privileges offered to other customers. The Senate also stripped the bill of its 24-hour provision.
Violation of the bill would be considered an unfair, abusive or deceptive trade practice under the Maryland Consumer Protection Act, allowing sellers to be subject to its penalties.
The House version also prohibits dynamic pricing for food retailers and third-party delivery services. If retailers in other industries — for example, clothing retailers — participate in dynamic pricing, it would have to be disclosed to consumers.
The DECADE Act
As introduced, the Delivering Economic Competitiveness and Advancing Development Efforts Act would extend the Build Our Future grant program, which offers up to $2 million for projects that seek to advance innovation in the tech sector, until 2030.
It would extend zone-certification and rental-assistance eligibility for the RISE Zone program and would eliminate certain eligibility requirements for startup businesses to qualify to participate. The administration of the Economic Development Opportunities program fund would be moved to the Department of Commerce.
Additionally, the bill would also eliminate the $10 million per-production cap for the Film Production Activity tax credit, which offers refundable tax credits for certain costs necessary to film production in the state.
The House amended Moore’s bill to add reporting requirements for certain economic programs and tax credits, to require the comptroller’s office and the Maryland Department of Commerce to evaluate and submit a report on the film production activity tax credit, and to increase the amount of tax credits that any single production could receive from $10 million to $30 million.
The chamber also approved measures to require letters signed by the majority of a local government organization before being approved for financial assistance from the Maryland Economic Development Assistance Fund when a jurisdiction requests fiscal aid, and to authorize the Department of Commerce to contract with a private, in-state corporation to administer programs under the Maryland Small Business Development Financing Authority, among a series of other amendments.
The Senate amended the bill to require the Legislative Policy Committee to approve the use of money from the Strategic Closing Fund before it can be meted out, among numerous other changes.
