Senate Bill 4 ended up as one of the most hotly debated issues in a hurried day of House and Senate action on bills Friday, after some Black lawmakers worried it could have a “chilling effect” on the historically important voice of Black churches.

“I don’t think this bill is needed, and I think it’s an attempt to stifle conversation that occurs in Black churches,” Sen. Ron Watson (D-Prince George’s) said. “If it were not for people like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King and the things that they brought to the attention in the African American community, I probably wouldn’t be standing here right now as a state senator.”

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Cheryl Kagan (D-Montgomery) and Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City), would codify “the Johnson amendment,” a provision of the federal tax code that prohibits 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofits from engaging in political campaigns in exchange for tax-exempt status.

The rule has been in place for 72 years, but the Trump administration has moved toward weakening the rule, with the IRS proposing last summer that churches and houses of worship should be allowed to formally endorse political candidates without risking their tax-exempt status.

The emergency bill would take effect if that happened. It says a “charitable organization” in Maryland could not “participate in or intervene in a political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to a candidate for public office, including through publication of or distribution of statements.” It says the rule would be interpreted as it was by the IRS as of Jan. 19, 2025, the day before Trump took office.

Watson raised his concerns in January, when SB 4 was heard in the Education, Energy and the Environment committee and the Budget and Taxation committee, voting no on the bill in committee.

But Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D-Prince George’s), a minister who joked that he endorses himself from the pulpit every Sunday, said he did not believe the bill would halt any political activity that is taking place in religious spaces now.

“The Black Church has always been the powerful voice of the church, going way back to slavery, they have always had a voice. Going back to the time of Jim Crow and all else,” Muse said, before invoking King.

“We would not have had a Civil Rights movement if it were not for a 26-year-old preacher coming to his new congregation in Alabama and bringing people together in that church to say we will have a voice,” he said. “We want to make sure we’re not stifling any voice … which I don’t think that this particular bill does.”

Sen. Charles Sydnor (D-Baltimore County) agreed with Muse, adding that most nonprofits “do not want to be put in the position of being political animals.”

But Sen. Malcolm Augustine (D-Prince George’s) said he was “deeply concerned” that the bill could lead to a chilling effect on speech in the religious institutions that he said serve as the “public square for many of us as African Americans.”

After about a half-hour of debate, Kagan agreed to hold the bill for a day, to give senators more time to review and offer amendments on the bill. But that also puts the bill right up against Monday’s “crossover day” deadline, the day by which bills have to clear their originating chamber and move across the hall to the other chamber for consideration to have the best chance of passage before the end of the legislative session.

It was just one of the battles waged Friday as Maryland lawmakers work through as many bills as possible that still need full chamber approval before Monday’s “crossover” deadline, when bills need to move from their originating chamber to the other for best consideration.

Missing the crossover deadline is not necessarily fatal to a bill, but its chances of getting across the finish line and becoming law can decrease after Monday, when there are just three weeks left in the session. That’s why both the House and Senate had multiple daily floor sessions last week, and why the House is schedule to come in on Saturday, as lawmakers churned through long lists of bills before crossover.

The Senate’s second floor session went until 7:30 p.m. Friday and the House will convene at noon Saturday.

SB 4 may have been one of the most-charged, but certainly not the only bill generating debate Friday, as lawmakers rushed to beat the crossover deadline. Other measures included:

Senate approves ‘No Kings’ Act

The Senate passed Senate Bill 346, dubbed the “No Kings Act,” which would allow Marylanders sue federal agents in state courts for constitutional violations. The title references a series of anti-Trump demonstrations — a third one is scheduled next Saturday — that have occurred since the start of his second term, and which gave some Republicans in the chamber pause.

“If it weren’t for the title, I think people on this side of the aisle would vote for it,” Sen. Johnny Ray Salling (R-Baltimore County). “I think this is very political.”

He was the only one who spoke on the bill before the Senate voted to approve the bill 30-11 sending it off to the House for consideration. Delegates approved similar legislation earlier this month.

House ready for vote on ‘Vax Act’

Many of the bills worked on Friday were on the “second reader” calendar, when lawmakers can offer amendments to a bill before taking a final vote. While amendments can be offered, few are adopted at that stage of the process.

Such was the case for House Bill 637, a bill to grant the state health secretary authority to issue vaccine recommendations based on guidance from national medical societies, state health groups and federal agencies — a response to the narrowing of vaccine recommendations from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

After shooting down a couple Republican amendments that would have watered down the legislation or required additional data reporting, the bill awaits a final vote in the House.  The Senate version of the bill is teed up for a full vote next week, likely on Monday.

Surveillance pricing

Both the House and Senate are set to vote on a bill that would prohibit grocery stores from using personal data to set prices in a discriminatory manner.

There’s still debate on how prevalent the issue is in Maryland, but both versions of the bill now includes language to help quell some of the concerns raised by lobbyists for Maryland’s retailers, who worried that the bill is too broad and could, for example, disrupt standard customer loyalty programs.

Senate Bill 387 and House Bill 895 are now ready for a full vote in their respective chambers. But as priority legislation for Gov. Wes Moore (D), with support by the Senate president and the House speaker, the legislation is likely to be successful.