ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Yesterday, Senator Bryan Simonaire (Anne Arundel) and Senator Johnny Ray Salling (Baltimore County) introduced emergency legislation to expedite the rebuilding of the Key Bridge. The bill has a hearing this morning at 9:00 am in the Senate Education, Energy and the Environment Committee.
SB 1187 works in conjunction with an official State of Emergency (SOE) to create a focused, longer-term, and limited authority to support an expedited process for the restoration of critical infrastructure, such as the key bridge.
“Given the crisis that the collapse of the Key Bridge has created, we need to work to provide an expedited solution for the state and its residents,” said Senator Simonaire. “As we have seen in similar projects, such as the Truss bridge accident in Florida, it took seven years to rebuild their bridge. Marylanders and our economy cannot wait seven years.”
With the session ending shortly, SB 1187 gives the Governor access to focused tools, with appropriate guardrails, to continue to address the infrastructure needs, without having all of the powers of a state of emergency for the long term.
When a Governor declares a SOE, it grants the office a long, yet important, list of short-term powers for 30 days. After the 30 days, the SOE must be renewed for another 30 days and so on. This is not conducive for a longer-term critical infrastructure issue such as Maryland is facing with the Key Bridge. It is also not necessary to keep all of the emergency powers in effect for months, or even years. SB 1187 offers a balanced solution that allows the Governor to retain the first emergency power to “suspend the effect of statues, rule or regulation” as it exclusively pertains to restoring a critical infrastructure related to an associated SOE declaration for a year, while letting the other emergency powers expire.
Similar to the State of Emergency general provisions, this bill includes guardrails and oversight by the General Assembly as they can terminate these powers at any time, if they deem necessary.
“It is absolutely essential that we don’t leave Annapolis until we have an expedited and prudent process in place that ensures the Key Bridge can be rebuilt in a timely and safe manner while also protecting the rights of Maryland’s citizens. “