Here is the unvarnished truth: The reconciliation bill, which reforms these two ballooning programs, does not mandate that a single Marylander lose benefits. But it does return sanity to two programs that have grown far beyond their original purpose: Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The bill redraws the federal-state partnership so that Washington funds only what federal law intends, while giving states the tools and responsibility to run the extras they prefer. Every “cut” you have heard about is, in fact, a policy choice that Maryland’s elected officials will still control.

Under today’s rules, Maryland receives 100% federal funding for SNAP benefits and a 50% match on administrative costs. The reconciliation bill introduces two guardrails:

State cost-sharing when error rates are high

When Maryland’s payment error rate hits double digits (it was 18.98% in FY 2023), taxpayers nationwide foot the bill. The bill says: If paperwork mistakes exceed 6%, the state will cover up to 15% of benefit costs until it cleans up the errors. That’s an accountability measure, not a benefit cut.

Adjusted work expectations for able-bodied adults

If you are 19 to 64, not disabled, and have no dependent child under 14, you will be asked to work, train or volunteer 80 hours per month. Those who truly cannot work are still exempt; those who choose not to work may see benefits reduced — but only by their own decision.

Work requirements for SNAP are not new. The BBB simply updates them to reflect today’s realities — raising the age cap to align with modern retirement norms and narrowing caregiver exemptions using common sense.

The 2010 Affordable Care Act created a new Medicaid “expansion” population — able-bodied adults up to 138% of the federal poverty line. The federal government pays 90% of their cost. Since 2014, Maryland has enrolled roughly 400,000 such adults, one-quarter of our Medicaid rolls.

The reconciliation bill keeps the 90% match but adds three accountability levers:

Community engagement: Beginning in 2027, expansion adults must document 80 hours of work, training or community service each month, with generous exemptions for pregnancy, disability and caregiving, mirroring SNAP requirements. States may continue covering non-compliant individuals, but only with 100% state dollars.

Semiannual eligibility checks: Maryland will verify income twice a year instead of once. That means fewer ineligible people continuing on outdated paperwork, saving money for the truly needy.

Cost-sharing flexibility: One aspect of the BBB is the option for states to charge small premiums or copays to expansion adults — just as CHIP and private plans have done for decades. If we decide copays are too onerous, we can skip them; if we want to keep everyone enrolled, we can pay every penny ourselves. Again, Maryland decides.

There are other Medicaid reforms that ensure taxpayer-funded benefits are reserved for legal residents and citizens. One example is Maryland’s “Healthy Babies” program, which currently covers the full cost of prenatal, postnatal and even dental care for approximately 7,000 non-citizens each year. Under the reforms in the reconciliation bill, federal Medicaid dollars can no longer be used to support this coverage. If the state wishes to maintain this coverage, it must do so through a fully state-funded program.

Opponents argue Maryland will be “forced” to cut services. That is misleading. The bill simply restores a principle most families live by: You budget for what you value, and you do not send bills to relatives who never agreed to pay them. If Maryland deems every current beneficiary indispensable, it can maintain every benefit with state dollars, local dollars, private donations or a reprioritized budget. The question is whether we value unlimited enrollment more than better schools, safer streets or tax relief for working families.

If thousands of Marylanders lose SNAP or Medicaid next year, it will not be because Congress cut them off. It will be because leaders in Annapolis refused to take up the tools offered to keep them covered, like premiums, cost-sharing, waiver flexibility or targeted state funding. The only mandatory cuts are those Maryland Democrats choose to make.

Accountability is not cruelty. It is the first duty of every steward of public money, and it is, at least for these two programs, precisely what the “Big Beautiful Bill” restores.

Dels. Lauren Arikan, Brian Chisholm, Mark N. Fisher, Robin Grammer, Matt Morgan, Ryan Nawrocki and Kathy Szeliga are Republicans in the Maryland House of Delegates who make up the Maryland Freedom Caucus.

Secretary Schiraldi would frequently say that we should not use a “ham-handed” policy to guide our system. We agree. The reality is that Schiraldi and the ideology-driven Democratic extremists who control the state are the parties guilty of the ham-handed approach.

Banning law enforcement from interviewing and detaining youth whose parents have consented is just one example of failed policy. Maryland youth now know that there are no consequences for their actions. This is why we see individual offenders go on to steal multiple cars over the course of days or weeks. “See you tomorrow, officer!” is the quote officers in the Essex Precinct have received when dropping offenders off to their parents after a car theft. These unhinged policies aren’t working — and everyone could see it, except Vincent Schiraldi.

For nearly two years, the Maryland Freedom Caucus has raised concerns about the dangerous trajectory of juvenile justice policy in Maryland. Under Secretary Schiraldi’s leadership, the department doubled down on a so-called zero-accountability model — even in cases involving repeat violent offenders. These policies may have won praise from liberal extremist think tanks, but they left families, schools and communities reeling from the real-world consequences of totally unchecked youth violence.

We need an immediate overhaul of the juvenile justice system. There needs to be real consequences for repeat offenders. We all want a system that helps young people who are motivated to turn their lives around. We do not deny that many have faced trauma, poverty and/or neglect. But we reject zero-accountability policies that hurt public safety and increase recidivism. For too long, the balance in Maryland has tipped entirely in one direction — shielding dangerous behavior while completely ignoring the voices of victims.

During Schiraldi’s tenure, high-profile cases of juvenile crime have skyrocketed. Carjackings, armed robberies and assaults — often carried out by youths who are already well known to DJS — have become disturbingly common in Baltimore City and the surrounding counties. In many cases, offenders had been previously arrested, only to be returned to the community without meaningful intervention or supervision — often in the face of desperate pleas from the parents of these juveniles themselves. Too often, they go on to reoffend, sometimes with deadly and tragic consequences.

We have sounded the alarm time and time again. We introduced legislation to require accountability, transparency and basic consequences for repeated violent acts by juveniles. We met with community members, school administrators and law enforcement, all of whom expressed frustration at a system unmoored from reality. We challenged DJS leadership — directly and publicly — about the breakdown in public trust over these failed policies.

Our concerns were met with deflection and ideological stubbornness. Secretary Schiraldi often painted any criticism of his policies as a rejection of compassion or progress. But compassion without accountability is not justice — it is abandonment. It abandons victims who are retraumatized by an unresponsive system. It abandons the majority of young people doing the right thing, only to see their neighborhoods destabilized by a small number of violent peers. And it abandons the very youth DJS is meant to serve — by failing to provide the structure, consequences and interventions that can truly change the lives of those who desire to improve.

Gov. Wes Moore took far too long to answer the calls to remove Schiraldi. It was too late for some Maryland youth, but now we have an opportunity to course-correct. This is not about partisanship. This is about restoring basic credibility and safety to our juvenile justice system. Our call is simple: The next DJS secretary must bring a balanced, pragmatic approach — one that values rehabilitation but does not excuse violent behavior and holds youth accountable for repeated offenses.

We are calling on Interim Secretary Betsy Fox Tolentino to act boldly based on the data from Maryland and the daily reality facing our citizens. We ask her to listen not to the extremist activists and academics, but to the victims, police officers and educators who have long suffered under these failed policies. The citizens of Maryland need her to protect public safety first and foremost, while giving young people a meaningful chance to change.

In the 2025 legislative session, we will reintroduce measures to address gaps in reportable offenses so schools know the crimes being committed by juveniles in their communities and repeal statutory prohibitions on arresting and detaining youth. We will not remain silent when safety is at stake.

To Maryland families who have felt ignored or endangered by the current system: We hear you. We are fighting for you. With leadership willing to face hard truths, our state can rebuild a juvenile justice system that is both compassionate and credible. We strongly encourage Fox Tolentino to be that leadership.

Secretary Schiraldi’s exit hopefully marks the end of a dark chapter in juvenile justice in Maryland. The Maryland Freedom Caucus is here to support this next chapter and will remain vigilant in exposing missteps to the public and holding the administration accountable should the change we need not be the change we see.

Robin Grammer (robin.grammer@house.state.md.us) is a Republican delegate representing District 6 in Baltimore County. Lauren Arikan (lauren.arikan@house.state.md.us) is a Republican delegate representing District 7B in Harford County.

The Maryland Freedom Caucus has a plan, governor. We have sent several formal letters to the governor with just what he requested — “a plan.” In January, we sent a letter requesting he immediately get the State of Maryland out of the disastrous California Clean Cars Initiative — still no response from the governor for weeks.

Last month, the Maryland Freedom Caucus, whose membership includes Dels. Matt Morgan (St. Mary’s), Kathy Szeliga (Baltimore County), Ryan Nawrocki (Baltimore County), Lauren Arikan (Harford), Brian Chisholm (Anne Arundel), Mark Fisher (Calvert) and Robin Grammer (Baltimore Co), crafted a detailed four-point plan and held a press conference explaining this comprehensive plan to lower Marylander’s energy costs immediately.

Our four-point energy plan was outlined as follows:

1. Keep power plants open and reopen closed facilities — We called for federal intervention to prevent further shutdowns and reinstate reliable energy sources.

2. Halt EmPOWER fees and pause energy taxes – End the EmPOWER fee and a 60-day moratorium on all state-imposed energy taxes and fees — just like the gas tax pause in 2022. (H.B. 1535, H.B. 1536)

3. Repeal the Climate Solutions Act (2022) — The radical mandate in this law must be repealed (H.B. 1451).

4. Stop the $180 million climate bureaucracy and other costly Green New Deal-style programs.

Additionally, I have submitted the Energy Equality Act of 202 — H.B. 1238. The bill aims to prevent the State of Maryland from banning and discriminating against consumer products, including vehicles, based on the form of energy used to power the devices.

With inflation at an all-time high, now is not the time to force consumers to purchase products that only use electricity. Our grid is stretched to the max. Bills are sky-high. Citizens are angry, rightly so, at the looming threat of rolling blackouts because our state continues to close down local energy production.

Democrats through absurd green energy policies they have rammed through thanks to their super majority have led to the closing of seven power stations since 2012. Brandon Shores is still on the chopping block and while we’ve gotten a temporary stay until 2029, very soon we will lose that energy on our grid, requiring Maryland import more than 80% of our energy from other states, according to estimates from PJM.

Extreme leftist politicians in Maryland shove their collective heads into the sand and claim we’re going green, but make no mistake, we’re importing energy from states that proudly generate energy using coal. They continue to pursue pie-in-the-sky green energy plans that end with Maryland’s rural areas, like Harford, Baltimore and Carroll Counties, being crisscrossed with even more powerlines, so that we can import energy from other states and destroy our rural heritage.

The Maryland Freedom Caucus has provided clear plans for Gov. Moore, just as he requested. We have repeatedly reached out to him and shared these plans. Yet, the governor has refused to respond to a single letter or a single request for a sit-down meeting with him by members of our caucus, even on overtly bipartisan issues like the Key Bridge collapse and rebuilding.

We need the citizens of Maryland to fight back against these destructive policies. We need the community to reach out. Reach out to the governor, tell him it’s time to work across party lines. Tell him about your BGE bills. Tell him how the cost of energy and the cost of living in Maryland is making it harder for your family to justify staying here.

A recent poll by UMBC found that 53% of Marylanders have considered leaving the state. The Maryland Freedom Caucus is committed to making Maryland a state the citizens actually want to live in, and we are calling on the citizens to help make that a reality.

Lauren Arikan (lauren.arikan@house.state.md.us) is a Republican delegate, representing District 7B in Harford County.

The use of puberty blockers to stop the natural biological process of puberty for young children has become an increasingly controversial off-label use of these drugs. In July of 2022, the FDA slapped a warning on them stating that they can cause brain swelling and vision loss. The treatment for gender dysphoria has come under fire in recent months as peer-reviewed research continues to be published, calling into question the risks versus benefits for children.

In January of this year, The British Medical Journal on Child and Adolescent Mental Health published a study that stated unequivocally that “Clinical gender dysphoria does not appear to be predictive of all-cause nor suicide mortality when psychiatric treatment history is accounted for.” This finding challenges the very foundation on which the existing protocols for treating children with gender dysphoria were established. In other words, treating underlying mental health issues without life-changing drugs or permanent surgeries will mitigate risks associated with gender dysphoria.

In Annapolis, the liberal narrative emphasizes the importance of supporting individuals with gender dysphoria and providing medication to help prevent suicide among these children. They frequently reference studies indicating that young individuals experiencing gender dysphoria face a higher suicide risk, using this to support the notion of chemically castrating these minors. However, many of these young people have serious pre-existing mental health comorbidities that are the real culprits of their increased risk.

James Cantor, a Toronto, Canada, based psychologist, has stated that the American Academy of Pediatrics is out of line with almost all other organizations in their recommendation of “gender-affirmation” exclusively. Finland and Sweden have reversed course on their policies around transitioning children. Sweden has a National Healthcare system that has collected robust data on the impacts of transitions. The study, released in 2011, concluded that “persons with transsexualism, after sex reassignment, have considerably higher risks for mortality, suicidal behaviour, and psychiatric morbidity than the general population.”

In 2021, Senate Bill 41 passed the House along an almost party-line vote, aside from disgraced former Del. Rick Impallaria, who voted with the Democrats to allow children as young as 12 to have access to mental health care without their parent’s knowledge or consent. Buried in that bill was an exception that allowed for medication to be prescribed to minors 16 and above without parental knowledge or consent. This set the stage for trans-identifying youth in Maryland to gain access to these treatments unbeknownst to their parents if they meet certain criteria — including having a child, being married, or being self-supporting and not living with their parents — necessitating this year’s bi-partisan HB 722, which  I sponsored. This set the stage for trans-identifying youth in Maryland to gain access to these treatments unbeknownst to their parents, necessitating this year’s bi-partisan HB 722, which I sponsored.

When Del. Brian Chisholm of Anne Arundel County directly questioned the opposition to the bill about their stance on parental rights in these matters, they evaded the question for several minutes before finally stating support for the existing law. A Democrat attempted to redirect the conversation and instead showed the dire need for the bill. She stated: “The law says, as I recall it, that in instances where the child is not being supported by the parent, those are instances where there might be exceptions, but otherwise, the parent is always involved in these decisions.”

Annapolis liberals are now openly advocating against the necessity of parental consent in children’s health care decisions. Rather than seeking parents’ input, they promote adherence to transgender political ideology. This is despite mounting global evidence of the detrimental impact these practices have on children, which is leading to their rejection worldwide. Throughout history, parents have been the greatest advocates for their children, protecting them from the harms of the world and from junk medicine. No one cares for children more than their own parents. Today, transgender advocates in Annapolis are fighting tooth and nail to take that stopgap away, leaving Maryland children vulnerable to the whims of ever-changing political ideology.

It is time for Maryland to stop the constant degradation of parent’s most fundamental right: deciding what is in the best interest of their children. The Health and Government Operations Committee in the Maryland House of Delegates should immediately pass HB 722 and protect Maryland children, not misguided special interest groups.

Lauren Arikan (lauren.arikan@house.state.md.us) is a Republican delegate, representing District 7B in Harford County.

Editor’s note: This op-ed has been updated to clarify a minor’s eligibility for certain medications. 

Her employer is completely absolved from liability. This summer, OSHA suspended the worker’s compensation law that holds employer’s accountable. Normally, those injured by vaccinations are able to sue in federal vaccine court for damages, as all manufacturers of vaccinations in the U.S. are shielded from liability. A local Maryland mother whose daughter was killed by the HPV vaccination fought for more than seven years to be compensated for the death of her only child. Finally, she prevailed. It’s an antiquated system that should be replaced with standard liability laws for the manufacturers, but for now it’s all we have.

Yet, victims of the COVID-19 vaccines are not even provided access to this torturous option to help them get the funds they need to cover their care. Pressure continues to mount from some to force citizens to mask and get vaccinated, despite new peer-reviewed evidence in The Lancet that shows vaccinated healthcare workers carried 251 times the viral load of the Delta variant in their bodies and that being vaccinated had no impact on the transmission of the virus.

There is a lack of responsibility occurring in our country and it’s coming from those drunk off of their obsession with forcing medical products into their neighbors and family, our teachers and nurses. They have not stopped for a moment to consider what is happening to the individuals who are consenting to these, as the Supreme Court stated, “unavoidably unsafe” products and are now suffering the consequences of a product rushed to market without long-term safety data. If the statistics coming from the state are to be believed, then only those adults who have chosen not to get the injection are currently dying from COVID-19. That was and is their decision to make, because in America individual liberty always trumps forced collectivism.

For those who continue to feel unsafe, you can get the vaccine, continue to stay home, socially distance and wear a facemask — make it an N95, anything less is nothing more than a security blanket — but you may not infringe on their rights of others, including their parental rights. At some point, we may need to accept that those living daily in crippling fear may need God more than they need that cloth facemask.

Lauren Arikan is a Republican representing District 7 in the Maryland House of Delegates.

According to Merriam-Webster, “woke” is to be aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice). After months of nation-wide riots that spawned from an alleged desire for racial justice, being woke has now become weaponized.

All over social media, if you do not acquiesce to woke culture, you are attacked, berated and marginalized. This is more than simply the squeakiest wheel getting the oil. Extreme woke leftism is spreading like a cancer among our youth and on our college campuses. These folks command almost no knowledge or life experience, yet they spend their days online proselytizing into liberal echo chambers about fictional things like critical race theory.

Down in Annapolis, we have seen a shift in the last three years from a much more cohesive Democratic Party, to one that is being held hostage by extremist woke advocates. After 17 hours of negotiations between Democrat leadership, Republican leadership and advocates on the Senate side, a package of police reform bill came out that was almost completely bi-partisan. It delivered what both sides thought was a solid compromise.

On the House side, while Republicans worked with Democrat House leadership over many hours, the level of extremism from a small group of liberals was so strong, that we simply couldn’t come to an agreement.

As rumors circulated about an increasing threat of violence from extremists toward delegates and senators, it became apparent that Maryland Democrats are now crafting legislation not because it’s the best policy, but under duress from a violent fringe that is willing to use physical threats to accomplish their goal of destroying our police.

Last week during bill hearings in the House for the Senate package we had woke leftists come in and suggest that black officers are perpetuating “white supremacy” more than white officers, because they are like the black slave drivers of the Antebellum South. To compare an entire race of people that work in law enforcement of being akin to slave drivers is absolutely disgusting. The woke left has become the racists they claim to hate.

Just this week, we had a black delegate, Dr. Brenda Thiam, from Washington County, essentially be called a house slave on her social media account, by an extremist liberal from her community that worked for a local Democrat. The Maryland Democrats have allowed these fringe voices to become so emboldened that they don’t even hide their overt racism.

Earlier this week, in the Senate Judicial Proceedings committee, they moved HB670 — the House Police Reform bill — with some of the most absurd and illogical policy in it. I watched in utter disbelief as the liberals on the committee rejected common-sense amendments that would remove portions of the bill like mandatory implicit bias testing as part of the hiring process for new police officers.

Implicit bias testing for hiring does not even exist. I heard Sen. Shelly Hettleman state that it was just one tool in a myriad of tools for hiring. Except it is literally not a tool.

I personally reached out to Harvard Implicit Bias Testing, which is the most evidenced-based Implicit Bias Testing that exists. Here is their response: “The IAT is not recommended for individual assessments or hiring practices … . If you’re looking for tests that identify potential job candidates with hidden bias, I’m sorry to say that such a test doesn’t currently exist.”

Mandating fictitious testing is merely the tip of the iceberg within this failed police reform legislation. With Baltimore City Police having an estimated 500 officer deficit, I shudder to think of the effect this legislation will have on recruitment of new police officers. In Baltimore County, a survey was sent out to almost 1,000 local FOP members, 83% said they would leave the job if this legislation passed.

Not only will police officers in Maryland have to fear for their lives when they are called to the rescue of our citizens, but we may simply not have anyone left to answer the call at all, and ultimately, Maryland will be far less safe because of it.

Lauren Arikan is a Republican representing District 7 in the Maryland House of Delegates.

But as word of a potentially dangerous pandemic hit the airwaves, legislators began to feel nervous, just as every other citizen did. A feeling of concern filled the halls. Staff began wiping down offices with great frequency. I sent my own pregnant chief of staff home after an out-of-state lobbyist came into our office saying she wasn’t feeling well and that she had just gotten off a flight from the COVID-19 hot spot of Washington state.

On March 5, Gov. Larry Hogan declared a State of Emergency. Two days later, I found out that I had potentially been exposed to the virus when I had attended the Conservative Political Action Conference to receive an award. The next day, I was told I thankfully did not attend the same day as the positive patient. I began to share my concerns with my colleagues that the leadership was taking unnecessary risks both with legislators and the public. Why wouldn’t they pass the budget immediately and adjourn?

I was further dismayed when on March 12, instead of suspending session, all of our staff was sent home, press and lobbyists were barred from entry, and citizens were also forbidden from entering the State House buildings. According to Attorney General Brian Frosh’s website, “Maryland’s Open Meetings Act is a statute that requires many State and local public bodies to hold their meetings in public, to give public adequate notice of meetings, and to allow the public to inspect meetings minutes… the Act’s goals are to increase the public’s faith in government.”

The decisions of our House and Senate leadership to continue session without any public participation was a disgrace for democracy everywhere and destroyed public faith.

On March 13, Gov. Hogan called on Senate and House leadership to immediately pass the budget and adjourn. What ensued after that day was nothing short of absolute tyranny. While Maryland continued under a state of emergency, an executive order was issued first limiting the congregating of more than 250 people, then later 50 people, under penalty of fines and arrest.

In Annapolis, high in an ivory tower, almost 200 legislators and dozens of state employees were still meeting, shuttered away from the public and in clear defiance of the governor’s order. For days, the majority party pushed hyper-partisan bills through both chambers, without regard for citizen participation. Citizens were desperately reaching out while our legislative phone lines went unanswered with no staff present.

The live streaming on the House side was totally ineffective, the feed failed constantly, further preventing citizens from knowing what was occurring. Even the audio feed that has been in operation for many years was apparently unable to handle the increase in volume and failed to work on numerous occasions. During committee votes on the House side, no substantive effort to give access to the public occurred causing some legislators to refuse to participate, despite each committee room already being equipped to live stream hearings.

In the end, session was finally called early, but far too late. A staffer for the House Environment and Transportation committee tested positive for COVID-19 and had been working in the State House until March 16. I pray that they heal quickly and that no other members of the House or Senate, staff or employees will come down with this illness and spread it to the larger community. This outcome was totally avoidable.

What did we the people get for sacrificing access to our representative democracy, for accepting this legislative tyranny? We got an increased tax on tobacco, taxes on online streaming services for Maryland families and a Constitutional Amendment that will appear on the ballot which will give the very same legislators who continued session through the COVID-19 pandemic and a state of emergency even more power to control the budget in the state of Maryland.

Maryland’s General Assembly Session 2020 will go down as one of the most egregious attacks on democracy our state has ever seen.

Lauren Arikan is a Republican member of the House of Delegates representing District 7.

Harford County is a beautiful county to raise a family in and a large part of that is because of our commitment to protecting our agricultural heritage. Agriculture is one of our top industries not only in Harford County, but in Maryland as well.

Annual agricultural revenue for Harford County is $46 million (2012 census) and for the state $4.7 billion in total output and $2.03 billion in value added. Despite a concerted effort in Maryland, farms continue to close up shop and full-time farming is becoming more and more financially unsustainable, in large part because of increased regulatory burdens.

In 2007 we had more than 12,800 working farms in Maryland; today that number is around 12,300. In other counties, farming acreage has also been impacted by both development and more recently by a federal and state push for allegedly “green energy” in the form of solar panels placed on agricultural land.

As a testament to Harford County’s commitment to our agricultural heritage the county executive and County Council wisely protected Harford County farm land from such uses, other counties in the area would do well to follow suit.

In an effort to keep our dairies above water, Gov. Larry Hogan announced last week that he allocated $17 million in emergency funds for our dairy farmers.

We’re still not doing enough. We need to do more to protect our farming industry and to encourage our youth to consider the farm life.

In Harford County we have more than 395 children involved in 4H and FFA (Future Farmers of America). Each year hundreds of animals are entered into competition at the Harford County Farm Fair. My children are looking forward to their first opportunity to participate in showing their dairy goats this summer. Unfortunately, not everyone in our state and in our country see the incredible value of livestock farming.

There are movements nationwide and within the state of Maryland to ban the transport of animals, preventing our future farmers from even participating in local AG fairs. This is an attack not only on our cultural heritage, but also on the American consumer who wishes to purchase American grown animal products.

Behind the scenes, we often hear about the oppressive activist groups whose main goal is to anthropomorphize all creatures and exact pressure on counties and municipalities to change their laws. They seek to shame Americans and prevent them from not only consuming, but from owning any animals at all.

In July of 2017, 30,000-40,000 minks were released from a pelt farm by an extremist, allegedly to save them. It turned into a massacre when most died in the wild due to excessive heat exposure and no access to food or water.

More recently, Montgomery County passed a county regulation that in the original form would have prevented the transport of animals in the county, effectively killing the incredibly popular Montgomery County Farm Fair.

Its farm fair is the largest in the state and usually brings in 221,647 visitors each year. It would have crushed the farming community and had lasting economic impacts in several local jurisdictions in our state. After much opposition, the bill was amended to exempt agricultural use, and tailored to restrict circuses specifically.

Unfortunately, the same groups pushing the Montgomery County bill have now set their sights on the city of Gaithersburg. Again, the Montgomery County Farm Fair is in the cross-hairs.

Families from all over the state and from outside the state come to the Montgomery County Farm Fair each year and many more drive through the area on their way to other places with their livestock.

In light of these aggressive attacks on one of the oldest industries in our great country and in our great state, I have introduced legislation, House Bill 880, which would restrict the ability to pass a local law in Maryland that restricts the transport of animals for farming and agricultural related activities.

Farming seems to be constantly under attack from every side by activist extremists, but I believe the state has a duty to protect our farmers and our farm fairs for not only the consumers who desire to purchase American made animal products, but for our children who will one day be America’s farmers.

Del. Lauren Arikan, a Republican, represents District 7 in Harford County.