2020 Legislative Report, continued...
at the hours and hours of hearings; upset that their bill didn’t pass; angry that the process has to start all over the next session. “It shouldn’t be this difficult,” is the common complaint. To which we respond, “yes, some- times it should.” Although governments and legislatures should not drag their feet when necessary to right wrongs and correct injustices, in most cases lawmaking should be a slow and deliberative process. One merely has to look at the controversies spawned by the COVID-19 State of Emergency Executive Orders to under-stand why. Te State of Maryland and the Secretaries of the various Departments (of Agriculture, of Natural Resources, of Labor, Health, etc.) have had to quickly interpret and apply (albeit short term) the Governor’s Execu- tive Orders so quickly that the “law of unintended consequences” came into play. If the “stay at home” order means THIS, with the exception of THAT, well then, shouldn’t this be that? “But that’s not fair!” “Tat’s not right!” “Tat’s a violation of my constitutional rights!” Te guidelines for the public, necessarily issued in haste, are a sterling example of why the process of making new laws or amending existing laws SHOULD be slow and deliberative. Te guidelines, in practice, have sometimes been vague or left questions unanswered, and have even, at times, ranged from confounding and contradictory, to unrealistic, im- practicable and unenforceable, causing the anxiety level in our communi- ties to increase, turning neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend. During this COVID-19 crisis, the Maryland Horse Council’s Ex-
ecutive Committee, which has several MHC Legislative Committee members serving on it, has worked hard to address these implementa- tion issues. It has met weekly to review the latest directives related to the State of Emergency and the policies being issued by those agencies most relevant to our community (primarily the Depart-ments of Agriculture
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and Natural Resources). We have discussed and sought answers to the questions put to us by our communities about the intent and effect of the agency directives. We have tried to present the concerns of the com- munities to the regulatory bodies; we have attempted to influence the interpretation of guidelines often to no avail, as the agencies are over- whelmed and reeling in their attempts to figure out how to apply the Governor’s orders to various segments of the ag industries, various user groups of public lands, etc. Let us remember that, as we go to press with the May issue, we remain
in a State of Emergency. Tis is not a permanent state-of-being. Tis will end. And when it does, we will return to the slow, methodical, process of creating and amending laws, the “deliberative process” and we will em- brace this deliberative process which is the hallmark of our government with relief, with a new found respect, and possibly with pleasure. Te MHC Legislative Committee meets via conference call weekly
during the legislative session. Many thanks to those who served on the 2020 committee: Jane Seigler, Crystal Brumme Pickett, Christy Clag- ett, Corinne Pouliquen, Joanne Stone, Jennifer Sponseller-Webster, Joe Michael, Jacquie Cowan, and particularly to Kim Egan who reviewed and prepared, each week, an updated spreadsheet of relevant bills with pertinent data.
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