Maryland House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel) begins her first session leading the 141-member chamber Wednesday looking to balance a budget with a $1.5 billion deficit, provide affordable health care and protect immigrants.
All of it, she says, will be achieved against a backdrop of civility.
“We’re not Washington, D.C. We’re going to act appropriately. We’re going to make sure that we have civility, that we have decency and that we have respect,” Peña-Melnyk said during a recent interview in her Annapolis office.
“Those are things that you make a choice, that you have to be intentional about. I demand it, and I expect it. I set the example,” she said.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be tough discussions and decisions, particularly on the budget, where she does not expect tax increases to be part of any soluion. Part of the budget review process, she said, will be assessing where to make cuts and having the discipline to keep from spending on new programs the state can’t currently afford.
“We have to make sure that we take care of the programs that we have right now,” Peña-Melnyk said. “Maryland is required, unlike the federal government, to have a balanced budget. We will adjourn with a balanced budget.”
Another task will be assessing how the expansive tax and spending cuts package, the so-called One, Bg Beautiful Bill Act that President Donald Trump signed into law July 4, will affect Maryland. Among other changes, the legislation Pena-Melnyk called the “big, awful bill,” increases state tax exemptions on federal returns, makes deep cuts to health care spending and bans Medicaid funding from health care providers “primarily engaged in family planning services, reproductive health, and related medical care.”
But Peña-Melnyk also understands the necessity of having a relationship with the federal government, noting that Maryland had the highest number of federal job losses in the nation last year at about 25,000.
“That impacts the bottom line,” she said. “So, as we look at this session, I’m going to be looking at everything through the angle of affordability, accountability and opportunity.”
“We’re going to make sure that we give relief to people that are struggling. For example, to pay their electric bill. That are struggling to be to put food on the table,” she said. “I am a balanced person, a respectful person, and we deal with very tough issues, but we’re going to find solutions.”
In terms of immigration policy, Peña-Melnyk supports the reintroduction of legislation to ban 287(g) agreements, which allow local police to perform certain immigration enforcement roles. She served as a co-sponsor last year of legislation sponsored by Del. Nicole Williams (D-Prince George’s), but the Senate stripped out the language blocking such agreements when it passed the so-called Maryland Values Act on the final day of the 2025 session.
Since then, Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) has said he supports the bill, giving supporters new hope.
“I think it’s important, especially given the climate that we have presently in this country,” said Peña-Melnyk, a native of the Dominican Republic. “The states have to act. This is a way for us to tell our immigrant community, ‘We love you. You’re part of us. We see you. We hear you, and we want to give you protection,’ and that’s why this is important.”
As part of her agenda to focus on the “energy crisis,” Peña-Melnyk said there will be legislation to prevent utility companies from using ratepayer dollars on executive bonuses.
The legislature took aim at utility spending last year through the Next Generation Energy Act, an expansive bill that Gov. Wes Moore (D) signed into law in May. It bans investor-owned electric and gas companies from using ratepayer dollars to fund trade association memberships and private planes.
We’re going to make sure that we give relief to people that are struggling. For example, to pay their electric bill. That are struggling to be to put food on the table. I am a balanced person, a respectful person, and we deal with very tough issues, but we’re going to find solutions.
– House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel, on on some of her goals for the session
“So many people are not able to afford to pay their energy bill. They’re struggling, and we have to make sure that we give them relief this session,” Peña-Melnyk said. The bill proposes “to make sure that bonuses that the CEOs get doesn’t come from the ratepayers. That’s one of our priorities.”
Some help
Some of the solutions this session, she said, will come from House standing committees.
“I have good people on these committees that bring experiences like I do [and] that work really hard like I do…. Do the homework like I do, and they care about their constituents like I do,” Peña-Melnyk said. “Do we have all the answers? No, but are we willing to roll our sleeves and work like crazy? Absolutely.”
The new speaker has already made several changes, including splitting the former House Health and Government Operations Committee into Health Committee, chaired by Del. Heather Bagnall (D-Anne Arundel), and a separate Labor, Elections and Government Committee, chaired by Del. Melissa Wells (D-Baltimore City).
Dels. J. Sandy Bartlett (D-Anne Arundel) and Jheanelle Wilkins (D-Montgomery), who served as vice chairs of the Judiciary and Ways and Means committees, respectively, have been elevated to chairs of those committees.
Del. Kris Valderrama (D-Prince George’s), who was elected to the House in 2006, the same year as Peña-Melnyk, will chair the Economic Matters Committee.
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“I’m honored and humbled. I don’t pretend to know everything. I want to do my best and I want to work with the members,” Valderrama said Friday. “My number one thing in being in Annapolis is constituent services. Policy comes second to me. We are there to make policy, but I’m there to represent my constituents to the best that I can.”
‘Sense of responsibility’
As Peña-Melnyk sat on the dark leather chair inside her office, she tapped the arm rests and paid homage to former House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County), who was the first woman and first person of color ever elected to the position.
“She was a transformative leader when it came to education, addressing health disparities and affordability … she did so much,” Peña-Melnyk said. “It’s such a responsibility to make sure that I honor her legacy, but that I build on that. It’s important that she sat right here, and that I have to continue that work. It’s something that I respect and do not take lightly.”
Peña-Melnyk, who became the second woman to become speaker but the first Afro-Latina when she was elected Dec. 16, called it a “sense of responsibility.”
“It is such an enormous responsibility, not just for Afro-Latinos, Blacks, for everyone,” she said. “To be the leader of 141 people, to be someone that has to guide the House in a respectful way, and when we adjourn to make sure that we deliver for the people. That is how I see it.”
Her family was able to see her stand at the rostrum and lead the House chamber during the special session where she was elected last month. Once it was over, her family left and she stayed in Annapolis.
“They had lunch without me because I told them to go. I had a lot of work to do,” she said. “My family is used to it.”
Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org.
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