BALTIMORE — Maryland lawmakers are returning to Annapolis earlier than expected after House Speaker Adrienne Jones' decision to step down prompted House leadership to call a special session to elect a new speaker.
The special session is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 16, with House of Delegates Health and Government Operations Chair Joseline Peña-Melnyk emerging as the frontrunner, according to Maryland Matters.
WATCH: Maryland lawmakers call special session for new House speaker election
"There's a lot of discussion that needs to happen between government leaders at the moment. The governor's in the midst of preparing a budget for the coming year. That's happening right now. We have any number of other topics that need decisions, redistricting, veto overrides, all of this stuff is cooking and has been under discussion now by the House leadership team for some weeks," Delegate David Moon said.
If the House elects Peña-Melnyk during the special session, it would allow House Democrats to smoothly transition at the start of the 2026 session.
However, Republicans believe the special session is unnecessary given the proximity to the regular session.
"We don't necessarily have to have a speaker at the moment. Given that we are so close to the session, I did think it was something that could wait a few more weeks to make that formal vote for Speaker," Delegate Ryan Nawrocki said.
Veto overrides on the agenda
Lawmakers will also address vetoes from the 2025 session, which is constitutionally required. The bill receiving the most attention that is likely to be overturned establishes a commission to study reparations.
"The House stands by its work product, you know, we did put our names on vote sheets when we took votes on all these bills. So if they came out of the House, I'm going to say we trust our process and our deliberations, and we stand by our work product," Moon said.
The bigger question is whether delegates will introduce other business like redistricting. Moon says there isn't a plan to do so as of now, though he can't speak for every delegate in the House chamber.
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