Lawmakers are back in Annapolis for the annual 90-day legislative session, where they’ll take on a budget shortfall, a hostile administration in the White House and more.

Here’s what we’re watching today, Jan. 20:

• 🥞 The Banner’s third annual Inside the Legislative Session event kicks off this morning in Annapolis. Legislative leaders, agency heads and advocates will talk about the bills that will define the session in conversation with Banner reporters. Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk take the stage first.
• 🚜 There’s a new caucus in town: The House’s new Rural Caucus launches today with its first-ever press conference. In a state where urban centers dominate the political conversation, lawmakers from rural parts of Maryland can sometimes feel sidelined. Peña-Melnyk pledged last month that her office would have “a direct relationship” with the new caucus.
• 👨🏾‍⚖️ A state litigation unit dedicated to suing the Trump administration has filed more than 50 lawsuits during its first year in existence. “Last year I told Marylanders I believed that chaos was coming from Washington,” Attorney General Anthony Brown told the press last week. “Well, chaos came, but our Federal Accountability Unit was ready.”

More on that later as we bring you live updates from the legislative session.

— Madeleine O’Neill

2:12 p.m.: Sheriffs oppose restrictions on immigration enforcement

Republican lawmakers and sheriffs came out swinging Tuesday, contesting Democrats’ plans to ban immigration enforcement agreements between local public safety agencies and the federal government just days ahead of the bill’s hearing.

One of the top immigration bills, the ban will end contracts between local jails and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

Named for a section of federal law passed when Democrat Bill Clinton was president, 287(g), the agreement allows corrections officers to flag a noncitizen for ICE and hold them for up to 48 hours.

This bill, and a mask ban for federal agents, are expected to pass through the General Assembly.

Senators and sheriffs said they wanted to dispel the misinformation about the contracts during a news conference. Local law enforcement agencies with 287(g) agreements, they said, are not being deployed into communities to track down noncitizens. The processing of a noncitizen in their custody happens inside the detention center.

Banning the contracts would make Maryland a sanctuary state, they say, and force ICE to put more “boots on the ground.” Several blamed the ICE surge in Minneapolis on the state’s government’s refusal to cooperate.

Immigration enforcement is the responsibility of the federal government, according to federal law. Democratic lawmakers have said the 287(g) ban will not impede a law enforcement officer’s ability to arrest violent criminals, nor the federal government’s ability to deport convicted noncitizens.

Senate President Bill Ferguson said he found it “disappointing” that local sheriffs would want to partner with a federal agency conducting law enforcement while wearing masks and “ripping people out of cars.”

“It gives me a great deal of pause on the efficacy of the trust between the populace they serve and the future for law enforcement moving forward,” the Baltimore Democrat said.

Sen. Bill Folden, a Frederick County Republican and veteran law enforcement officer, went one step further.

In the eyes of the federal government, he said, “This will make Maryland a sanctuary state.” He warned that the ban may prompt ICE to turn more attention on Maryland communities.

Sheriffs are elected officials who should be able to determine whether they enter into agreements with the federal government, he said.

Folden equated the Democrats’ bill to “fearmongering, distraction and virtue signaling.”

— Brenda Wintrode and Madeleine O’Neill

1:10 p.m.: Cheers for the Sphere

The billion-dollar LED screen that developers want to park beside the Capital Beltway at National Harbor got bipartisan praise in Annapolis Tuesday morning.

Gov. Wes Moore announced the proposal over the weekend, which will get public aid in several forms: a grant in Moore’s proposed budget; incentives and advertising money from state economic development agencies; as well as property tax incentives and a parking garage from Prince George’s County government.

The Las Vegas original is struggling to reach profitability, but Maryland leaders attending The Banner’s Inside the Legislative Session event applauded the local proposal.

Del. Ben Barnes, a Democrat who represents portions of Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties, said the state’s help in constructing the entertainment venue is a “good investment,” considering the billions of dollars of economic activity officials said the project will generate once it’s open. Senate Minority Leader Stephen Hershey, an Eastern Shore Republican, called it a “big win for Maryland.”

Secretary of Commerce Harry Coker said it was an example of companies “voting” with their business and choosing Maryland.

— John O’Connor and Cody Boteler

12:25 p.m.: Who is swimming in the Senate?

That’s what Sen. Nancy King, a Montgomery County Democrat, wants to know. Someone, maybe one of her colleagues, left a pair of swimming goggles in King’s desk and she used the close of Tuesday’s Senate session as a sort of lost and found cattle call.

The early days of the legislative session usually don’t offer much in the way of dramatics on the chamber floor. There can be important questions raised, like how to tackle immigration enforcement or rising energy costs, but mostly it’s a time for lawmakers to get their ducks in a row.

Things will kick into a higher gear tomorrow when Gov. Wes Moore introduces his budget, but it will take a few weeks before we find out what bills are likely to sink or swim.

— Lee O. Sanderlin

9:45 a.m.: Maryland filed 51 lawsuits against the Trump administration in one year

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office has filed more than 50 lawsuits against the federal government since President Donald Trump took office for a second time last year.

The office got $1 million from lawmakers last year to build a specialized litigation unit that would take on the Trump administration. The resulting lawsuits have blocked the feds from slashing billions of dollars in funding to Maryland, Attorney General Anthony Brown told the press last week.

“These actions aren’t about politics,” he said. “They’re about protecting the resources our state needs to serve its residents. When Washington threatens our schools, our workers, our communities, we will hold them accountable.”

Trump swept into office a year ago and quickly moved to reshape the federal government, even in ways that were widely seen as unlawful by legal experts. The changes threatened thousands of federal jobs, billions of dollars in already allocated federal funding, and the very existence of some executive agencies.

While Trump has been able to force through many of those changes — and the Republican-controlled Congress has done little to rein him in — state lawsuits like those brought by Maryland’s Federal Accountability Unit have acted as a check.

Lower courts, in particular, have dealt blows to Trump’s agenda in many of these lawsuits. Those victories for states like Maryland could still evaporate as cases work their way through the appellate courts and up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Republicans have appointed six of nine judges.

But in some cases, the federal government backed down.

The Trump administration dropped its appeal in a case where states challenged its effort to cut billions of dollars in transportation funding to states that did not agree to cooperate with immigration enforcement efforts.

— Madeleine O’Neill

9:10 a.m. Hogan’s not running for governor

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan will not run for the job again, he said Tuesday in a post on social media.

“I care deeply about the state of Maryland, and I remain concerned about the direction of our nation’s politics, but I have no intention of running for office again,” Hogan wrote. “It was an honor to serve, but it’s time to look forward, not back.”

Hogan was viewed as the best possible Republican challenger to Democratic Gov. Wes Moore. Businessman Ed Hale Sr. and a handful of others have announced they’re running in the Republican primary.

Moore said Monday that he has $8 million in campaign cash on hand, but his polling has been tepid.

Hogan’s decision caps an improbable political career that saw the real estate executive become the first Republican in generations to win back-to-back terms as governor. Read more here.

— Madeleine O’Neill and Pamela Wood