Here are some data we found worthy of remark from the 2013 Maryland General Assembly regular session.

House statistics:

• Bills introduced in the House:  1535
• Bills with Third Readings:  571
• Bills passed:  570
• 99.82% of bills with Third Readings, passed
• 37.14% of bills introduced in the House, passed

Not all of those bills passed both chambers.  When House bills are passed, they cross into the Senate.

House bills in the Senate:

• 455 of 570 had Third Readings
• 454 of those 455 bills passed the Senate
• 99.78% of Third Read House bills passed the Senate
• 79.6% of bills that passed the House, passed the Senate (including those with Amendments)

Senate statistics:

• Bills introduced in the Senate:  1072
• Senate bills with Third Readings:  450
• Senate bills passed by the Senate:  448
• 99.56% of bills with Third Readings, passed
• 41.79% of bills introduced by Senate, passed Senate

After these bills pass the Senate, they cross over into the House.

Senate bills in House:

• Senate bills heard in House (First Reading):  448
• Senate bills with Third Readings in House:  330
• Senate bills passed in House:  330
• 100% of Senate bills with Third Readings in the House, passed
• 73.66% of Senate bills crossing into the House, passed

What does all of this mean?  Simply put, once a bill comes out of committee in the House or the Senate, the chance of it passing is nearly 100%.  Only 3 bills that made it out of committee failed in their House of origin.  This is why we stress that it is so important to fight bills in committee.

In 2014, the website will be improved, we’ll make it even easier to contact the committees, and when more Marylanders make their voices heard early in the process, we’ll have even more success.   Here’s to 2014!