Session resources

How to testify at the Maryland General Assembly

Updated October 4, 2026 · Every rule below was read from the Maryland General Assembly’s own committee witness guidelines and visitor information. The 2027 guidelines have not been posted yet; until they are, this page quotes the 2026 session rules and says so.

Every bill heard in a Maryland General Assembly committee gets a public hearing, and anyone can sign up to speak at it or send in written testimony. For an association bringing members to Annapolis, a firm with a client bill on the docket, or a staffer who has to get the paperwork right, the mechanics matter more than most people expect: the sign-up window is short, it closes two business days before the hearing, and the choice between testifying in person and testifying over Zoom is locked once it closes.

The 2027 session convenes on January 13, 2027 and adjourns on April 12, 2027. Each committee publishes its own witness guidelines for each session, and the 2027 editions are not out yet. What follows is how the committees ran hearings in the 2026 session, quoted from the guidelines they published. Treat it as the starting point, and check the 2027 guidelines when they appear in January.

Step 1: create a MyMGA account now

You cannot sign up to testify, or upload written testimony, without one. The Senate Finance Committee’s 2026 guidelines put it plainly: “To register to provide oral testimony or submit written testimony, individuals MUST create a MyMGA account through the MGA website.” The House Appropriations and Economic Matters committees say the same thing in their own words. The account is free and it is not tied to a session, so there is no reason to leave it until the week of your hearing.

Step 2: find the hearing, then count back two business days

The Committee Meetings and Hearing Schedule on the MGA website “lists bills to be heard before each committee.” Once you know the hearing date, the sign-up date follows from it. In 2026 every committee guideline we read used the same window: oral testimony sign-up and written testimony submission open two business days before the hearing, from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Senate Finance Committee’s version adds: “All submissions must be completed by 6:00 p.m.” House Economic Matters notes that business days exclude weekends, and House Appropriations prints the result as a chart. A Monday hearing means signing up the previous Thursday.

Hearing day	Sign-up and written testimony (8 a.m.–6 p.m.)
Monday	The previous Thursday
Tuesday	The previous Friday
Wednesday	Monday
Thursday	Tuesday
Friday	Wednesday

The day-by-day mapping is our arithmetic from the “two business days” rule. Around a state holiday, check the committee’s own schedule rather than counting. The 2027 session includes Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 18 and Presidents’ Day on February 15 (both on our 2027 session dates page).

Step 3: decide in person or Zoom, and stick to it

In 2026 the committees ran in-person hearings with a virtual option. Senate Judicial Proceedings: “All bill hearings will take place in person in the applicable committee room.” House Appropriations: “All budget and bill hearings will be held in-person with a virtual oral testimony option (via Zoom),” though its budget hearings were “in-person only unless an ADA-related request is made.”

Several Senate committees capped the virtual option: “up to 14 members of the public may provide virtual oral testimony via Zoom per bill.” More important, the choice is final once sign-up closes. Senate Finance: “Witnesses may not change their oral testimony designation after the signup system closes.” House Economic Matters: “There is NO switching from in-person to virtual or vice versa once the sign-up period has closed.” Economic Matters also says in-person testimony “is strongly encouraged.” Senate Judicial Proceedings does not allow pre-recorded video testimony, and Budget and Taxation does not let Zoom witnesses show an audio-visual presentation.

This is where your lodging starts to matter. If you sign up to testify in person, you have to be in the committee room on the day, and a hearing can list several bills, with yours not necessarily first. Someone staying a few minutes’ walk away can wait for their bill without checking out of a hotel or watching the clock for the last commuter bus.

Step 4: write for two minutes

Committee (2026 guidelines)	Time per witness
Senate Finance	2:00; 1:00 when a bill has 30+ witnesses or at the chair’s discretion
Senate Judicial Proceedings	2:00; 1:00 when a bill has more than 30 witnesses
Senate Budget and Taxation	Plan for 2:00, at the chair’s discretion
Senate Education, Energy, and the Environment	Plan for 2:00, at the chair’s discretion
House Economic Matters	“Limited to 2 minutes”
House Appropriations	“The Chair may limit the time”; no fixed figure

Two minutes is about one page spoken slowly. Lead with your position and the one fact the committee will not hear from anyone else, then leave the detail to the written version. If a bill was heard in a previous session, expect fewer speakers. Finance, Judicial Proceedings and Budget and Taxation all said they would hear two proponents and two opponents on such bills, and Budget and Taxation hears only the sponsor on a bill that previously passed unanimously. House Economic Matters says its sign-up system “will not allow for witness panels”: “Each witness must be entered separately.”

Step 5: written testimony is a PDF, and it is public

Every 2026 guideline we read required PDF: “Written testimony MUST be in a PDF format to be uploaded.” House Economic Matters also asks for file names in a pattern like HB0135_PSC_Smith.pdf, with a position marker such as FAV, UNF, FWA or INFO. Remember it is public. Senate Judicial Proceedings: “Any written testimony submitted to a committee is public testimony,” and it “cannot be removed after the scheduled bill hearing.”

Step 6: getting into the building

Committee hearings are not held in the State House itself. According to the General Assembly’s visitor information, the “Senate’s standing committee rooms are in the Miller Senate Building” and the “House standing committee rooms are in the House Office Building,” both with main entrances on Bladen Street. “To enter a building, visitors must present a photo identification card, such as a driver’s license, and pass through a metal detector.” Security officers search bags, and “visitors are urged not to bring extra bags, such as backpacks, into the complex unless absolutely necessary.” Temporary badges are issued “and must be kept visible for the duration of the visit.”

When the hearings happen

Committee hearings follow the bill calendar. The Department of Legislative Services’ 2027 sheet sets the Senate bill introduction date for Monday, February 8, the House bill introduction date for Friday, February 12, and the opposite-chamber crossover date for Monday, March 22. An organization planning a lobby day or a series of witnesses should map its bills against those dates first, then against the weekly hearing schedule once bills are assigned. The full calendar is on our 2027 session dates page, and what a full session presence costs is on budgeting a session presence.