MarylandSB 02792025 Regular SessionSenateWALLET

Employment and Insurance Equality for Service Members Act

Sponsored By: Bryan W. Simonaire (Republican)

Signed by Governor

State Government - Agencies, Offices, and OfficialsBusiness RegulationInsurance - Other than HealthPrivate Sector Labor and IndustryEconomic DevelopmentBusiness Occupations and ProfessionsFinancial InstitutionsUnemployment InsuranceCommercial Law - GenerallyState Government - ProcurementArmed Forces -see also- Military Department; VeteransClassifications and DesignationsCommerce and Business -see also- ElectrComm; ForeignTr; etc.Community DevelopmentDependents -see also- Minors; Vulnerable AdultsIdentification -see also- Biometrics; Fingerprinting; DrLicsInsurance -see also- Health Ins; MAIF; Motor Vehicle InsLicenses -see also- AB Lic; Certifications; DrLic; PermitsMilitary FamiliesRecords -see also- Land Records; Vital RecordsRecruitment and HiringRules and RegulationsSmall BusinessSpousesTimeVeteransWork, Labor, and Employment -see also- JobTrn; Leave; etc.

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

19 provisions identified: 16 benefits, 1 costs, 2 mixed.

Insurance protections for returning military members

Beginning October 1, 2025, insurers cannot deny, cancel, refuse renewal, or raise auto or homeowners rates solely for certain coverage gaps. This protection covers members returning from overseas active duty whose continuous-coverage failure did not exist before the assignment. Homeowners also receive protection from occupancy-based actions when they show reasonable steps to maintain and protect the property during deployment. A separate vehicle-insurance rule also applies to active-duty members within its leased-vehicle or out-of-state-garaging exception. The supplied provision does not describe that separate rule’s coverage or price effect.

Paid leave for military family needs

Beginning July 1, 2026, covered workers can claim paid leave to care for a service member as next of kin. The member must have a serious health condition resulting from uniformed service. Leave also covers qualifying family deployment needs, including deployment notice within seven days, care arrangements, counseling, and financial or legal tasks. Covered needs include rest and recuperation up to 15 days, reintegration activities within 90 days after active duty, death-related matters, and employer-agreed needs. Medical or intermittent care claims require certification. Workers need not use up accrued vacation or sick leave first; coordinated paid leave can replace up to 100% of average weekly wages. Employers may coordinate other leave or disability payments without reducing total weeks of leave under the program.

Faster licenses for military families

Maryland licensing units must issue licenses within 60 days of a complete application from qualifying service members, veterans, and spouses. Applicants must meet Maryland licensing requirements and show a Maryland duty-station assignment or legal residence. They must hold an out-of-state license in good standing for at least one year, with all out-of-state licenses in good standing. Units may grant temporary licenses to qualifying applicants licensed for less than one year while they finish Maryland requirements. Eligible spouses include specified surviving spouses.

Insurance licensing relief for military members

Beginning October 1, 2025, qualifying military experience no longer carries a one-year post-discharge deadline for insurance producer license applications. Other licensing requirements remain. The Insurance Commissioner may waive reinstatement steps when uniformed service prevents compliance with renewal and reinstatement requirements. The usual reinstatement charge is the renewal-period fee plus $100. The Commissioner may limit it to the renewal fee when lateness results from service, temporary incapacity, hospitalization, or another hardship.

License renewal relief for military members

Active-duty licensees do not pay the $100 fee for each covered two-year license renewal. When deployment outside Maryland directly causes late renewal, licensing units may waive penalties and reinstatement fees. They may also allow extra time after renewal to finish continuing education or competency requirements. Beginning October 1, 2025, renewals of required professional or trade authorizations are timely within one year after active service ends. Relevant military work or training can also count toward a required apprenticeship period with satisfactory evidence of its time and nature.

Military training counts toward civilian careers

Maryland licensing units must count active service members’ relevant experience toward required years of practice. They must also count military training and education that they find substantially equivalent and consistent with other licensing requirements. Beginning October 1, 2025, relevant military work or training can count toward a legally required apprenticeship period. Applicants must provide satisfactory evidence showing the time and nature of that work or training.

More job support for military spouses

Beginning October 1, 2025, military spouses qualify as dislocated workers after job loss directly caused by a permanent duty-station move. The definition also covers qualifying spouses who provided unpaid family services at home. Those spouses must be unemployed or underemployed and having trouble finding work or improving their employment. This status expands access to dislocated-worker services, not a stated cash payment.

Unemployment protections for military households

Beginning October 1, 2025, inactive-duty training alone does not make National Guard or other reserve members employed or unavailable for work. Training pay cannot reduce their weekly unemployment benefits. Leaving work to follow a spouse’s mandatory job transfer can also be a valid reason for unemployment eligibility. The spouse must serve in the uniformed services or hold a qualifying civilian job with those services or a federal agency supporting their operations. Claimants must still meet the other unemployment requirements.

Long-term care limits for military conditions

Beginning October 1, 2025, long-term-care insurance policies may limit or exclude coverage for conditions arising from uniformed service. This also applies to service in auxiliary units. Affected policyholders may have to pay more of those care costs themselves.

Credit-report protections for deployed military members

Maryland’s credit-reporting law includes eligible active service members as protected consumers. Members must be assigned to service away from their usual duty station. The supplied provision does not describe the specific protections attached to this status.

Utility waiver eligibility for military call-ups

Beginning October 1, 2025, a call to active uniformed service qualifies under optional utility charge-waiver agreements. The customer must have an agreement covering the charges, and the call-up must occur during its defined waiver period. Such agreements provide waivers of some or all covered charges in exchange for a specified charge. The law does not require utilities to offer an agreement or automatically waive bills.

Easier mortgage licensing for military families

Maryland’s financial regulator may waive or suspend state requirements to speed mortgage loan originator license renewals or status changes. This relief covers active service members, eligible veterans, and eligible spouses. The regulator may also speed issuance for applicants holding a valid mortgage loan originator license from another state. Eligible veterans must have left active duty within one year before the application, renewal, or status-change request. No waiver can lower federal minimum licensing standards.

Hiring preferences for veterans and spouses

Beginning October 1, 2025, Maryland employers may give hiring or promotion preferences to veterans and specified spouses. Covered spouses include spouses of active service members, spouses of veterans with service-connected disabilities, and surviving spouses of deceased veterans. Veterans must meet the applicable service rules, including honorable discharge or satisfactory completion where required. Employers are not required to offer a preference. Offering one does not violate state or local equal employment opportunity law.

Leave for military departures and returns

Beginning October 1, 2025, employees can take leave on an immediate family member’s departure or return day. The departure or return must involve active duty outside the United States in the uniformed services. This provision does not say the leave is paid.

No-interest loans for military-affected small businesses

Maryland’s no-interest loan program covers businesses owned by reserve-component members called to active duty and qualifying businesses employing them. Employer applicants must average 50 or fewer employees on business days during the preceding calendar year. Loans depend on available funds. The supplied provision sets no loan amount or repayment term.

Stronger protections for military identities

Maryland’s impersonation and unauthorized-insignia prohibitions apply to uniformed services and other covered organizations. Only people entitled under the relevant group’s rules may use or wear its insignia. Businesses cannot knowingly use a fallen active service member’s name or image in advertising for commercial gain without prior consent. This protection covers members killed in the line of duty within the previous 50 years. Consent can come from the member or, after death, a surviving spouse, personal representative, or majority of heirs. Advertising violations carry up to a $2,500 fine, one year in prison, or both.

Broader insurance exception for service associations

Beginning October 1, 2025, an insurance-law exception recognizes qualifying associations serving uniformed-services members, rather than only Armed Forces or Sea Services members. Associations must have formed before 1880, with a principal purpose of providing insurance and benefits to members or their dependents or beneficiaries. Their members must meet the specified regular or reserve, active, retired, or honorably discharged service criteria. The change does not establish a specific household coverage or price change.

Service identification rules for sales and lodging

Precious-metal dealers can accept a uniformed-services identification card as one of at least two forms used to identify a seller. Innkeepers may require guests to show a valid uniformed-services identification card. These rules apply in those transaction and lodging settings, not as a general household identification requirement.

Shared veteran definition across Maryland laws

Beginning October 1, 2025, Maryland’s general veteran definition follows the federal definition, except where another rule applies. State finance and procurement law uses that shared Maryland definition. The supplied text does not identify which people gain or lose eligibility under related programs.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

Bryan W. Simonaire
Republican • Senate

Cosponsors

Jack Bailey
Republican • Senate
Jason C. Gallion
Republican • Senate
J.B. Jennings
Republican • Senate
Johnny Mautz
Republican • Senate
Johnny Ray Salling
Republican • Senate

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 183 • No: 0

House vote • 4/1/2025

Third Reading Passed

Yes: 136 • No: 0

Senate vote • 3/12/2025