Sen. Alsobrooks Sponsors Bills to Support Women’s Health, WIC, Banking
Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, Maryland’s first African American senator, has been busy working to further health and economic equity.
During March, Women’s History Month, Alsobrooks sponsored legislation to expand the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, revamp federal banking insurance, and provide additional health care screenings.
Alsobrooks co-introduced the Extending WIC for New Moms Act, a bicameral bill to expand eligibility and support mothers and infants into the postpartum and breastfeeding periods through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for WIC programs.
“For children in low-income homes, food scarcity can impact their overall health for the rest of their lives. After Republicans decimated food assistance programs like SNAP in their ‘Big, Beautiful bill,’ we need to re-double our efforts to support vulnerable new moms to ensure their families are able to grow and thrive together,” said Alsobrooks. “Extending WIC eligibility for mothers in postpartum and breastfeeding periods just makes sense and is a critical part of our plan to improve maternal and child health.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who co-introduced the legislation, emphasized the importance of the bill overall.
“Lack of access to nutritious food has serious impacts on a child’s health and development,” Blumenthal said in a statement. With the Extending WIC for New Moms Act, we will support vulnerable families and strengthen their ability to grow, thrive, and stay healthy.”
The Maryland senator is also co-sponsoring the bipartisan Uterine Fibroid Intervention and Gynecological Health Treatment (U-FIGHT) Act and the Women’s Heart Health Expansion Act.
The U-FIGHT Act seeks to expand access to early screening, detection, and intervention methods for individuals diagnosed with uterine fibroids. The Women’s Heart Health Expansion Act would reauthorize and expand access to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Well-Integrated Screening and Evaluation for Women Across the Nation (WISEWOMAN) program, which provides free cardiovascular risk screenings to reduce the risk for heart disease and stroke to low-income, uninsured, and underinsured women ages 35–64.
“I know many of us agree with the need to invest in women’s health research. We have an obligation to our daughters to combat the conditions with crippling pain or higher risk of chronic disease,” Alsobrooks said during a March 19 hearing.
In addition, the Main Street Depositor Protection Act, which Alsobrooks is co-sponsoring, would allow the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations (FDIC) to insure some bank accounts up to $5,000,000— significantly higher than the current threshold of $250,000. The barrier-breaking senator is collaborating with Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), and Jim Banks (R-Ind.) on the legislation.
“This bipartisan legislation would require a data driven process to increase deposit insurance coverage levels for business checking accounts at most banks and credit unions,” Alsobrooks said in a statement. “Our small businesses are the backbone of the American economy, and they often rely on community banks and credit unions. Responsibly raising the deposit insurance threshold will protect employees and businesses in times of crisis and strengthen our overall financial system.”
Talks of Independent Inspector General for Prince George’s
In an effort to bring additional accountability to Prince George’s, Greg Holmes announced a ballot initiative on April 1 that would permanently embed an independent Office of Inspector General (OIG) in the Prince George’s County charter.
“Accountability cannot be a campaign promise. It should be expected and it’s the law. This ballot initiative takes the power to audit and investigate out of the hands of politics and places it in the hands of Prince George’s County residents,” Holmes told The Informer. “More than a government reform measure, the initiative is a direct response to residents who have long felt overlooked: a structural guarantee that their voices will shape the future direction of Prince George’s County.”
Sherman Hardy, who is running for county council, also supports adding an inspector general to local government.
“When I ran in 2022, I made it clear that this county needs a truly independent inspector general, one that doesn’t answer to the very people it’s supposed to investigate. That remains one of the biggest gaps in our system,” he told The Informer. “My work with Citizens for Accountability in Governance only reinforced that reality — we’ve helped bring attention to patterns of reckless spending and a lack of transparency that too often goes unchecked.”
Hardy’s campaign emphasizes local accountability and he argues his focus has shifted the political conversation in certain areas of the county.
“At some point, you have to call it what it is: a government operating without real guardrails and, in many cases, leaving the public misled about how decisions are being made. Accountability isn’t optional,” Hardy continued. “It requires independence, oversight, and real consequences when the public trust is violated, which is why I support putting recall laws in place to ensure voters have a direct line of accountability when that trust is broken.”
The proposed charter amendment will appear on the general election ballot for Prince George’s voters. If approved, the OIG would be able to investigate fraud, waste, and abuse across all county departments, agencies, and contractors, audit county contracts, issue subpoenas, and protect whistleblowers.
“The office would be led by a merit-appointed inspector general serving a fixed four-year term — selected without regard to political affiliation, removable only by a seven-member council vote, and prohibited from any interference by elected or appointed officials,” said Holmes. “Because the OIG would be established at the charter level, it cannot be reorganized, defunded, or subordinated by a future administration without a subsequent vote of the people.”
