You wrote that Governor Hogan should “develop transportation programs for getting city job-seekers to suburban employment centers.”

Gov. Hogan should have tasked his Transportation Secretary with upgrading public transit so that:

* far more than 1 in 3 jobs [in the Baltimore region] is accessible by transit within 90 minutes” (Transportation For America); and

* it adequately serves suburban job areas, particularly during second and third shifts (Opportunity Collaborative).

Delegate Sandy Rosenberg

The Democratic Party’s “center-right legislators have shrunk to a handful,” writes Barry Rascovar.
The Republican Party faces a similar problem.

None of the three GOP legislators who voted for marriage equality is returning to Annapolis. Two were elected to local office, Senator Alan Kittleman and Delegate Wade Kach; Del. Robert Costa has retired.

Five years ago, I introduced legislation listing the family members who are allowed to remove a deceased’s remains from a burial site and reinter them elsewhere. An amendment to remove domestic partners from that list was supported by 32 Republicans. Only two voted against it.

Twelve Republican members voted in 1991 for the choice legislation that the voters approved on referendum, 68-32%.

For nearly 40 years, compromise language has authorized Medicaid funding of abortions because of a woman’s mental health. An amendment to strip that language received 48 votes in the House. All but six of the 48 were Republicans.

No Republicans voted for the Firearm Safety Act of 2013.

I tried to find out how many GOP members of the new legislature were endorsed by the NRA, but you must belong to the NRA to view its endorsements,

As Groucho Marx would say, that’s not a club that would accept me as a member.

Del. Sandy Rosenberg

I write to correct the omissions and innuendos in the account of the passage of legislation in 2011 requiring SNCF, the French
railroad company, to submit documentation regarding its transport of victims to Nazi extermination camps. I was the lead sponsor of the House bill.

The final legislation was the result of lengthy negotiations among proponents, the lobbyist for SNCF, the State Archivist, and the chairman of the Health and Government Operations Committee.

After they were concluded, the SNCF lobbyist no longer opposed the bill.

The Attorney General’s Office was kept apprised of these discussions. However, it was not until the last week of the session that we were informed of a potential conflict with federal law.

Relevant federal law states that the criteria for determining the responsibility of contractors that a recipient of federal assistance “shall consider” include “the integrity of the contractor” and “the contractor’s compliance with public policy.” 49 U.S.C. Section 5325(j)(2)(A), (B). The reparations legislation is arguably fully in keeping with those considerations of responsibility.

Mr. Rascovar writes, “the same group of lawyers [is] pushing this year’s reparations bill.” That is true. They are working pro bono now, as they were three years ago.

Can Mr. Rascovar say the same about his history of involvement on this issue?

Delegate Samuel I. “Sandy” Rosenberg