5 Bills in 90 Days
Legislation Delegate Odom Introduced & Led
The average first-term delegate introduces one or two bills per session after years of preparation. Odom was appointed mid-January and had five bills in committee by February 13, covering pedestrian safety, rental car accountability, veterans mental health, school safety, and clean energy. HB 1567 passed the full House of Delegates. All five return in 2027 with stronger coalitions and a legislative record behind them.
What It Does
Maryland's existing three-foot passing rule required drivers to give bicycle riders at least three feet of space. E-bikes, electric scooters, and pedestrians walking along roadsides were in a legal gray zone. HB 1567 closes that gap, applying the three-foot rule to all vulnerable road users. It also requires cyclists to give an audible warning before passing a pedestrian, and establishes a $25 civil penalty as a secondary offense.
What Your Contribution Funds for 27A
Maryland recorded 134 pedestrian deaths in 2022 and 157 in 2023. Pedestrians account for roughly a quarter of all traffic fatalities statewide despite making up less than 3% of trips. The routes kids walk near schools in Brandywine and Clinton, where sidewalks end and shoulders take over, are exactly the roads this bill addresses.
Where It Stands
HB 1567 cleared the Environment and Transportation Committee with a favorable report, then passed the full House of Delegates on March 6, 2026. That is further than this bill has ever gotten in Maryland, and it did it in Odom's first session. It crossed to the Senate, where it was in the Judicial Proceedings Committee as the session wrapped April 13. The bill is ready. The coalition is built. Delegate Odom will push it across the finish line in 2027, and the House vote is already in the record.
What It Does
Under current Maryland law, when a traffic or speed camera catches a rental car speeding or running a red light, the citation goes to the rental company. The rental company identifies the renter and submits an affidavit, and the citation against the company is dismissed. But no clean mechanism exists to reissue the citation to the actual driver. The citation disappears. HB 1522 closes this by requiring jurisdictions to reissue citations directly to the renter on production of the rental agreement, with a clear timeline and a modest administrative fee the company may pass along.
What Your Contribution Funds for 27A
Roughly 1,200 rental car camera violations in Charles County alone have gone uncollected under this loophole. The most striking case: a rental car driver clocked at 99 mph in a 45 mph zone in Charles County. The citation evaporated. That driver never faced accountability. DC, Virginia, New York, California, and Illinois have already closed this exact gap. Maryland is behind. This bill catches us up.
Where It Stands
Introduced February 13, 2026. The bill drew real testimony from the Charles County Sheriff's Office General Counsel on the 1,200 uncollected violations, putting the loophole on the official legislative record for the first time. That testimony matters: it makes next session's committee hearing a follow-up, not a first introduction. Delegate Odom is working with the Charles County Sheriff's Office and the Environment and Transportation Committee during the interim to build the coalition for a 2027 vote.
What It Does
HB 1477 establishes the Ibogaine Clinical Research Grant Program, authorizing Maryland to fund FDA-regulated clinical trials at qualified research institutions studying ibogaine as a treatment for PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and opioid use disorder among veterans. The program would draw from the Opioid Restitution Fund. This is not legalization. Ibogaine remains federally Schedule I. This bill uses the same FDA Investigational New Drug authorization and institutional review board pathway that Johns Hopkins, Stanford, and every major academic medical center use to study Schedule I compounds.
The Science Behind It
In January 2024, Stanford University published results in Nature Medicine from a study of 30 U.S. Special Operations Forces veterans with combat-related TBI who received a single supervised ibogaine dose with IV magnesium cardiac protection. At one month: PTSD symptoms dropped 88%, depression dropped 87%, anxiety dropped 81%. Zero serious cardiac events under protocol. Texas, under Governor Greg Abbott, committed $50 million to ibogaine clinical trials in 2025 through SB 2308.
Where It Stands
Introduced February 13, 2026, and assigned to the Health Committee. The bill had a committee hearing that put ibogaine research on Maryland's legislative record for the first time. In the interim, Delegate Odom is coordinating with veteran advocacy groups, the Maryland Department of Health, and colleagues in other state legislatures. Texas enacted $50 million in ibogaine funding in 2025 to build the bipartisan case for 2027. Veterans in 27A are not waiting. This bill is how Maryland stops making them wait.
What It Does
Students who live in Brandywine and cross into Charles County to reach their school walk along roads where neither county's capital budget prioritizes the gap, because each county sees it as the other's problem. HB 1491 creates a formal Interjurisdictional Safe Pathways Commission with seats for Prince George's County, Charles County, MDOT SHA, and both school systems. The Commission inventories every missing sidewalk, crosswalk, and unlit shoulder along student routes, costs the fixes, and coordinates applications for federal Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside funding so 27A is actually in the queue for that money every year.
What Your Contribution Funds
The bill takes effect October 1, 2026, and sunsets September 30, 2033, giving the Commission a seven-year window to get the job done. Annual reports go to the Governor and the General Assembly's education committees so the work is visible and accountable.
Where It Stands
Introduced February 13, 2026, with eight cosponsors, one of the strongest cosponsor lists on any District 27A bill this session. Assigned to the Environment and Transportation Committee. During the 2026-2027 interim, Delegate Odom is working directly with Prince George's County and Charles County school officials, MDOT SHA, and transportation advocacy partners to map the specific crosswalk and sidewalk gaps so the Commission has a ready work plan from day one of the 2027 session.
What It Does
Maryland's community solar program currently prohibits two solar installations on adjacent parcels if their combined capacity exceeds 5 megawatts. In practice, this rule pushes developers toward open farmland because existing industrial and commercial sites are often adjacent to other uses. HB 1607 repeals the adjacent-parcel cap while keeping protections that steer new projects toward brownfields, industrial-zoned land, rooftops, parking canopies, and transportation corridors. Farmland is protected. The market just gets redirected toward land that's already built up.
What Your Contribution Funds for 27A
Community solar is how a renter in Waldorf gets a share of clean energy without putting panels on a roof they don't own. Maryland already requires at least 40% of each project's capacity to serve low- and moderate-income subscribers. This bill makes it easier to build those projects on the right land.
Where It Stands
Introduced February 17, 2026. Assigned to Rules and Executive Nominations. This bill is a priority for 2027. The adjacent-parcel cap is a technical fix with broad support; it just needs the right floor moment.
Coalition Work
Bills Delegate Odom Helped Pass
Legislation is a team sport. These are bills Delegate Odom joined forces on, working alongside colleagues to move priorities that directly affect District 27A residents.
Signed into Law | HB 1532 | Effective 2026
The Utility RELIEF Act is now law. Delegate Odom joined The Speaker and 12 other delegates in cosponsoring this landmark energy bill, which will save Maryland families an estimated $150 per year on utility bills, hold data centers accountable for the grid upgrades their operations require, and modernize Maryland's grid infrastructure. The bill passed both chambers, was enrolled April 13, 2026, and signed into law by Governor Wes Moore on April 28, 2026.
What It Does
The Utility RELIEF (Reducing Energy Load Inflation for Everyday Families) Act is the most significant energy legislation Maryland passed in 2026. It provides immediate relief on utility bills for working families, modernizes the state's electrical grid infrastructure, and directly addresses the surging energy demands created by the rapid expansion of data centers in Maryland. A key provision requires data centers to pay for the grid upgrades their operations necessitate, rather than passing those costs to residential ratepayers.
Delegate Odom's Role
Delegate Odom signed on as a cosponsor alongside The Speaker and colleagues Delegates Korman, Fraser-Hidalgo, Allen, Behler, Foley, Guyton, Healey, Holmes, J. Long, Lewis, and Stein. For District 27A residents in Waldorf and Clinton already paying some of the highest utility costs in Southern Maryland, this bill is direct, immediate relief.
Where It Stands
Passed both the House of Delegates and the Maryland Senate. Enrolled April 13, 2026. Signed into law by Governor Wes Moore on April 28, 2026.
What It Does
HB 0350 prohibits election methods for county and municipal governing bodies that dilute or abridge the rights of protected classes of voters, preventing systems that result in the drawing of districts or at-large structures that impair a protected community's ability to elect candidates of their choice or influence election outcomes.
Delegate Odom's Role
Delegate Odom joined lead sponsor Delegate Wims and a broad coalition of 37 delegates across the state in cosponsoring this bill. For communities in District 27A where representation has historically lagged, protecting voting strength at every level of government is foundational.