---
type: "Bill"
title: "Anne Arundel County and Harford County - Courthouse Dog and Child Witness Pilot Program"
description: "Anne Arundel County and Harford County - Courthouse Dog and Child Witness Pilot Program"
jurisdiction: "us/states/md"
legislature: "Maryland General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "SB 77"
citation: "Maryland SB 77 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Courts and Court Personnel - Local", "Anne Arundel County", "Civil Actions", "Dogs", "Harford County", "Minors", "Sunset", "Witnesses"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Simonaire"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 15
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2016-10-12"
last_action: "2017-04-18"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/82e23154-e7a6-42d4-92ce-934dd4e51781"
source_url: "http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmMain.aspx?id=SB77&stab=01&pid=billpage&tab=subject3&ys=2017rs"
source_hash: "7251a694042a24e26e08ffb6f8f0c3044a5e1e1aae34b903bf7c68d71acedbd0"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-md"]
---

# Maryland SB 77 (2017) — Anne Arundel County and Harford County - Courthouse Dog and Child Witness Pilot Program

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2017RS/bills/sb/sb0077f.pdf)

## Votes

- Third Reading — **139–0** (pass) · legislature
- Third Reading — **46–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Simonaire — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2016-10-12** Pre-filed `introduction`
- **2017-01-11** First Reading Judicial Proceedings `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-04** Hearing 1/24 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2017-02-06** Favorable Report by Judicial Proceedings `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-02-08** Favorable Report Adopted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-02-08** Second Reading Passed
- **2017-02-13** Third Reading Passed (46-0) `passage`
- **2017-02-14** First Reading Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2017-03-10** Hearing 3/23 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2017-03-31** Favorable Report by Judiciary `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-31** Favorable Report Adopted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-31** Second Reading Passed
- **2017-04-04** Third Reading Passed (139-0) `passage`
- **2017-04-05** Returned Passed
- **2017-04-18** Approved by the Governor - Chapter 196 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/82e23154-e7a6-42d4-92ce-934dd4e51781`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Maryland legislature records).