---
type: "Bill"
title: "St. Mary's County Open Meetings Act - Closed Sessions"
description: "St. Mary's County Open Meetings Act - Closed Sessions"
jurisdiction: "us/states/md"
legislature: "Maryland General Assembly"
session: "2020"
identifier: "HB 176"
citation: "Maryland HB 176 (2020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["St. Mary's County Delegation"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 13
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2020-01-15"
last_action: "2020-05-08"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/c52676b5-156d-4d82-ab05-9dc93c075d98"
source_url: "http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Legislation/Details/hb0176?ys=2020RS&search=True"
source_hash: "fe12ce013e206db4252de21d352745dfef1ba26d289618bbdb99ea5f93074a8f"
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 HB 176 (2020) — St. Mary's County Open Meetings Act - Closed Sessions

## Version chain

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

1. **Chapter - St. Mary's County Open Meetings Act - Closed Sessions** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2020RS/Chapters_noln/CH_96_hb0176t.pdf)
2. **First - St. Mary's County Open Meetings Act - Closed Sessions** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2020RS/bills/hb/hb0176f.pdf)
3. **Third - St. Mary's County Open Meetings Act - Closed Sessions** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2020RS/bills/hb/hb0176t.pdf)

## Votes

- On Third Reading — **136–0** (pass) · lower
- On Third Reading — **45–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- St. Mary's County Delegation — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2020-01-15** First Reading Health and Government Operations `referral-committee`
- **2020-01-28** Hearing 2/18 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2020-02-24** Favorable Report by Health and Government Operations `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2020-02-25** Favorable Adopted Second Reading Passed `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2020-02-27** Third Reading Passed `passage`
- **2020-02-28** Referred Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs `referral-committee`
- **2020-03-10** Hearing 3/17 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2020-03-15** Hearing canceled
- **2020-03-17** Favorable Report by Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2020-03-17** Favorable Adopted Second Reading Passed `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2020-03-18** Third Reading Passed `passage`
- **2020-03-18** Returned Passed
- **2020-05-08** Enacted under Article II, Section 17(c) of the Maryland Constitution - Chapter 96 `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/c52676b5-156d-4d82-ab05-9dc93c075d98`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Maryland legislature records).