---
type: "Bill"
title: "Maryland Department of Health - Office of the Chief Medical Examiner"
description: "Maryland Department of Health - Office of the Chief Medical Examiner"
jurisdiction: "us/states/md"
legislature: "Maryland General Assembly"
session: "2023"
identifier: "HB 977"
citation: "Maryland HB 977 (2023)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Alston", "Bagnall", "Bhandari", "Chisholm", "Cullison", "Guzzone", "Hill", "Hutchinson", "Kaiser", "Kerr", "Kipke", "Lopez", "M. Morgan", "Martinez", "Pena-Melnyk", "R. Lewis", "Reilly", "Rosenberg", "S. Johnson", "Szeliga", "Taveras", "White", "Woods"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 14
vote_count: 0
first_action: "2023-02-10"
last_action: "2023-05-03"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/4d8ecbfe-8f9d-4cc9-a762-af099d14084b"
source_url: "http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Legislation/Details/hb0977?ys=2023RS&search=True"
source_hash: "8f3af75414c5306ea43583b02afa96e88a342d5304f0119576319adfa950a62a"
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 977 (2023) — Maryland Department of Health - Office of the Chief Medical Examiner

## Version chain

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

1. **Chapter - Maryland Department of Health - Office of the Chief Medical Examiner** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2023RS/Chapters_noln/CH_268_hb0977t.pdf)
2. **First - Maryland Department of Health - Office of the Chief Medical Examiner** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2023RS/bills/hb/hb0977f.pdf)
3. **Third - Maryland Department of Health - Office of the Chief Medical Examiner** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2023RS/bills/hb/hb0977t.pdf)

## Sponsors

- Alston — primary (person)
- Bagnall — primary (person)
- Bhandari — primary (person)
- Chisholm — primary (person)
- Cullison — primary (person)
- Guzzone — primary (person)
- Hill — primary (person)
- Hutchinson — primary (person)
- Kaiser — primary (person)
- Kerr — primary (person)
- Kipke — primary (person)
- Lopez — primary (person)
- M. Morgan — primary (person)
- Martinez — primary (person)
- Pena-Melnyk — primary (person)
- R. Lewis — primary (person)
- Reilly — primary (person)
- Rosenberg — primary (person)
- S. Johnson — primary (person)
- Szeliga — primary (person)
- Taveras — primary (person)
- White — primary (person)
- Woods — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2023-02-10** First Reading Health and Government Operations `referral-committee`
- **2023-02-21** Hearing 3/09 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2023-03-16** Favorable with Amendments Report by Health and Government Operations `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-03-16** Favorable with Amendments { `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-03-16** Second Reading Passed with Amendments
- **2023-03-20** Third Reading Passed `passage`
- **2023-03-20** Referred Finance `referral-committee`
- **2023-03-21** Hearing 3/30 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2023-04-04** Favorable Report by Finance `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-04-04** Favorable Adopted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-04-04** Second Reading Passed
- **2023-04-06** Third Reading Passed `passage`
- **2023-04-06** Returned Passed
- **2023-05-03** Approved by the Governor - Chapter 268 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/4d8ecbfe-8f9d-4cc9-a762-af099d14084b`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Maryland legislature records).