---
type: "Bill"
title: "Criminal Law - Benefits Exploitation"
description: "Criminal Law - Benefits Exploitation"
jurisdiction: "us/states/md"
legislature: "Maryland General Assembly"
session: "2026"
identifier: "HB 216"
citation: "Maryland HB 216 (2026)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Arikan", "Cardin", "Conaway", "Fair", "Feldmark", "Kaufman", "McComas", "Moon", "Moreno", "Pena-Melnyk", "Phillips", "Simmons", "Simpson", "Stinnett", "Taylor", "Tomlinson", "Woods"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 14
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2025-09-23"
last_action: "2026-05-26"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/173ef5b9-d5a4-4423-9c82-4d5a5899d1c5"
source_url: "http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Legislation/Details/hb0216?ys=2026RS"
source_hash: "6466b36c21e1f8248e2707fdfea9b0c20bca57dc5e501524004f71e4817ee106"
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 216 (2026) — Criminal Law - Benefits Exploitation

## Version chain

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

1. **Chapter - Criminal Law - Benefits Exploitation** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2026RS/Chapters_noln/CH_662_hb0216t.pdf)
2. **First - Criminal Law - Benefits Exploitation** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2026RS/bills/hb/hb0216f.pdf)
3. **Third - Criminal Law - Benefits Exploitation** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2026RS/bills/hb/hb0216t.pdf)

## Votes

- On Third Reading — **44–0** (pass) · upper
- On Third Reading — **131–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Arikan — primary (person)
- Cardin — primary (person)
- Conaway — primary (person)
- Fair — primary (person)
- Feldmark — primary (person)
- Kaufman — primary (person)
- McComas — primary (person)
- Moon — primary (person)
- Moreno — primary (person)
- Pena-Melnyk — primary (person)
- Phillips — primary (person)
- Simmons — primary (person)
- Simpson — primary (person)
- Stinnett — primary (person)
- Taylor — primary (person)
- Tomlinson — primary (person)
- Woods — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2025-09-23** Pre-filed `introduction`
- **2026-01-14** First Reading Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2026-01-16** Hearing 1/27 at 2:00 p.m.
- **2026-03-19** Favorable with Amendments Report by Judiciary `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2026-03-19** Favorable with Amendments { `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2026-03-19** Second Reading Passed with Amendments
- **2026-03-20** Third Reading Passed `passage`
- **2026-03-23** Referred Judicial Proceedings `referral-committee`
- **2026-04-06** Favorable Report by Judicial Proceedings `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2026-04-07** Favorable Adopted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2026-04-07** Second Reading Passed
- **2026-04-08** Third Reading Passed `passage`
- **2026-04-09** Returned Passed
- **2026-05-26** Approved by the Governor - Chapter 662 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/173ef5b9-d5a4-4423-9c82-4d5a5899d1c5`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Maryland legislature records).