---
type: "Bill"
title: "Economic Development - Rural Readiness Program and Rural Maryland Capacity Building Fund - Establishment"
description: "Economic Development - Rural Readiness Program and Rural Maryland Capacity Building Fund - Establishment"
jurisdiction: "us/states/md"
legislature: "Maryland General Assembly"
session: "2026"
identifier: "HB 461"
citation: "Maryland HB 461 (2026)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Adams", "Behler", "Fair", "Foley", "Ghrist", "Guyton", "Kerr", "Patterson", "Qi", "Queen", "Sample-Hughes", "Ziegler"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 11
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2026-01-23"
last_action: "2026-05-12"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/a74b82fe-72bb-4855-a2a2-bc1cf3b94106"
source_url: "http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Legislation/Details/hb0461?ys=2026RS"
source_hash: "cf0c1e683dcceb33f6838c21ba394bd08e397b6a90707c52569ede83e7abae47"
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 461 (2026) — Economic Development - Rural Readiness Program and Rural Maryland Capacity Building Fund - Establishment

## Version chain

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

1. **Chapter - Economic Development - Rural Readiness Program and Rural Maryland Capacity Building Fund - Establishment** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2026RS/Chapters_noln/CH_543_hb0461t.pdf)
2. **First - Economic Development - Rural Readiness Program and Rural Maryland Capacity Building Fund - Establishment** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2026RS/bills/hb/hb0461f.pdf)
3. **Third - Economic Development - Rural Readiness Program and Rural Maryland Capacity Building Fund - Establishment** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2026RS/bills/hb/hb0461t.pdf)

## Votes

- On Third Reading — **127–6** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Adams — primary (person)
- Behler — primary (person)
- Fair — primary (person)
- Foley — primary (person)
- Ghrist — primary (person)
- Guyton — primary (person)
- Kerr — primary (person)
- Patterson — primary (person)
- Qi — primary (person)
- Queen — primary (person)
- Sample-Hughes — primary (person)
- Ziegler — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2026-01-23** First Reading Economic Matters `referral-committee`
- **2026-01-28** Hearing 2/17 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2026-03-10** Favorable Report by Economic Matters `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2026-03-11** Favorable Adopted Second Reading Passed `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2026-03-12** Third Reading Passed `passage`
- **2026-03-13** Referred Finance `referral-committee`
- **2026-03-30** Favorable Report by Finance `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2026-03-31** Favorable Adopted Second Reading Passed `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2026-04-06** Third Reading Passed `passage`
- **2026-04-07** Returned Passed
- **2026-05-12** Approved by the Governor - Chapter 543 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/a74b82fe-72bb-4855-a2a2-bc1cf3b94106`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Maryland legislature records).