Political career
Shane Pendergrass began her career in government and politics as a community activist for slower growth and an adequate number of public schools in the county. She decided to run for office after learning that her daughter and other students were taking tests not at a desk but while seated on the cafetorium floor of their crowded school. [2] She was elected to the Howard County Council in 1986 and served until 1994,when she won a seat representing Maryland's Legislative District 13 [3] in the Maryland General Assembly.
Pendergrass served as Vice Chair of the Health and Government Operations (HGO) Committee [4] from 2007 to 2016,until she was appointed Chair in 2017. During her tenure on the HGO committee,she has served in various capacities. Since 2003,she has been a member of the Insurance Subcommittee,including serving as chair from 2005 to 2016. From 2015 to 2016,she was a member of the Estates and Trusts Committee;from 2007 to 2015,she was on the Health Facilities &Occupations Subcommittee;in 2006,she was member of the Minority Health Disparities Subcommittee;from 2003 to 2005,she was a member of the Pharmaceuticals Subcommittee and the Joint Committee on Health Care Delivery and Financing;in 2005,she chaired the Health Occupations Subcommittee;and from 2003 to 2004,she served on the Long Term Care Subcommittee.
Pendergrass served on the Economic Matters Committee Committees - Legislative Policy Committee from 1995 to 2002,including as Vice Chair of the Science and Technology Subcommittee from 1999 until 2002,when she was assigned to the newly created Health and Government Operations Committee.
Pendergrass served as the House of Delegates' Deputy Majority Leader in 2007. She has also served since 2007 on the Legislative Policy Committee Committees - Legislative Policy Committee,which supervises and coordinates the standing committees of the General Assembly,and the Rules and Executive Nominations Committee Committees - Rules and Executive Nominations Committee. In 2014,she served on the Joint Oversight Committee of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange. From 2005 to 2007,she was a member of the Task Force to Study Electronic Health Records and of the Joint Legislative Task Force on Small Group Market Health Insurance. In 2004,she was a member of the House Medical Malpractice Workgroup. She is a member of the Women's Caucus. She has served as chair of the Howard County Delegation from 1997-2000,2005-2006 and 2015-2016.
Pendergrass' committee assignments led her to develop an interest and expertise in health insurance issues. Over the course of her legislative career,she has sponsored numerous bills with the goal of making health care accessible and effective for Marylanders,including a 2001 bill to provide affordable prescription drug coverage to seniors. That bill was ultimately incorporated into a comprehensive health bill that became law. [5] In 2007,she was among the first legislators to begin advocating for Electronic Health Records,including sponsoring a law passed in 2008 Search - Legislation that allowed for electronic signatures. Pendergrass also sponsored successful legislation halting the proposed conversion of CareFirst Blue Cross/Blue Shield to a for-profit company,and a subsequent bill establishing increased oversight of the CareFirst Board of Directors. She was active in the Medical Malpractice workgroup and sponsored a successful law in 2006 requiring public reporting of Healthcare-Associated Infections rates in the state-mandated "Hospital Report Card." [6]
Pendergrass was a strong defender of abortion rights,including co-sponsoring the Abortion Care Access Act in 2022, [7] which the General Assembly passed over the veto of Gov. Larry Hogan. [8] The law allows nurse practitioners,licensed certified midwives,and other trained professionals to perform abortions,in addition to physicians. It also provides $3.5 million for training of abortion providers. In May 2022,after a leaked draft of a decision in the Supreme Court's Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization portended the end of a constitutional right to an abortion,lawmakers in the Women's Legislative Caucus of Maryland called on Hogan to release the training funding a year early,in July 2022. He refused to do so. [9] [10] [11]
In 2017,she sponsored legislation guaranteeing funding for Planned Parenthood services in the event the Trump administration carried out its threat to end Title X funding. [12] [13] [14]
She also took steps to safeguard the separation of church and state,objecting to prayers "in Jesus' name,Amen." Early in her career,she objected to these explicitly sectarian prayers by slamming her desk top in the House chamber. Instead of clergy delivering religious prayers,the House of Delegates members now offer reflections. [15]
During the COVID-19 pandemic,she criticized the Hogan administration's handling of reimbursements for behavioral health services. On July 30,2021,she issued a rebuke to Maryland Secretary of Health Dennis Schrader for his failure to appear at a joint legislative briefing about reimbursement rates,home health care programs and telehealth during the Covid State of Emergency. Instead,the deputy secretary Webster Ye attended. After 5 minutes and 42 seconds,Pendergrass ended the meeting and rescheduled it. [16] [17]
During the 2022 session,she rebuked Delegate Dan Cox,who would later mount a failed run for governor of Maryland on the Republican Party ticket,after he compared a bill related to children seeking mental health services without a parents' consent to the Nazi experiments on children during Holocaust. [18]
On November 29,2021,Pendergrass announced that she would not seek an eighth term in 2022. [19] [2] The Maryland House of Delegates honored her on the House floor,including with a speech from Delegate Joseline Peña-Melnyk, [20] then vice chair of the Health and Government Operations Committee. [21]
