Legislation Committee

    • Co-Chair: Michael Massey, Family Medicine PGY-2

    • Co-Chair: Will Kelley, Neurology PGY-2

    • Archita “Archie” Goyal, Internal Medicine PGY-1

    • Courtney Link, Pediatrics PGY-1

    • Emilie Disviscour Berman, Psychiatry PGY-2

    • Jose Sanchez, Family Medicine PGY-1

    • Malika Toguem, Internal Medicine/ Pediatrics PGY-2

    • Shani Kamberi, Pediatrics PGY-1

    • Tierra Hunter, Family Medicine PGY-1

    • Monitors government actions that may affect our membership and develops appropriate responses with partner organizations.

    • Prioritize issues that support improvements healthcare, protect our patient population, support unionization and workplace safety

Past Accomplishments

  • Lobbied for and helped pass the “Safe Staffing Act of 2026”, which requires all Maryland hospitals to have clinical staff committees meet to address unsafe staffing ratios

  • Signed onto a coalition letter against the, at the time, proposed Maryland HSCRC Health Care Total Costs Growth Rate for CY 2027-2031, which only included Maryland’s GDP, and not wage growth, into the calculation for how much total health care spending should be allowed to increase over CY 2027-2031

    • The intention of the coalition letter was to recommend the HSCRC incorporate Maryland’s average wage growth into it’s calculation, which would lower costs for patients

  • Featured in an AFT article from health care workers warning against dangerous state-based legislation that would grant AI-chat-bots a medical license to converse with, diagnose, order tests, and prescribe medications to patients all with very little oversight from health care professionals

  • Submitted a resolution to the American Federation of Teachers 2026 National Convention, entitled “Clean Air, Strong Schools, Healthy Workers: A Federation-Wide

    Commitment to Indoor Air Quality”- which is under review by the AFT Executive Council for further consideration

    • Authors: Evan Hawthorn, MS4, Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine & Michael Massey, PGY-2, Family Medicine, Vice President of UMRFA

Ongoing Advocacy Priorities

  • UMRFA is an active member of the End Medical Debt Maryland coalition- focusing on legislation that protects patients from unexpected or health care costs

  • UMRFA is adamantly against the ACGME proposed Common Program Requirements for Residency which takes a massive step backwards for work hour restrictions and patient safety

AFTvotes

For more advocacy resources with AFT, check out AFTvotes!