Aiming to build off their progress in recent years on increasing access to health care and making the criminal justice system more equitable, Maryland’s Legislative Black Caucus said Thursday it will back a lengthy list of legislation and “moral” goals in the annual legislative session that kicked off last week.

The caucus, with 66 members between the 141-member House of Delegates and the 47-member Senate, is the largest one of its kind in the country, said its chair, Del. Jheanelle Wilkins, a Montgomery County Democrat. She and other members introduced plans for bills spanning health care, housing, transportation, education, criminal justice and businesses that seek to benefit from contracts with the state.

Criminal justice efforts will focus on expungement opportunities, where changes to the law in recent years have expanded the option for some felonies and reduced wait times after a person has been convicted and served their sentence.

Sen. Jill P. Carter, a Baltimore Democrat, said some misdemeanors such as driving without a license or driving while uninsured have been overlooked in the list of crimes to expand expungement rights. Some marijuana-related offenses are also still not eligible for expungement, even after lawmakers legalized recreational use and offered a path for expungements for many of those convicted under previous law, she said.

“We’ve made a lot of progress on expungement rights, but it’s time that we stop looking at the crime and look at the person,” Carter said. “We need to look holistically at the person and who deserves a right to have their record expunged.”

Wilkins said no single policy area will rise above the rest for the caucus — which has considerable sway in Annapolis and has worked since last year with Gov. Wes Moore, Maryland’s first Black chief executive and the only current Black governor in the country — but she also said “every conversation must start with the fact that Maryland already leads the entire nation in its incarceration of young Black men.”

“We know that the history of inequality and systemic discrimination in this nation and in our country is complex and it’s systemic,” Wilkins said.

As lawmakers and Moore put a renewed emphasis on housing policy this year, the caucus is also looking to pass legislation that will “establish clear and reasonable criteria for evictions” to prevent instances where it’s “arbitrary and unjustifiable,” said Del. Adrian Boafo, a Prince George’s County Democrat.

Boafo said he would also introduce legislation to “ban the box” on rental applications by limiting or prohibiting rental housing providers from discriminating against applicants based on their criminal history. The legislation would, in part, make it illegal for landlords to look at any criminal history past three years after a sentence has been served, Boafo said.

A list of health-related bills, meanwhile, includes legislation to take steps to improve care and connections to services for new mothers; set up a public campaign around a previously passed law that eliminated out-of-pocket costs for cancer screenings; and expand the authority of Maryland’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board. The latter is also the top priority for health care advocates this session, with the goal of enabling the board to cap the costs of more medications.

“Patients are being forced to skip doses, ration their medications or simply leave their prescriptions on the pharmacy counters due to cost. We know all too well that these rising costs are a burden to all Marylanders and specifically for the African American community, who face persistent racial health inequities,” said Del. Jennifer White Holland, a Baltimore County Democrat.

Senate President Pro Tempore Malcolm Augustine, a Prince George’s County Democrat, also emphasized the need for the health care bills.

“Hold all other things constant, it’s actually a hazard in America to be Black as it pertains to health,” Augustine said.

Other bills are aimed at minority-owned businesses and education, including an upcoming bill from Democratic Del. Stephanie Smith, of Baltimore, that would try to ensure some programs offered at historically Black colleges and universities are not duplicated at non-HBCUs.

Another bill from Del. N. Scott Phillips, a Baltimore County Democrat, would increase transparency around the Board of Public Works’ awarding of state contracts to minority-owned businesses. A public-facing, interactive dashboard would allow the public to search the data and see if the state was meeting its goals on such contracts.

Other goals are less legislative and more aspirational — or at least aimed at using the caucus’ collective power to advocate for ideas, like a sustainable funding mechanism for the state’s embattled Transportation Trust Fund.

Moore’s administration announced last month $3.3 billion in cuts to the state’s six-year transportation plan, a necessity absent new revenue streams. The governor said he would restore $150 million of those cuts for the fiscal year beginning in July but did not present future revenue options in his budget announcement Wednesday. A separate commission of legislators and industry experts looking for sustainable funding is not due to present final recommendations until 2025.

Del. Robbyn Lewis, a Baltimore Democrat, said the Legislative Black Caucus would push for a “moral shift” in how the state funds transportation. She and other members did not offer specific solutions but stressed they will make it a priority to find them with the future cuts looming.

“It’s a civil right, the ability to move, the ability to seek opportunity, the ability to find a job to move to a location where you can start a business, that requires access to transportation,” Lewis said. “A budget cut to our transportation system is a civil wrong.”