The bill to limit settlement payouts under the Child Victims Act in order to limit Maryland’s liability was passed in the House of Delegates on Thursday, following an emotional committee debate.

“It’s a very complex bill,” House Minority Leader Jason Buckel, an Allegany County Republican, said on the floor. “I don’t know how everyone’s going to vote on it in every way, but I think you guys have tried to do your best to come up with some type of solution with competing considerations.”

The Child Victims Act took years of debate and advocacy to pass, eliciting painful stories from survivors of childhood sexual abuse with each successive legislative session — including from its sponsor, House Economic Matters Committee Chair C.T. Wilson.

Wilson, a Charles County Democrat who suffered sexual abuse as a child, is the sponsor of this year’s controversial bill to lower the caps on settlements, as well.

In January, fiscal analysts for the Department of Legislative Services alerted the legislature that lawsuits under the Child Victims Act brought by people abused by state employees could leave Maryland liable for over $3 billion in payouts in an already fraught budget season.

Lawmakers entered the 2025 legislative session navigating a nearly $3 billion structural deficit. With the potential to double that through these claims, they moved to legislate, despite backlash from survivors of sexual abuse.

“I just want to … lift up Chair Wilson’s courage in sponsoring this bill,” House Majority Leader David Moon, a Montgomery County Democrat, said during a Wednesday voting session of the House Judiciary Committee.

As amended, the bill would lower the cap on payments for survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of both public and private institutions. The cap for state liability would shrink from $890,000 to $400,000. Payouts from private institutions would drop to $700,000 from $1.15 million.

Attorneys’ fees for cases that settle would be limited to 20%. If the case goes to trial, that fee is 25%.

This would only apply to people previously ineligible to file these claims because of the now-stricken statute of limitations. Before the enactment of the Child Victims Act on Oct. 1, 2023, civil claims could only be filed by survivors of childhood sexual abuse before their 38th birthday. The bill would go into effect on June 1. Any cases filed before that date would not be subject to the new caps. According to House Judiciary Committee Chair Luke Clippinger, a Baltimore Democrat, there are 1,500 suits currently pending. The state is aware of an additional 4,000, he said.

For those who file claims that would not have been subject to the statute of limitations, the cap for settlements from the state and private institutions would remain at $890,000 and $1.5 million, respectively.

Del. Kathy Szeliga, a Baltimore County Republican questioned why the Judiciary Committee did not level out the maximum payments for survivors of abuse in public institutions versus private institutions.

“Victims of sex abuse — whether they were victimized by the foster care system or a priest in the Catholic Church — why would those victims not be eligible and receive the same amount of compensation?” asked Szeliga. “The state should be held to a higher standard, not a lower standard.”

House Judiciary Committee Chair Luke Clippinger, a Baltimore Democrat, said they are “continuing the distinction” between the two initially set by the Child Victims Act, but are lowering the caps by the same percentage.

The legislation passed the House on a vote of 100-32. It will move to the Senate for debate.

The General Assembly adjourns its 90-day session at midnight on Monday.

An emotional debate

Though discussion on the House floor was limited Thursday, lawmakers emotionally — and, occasionally, tearfully — debated the bill before it passed out of the Judiciary Committee Wednesday morning.

“I am so shocked. This is the worst bill I think I’ve ever seen in the seven years I’ve been down here,” Del. Lauren Arikan, a Harford County Republican, said during the voting session. “The idea that some children’s rapes are less valuable than others based on who the rapist was is so beyond disgusting to me, I’m almost at a loss for words.”

Arikan was not present for the committee vote.

Del. Robin Grammer, a Baltimore County Republican, said that he doesn’t think the “astronomical” numbers regarding settlement payments that lawmakers were briefed on are accurate.

“I think we should be taking a pause here to say, ‘Look, these numbers are overblown. We were in support of the victims that went through this. We should continue to do that,’ and not shrink the liability when it’s found that the state is on the hook for more than we anticipated,” he said.

In large part, Democrats begrudgingly voted to send the amended bill to the House floor.

“I think those of us who are ‘yes’ — and I’ve talked to almost everyone here — none of us wants to be a ‘yes’ on a bill like this,” said Moon.