Maryland Del. C.T. Wilson said Monday he is amending his bill, the Child Sexual Abuse Claims Against the State – Time Limitation, to remove an initially proposed statute of limitations for survivors to file claims.

Currently, the bill calls for sexual abuse victims to file a claim with the state by Dec. 31.

Wilson, the chair of the House Economic Matters Committee, also wants to reduce the current individual payout maximum for victims from its current $890,000 for claims against the state. He has not publicly said what that new, lower proposed cap would be. He also wants to revise the definition of an individual assault “incident” to reduce the amount of potential payouts from the state. He did not say what that change of definition would be.

A bill hearing is scheduled for Thursday in Annapolis. He explained his proposed changes by saying House Bill 1378 was filed on the last allowable day of the legislative session as a placeholder bill.

“Either the bill will be withdrawn, or I will fix it,” Wilson said. “The timeline was never an option for me.”

Currently, the state is anticipating a payout of approximately $3 billion for several thousand cases following a ruling by the Maryland Supreme Court validating the constitutionality of the Child Victims Act, a 2023 bill that removed the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse victims to file claims. Wilson’s bill specifically addresses claims made against state institutions, like the Department of Juvenile Services, Social Services and Corrections.

“It is very frustrating,” he said. “I was put in an awkward position. When I say that, nobody forced me to do this, but it was pretty clear that I’m the only one that can fix this budgetary issue.”

He said he never intended to create a budgetary issue for the state when he introduced the bill.

Wilson said he also plans to meet with Gov. Wes Moore to argue that there should be no group settlement for abuse claims, as some have called for. He said accused individuals need to be properly investigated and that won’t happen if the state provides settlements to victims.

“[I’m] gonna pretty much rewrite the bill, because there’s the goal to not have a statute of limitations,” Wilson, a survivor of child sexual abuse himself, said. “Although those may be convenient for the state, it does go the opposite of everything I’ve been fighting for. I believe that the AG’s office, by walking in with, you know, the idea of settlement, they’re really missing the point of this bill.”

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