A House of Delegates committee reluctantly moved a bill Wednesday that would slash the amount of money that childhood sexual-abuse survivors can win if they sue under the Child Victims Act, a landmark 2023 law that removed the statute of limitations on such claims.

Two delegates walked out of the Judiciary Committee’s hearing room during the contentious vote; another burst into tears and said she hopes abuse survivors get the help they need before voting yes on the bill.

Altering the Child Victims Act became an increasingly urgent priority for some lawmakers this session as it became clear that Maryland could face billions of dollars in liability. The state is facing as many as 4,500 claims from people who say they were abused in state juvenile detention centers.

“None of us wants to be a yes on this bill,” said Del. David Moon, the House majority leader and a member of the Judiciary Committee.

Moon was a longtime supporter of the Child Victims Act, which made it possible for people who were sexually abused as children to bring lawsuits even if their claims had previously expired under a statute of limitations. The law’s supporters say it can take decades for survivors to come forward.

Moon apologized for not listening to the “wisdom” of his colleagues in the General Assembly who warned about the state’s liability when the Child Victims Act was being debated.

“We are constitutionally required to maintain a balanced budget and do not have the option of bankruptcy to run away from our obligations the way our private counterparts do,” Moon said.

The bill the committee passed included a number of significant, last-minute changes. The legislation would cut by more than half the amount of damages that abuse survivors can win in these lawsuits. For public institutions, like the state of Maryland, the cap would be lowered from $890,000 to $400,000; for private institutions, like the Catholic Church, the cap will be slashed from $1.5 million to $700,000.

The new caps will apply to claims filed on or after June 1. Claims that have already been filed, or are filed between now and May 31, will be able to win the higher amounts.

The bill would cap attorney’s fees at 20% of the total award if the case settles and 25% of the award if the case goes to trial. It would also clarify that the cap applies regardless of the number of times a survivor was abused as a child. In other words, a person who was abused on multiple occasions at a state juvenile detention center could still only receive $400,000.

And the bill would also require the state judiciary to report annually on the amount of each award and a summary of the claims underlying each award.

The version passed out of the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday significantly differs from one that was debated at a testy hearing last week. That version would have forced survivors with claims against the state to participate in an arbitration process rather than go to court.

Del. C.T. Wilson, who pushed to pass the Child Victims Act for nearly a decade while retelling his own painful story of childhood sexual abuse, supports the newest version of the bill, House Judiciary Chair Del. Luke Clippinger said.

Legislative leaders asked Wilson to adjust the bill amid a $3.3 billion budget crisis that only promises to get worse as the federal government shrinks its workforce. Some estimates have suggested that Maryland could face several billion dollars in liability from the child sexual abuse lawsuits.

Not everyone agrees, though.

“I don’t think it’s going to break the back of the state,” said Del. Robin Grammer, a Republican on the Judiciary Committee. “Yes, there will be a payout, but these people are owed something. We’re told it’s not about money, but we passed a bill about civil liability, which is about money.”

Grammer noted that there is a limited “universe” of people who can sue under the Child Victims Act: those whose out-of-date claims were revived when the statute of limitations was lifted. Those lawsuits will take years to work out in court, he said.

“I think we’re doing a disservice to people that really suffered some of the most egregious infractions that any person has suffered under the care of the state of Maryland,” he said.

The changes to the Child Victims Act will need to move quickly through the House of Delegates to stand a chance at passing before the session ends on Monday. The full House is expected to begin debating the bill on Thursday, and it still needs to be considered in the Maryland Senate.

David Lorenz, who heads the Maryland chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the proposed changes to the Child Victims Act are disappointing but not unexpected, at least when it comes to claims against the state. A $400,000 cap is the maximum damages allowed under the Maryland Tort Claims Act, which governs most lawsuits against the state.

“Am I happy about it? No. Do I feel like those people are not getting as much justice as they deserve? Yes,” Lorenz said. “But I understand there’s another issue at play.”

But Lorenz is displeased that the cap on damages against private institutions is getting lowered, too. Unlike the state, those institutions can file for bankruptcy and pay less to claimants that way if needed.

Lorenz said he would have argued against the change if he had known about it. Lawmakers made major changes to the bill in the past week, with little opportunity for the public to scrutinize the adjustments.

An attorney who works with abuse survivors, Cara O’Brien, agreed the legislature is moving too quickly. Lawmakers should instead examine how many claims the state is facing and learn the state’s true liability before acting, she said.

“If the legislature slowed down and fully understood the real potential impact, there should be no need for this legislation and certainly no need for it to be rushed through in a continuously evolving state” O’Brien said.

Lorenz said the debate over changes to the bill has obscured the true purpose of the Child Victims Act: identifying predators and the institutions that shielded them.

“I don’t see people looking at that and saying, ‘My God, we had a whole youth detention center system that was abusive to the most vulnerable people, who were basically forced to be there,‘” he said. “We’re not addressing that directly.”

The Child Victims Act gained steam and passed in 2023, the same year the Maryland Attorney General’s Office released a scathing report into decades of sexual abuse and coverups in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy just days before the law took effect, citing an expected flood of lawsuits.

In a statement, the Maryland Catholic Conference urged lawmakers to reject the new bill and take a hard look at the claims that have been raised against the state.

“The response from lawmakers has not focused on understanding how this could have occurred, ensuring rigorous safeguarding, or prioritizing victim-focused support,” the organization said. “Rather, the legislature’s response has been focused on how to limit the state’s financial liability and accountability to victim-survivors.”