The two companies, Anthropic and Percepta, plan to integrate their AI services into multiple agencies, including the Maryland Department of Labor and Department of the Environment, Moore wrote in a statement. The Rockefeller Foundation, a philanthropic organization, is financially supporting the effort.

“Leveraging AI will accelerate our push to fight poverty, turn renters into homeowners, and ensure every Marylander can access essential services like nutrition and financial support,” Moore said in the announcement.

Under the partnership, state workers will get access to Claude, Anthropic’s AI model, while Percepta will embed staff within agencies to facilitate AI adoption. The announcement did not specify exactly how workers will use Claude or how many will gain access.

[Maryland to face nearly $1.4 billion budget deficit in 2026 legislative session]

“Claude will supercharge the work of public servants to make government more accessible and responsive,” Thiyagu Ramasamy, Anthropic’s public sector head, said in the announcement.

Maryland residents applying for benefits like food stamps can wait up to 30 days to receive them, according to the Maryland Department of Human Services website. The state’s new partnership aims to reduce these wait times and streamline the permitting process for new housing, though state officials did not provide specific targets or timelines in the announcement.

Maryland will also launch a Claude-powered virtual assistant to help residents apply for benefits and find programs they qualify for. A similar chatbot was launched in June and helped connect more than 600,000 kids to summer food benefits, according to the announcement.

“Artificial Intelligence can be a powerful tool for change,” Moore said. “We’ve been clear since Day One that it wouldn’t be enough to rebuild someone else’s broken government — we need to innovate.”

The deficit is about five times larger than the predicted amount of $300 million in March, according to the spending affordability briefing.

The cost of Medicaid behavioral health, K-12 education and the impacts of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was signed into law by U.S. President Donald Trump in July, were all significant contributors to the deficit, the briefing shows.

The bill tightens restrictions for Medicaid coverage, causing an estimated 175,000 Marylanders to lose coverage, according to a state health department briefing from July. Maryland could lose up to $2.7 billion in federal funding per year by fiscal year 2034, the department’s briefing reads.

[Gov. Wes Moore announces $62 million for SNAP benefits]

Nearly 49 percent of the shortfall relates to an existing deficit from years prior, operating budget manager Tonya Zimmerman said. The largest contributor was $190 million worth of provider reimbursements to the Maryland Department of Health.

The budget’s shortage creates an ongoing financial imbalance for the state. To make up for the shortfall, Maryland will have to rely on increasing revenues, cutting services and raising taxes, documents show.

State revenues are also $718 million lower than the estimate, according to the spending affordability briefing.

“At the midpoint of what has been the most tumultuous decade for revenues in a generation, Maryland faces several challenges to its revenue structure,” Maryland comptroller Brooke Lierman said in a September news release.

The changes in the federal government have contributed to the alterations in the state’s budget, Zimmerman said. The legislative services department assumes funds will be depleted due to the loan payments offered to federal employees during the 43 day long government shutdown.

“The main story, of course, for the Maryland economy here in 2025 relates to the federal government,”  said Theresa Tuszynski, a policy analyst in the legislative services department.

Maryland was home to more than 160,000 federal jobs last year, which accounted for about 11 percent of all wages in the state, Tuszynski said.

But since January, Maryland has lost about 15,000 federal jobs, she said. That makes up a roughly 9.3 percent decrease, the largest decrease of any U.S. state, Tuszynski said.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act cut state revenue by $371 million, the spending affordability briefing shows.

[Trump administration demands state leaders undo full SNAP benefits]

The decline in federal jobs and contracts implies less overall income and wage-based taxes, which contributes to the state’s revenue deficit.

The state has also been affected by the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration this past spring, Tuszynski said. The sales tax in Maryland increased by 2.6 percent, exceeding the predicted $72 million two times faster than expected.

The rise in sales tax is being shifted into funding for the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, increasing its distribution by 0.3 percent from fiscal year 2024 to fiscal year 2025, the affordability briefing shows.

The Blueprint program increases the amount of funding for statewide education by expanding early childhood programs, raising teacher salaries and providing college pathways, the program’s website says.

Future program funding is predicted to exceed $1.6 billion in ongoing revenue by fiscal year 2031, the spending affordability briefing reads.

Federal judges ruled last week that the Trump administration must use $4 billion in emergency funds to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by Friday, court documents show. But on that Friday, the administration issued an emergency appeal to block that court order, despite some states already issuing funds, according to court documents.

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson accepted the appeal on Friday, giving the administration 48 hours to respond. The agriculture department then demanded states to undo any funding that may have gone out in the past week.

In response to the original court ruling demanding the Trump administration pay for SNAP benefits, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore allotted $62 million from the Fiscal Responsibility Fund for Maryland residents.

Maryland joined many other states in suing the Trump administration for suspending SNAP benefits.

Nearly 680,000 Maryland residents rely on federal food assistance programs, with nearly 270,000 of those being children, according to an October news release from Moore’s office. Many SNAP recipients have felt uncertainty as the nation continues its longest government shutdown in history, nearing 40 days.

Moore also declared a state of emergency on Oct. 30 as a response to the shutdown in an attempt to assist those affected by the mass layoffs and revocation of federal benefits. Moore said $10 million from Maryland’s Fiscal Responsibility funds would be used to assist food banks across the state.

”Witholding funding from food assistance is not just illegal, it’s also cruel,” Moore wrote in his state of emergency declaration.

Many states alluded to “catastrophic operational disruptions,” if they do not get reimbursed for the SNAP benefits distributed prior to the Supreme Court’s pause, the Associated Press reported on Saturday.

The administration also noted on Saturday that states may face repercussions if they do not undo steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits, as the original ruling to distribute funds was “unauthorized.”

The federal General Services Administration selected Greenbelt as the location for the new headquarters in November 2023 after more than a decade of discussion. But Trump announced in July that he intends to keep the FBI in Washington, D.C., by relocating the headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building complex — which was not an option originally approved by Congress.

Maryland is suing on the grounds that Trump violated Congress’ decision, unlawfully re-allocated billions in funds and ignored the federal requirements to consult with state leaders, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said in a Thursday press conference

In 2022, Congress gave the General Services Administration three relocation choices: Greenbelt, Landover and Springfield in Virginia. The administration officially selected Greenbelt for its location, sustainability, cost and development flexibility, a news release from the administration read.

In July, the FBI stated that keeping the headquarters in Washington, D.C., would save money and time, despite U.S. Customs and Border Protection currently being housed in the Reagan complex.

“It’s about our public servants,” Gov. Wes Moore said in the Thursday afternoon conference, calling Trump’s plan illegal.

Moore said that the current headquarters lacks appropriate security measures, and is too small and exposed to ensure proper function. The chosen Reagan Building has the same issues, he said.

[U.S. senators advance plan to keep FBI in Washington, DC]

Brown said that Maryland had been working with federal partners for more than a decade to create a new headquarters when Trump shut the process down in 2017.

The project was revived by Congress in 2022, he said, providing the General Services Administration with the three location options. Between 2016 and 2024, Congress allocated more than $1.1 billion for the project. Prince George’s County contributed more than $100 million to the project, Brown added.

“Marylanders were counting on this project, Prince George’s County was counting on this project, local businesses were counting on this project,” Brown said. “We invested because the federal government said it was coming.”

Prince George’s County Executive Aisha Braveboy emphasized in the press conference that the headquarters was set to be the largest single economic development project in the history of Prince George’s County. The relocation was set to bring in about $4 billion in economic benefits and more than 7,500 jobs— enough to alter the gross domestic product of the county.

The project would also give Prince George’s County the opportunity to have the best cybersecurity in the nation, Braveboy said on Thursday.

The lawsuit also alleges that Trump’s decision intends to harm Maryland by denying economic benefits expected by the state, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-5th) wrote in a Thursday news release.

“So if Donald Trump thinks that we are going to roll over when he tries to make life worse for our law enforcement, he better think twice,” Moore said. “And we’ll see him in court.”

The Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Commission has historically met every decade to redraw the legislative and congressional maps to reflect Census results. But many other states have begun redistricting mid-cycle.

“My commitment has been clear from day one — we will explore every avenue possible to make sure Maryland has fair and representative maps,” Moore wrote in a Tuesday news release.

Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, the former Prince George’s County executive, will chair the commission. The bipartisan group will organize public hearings, solicit public feedback and make recommendations to government officials, according to Tuesday’s news release.

[Gov. Wes Moore announces $62M for SNAP benefits]

As midterm elections approach, U.S. President Donald Trump is tactfully trying to avoid Democrats gaining at least three more seats in Congress, the Associated Press reported. The move would switch the control of the U.S. House away from the Republicans.

“President Donald Trump and his allies are trying to rig the system and are hand-picking Republican states to go through redistricting processes,” Moore said in a video statement on Tuesday.

Trump’s efforts have triggered political gerrymandering, the process of redistricting congressional boundaries for political benefit, across the country. The partisan process became legal in 2019, with the exception of racial bias.

Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Md.) was originally against the Senate’s participation in Maryland’s redistricting movement as he felt the legal risks were too high and the certainty of the current map would be destroyed, according to a letter from the state House.

Ferguson also expressed concern that if blue states like Maryland begin redistricting, the red states that have not started redistricting would follow along. He called the redistricting process a “short-term advantage” for Maryland that undermines trust and added that it would be “too risky” to possibly lose another seat to Republicans.

But after Moore’s announcement, Ferguson released a statement confirming the senate’s involvement in the redistricting process, under the condition that all eight existing congressional districts will be included.

[Gov. Wes Moore issues $10M to support food banks ahead of SNAP benefits pause]

“The Senate Democratic Caucus understands that this is an unbalanced risk reward calculation,” Ferguson wrote. “It is why there is overwhelming concern about Maryland joining the mid-cycle redistricting wars rather than focusing on tangible, immediate policies to protect our State from this lawless Trump Administration.”.

Seven other states have already begun their redistricting processes and enacted new congressional maps.

California began its redistricting process in August and residents voted to adopt the new maps on Tuesday. Other states including North Carolina, Missouri and Texas have already enacted their new congressional maps, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

“While other states are determining whether or not they have fair maps, so will Maryland,” Moore said in a Tuesday video statement.

This funding comes after the federal government shutdown froze SNAP benefits. The shutdown is on day 35 as of Tuesday. Maryland is one of many states that sued the Trump administration for its suspension of SNAP benefits, which help 680,000 Maryland residents afford nutritious foods.

In response to court orders from Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the Trump administration announced that it will fund half of this month’s SNAP benefits.

“One of the first and most basic priorities of governing is to ensure that families do not go hungry,” Moore wrote in a statement on Monday. “We will continue to do everything in our power to protect our people in these difficult times.

[Here’s where to get free food assistance in Prince George’s County]

Moore previously declared a state of emergency in Maryland on Oct. 30 in response to economic disruption caused by mass layoffs of federal workers and essential benefits, including SNAP, being cut off.

An additional $10 million from the Maryland Fiscal Responsibility Fund — which holds excess tax revenue that pays for projects not allocated in the state budget — would also be provided to Maryland food banks and food assistance organizations, Moore announced on Oct. 30.

Maryland comptroller Brooke Lierman released a statement applauding Moore for his decision to release funding for SNAP benefits.

Lierman wrote that SNAP not only provides families with essential nutrients but helps boost the economy by supporting more than 13,000 jobs and millions of dollars for Maryland food producers.

[Prince George’s County food banks feeling pressure from high demand, loss of SNAP benefits]

In a campuswide email on Tuesday, University of Maryland president Darryll Pines expressed hope that Moore’s release of funds will help support Maryland residents.

“These difficult times remind us that we are a connected community of care, driven by values that define who we are at the University of Maryland,” Pines wrote in the email.

It’s unclear if state governments will be reimbursed by the federal government for supplementing the partial funds for SNAP benefits, according to Moore’s news release.

“No state can fill the enormous gap created by Donald Trump and his administration,” Moore wrote in his Monday statement. “It’s time for the federal government to do its job and fully fund food assistance.”

The push from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Maryland Council 3 comes after university system Chancellor Jay Perman in September said government funding cuts are harming public universities and could lead to layoffs. The state has cut the public university system’s budget by $233 million in the last two years, according to Perman.

The union wanted the board to know that members’ perspectives matter and that they are open to collaboration, according to Todd Holden, president of AFSCME Maryland Council 3 Local 1072, the University of Maryland’s chapter.

“In a lot of things in the world, visibility is power,” Holden told The Diamondback. “The only way to make change is to show up and to make your voice heard.”

Union members also hope the system will be more proactive in reaching out to collaborate as a result of their efforts at the meeting, he added.

AFSCME Maryland Council 3 president Patrick Moran emphasized the importance of the university system and the union that represents more than 6,000 of its employees working together amid federal funding cuts.

[UMD announces new fundraising campaign to raise $2.5B]

Moran suggested that the university system work with the union to make necessary cost-saving measures, while protecting its employees.

“We know that things are uncertain,” Moran told the board. “We know that vital services need to continue to function. We also know who the enemy is right now and [it] isn’t the members in this room. We don’t need to make hard choices yet. We need to make smart choices.”

Holden, who is also a web services developer at this university, reminded the board that while AFSCME workers are resilient, that resilience comes with a limit.

Members are worried about how they will be impacted by the budget cuts, he said. Previous economic crises, such as the Great Recession in 2008, affected workers’ ability to work at this university and fulfill its mission, Holden explained.

Employees at higher education institutions could instead seek work in other industries with better pay and work-life balance, Holden told The Diamondback.

“The reason that so many of us show up every day is because we believe in the mission of higher education,” he said.

[UMD public policy school launches new global, foreign policy major]

A member of the United Academics of Maryland-University of Maryland, which represents faculty at this university, also spoke up at Friday’s meeting.

Daniel Greene, the vice president of United Academics of Maryland-University of Maryland, asked the board to help protect students, staff and educators from impacts from the Trump administration, such as federal funding cuts.

Greene asked if the union could meet with the university system and university leadership to discuss unionization. Greene urged this university to be more transparent about who has been affected by funding cuts, as well as provide assistance like creating a sick leave bank. 

“We are dealing with bullies,” Greene said of the federal government. “Bullies are cowards. We cannot be cowards too. As the UMD motto goes, we must be fearless.”

About 680,000 Maryland residents who rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, commonly known as food stamps, will not receive food assistance because of the government shutdown, according to a notice on the U.S. Department of Agriculture website.

During a press conference at Anne Arundel County Foodbank, Moore said this funding will help food banks that are facing increased demand as a result of the loss of SNAP benefits and federal furloughs.

In an earlier statement Friday, Moore said Maryland is unable to supplement SNAP’s federal funding using its state funds because Trump’s administration has not committed to reimbursing these expenses.

[Here’s what to know about the nationwide pause in SNAP benefits]

The emergency grant funding will instead come from Maryland’s Fiscal Responsibility Fund, according to a state news release, which holds excess tax revenue that can pay for projects not allocated in the state budget.

Moore also condemned President Donald Trump for the government’s prolonged shutdown and for not issuing emergency federal funding to distribute SNAP benefits.

“The money has been appropriated. They are choosing not to distribute it,” Moore said. “This is heartless, this is cruel and this is unforgivable.”

This announcement comes as Maryland and 24 other states joined a lawsuit filed Tuesday against the USDA for their suspension of SNAP benefits. The lawsuit urges the agriculture department to use contingency funds to finance the federal food assistance program.

Moore said the decision to declare a state of emergency was “not made lightly” and Maryland officials will continue to monitor the situation.

“This is an ongoing pledge that I and we are making to the people of the state of Maryland,” Moore said. “We refuse to abandon you. We refuse to leave you behind.”

About 680,000 Maryland residents who rely on federal food assistance programs will not receive their November benefits.

Starting Nov. 1, the federal government shutdown will pause the nationwide distribution of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, commonly known as food stamps or SNAP benefits.

Hundreds of thousands of Marylanders could be forced to make tough financial decisions when choosing between paying bills or going hungry. The revocation of these benefits leaves many families with children and other dependents without proper nutritional access.

Here’s what to know about the pause in SNAP benefits.

Who is affected?

SNAP benefits help low-income families across the United States afford food. About 11 percent of Prince George’s County residents receive food assistance from the program, according to 2024 U.S. Census data.

About 270,000 children across Maryland rely on these benefits, according to a Friday statement from Gov. Wes Moore.

District 3 Prince George’s County Council member Eric Olson told The Diamondback withholding these benefits will greatly impact low-income county residents’ ability to afford food.

“We already have scarcity in a lot of households,” Olson said. “People are going to have to make even more dire choices.”

[Maryland approves $500,000 to settle racial discrimination lawsuit against UMD]

SNAP benefits also flow directly into local business and grocery stores, state comptroller Brooke Lierman said in a Wednesday hearing. More than 3,800 Maryland grocery stores accept SNAP benefits as a form of payment.

Small business owners and employees will be hit hard by the suspension of SNAP, as “those SNAP dollars can mean the difference between staying open and closing their doors,” she said.

Local food banks are preparing for a rise in customer demand as the government enters day 30 of the shutdown.

Why won’t Marylanders receive SNAP benefits in November?

When the government shut down on Oct. 1, no budgets for the upcoming year were approved.

SNAP makes up nearly 70 percent of the USDA’s food assistance budget and is the country’s largest nutritional assistance program, according to the department’s website.

Cuts to the program took effect in July after U.S. President Donald Trump passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cuts more than $18y billion in national SNAP funding, according to Congress.

How is Maryland getting involved?

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown joined 24 other states Tuesday in suing the Trump administration over the suspension of funding to SNAP. The suit said suspending SNAP is unlawful and will have a negative impact on the nation’s public health and economy.

[Prince George’s County executive confirms new public safety officials]

Moore also launched a federal shutdown loan program earlier this month which allowed employees who are required to work throughout the shutdown without pay to receive a one-time loan of $700 to help pay for expenses such as groceries.

Where can Marylanders who rely on SNAP payments receive assistance?

While they are not a replacement for food stamps, people can receive assistance from local pantries and other food distribution organizations.

At the University of Maryland, all students and staff have access to the Campus Pantry, where they can pick up food at no cost.

The pantry offers a variety of meals for community members experiencing food insecurity, the pantry’s website reads.

The state of Maryland also offers an Emergency Food Assistance Program to families in need, which helps them find food assistance resources based on zip code.

The lawsuits involved two African American men who worked in information technology at this university’s Center for Advanced Study of Language, a federally funded research center.

The men were terminated in 2018 after the research center underwent changes in sponsorship and restructured into what is now the Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security, according to court documents.

Duane Shaw, hired in 2012, filed his lawsuit in August 2021, alleging racial bias, exclusion from communication and projects and humiliation at work.

Similarly, Zanaki Renibe, hired in 2009, filed a lawsuit in March 2022 that alleges the university tolerated a racially hostile work environment. In court filings, Renibe cited racial slurs and humiliating interactions in his workplace.

[UMPD detains protesters, student journalists outside event with IDF soldiers]

The cases were consolidated in April 2023. Judges dismissed the hostile work environment claims and removed the center’s supervisors as defendants, but did not dismiss the charges alleging that the university discriminated against the men when terminating their employment.

The Board of Public Works’ vote on Wednesday formalizes the $500,000 settlement, which covers all claims from both cases and attorney fees.

This university wrote in a statement to The Diamondback that the cases were resolved with no admission of liability by the university. In the statement, the university noted that the lawsuits pertain to events that happened in 2018.

The law office representing the plaintiffs will receive about $433,000 in legal fees, while Renibe will receive $56,283 and Shaw $10,700, according to the board’s agenda.

During the language center’s transitions in 2017 and 2018, dozens of research faculty were laid off with advanced notice, according to court documents.

Additionally, in 2018, the center’s leadership determined that budget cuts to support staff required a reduction-in-force, according to the documents.

Shaw and Renibe were two of four employees terminated, along with another African American employee and one Asian employee. At the time, only six of the center’s 165 employees were African American, according to court documents.

Shaw, Renibe and the other African American employee were allegedly called to a separate building and informed of their termination in the presence of an armed plainclothes police officer, according to court documents. They were not allowed to return to their offices to collect personal belongings, and their building access was immediately revoked, the documents read.

[DOGE website says it cut nearly $15M from UMD grants]

About a week later, the Asian employee was allegedly laid off in the director’s office without police present, according to court documents.

The lawsuits allege the treatment of Shaw and Renibe was harsher than that of other employees, who were given advance notice and informed of their layoffs in their regular work locations.

University officials testified that the three were terminated in a separate building because exempt staff are not permitted to work after notice, and their positions involved access to highly sensitive information, according to court documents.

University officials said it was standard to have police presence outside the building during layoffs, and an officer was present inside the office because of concerns with how Renibe could react.

This university cited an alleged incident where a human resources employee said they felt threatened by Renibe. Renibe said he never acted inappropriately during his employment.

The plaintiffs’ attorney has not responded to a request for comment.