Maryland retroactively approves software contract to provide financial support to port workers

The Maryland Board of Public Works retroactively approved a contract Wednesday that allowed the state to provide financial assistance payments to workers displaced by the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge.

“That first morning when we were down there with the divers, when we asked them about what they could see, the answer we heard from almost all of the divers was ‘about nothing,’ because they couldn’t see a foot past in front of them because of the amount of debris that was in the water,” Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, said at Wednesday’s meeting in Annapolis. “We knew that as long as that was going to be the case, that meant that there were thousands of workers who we had to find support for.”

Following the destruction of the Key Bridge that killed six construction workers in March, emergency legislation passed by the General Assembly and signed by Moore required the Maryland Department of Labor to implement a software system to allow displaced workers from the Port of Baltimore to apply for financial assistance, as well as programs that would determine their eligibility, prevent fraud and provide customer service.

Under the Maryland Protecting Opportunities and Regional Trade, or PORT, Act signed in April, economic relief funds were established for people who regularly perform jobs at the Port of Baltimore but are unable to work because of limited operations. The law gave the Maryland Department of Labor the authority to establish the Worker Support Program, which has similar mandates to a 2019 state law passed to provide financial assistance to federal employees under a government shutdown.

The Worker Support Program that provided payments to displaced port workers ended in late July.

The contract for the portal system displaced port workers were using was originally awarded in September 2023 as a way to provide temporary financial assistance to Marylanders who work for the federal government in preparation for its potential shutdown.

The federal government shutdown was narrowly avoided on March 23, 2024 — three days before the bridge collapse. The Department of Labor utilized the same contractor, Submittable Holdings Inc., because of the necessity to create similar software programming to aid displaced workers.

According to Moore, the Worker Support Program under the PORT Act has provided approximately $17.7 million to more than 3,300 workers who have had their employment impacted by the bridge collapse, “and that’s on top of the 1,191 claims that the [Department of Labor] processed during regular unemployment insurance,” he said.

In total, the governor said that more than $42 million has been distributed in aid to impacted workers and businesses under the PORT Act.

The port’s shipping channel officially reopened, in full, in June.