The usual race-to-the-finish mentality of the Maryland General Assembly’s annual session is about to kick up a notch. A $3 billion state budget deficit, a mid-March federal budget deadline and President Donald Trump’s flood of executive actions have spurred lawmakers’ warnings that the last five weeks will be the most difficult of the 90-day sprint.

The Democratic governor said his team will begin looking to put fired workers into open state and county positions through recruiting websites and job fairs.