The 2010 session of the General Assembly is rapidly approaching the scheduled adjournment date of March 13. While the General Assembly should be able to clear its business by then, the continued disagreement over the budget may delay the adjournment. In the not too distant past, overtime for the General Assembly would have been out of the question. However, extended sessions now seem to be the norm, at a significant cost to taxpayers.

The differences between the House and Senate budgets are stark. For example, Governor McDonnell proposed trimming K-12 education by over $700 million as a means to help balance the budget. The House of Delegates went along for the most part, agreeing to cuts just short of that number. The Senate, however, has continued to take the position that education is one of the top priorities of government and minimized the reduction of funding to education to $133 million. The Senate, in an effort to fully fund public safety and other matters of importance, has raised fees in a variety of areas. The House rejected those increases. I expect, and am hopeful, that those disagreements will be worked out in the next few days.

Several pieces of legislation I have been working on have come to a head in the last few days. As I have for the past eight years, I sponsored a bill to reform the redistricting process. This year’s effort was SB 173. The public would be better served by a new process rather than the partisan gerrymandering that takes place every ten years. A number of states, including Wyoming, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Iowa, have nonpartisan processes set up for redistricting. My effort this year won unanimous support from Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and has been endorsed by papers all over Virginia. However, early one morning this past week the bill was killed in a House subcommittee on a party line vote.

The significance of this year’s defeat is that redistricting occurs next year. SB 173 was probably our last opportunity to ensure next year’s redistricting process is fair and yields competitive districts so that voters have a choice. The Republican House of Delegates and the Democratic Senate will draw the lines in 2011. From my perspective, there is a better way to do business, and I am saddened that we were not successful.

SB 620 is an important public safety bill. For a number of years I have worked to strengthen our laws to adequately protect children from sexual predators. In 2008, I introduced Alicia’s Law to establish Internet Crimes Against Children task forces in Virginia. Those task forces, located in Fairfax and Bedford Counties, have dramatically increased the number of arrests and successful prosecutions of predators who trade in child pornography and exploit children. SB 620 would provide an adequate stream of funding to those task forces which have to beg each year for resources necessary to protect children. The bill adds $10 to court costs for every person convicted of a crime in Virginia. This past week I was fortunate to have a news conference with Erik Estrada of CHiPs fame in support of the bill. We pushed the bill through the House Appropriations Committee, and I have every confidence the legislation will pass the full House of Delegates and go to the governor for his signature. Once that happens, this will be the most significant public safety achievement of the General Assembly in 2010.

One of my bills, SB 289, received national attention. The bill establishes lifetime hunting and fishing permit that can be purchased while a child is less than two years of age. I introduced the bill at the request of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. DGIF is funded by people who buy hunting, fishing, and boating licenses. The number of licenses sold has declined for a number of years, threatening the long-term stability not only of these traditional ways of life, but of the agency itself. Because DGIF gets about $10.50 in federal dollars every year for every license, there is significant interest in increasing the number of licenses which are sold. This bill, modeled after laws in Tennessee and North Carolina, is not about arming infants as it has been parodied, but about selling licenses, continuing the tradition of hunting and fishing, and involving young people in those traditions. Furthermore, the bill will allow us to continue to draw down federal money in order to ensure the long-term stability of DGIF. I am pleased to report that this legislation has now passed the House and the Senate and is headed to the governor for approval.

The 2010 legislative session is just about finished. If you have questions or suggestions, or need assistance, do not hesitate to contact us. For the remainder of the session, we can be reached at P.O. Box 396, Richmond, Virginia 23218, (804) 698-7525 or by email at district25@senate.virginia.gov. I look forward to your input.

(Electronic mail, March 5, 2010)