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Friday, February 5, 2016
We are now three weeks into session and
"cross-over," the term used to describe the date by which all bills must be
passed by the originating chamber so they then can "cross-over" to the other
chamber for consideration, is approaching. The hours are long and many of the
debates are heated because we have to meet deadlines for bills to proceed. The
highlights of this week include:
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The gun
safety legislation compromise continues to be debated. Much of the criticism
has come from gun safety groups who believe the Governor didn't get enough
in exchange for modifying the Attorney General's stance on concealed weapons
reciprocity agreements. Under the proposed compromise, our reciprocity
agreements would remain in effect, thereby undoing Attorney General
Herring's recent position. For advocates of gun rights, a deal on
reciprocity was very important, as many people who have a concealed weapons
permit issued in Virginia want to retain the ability to carry concealed in
adjacent states. Reversing the Attorney General's position, then, was their
number one legislative goal. In exchange, gun safety advocates received two
improvements in the law. First, a person subject to a protective order
issued by a judge will no longer be able to possess, own, or transport a
firearm in the Commonwealth; they will have to surrender those weapons
immediately upon issuance of the order, and will face serious consequences
for any failure to do so. Second, we will now have "voluntary" background
checks available for private sellers at gun shows; they can ask the State
Police to conduct a background check of anyone who seeks to purchase a
firearm. Proponents of the measure believe that this will establish a "best
practices " standard for background checks and potentially could be used to
impose liability on a seller who does not adequately check the background of
a person who then commits a serious crime and inflicts serious injuries on a
citizen. Bills enacting the deal have not yet been completed, but will
likely be considered next week. I appreciate the comments on this that I
have received to date.
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House
Republicans have again killed all redistricting
reform. There were at least five different redistricting bills that would
have improved our process, which is overly political and simply protects
incumbents, but they were all killed with little debate in subcommittee. I
will continue to advocate for redistricting reform because I believe it is
critical for the long-term viability of our democracy.
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Both
bodies have now passed a measure that will put the so called "right-to-work "
statute on the fall ballot for possible inclusion in the Virginia
Constitution. You can see the debate on this issue here.
Those of us who voted against this argued that the "right-to-work" statute
has been in Virginia law since 1947 and has never been seriously questioned.
Since there is no pressing need, there is no reason to amend Virginia's
Constitution. Voters, of course, will have the final say on this issue in
November, and I hope that citizens will vote against the constitutional
amendment.
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A wide
variety of bills relating to how and when the Commonwealth can place tolls
on certain roads was considered and passed by the Transportation Committee
in the House. In our area, we do not usually think about this issue, but it
has tremendous statewide implications. As many know, I-66 in Northern
Virginia is among the most congested highways in the country, and its
capacity could be dramatically improved with additional lanes. At present,
the Commonwealth does not have sufficient monies to build these additional
lanes, with the result that private capital would need to be used to build
new lanes, and tolls would need to be imposed to recover the cost. If
tolling was prohibited, the possibility existed that road and transit money
that would otherwise flow to areas like Charlottesville and Albemarle could
be diverted to Northern Virginia to pay for those transportation
improvements. That would be a tragedy for our area and is one reason why I
voted for the tolling bills. Under the bills, there could be no tolls
imposed in places in and around Charlottesville without General Assembly
approval.
My bill to prohibit discrimination against persons because of sexual orientation
and gender identity (HB913)
was tabled in a House subcommittee, as well as my bill to prohibit legislators
from raising campaign money during special sessions of the General Assembly (HB914).
My bill to permit the Jefferson Area Board for Aging (JABA) access to
Neighborhood Assistance Tax Credits (HB742)
has now passed the House and is moving to the Senate. I have several bills on
education that are before committee early next week as well as my
"vehicle-to-grid" bill (HB1137),
a measure that would allow owners of electric vehicles to sell the energy stored
in their batteries back to the grid when their vehicles are not operating.
For those of you interested in seeing recent floor speeches, you can view them
all on my David
Toscano youtube channel. There
are floor speeches on education,
Virginia's economy,
and the successes of
the Obama administration.
If you want to find out some more about our session, I recently taped a
broadcast that will be presented on our local access cable later this month, or
you can watch it on my youtube channel here.
(electronic mail, February 5, 2016)
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