Bob Hull's Richmond Report
Living in Dark Places Yesterday was not only Groundhog Day. It was also the start of the third week of the 2005 session of the Virginia General Assembly. In some ways, these events are similar: animals living in dark places, slowly rising to the light of day. Well, maybe committee rooms and the House chamber are not totally dark. But, we are slowly rising from the pile of bills and resolutions towards the mid-way point of our 45 day session. In fact, next Tuesday is the day to which we have been working. It is the day of a mystical thing called “Crossover.” That is the day where all bills and resolutions introduced in one chamber have to be acted upon. Some will pass and advance to the other chamber, some will be killed on the floor, and some will die in committee. But, after that, we can only act on legislation from the other chamber. By the way, how could a groundhog not see its shadow with all of those television lights aimed at it? Workload Increases A total of 1,807 bills and resolutions were introduced in the House and 887 bills and resolutions in the Senate this session. For us in the House, everything after Crossover is a piece of cake because the Senate will kill about half of their legislation and Senators introduce about half of what we introduce, any way. So, we face about one-quarter of the workload after Crossover, while the Senate ends up with about the same amount of work as they had before. Our workload has steadily increased so that this past week was busy for us. This week, Monday’s work started at 8:30 a.m. and ended just after 10:00 p.m. It began with a Finance Committee meeting, then my Finance subcommittee met, followed by the Democratic caucus meeting before the 12:00 noon session. After an hour and 15 minutes in the floor session, I had a few hours to work in the office before presenting a budget amendment in an Appropriations Committee subcommittee. Next, my Finance subcommittee started at 6:00 p.m. with me shuttling back and forth between that meeting and two other subcommittees hearing me present three of my bills. There were so many bills considered in my Finance subcommittee – dealing with tax exemptions, taxes on small cigarette makers, and a school voucher scheme – that we did not adjourn until after 10:00 p.m. In fact, we had more bills referred to the House Finance Committee this year than last year during the “long session.” Brochure Bills Of course, this is an election year for all 100 members of the House, so legislators are working on strengthening their legislative records. In other words, helping as many people as possible before they have to go before the voters. That explains the huge number of special license plate bills. We have already approved dozens of special license plates for every group you can imagine. Plus, we are now approving them for issues such as “Traditional Marriage.” I guess slogans have gone from bumpers to license plates now. We have also had the full array of social issue legislation before us, including local licensing of abortion clinics. So, our work for the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia continues, as we slowly rise to the light of day. Hopefully, we will do no harm. Delegate Bob Hull may be emailed at del_hull@house.state.va.us |