Archive for January, 2007
RICHMOND – The House of Delegates today voted 100 to 0 to approve House Bill 2738, sponsored by Del. David Englin (D-Alexandria), to repeal the provision of Virginia law that allows employers to pay people aged 65 years and older less than the minimum wage.
“Current Virginia law allows employers to pay you less than minimum wage when you turn 65, which is just plain wrong,” said Englin. “The minimum wage of $5.15 per hour is far too low in the first place, but it should apply to all workers, including senior citizens who still need to work to make ends meet. While the Republican majority continues to block our efforts to raise the minimum wage, I’m glad we could come to a bipartisan consensus that the minimum wage should apply even to senior citizens who work.”
Now that the House has approved the bill, the Virginia Senate must also approve the measure before it goes to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to sign into law.
It’s hard to believe that we are already nearly halfway through this year’s General Assembly session. Crossover – the date by which a bill must have passed either the House or the Senate before it can “cross over” to the other body – is looming, so we’re scrambling to get bills passed through committee and onto the House floor. Many of us freshman legislators have commented how difficult it is to get a bill passed, as it can be a struggle to get even common-sense legislation devoid of controversy or ideology through the crucible of the subcommittee and committee process.
The good news this week is that several of my bills are moving forward. With a 98 to zero vote, the House on Friday approved my bill to make a variety of program improvements to the Virginia Central Registry for Brain Injury and Spinal Cord Injury. On the surface, this isn’t exactly a sexy piece of legislation. The Department of Rehabilitative Services asked me to carry the bill because they need this legislation to better help Virginians with disabilities caused by brain and spinal cord injuries become more independent and self-sufficient. I was honored that they asked me, and I’m glad my efforts have been successful so far.
Another of my bills that advanced this week would require the government to notify property owners when the Federal Emergency Management Agency changes floodplain maps in ways that affect their property, empowering those property owners to make informed decisions about flood insurance. In the aftermath of the June flood that devastated so many homes in the Huntington neighborhood, we found there were homeowners who did not have required flood insurance because, when they bought their homes years before, they were not in the FEMA-designated floodplain. When FEMA subsequently changed the floodplain boundaries to include these homes, nobody notified homeowners, and they were out of luck when it turned out they did not have the necessary coverage. This bill, which passed unanimously through both subcommittee and the full Counties, Cities, and Towns committee, will give homeowners and others a heads up to make sure they have the proper flood insurance to protect them in the future.
To my pleasant surprise, the House Commerce and Labor committee unanimously approved my bill to repeal the provision of Virginia law that allows employers to pay people aged 65 years and older less than the minimum wage. The minimum wage of $5.15 per hour is far too low in the first place, but it should apply to all workers, including senior citizens who still need to work to make ends meet. While the Republican majority on the committee blocked several other bills to raise the minimum wage, at least we came to a bipartisan consensus that the minimum wage should apply even to seniors who work.
While we made some progress this week, there were also some tough setbacks. Mary Harris of Alexandria’s Mirant Monitoring Group and Roger Waud, president of the North Old Town Independent Citizens Association, joined me in Richmond to testify before the Natural Resources subcommittee addressing two of my bills targeting the Mirant Plant. Despite their thoughtful and poignant testimony – as well as hours of hardball negotiations that brought us to a last-minute compromise on at least one of the bills – neither measure advanced out of subcommittee.
My bill to allow the Department of Environmental Quality to enforce clean air standards using data gathered by monitoring equipment is simply stuck in subcommittee, since they neither approved it nor tabled it, with both motions failing on a tied vote. The subcommittee tabled my bill that would have required the plant to notify residents when unusual operations will cause unusually high pollution. Earlier in the week, the House Rules Committee tabled my legislation to create a public health study to see if the Mirant Plant’s experimental use of the mineral trona is harming our health.
A number of constituents have asked what they can do to help get these kinds of bills through. Unfortunately, the Republican House leadership has stacked these committees with ideologues who disregard the harm the Mirant Plant is causing our community. Like so many issues we’re facing – from equal rights to economic fairness to climate change – the real policy decisions are made on Election Day.
Despite setbacks on the Mirant legislation, I continue to fight hard for a variety of bills that will strengthen our community, defend our progressive values, and invest on our future. As bills move forward over the coming days, I hope you will check back here often, as I will announce their progress.
RICHMOND – The House of Delegates yesterday voted 98 to 0 to approve House Bill 2732, sponsored by Del. David Englin (D-Alexandria), to strengthen a key program for Virginians with disabilities caused by brain and spinal cord injuries. The bill enhances the Virginia Central Registry for Brain Injury and Spinal Cord Injury by including all brain and spinal cord injuries, regardless of severity, and it makes a variety of technical improvements to the program.
“The Department of Rehabilitative Services provides services to help Virginians with disabilities become more independent and self-sufficient. When DRS Commissioner Jim Rothrock asked me to carry this legislation for them, I was honored to assist,” said Englin. “During my military service, I was hospitalized for several weeks with nerve damage and loss of mobility in one of my legs caused by a back injury, so I can appreciate the importance of this registry and the need to deliver effective rehabilitative services. This bill will strengthen those efforts.”
For more information about the Virginia Department of Rehabilitative Services, visit www.vadrs.org.
Now that the House has approved the bill, the Virginia Senate must also approve the measure before it goes to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to sign into law.
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This morning, a key House of Delegates subcommittee unanimously approved House Bill 2738, David’s effort to repeal the existing minimum wage exclusion for seniors.
“Current Virginia law allows employers to pay you less than minimum wage when you turn 65, which is just plain wrong,” said David. “The minimum wage of $5.15 per hour is far too low in the first place, but it should clearly apply to all workers, including senior citizens who still need to work to make ends meet.”
Yesterday, David welcomed constituents from the aging advocacy community, including members of AARP and Alexandria’s Commission on Aging. They briefed David on their legislative priorities, including a key effort to promote long-term care.
While the media tends to focus its attention on the House floor — such as last week when I repudiated remarks by Del. Frank Hargrove validating a hurtful slander against Jews — much of the real action in the General Assembly happens in committees and subcommittees. Therefore, I thought I would illuminate some of last week’s more interesting committee exchanges and share with you attempts to improve the democratic process by making committees and subcommittees more open.
Unfortunately, new rules passed by House Republicans last year allow as few as two members of a subcommittee to kill legislation with no recorded voted. In response, House Democrats, led by Del. Ken Plum (D-Reston), are fighting for a change to the rules that would require recorded votes even in subcommittees. Based on recent comments from the House Republican leadership, it does not look like this open-government reform proposal will pass. Therefore, in an effort to open up the process — and at the suggestion of a number of concerned citizens — we have started a new website, assemblyaccess.wordpress.com, where we are posting video clips of key subcommittee proceedings filmed by one of our staffers.
Recent video added to the Assembly Access website shows Friday’s meeting of the Elections Subcommittee, on which I serve, where Democrats presented a series of absentee ballot bills trying to make it easier for people to vote. The Republican majority on the subcommittee killed bills to allow no-fault absentee voting, as well as bills that would have expanded absentee voting to pregnant women and people like volunteer firefighters who are unable to make it to the polls because of unpaid work. You can also watch video of the full Privileges and Elections Committee, taken later that morning, where the Republican majority on the committee shuts down various attempts at non-partisan redistricting reform designed to take the partisan politics out of how we draw legislative districts.
On Thursday, Del. Bob Marshall’s (R-Manassas) perennial bill to use unnecessary regulations to target abortion providers unexpectedly came to a vote in the Health, Welfare, and Institutions Committee. Attempting a little procedural jujitsu, when another committee member moved to approve the bill, I offered a substitute motion to table the bill — a motion that usually would have failed easily and been chalked up to a valiant effort. Our jaws dropped when the vote on my motion was an eight to eight tie, still failing, but coming closer than ever to preventing this harmful legislation from moving forward.
A tie vote in the House Education Committee on Wednesday tabled a bill designed to target and eliminate Gay-Straight Alliances, which promote tolerance and understanding in many of our public schools. Usually, the perennial legislation against these student clubs sails easily through the House of Delegates and dies in the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans who are far more moderate and reasonable. This is the first year that the House tabled such a bill in committee, which is a positive sign.
In other late-breaking news last week, House Republicans and Senate Republicans appear to have resolved their differences over a transportation plan. For the past year, their internecine feud has been preventing us from addressing the ongoing transportation crisis, so this is helpful progress. However, before I take a position on the plan, I need be sure that it truly addresses our areas critical needs in a long-term, sustainable way and that it will not gut the state’s General Fund, which pays for core government services like education, health care, public safety, and environmental protection. Already, the amount of General Fund money used in the plan — $250 million a year — is a real concern. For perspective, $250 million is more than the combined budgets of the State Police, the Department of Emergency Management, and the Department of Veterans Services, or more than the combined budgets of the Departments of Health, Aging, and Rehabilitative Services. Of course, the devil is always in the details, so I am examining their plan carefully and will have more to say soon.
Between committee and subcommittee meetings and meetings to negotiate the details of my bills, I also enjoyed visits from constituents lobbying on behalf of a variety of groups. Constituents representing the Boys and Girls Clubs, Equality Virginia, Social Action Linking Together, Virginia CURE, and others came by my office to say hello, to share their concerns about issues, and to express their support for my efforts. If you happen to be visiting the General Assembly Building in Richmond, I am in room 707, so please be sure to drop. As always, if there is anything I can do to serve you better, please do not hesitate to get in touch at DelDEnglin@house.state.va.us, 703-549-3203, or 804-698-1045.
