David Englin, Virginia State Delegate

Twenty grassroots volunteers packed Campaign Central (a.k.a. the Englin residence) yesterday for Team Englin’s first volunteer night of the 2007 campaign season. Between stuffing envelops and making phone calls, volunteers made thousands of voter contacts supporting terrific Democratic candidates who are working hard to unseat right-wing Republicans standing in the way of progress.

“I am so incredibly grateful that such a broad and diverse range of friends and neighbors continue to come over, make phone calls, stuff envelopes, and do the grassroots work necessary to push Democrats to victory in November,” said David. “As hard as I fight in Richmond for the priorities of the 45th District, I can’t do it alone. The only way to make real progress on the issues we care about is by fighting together to change the balance of power.”

With the house full of volunteers, David joined his General Assembly colleagues at City Hall to report to City Council on the results of the General Assembly session. He was also present to show his support

for City Council’s decisions to name the new soccer field behind George Washington Middle School “Swanson Field” after the Swanson family, whose decades of leadership in Alexandria Youth Soccer has strengthen our entire community. Earlier in the evening, members of the Swanson family were making phone calls at Campaign Central.

“Congratulations to the Swanson family and their supporters on this well-deserved recognition,” said David, who had earlier lobbied city leaders in support of the move.

Even with thousands of bills on the docket, each year there are always a few that consume much of the General Assembly’s time and attention. For reasons every Northern Virginian can appreciate, transportation funding has been the dominant of such issues. However, payday lending, Dominion’s proposed transmission line from West Virginia to Northern Virginia, and the re-regulation of the electricity utilities industry are other key issues we have been working on and about which hundreds of constituents have contacted me.

In 2002, the General Assembly passed the Virginia Payday Loan Act, which made it legal for lenders to offer easy access, short-term loans at extremely high interest rates — in some cases as high as 390 percent APR. In theory, these loans fill an occasional emergency need for people living paycheck to paycheck. However, the majority of Virginians who use payday loans take out more than a dozen a year, trapping them into a cycle of long-term debt. Therefore, I have supported efforts this year to require payday lenders to abide by the same interest rate restrictions as banks, credit unions, and other lenders, effectively repealing the law that brought this practice to Virginia.

Last week, I finally had the opportunity to vote on legislation addressing payday loans. While the bill would limit the number of simultaneous payday loans one customer may take out, I was not persuaded that this would effectively prevent people from spiraling into unrecoverable debt. Therefore, I voted against the bill. Some of my colleagues voted for the bill believing that at least it represented some reform. The bill passed, and now Governor Kaine, who shares my concerns about payday lending, will have an opportunity to amend it and make it stronger. You can count on my support for that effort.

I have heard from a great many constituents on both sides of Dominion’s proposal to build a long-range transmission line along a route that crosses some of Northern Virginia’s most scenic and historically significant areas. To the extent that this move helps our fight against the Mirant Plant by undermining Mirant’s claim that it is critical for energy reliability in our area, I am not opposed a new transmission line. However, as a committed environmentalist, I expressed to Dominion my grave concerns about the routing of the line. I was even prepared to vote for a bill that would have forced Dominion to compensate landowners for the loss of view associated with the line, but that bill never made it to a full vote on the House floor. The good news is that Dominion changed course and has agreed to route the line along one of its existing rights of way.

Given our proximity to Maryland and last year’s shocking headlines about the effects of electricity utilities deregulation there, it is no wonder that many constituents have expressed concern about how Virginia will address that issue. Fortunately, Maryland’s experience was a wakeup call to us, so we are working on a solution to re-regulate electricity utilities in a way that will protect consumers.

My overriding concern with re-regulation is that we protect consumers from the massive and unexpected rate increases experienced in Maryland. There are two plans on the table right now, and a conference committee is working to reconcile the differences. One plan provides some protection to consumers by guaranteeing that electricity rates will not increase more than inflation plus two percent. The other plan is a bit stronger, guaranteeing that rates will note increase more than inflation. In other words, if that plan passes, your electricity bill will not increase any more than the price of your groceries. This is an issue I am following closely, and I will only vote for a final plan that includes strong consumer protections.

With the session coming to a close, the Republican leadership in both the House and the Senate still cannot agree with each other on a long-term funding solution for transportation. Thanks to pressure from those of us who voted against the House plan because of its quarter-billion dollar raid on general fund money for education, human services, and public safety, the Senate amended that plan to protect the general fund. I voted in favor of that amended compromise when it cam back to the House, but House Republicans rejected it. I am still hopeful that we will arrive at some solution, but time is running out, and Republican leaders continue the internal bickering that has stalled the process for two years.

As always, if you want to express your opinion about these or any other issues, or if I can be of service in any way, you can contact me at DelDEnglin@house.state.va.us, 702-549-3203, or 804-698-1045.

Last week was perhaps the busiest few days of this year’s General Assembly session. Tuesday we worked a marathon floor session to make it through “crossover” — the date by which a bill must have passed either the House or the Senate before it can move to the other chamber for consideration. Wednesday, after the Republican majority sprung on us a last minute, 91-page substitute to the transportation proposal, we spent hours analyzing the package before we finally had a chance to take our first floor vote on the plan. Thursday, we voted on updates to the 2006 to 2008 biennial budget, with House Democrats fighting hard to defend key provisions on early childhood education, economic development, and environmental protection.

The good news is that, after all of that action, the following seven of my bills passed the House and are now in the Senate for consideration:

• House Bill 2730 to protect equal rights in hospital visitation passed the House 97 to zero. With the unfortunate passage of the so-called “marriage amendment” last year, I sponsored this bill protect the right of hospital patients to allow anyone they choose to visit them, without regard to family status, sexual orientation, or other characteristics. There have been far too many cases in Virginia where parents refuse to let their gay son or daughter’s partner visit, or where the grown children of a divorced or widowed patient refuse to let the patient’s new significant other visit. This bill will prevent those kinds of tragedies in the future.

• House Bill 2727 provides a much-needed tool to preserve affordable housing for elderly and disabled renters. Current Virginia law gives certain elderly or disabled renters the right of first refusal to purchase their apartments during condominium conversions, but the vast majority of them cannot afford to take advantage of that right. This bill allows those renters to assign that purchasing right to an outside agency, which must rent the unit back to the individual at an affordable rate. After being endorsed by the Virginia Housing Commission last summer, the House passed the bill 99 to zero.

• House Bill 2735 authorizes local governments to participate in all programs offered by the National Association of Counties, including a prescription drug discount program that will deliver significant savings on prescription drugs to all residents of participating localities. This bill is part of my ongoing effort to find immediate, practical ways reduce the cost of health care. It narrowly passed the House by a vote of 51 to 47.

• House Bill 2729 requires the government to notify property owners when the Federal Emergency Management Agency changes floodplain maps in ways that affect their property, empowering those owners to make informed decisions about flood insurance. I sponsored this legislation in response to the June flooding that devastated the Huntington neighborhood, where we found that some homeowners did not have required flood insurance because FEMA changed the floodplain maps without telling them. The House approved this bill 93 to five.

• House Bill 2738 repeals the provision of Virginia law that allows employers to pay people aged 65 years and older less than the minimum wage. While House Republicans have so far killed every attempt to increase the minimum wage, this bill to expand who may receive the minimum wage passed 100 to zero.

• House Bill 2732 strengthens 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 House approved this bill 99 to zero.

• House Bill 2740 closes a campaign finance disclosure loophole that in May allowed a political action committee to spend money to influence Alexandria’s city elections without disclosing the identity of the group’s officers or backers. This legislation will help voters to have all of the information they need to make informed decisions on Election Day. It passed the House 99 to zero.

These are the bills that have passed the House for which I am the chief patron, but this is really just a taste of the wide range of bills I have enjoyed working on throughout this session. You can learn more about my efforts and share your views on these and other issues at www.DavidEnglin.org. As always, if I can ever be of service, please call me in Richmond at 804-698-1045 or e-mail DelDEnglin@house.state.va.us.