Archive for February, 2007 Page 3 of 3
Given that conservative Republicans hold a solid margin of control in the House of Delegates, I am used to fighting the good fight on progressive legislation with little expectation of success. While my colleagues and I have been grinding away in the General Assembly on a variety of bills intended to make government work for people, imagine my satisfaction that some of my more progressive legislative efforts have been moving forward.
The biggest surprise of the week was when House Bill 2743 to create a pilot project to provide rental assistance to the poorest working families passed unanimously through both subcommittee and full committee. This is an important effort to begin bridging the gap between homelessness and home ownership for struggling families. Sue Capers from the Virginia Coalition for the Homeless and I have been working together for months, first to develop the policy and then to advocate for the legislation. However, as hard as we have been working, I assumed this would be another worthy progressive initiative that would die quietly in subcommittee — at least this year.
Ultimate approval of our rental assistance pilot project will depend on whether the Appropriations Committee decides to fund the program, which is a tall order given the philosophical bent of the majority of the committee. However, the fact that it has made it so far along with unanimous bipartisan support represents a clear endorsement of the underlying policy we are working to create. That alone represents unexpected progress that gives me great hope for the future.
One piece of legislation that has seen even greater success is my House Bill 2730, which would protect the right of hospital patients to allow anyone they choose to visit them, without regard to family status, sexual orientation, or other characteristics.
Current Virginia law gives hospitals complete discretion in setting visitation policies, in some cases resulting in patients being denied visits from loved ones who are not related to them by blood or marriage. While hospitals rarely have formal policies denying visitation, 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. I even know of one case where two elderly widows — best friends for life — shared a house together, but when one was hospitalized and on her deathbed, the other wasn’t allowed to visit because she wasn’t related.
My bill will prevent these kinds of tragedies by requiring hospitals to let the patient — and only the patient — have the final say on who may visit him or her. As of this writing, the bill went through two harrowing subcommittee hearings and has made it to the House floor with strong bipartisan support.
Two other bills whose progress I reported last week both passed the full House of Delegates on Jan. 31 with overwhelming support. House Bill 2738 will repeal the provision of Virginia law that allows employers to pay people aged 65 years and older less than the minimum wage. It passed 100 to zero. House Bill 2729 will require the government to notify property owners when Federal Emergency Management Agency floodplain maps change in ways that affect their property. It passed 93 to five.
Of course, the issue looming over the entire General Assembly is the ongoing effort to negotiate a long-term funding plan for transportation. I remain concerned that the new plan on the table would take more than half a billion dollars each budget from education, health care, human services, and public safety to fund transportation. However, I also recognize that the plan does include some modest increases in taxes and fees that represent a concession on the part of the ruling Republican majority. In my opinion, our best hope at this point is for both the House and the Senate to pass their different versions of the plan so we can move the process along and begin a real attempt to reconcile our differences. I fear that the hard-line House Republican leadership will not let a plan come to the floor for a vote, which would mean another missed opportunity for progress.
As always, if there’s anything I can do to serve you better, to help solve a problem you are having with your state government, or if you want to let me know what you think about the issues facing the General Assembly, please contact me at DelDEnglin@house.state.va.us, 804-698-1045, or 703-549-3203.
