We have had much discussion on the House floor this week about whether our great Commonwealth will be a place where workers are judged on the job they do and not the families they go home to. Late yesterday, Governor McDonnell responded to our calls for employment nondiscrimination with a memo stating that he will not tolerate discrimination based on sexual orientation or other non-merit factors for the state employees under the supervision of his office. I want to thank Governor McDonnell for responding to our outcry against anti-gay bigotry, and to the demands of Northern Virginia’s business community, with this small step forward. Moreover, I think it says something important about the progress we have made as nation when a conservative politician with national political aspirations feels the need to move a bit closer to the right side of history on this issue.

While a product of national ambition and political necessity, this is still a step in the right direction. However, it’s very important that we understand that Governor McDonnell’s directive does not carry the force of law. Therefore, now that Governor McDonnell has shown new openness on this issue, I hope he will work with us to send down a bill or support our other legislative efforts so together we can make employment nondiscrimination the law of the land in Virginia. 

Delegate David Englin is Vice Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and is serving his third term in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he represents the 45th District, which includes parts of the City of Alexandria, Fairfax County, and Arlington County. He serves on the Finance Committee, the Health, Welfare, and Institutions Committee, and the Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee.

Richmond – For the third consecutive day on the floor of the House of Delegates, Virginia Democrats stood against the anti-gay efforts of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who issued a letter to Virginia’s public colleges and universities March 4 advising them to repeal nondiscrimination policies protecting gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender faculty, staff, and students.

Urging Republicans to join their effort, Delegate David Englin (D-45) offered the following remarks:

Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen, as you just heard from the Gentleman from Henrico, Delegate Morrissey, at public colleges across Virginia, students, faculty, and tuition-paying parents share the outrage you have heard expressed on this floor about Attorney General Cuccinelli’s demand that Virginia’s colleges remove sexual orientation from their nondiscrimination rules. They share our outrage, and they want action. We have tried multiple times in this House and on the floor to fix this problem. Sadly, the General Laws committee chose to cancel its Monday meeting rather than work to move forward with the Senate nondiscrimination bill. That’s especially unfortunate, because I believe there are good people on both sides of the aisle in that committee who should be willing to do what’s right on this issue. Yesterday, we tried the extraordinary measure of a discharge motion to bring up that bill, but that, too, was defeated. Now, our last chance to protect the quality, reputation, and accreditation of Virginia’s public colleges and universities, and to protect Virginia’s pro-business climate, is for us to join together and urge Governor McDonnell to send down his own higher education nondiscrimination bill.

Even if one is willing to set aside the moral outrage that is an Attorney General wasting taxpayer money by seeking to hinder equal protection under the law, we need Governor McDonnell to act now because his Attorney General’s actions are destructive to higher education and destructive to our economic future.

Virginia’s public colleges and universities have nondiscrimination policies in place not only because judging faculty, staff, and students on merit is the right thing to do, but also because their accreditation requires it. For example, the national accrediting bodies that govern medical schools, teacher training programs, and schools of social work require nondiscrimination policies as part of their accreditation standards. After all, do you really think a conservative institution like Liberty University would include sexual orientation in its nondiscrimination policies unless it absolutely had to? Ask yourself, do you really want to let Ken Cuccinelli’s anti-gay crusade risk the accreditation of our schools?

Moreover, the quality of higher education in Virginia is a key factor in our continued ranking by Forbes.com and others as the Best State for Business. By sullying the reputation of our system of higher learning and hindering the ability of our top universities to recruit and retain the very best faculty and staff, the Attorney General is risking our future status as Best State for Business. Ask yourself, do you really want to let Ken Cuccinelli’s anti-gay crusade risk Virginia’s status as Best State for Business?

And speaking of business, businesses throughout Virginia understand that employees should be judged solely on their merit and not on other unrelated factors. The ten largest corporate employers in Virginia have active nondiscrimination policies. Northrop Grumman, whose corporate headquarters we are trying to lure here from California, wins perfect marks from the Human Rights Campaign for equal treatment of its gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender workers. Do you really want to let Ken Cuccinelli’s anti-gay crusade risk thousands of good-paying jobs in Virginia?

Mr. Speaker, this issue is not going away.

I recognize that it takes no special courage for a Northern Virginia liberal to stand up — every day if necessary — to demand fair and equal treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender workers.

But I remind you that conservative Republican icon, Barry Goldwater, said of gays in the military, “I don’t care if they are straight, as long as they shoot straight.” In other words, the father of the modern American conservative movement urged that we judge workers not on their sexual orientation, but on their merit.

What we need in this case are more Barry Goldwaters. We need men and women of courage from across the aisle to stand up and say that — even if you are uncomfortable with the idea of somebody being gay — even if your faith or your personal beliefs cause you to oppose same-sex relationships — you still believe that workers should be judged on merit — on the job they do.

We need men and women of courage from across the aisle who know in their heart of hearts that, decades from now, standing up for policies that treat workers fairly and based on merit will put them on the right side of history — men and women who will someday be revered for standing up for the rights of all people, and not painted with the same brush as bigots and segregationists.

Ladies and Gentlemen, based on yesterday’s vote, Delegates Albo, Rust, LeMunyon, Tata, and Villanueva are Republicans who are on the right side of history. But what about the rest of you?

I ask my other Republican friends: “Are there any Barry Goldwaters among you?” Or are you content to stand idly by, in silent complicity, and let Ken Cuccinelli destroy what we have worked to build.

Join us — urge Governor McDonnell to send down a bill that will protect the quality and reputation of higher education in Virginia, so together we can let the world know that Virginia is a place where employees will be judged on the job they do, not on the family they go home to.

Additionally, Delegate Ken Plum (D-36), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, yesterday attempted an extraordinary procedural effort to bring to the House floor an employment nondiscrimination bill that passed the Senate on Feb. 8. During debate on that motion, Englin offered the following:

Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen, when my grandparents and great parents came to these shores decades ago from a shtetl in Poland and a village in Italy, they were poor, hardworking people, seeking freedom and grateful for the opportunity to put in a hard days work to put food on the table and roof over their heads. But in those days, prospective employers would put up signs that read things like “Jews Need Not Apply” and “Italians Not Welcome.” Mr Speaker, maybe Governor McDonnell’s forbearers were met with signs reading “No Irish Allowed.” We have moved beyond that as a country, and today most employers would no sooner discriminate against Jews, Italians, or Irish than they would against their own family. But let there be no mistake, Ken Cuccinelli wants to hang a sign in front of Virginia’s public colleges and universities that reads “Gays Need Not Apply.”

Unfortunately, these efforts have yet to be successful, but these pro-equality legislators remain committed to working to advance equal rights for all Virginians.

Delegate David Englin is Vice Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and is serving his third term in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he represents the 45th District, which includes parts of the City of Alexandria, Fairfax County, and Arlington County. He serves on the Finance Committee, the Health, Welfare, and Institutions Committee, and the Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee. For more information, visit http://www.davidenglin.org.

Even if one is willing to set aside the moral outrage that is an attorney general working to hinder and revoke equal protection under the law, his actions are destructive to Virginia’s economic future.  Businesses throughout Virginia understand that employees should be judged solely on their merit and not on other unrelated factors.  The ten largest corporate employers in Virginia have active nondiscrimination policies.  Northrop Grumman, whose corporate headquarters we are trying to lure here in competition with Maryland and D.C., consistently wins perfect marks from the Human Rights Campaign for equal treatment of its gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender workers.  The quality of Virginia’s public colleges and universities is a key factor in our continued ranking by Forbes.com and others as the Best State for Business.  By sullying the reputation of our system of higher learning and hindering the ability of our top universities to recruit and retain the very best faculty and staff, Cuccinelli risks our future status as Best State for Business.

Fortunately, condemnation of Cuccinelli’s anti-gay activism comes not only from Democrats and not only from our area.  Former Delegate Vince Callahan, who represented McLean in the House for 40 years and was the powerful Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, called Cuccinelli’s move “reprehensible.”  The author of Too Conservative, a prominent Northern Virginia Republican blog, condemned Cuccinelli’s move and urged its repudiation.  The conservative-leaning editorial page of the Richmond Times Dispatch acknowledged that Virginia’s “backward-looking attitudes on gay rights” could cause major businesses to locate elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the one Virginian who could step up and address this issue quickly has been virtually silent.  Governor Bob McDonnell first refused to issue an employment nondiscrimination executive order for state employees (which includes faculty and staff at public colleges and universities) and then he issued an order but conspicuously excluded protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity.  He maintains that only the General Assembly can grant those protections, but then he stood by in silent complicity as House Republicans killed the House and Senate bills that would have done just that.  On Monday, I urged McDonnell to stand up to his rogue attorney general and send down a bill with the weight of his office behind it to make employment nondiscrimination Virginia law, which would render Cuccinelli’s opinion moot.

Sadly, McDonnell has maintained his silence and refuses to send down a bill, so House Democrats made an extraordinary motion Tuesday to bring Senator Don McEachin’s (D-9) employment nondiscrimination bill to a vote in the full House of Delegates.  This legislation, Senate Bill 66, passed the Senate on Feb. 8, and the Republican majority of the House General Laws Committee tabled it from further consideration on March 3.  Our “discharge motion” was intended to give the full House of Delegates, including a few supportive moderate Republicans, an opportunity to try to pass this bill and make employment nondiscrimination the law.  While admittedly this is a rarely used “nuclear option” under the House rules, we could not not — and I would not — stand idly by while the Office of the Attorney General bullies and marginalizes gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Virginians.  Unfortunately, the Republican majority used a procedural maneuver to defeat our effort, but we will keep fighting until all Virginia employees are judged by the job they do, and not the family they go home to.

Contact me at DelDEnglin@house.virginia.gov or 703-549-3203 to share your views about this and other matters facing the General Assembly.  Thank you for the honor of representing you.

Richmond

“As an Air Force veteran, I’m especially honored to have been given the opportunity to work more closely with the Civil Air Patrol, whose great work — especially in terms of search and rescue operations — contributes to the safety and security of our community and the nation,” said Englin.

“We are grateful that Delegate Englin has taken the time to recognize the important role Civil Air Patrol and other volunteer organizations play in making Virginia a safer and more livable state for its citizens,” said Col. Dave Carter, commander of the Virginia Wing.

The Virginia Legislative Squadron was chartered this year to provide information to lawmakers and facilitate cooperation between CAP and state agencies for the services CAP provides.

Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with 59,000 members nationwide.  CAP, in its Air Force auxiliary role, performs 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and was credited by the AFRCC with saving 72 lives in fiscal year 2009.  Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counter-drug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies.  The members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to more than 24,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs.  CAP has been performing missions for America for 68 years.

A 1996 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Delegate David Englin is Vice Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and is serving his third term in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he represents the 45th District, which includes parts of the City of Alexandria, Fairfax County, and Arlington County.  He serves on the Finance Committee, the Health, Welfare, and Institutions Committee, and the Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee.

Richmond

“The new annual report created by the final bill will be more useful and transparent than existing reports, moving the ball forward on budget transparency and scrutiny,” said Englin.  “However, this is just the beginning of what I expect will be a multi-year effort to ensure these expensive tax benefits receive as much scrutiny as the appropriations in the budget so we can make informed value judgements about taxpayer resources.”

The final version of the bill combines the existing corporate income tax relief report with the major business facilities tax credit report and includes additional information in the report about the size and distribution of certain tax benefits.  It also requires that the report be made available to the public online and be provided to all legislators, not just those serving on the Appropriations and Finance committees.

“Our goal going in was a comprehensive annual report on all tax benefits of any kind, so legislators have the information necessary to make balanced and informed budget decisions during these difficult times,” said Englin.  “Unfortunately, staff resources at the Department of Taxation are very limited, so we amended the legislation to take a first step toward more transparency.”

The bill passed the House of Delegates unanimously on Feb. 16, and the Senate amended it and passed it unanimously Thursday.  The House voted unanimously Monday to accept the Senate amendments, which was the final passage of the bill.

Delegate David Englin is Vice Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and is serving his third term in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he represents the 45th District, which includes parts of the City of Alexandria, Fairfax County, and Arlington County.  He serves on the Finance Committee, the Health, Welfare, and Institutions Committee, and the Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee.

Richmond

“To protect public safety, our community needs the tools to recruit and retain the very best public safety professionals,” said Englin.  “In Virginia, local governments have only the powers the General Assembly grants to them, so this is a necessary and important bill to give the City of Alexandria the tools to ensure a quality public safety workforce.”

Englin sponsored the legislation at the request of the Alexandria City Council, and Chief Deputy Tony Di Cesare from the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office traveled to Richmond to testify in favor of the bill.  Currently, if Alexandria offered its deputy sheriffs the ability to retire with 25 years of service, those employees would have to accept a lower overall pension, which is a penalty other law enforcement officers do not face.  If and when City Council eventually takes advantage of this new legislation, it can offer deputy sheriffs and others the same retirement package, ensuring fair, equal, and competitive public safety compensation to recruit and retain quality public safety workers for our community.

The bill passed the House of Delegates unanimously on Feb. 16, and the Senate passed it unanimously Thursday.

Delegate David Englin is Vice Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and is serving his third term in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he represents the 45th District, which includes parts of the City of Alexandria, Fairfax County, and Arlington County.  He serves on the Finance Committee, the Health, Welfare, and Institutions Committee, and the Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee.

“I especially appreciate the Virginia Organizing Project’s emphasis on fiscally responsible progressive tax reform as a way to prevent hundreds of millions of dollars of cuts to education and health care,” said David.

Many of the specific ideas proposed by the Virginia Organizing Project, such as eliminating the state sales tax on food and restructing Virginia’s regressive income tax stucture, are elements of David’s Middle Class and Small Business Tax Relief Act, which he continues to advocate.

“This ‘Bake Sale for the Budget’ is a creative way to draw attention to reasonable options that Governor McDonnell and House Republicans refuse even to consider, and I am happy to support this effort,” said David.

The Virginia Organizing Project plans to deliver money raised from the bake sale to Governor McDonnell for the purpose of helping address the $4.2 billion revenue shortfall.

In the face of the worst revenue crisis since the Great Depression, cuts in state money to education are inevitable, especially considering how successfully we have protected public education while we cut $7 billion over the past four years.  However, rather than making temporary cuts that can be restored when the economy improves, House Republicans seized the opportunity to institute long-term policy changes that will undermine public schools for years to come.  For example, in the guise of “flexibility” for school districts, they are lowering quality by allowing larger class sizes — even though we know that small classes produce better outcomes.  Rather than merely reduce funds for preschool, early reading intervention, and services for at-risk children, they have lumped these services into a lottery-funded block grant and then changed the distribution formula to literally take money away from poor students and give it to students who aren’t poor.  (Our community, which has a high proportion of low-income students, loses millions of dollars under this scheme.)  Rather than build the education budget on solid accounting, they built the education budget on a foundation of sand, giving local governments the authority to increase what teachers pay toward their retirement benefits, assuming every local government will extract the maximum amount possible from those teachers, and then folding that fantasy figure into the state budget calculus.  Any education cuts should be temporary, they should not compromise quality in the classroom (and certainly not permanently), they should not be on the backs of poor and at-risk students, and they should be based on real numbers.

House Republicans have railed against the federal government all session, passing bills to assert “states’ rights” over everything from health care to commerce to the manufacture of firearms.  Imagine our surprise when they included in the House budget language to spend Medicaid funds that Congress has not yet even approved.  However, in another fiscally obtuse move that might have been prevented with Democratic input, they specifically redirect any new federal Medicaid enhancement money (which they hope and assume Congress will pass) from health care for the neediest Virginians to non-health care programs, foregoing the corresponding federal matching funds.   Therefore, rather than cutting just $370 million from Medicaid, they are choosing to leave on the table $730 million of federal matching funds, producing an overall cut of $1.1 billion.

Another area of deep concern is the high-risk plan to postpone state contributions to the Virginia Retirement System.  The Pew Center on the States recently released a comprehensive report on state pension liabilities, and it noted that Virginia is already paying slightly less into our pension trust fund than is actuarially prudent to ensure we can meet all of our future obligations.  According to the director of the Virginia Retirement System, if all goes well and the economy improves — and if we don’t make a habit of skipping these payments — Virginia’s pension trust fund should eventually grow enough so we can still meet our future obligations.  But what if the economy slips again or if growth does not meet expectations?   Failing to fully fund our pension trust fund could find us shortchanging teachers, fire fighters, law enforcement officers, and state and local employees of the benefits they have earned.  While temporarily postponing state contributions to the Virginia Retirement System may be a fast and easy (and, I fear, addictive) way to come up with $800 million to help balance the budget, it is too great a risk to our future financial stability.

Massive cuts to public education and health care and raiding the state pension trust fund will result in tens of thousands of lost jobs, hinder our economic recovery, threaten our triple-A bond rating, and diminish our coveted rankings by independent groups as best state for business, best state to raise a child, and best managed state.  These are a mere taste of the reasons I voted against the House budget last week, but I remain hopeful that House and Senate negotiators will eventually produce a budget we can all support.  In the meantime, sign up for my email list at www.davidenglin.org to stay apprised.  As always, I welcome your ideas and your feedback at 703-549-3203 or DelDEnglin@house.virginia.gov.  Thank you for the opportunity to serve.

The following is the text of David’s remarks:

Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen, every once in a while, I’m reminded that perhaps the world is not as random as it may seem. It so happens that on the very day the Clerk’s office scheduled me to invite a rabbi to deliver the opening prayer, a group of so-called Christians have traveled to Richmond from Kansas, and at this very moment they are picketing the Virginia Holocaust Museum with a message of unvarnished anti-Jewish hatred. This is the same group that targets and disrupts the funerals of fallen American servicemembers and who later today will picket Hermitage High School in Henrico to intimidate its gay and lesbian students. Moments ago, while we were standing in this chamber listening to Rabbi Kranz offer words of blessing, the thugs of the Westboro Baptist Church were targeting one of Virginia’s symbols of hope and tolerance with a message of violent hate.

Thank you Mr. Speaker.

“I’m honored to stand with VOICE to protect vulnerable citizens,” said David.  “I’m proud of the synagogues, churches, mosques, and temples who have joined together to remind legislators that budgets are moral documents that determine whom we lift up and whom we leave out as a Commonwealth.  Together, we must be a voice for those in need during these difficult economic times.”

For more information about VOICE, click here.

While I have worked successfully with Republicans this year on bipartisan economic development proposals (especially my Renewable Energy Job Creation Tax Credit, which passed the House last week after being co-opted and renamed the Green Jobs Tax Credit) it is generally more efficient to preserve existing jobs than create new ones.  Therefore, I was disappointed to learn that, at the same time we have been working together on proposals we hope will create jobs over the next year to five years, House Republicans have crafted a job-killing budget.  If their proposed cuts to public education and Medicaid actually pass, tens of thousands of teachers and health care workers will lose their jobs.  This will undermine both our public schools and our health care system, and it will erase any net job growth resulting from our other economic development efforts. While we must invest in economic development, we cannot do so at the expense of cutting jobs that already exist.

Aside from the obvious toll on the families of people who are let go, unemployed teachers and health care workers mean fewer customers for local businesses, less economic activity, and slower economic recovery and growth.  Inova Health Systems is the largest private employer in Northern Virginia, and Inova Alexandria Hospital is the largest private employer in Alexandria, so this has the potential to harm both access to care (Inova Alexandria Hospital may have to cut pediatric services) and our local economy as a whole.  Moreover, undermining public education is bad for business, since companies locate and remain in Northern Virginia because of good quality of life and a strong education system that gives their employees’ children excellent opportunities and provides a quality workforce for the future.

While these proposed cuts are bad for communities across Virginia, some additional cuts would fall disproportionately on Alexandria and Arlington.  Included in the proposed cuts to education is a plan to restructure the additional money Northern Virginia localities receive to recruit and retain teachers given our area’s high cost of living.  Alexandria and Arlington already receive just 20 cents on the dollar in direct education money from the state, so by diverting some of our “cost to compete” funds to hold certain other localities harmless during this year’s education aid re-benchmarking, we would lose even more.  Under the House Republican budget, Alexandria would lose $575,512, and Arlington would lose $958,038.  Worse still, they propose changing the way lottery proceeds are distributed, so that a program designed to help poor students would be allocated based not on the number of poor students but on the number of overall students in a locality.  That restructuring would cost Alexandria nearly $2.5 million and Arlington more than $1.2 million.  In an additional blow to our community, where institutions like the Torpedo Factory, the Del Ray Artisans, and Signature Theater demonstrate that the arts are part of our economic vigor, House Republicans propose eliminating the Virginia Commission for the Arts, despite the fact that the commission returns seven dollars of economic activity for every dollar of state investment.

Needless to say, I expect to vote against the House budget, and I am working hard with Senate Democrats to negotiate better ways to close the budget gap when the House and Senate budgets go to conference.  We must all brace for the most difficult cuts in decades, but we must make smart cuts that share the burden among localities and avoid killing jobs and undermining our future economic success.

Richmond

In a year where economic development — and especially job creation — has been a paramount concern in the General Assembly, I believe it is economically shortsighted for the House to pass a budget that will completely eliminate funding for an activity that is currently returning $7 in investment by private citizens, businesses, and local governments for every one dollar of state money invested.  The Virginia Commission for the Arts has a proven track record in economic development and has helped revitalize local economies across the Commonwealth.  In the 45th District, the Torpedo Factory Art Center, the Art League, MetroStage, Signature Theater, Del Ray Artisans, Mount Vernon Community Children’s Theater and numerous other arts organizations and programs supported by the Commission over the years have strengthened our economy and enhanced our community as a tourism destination, creating jobs and contributing to tax revenues that support core services like education, health care, and public safety.  Moreover, House Republicans have found room in their budget for investments of similar scale in movie industry incentives, despite the fact that the conservative Tax Foundation’s recent comprehensive study of these incentives call into question any purported return on that investment.  By eliminating the already modest investment in a proven economic driver in favor of a similar investment whose returns are questionable and speculative, the House Republican budget is advocating a risky fiscal scheme that I oppose.

This is not the only or even the most shortsighted, high-risk scheme contained in the House Republican budget.  For example, massive cuts to public education and health care and raiding the state pension trust fund will result in tens of thousands of lost jobs, hinder our economic recovery, threaten our triple A bond rating, and diminish our coveted rankings by independent groups as best state for business, best state to raise a child, and best managed state.  However, given the importance of the arts to the economy of the 45th District, this is an additional particular concern that I will continue working to address as the budget process moves forward.

Delegate David Englin is Vice Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and is serving his third term in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he represents the 45th District, which includes parts of the City of Alexandria, Fairfax County, and Arlington County.  He serves on the Finance Committee, the Health, Welfare, and Institutions Committee, and the Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee.

“During the H1N1 vaccination emergency last fall, I heard from private school parents concerned that their children didn’t have the same access to the vaccine as students in public schools,” said Englin, who serves on the Health, Welfare, and Institutions Committee in the House.  “While it turned out that health departments in Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax actually did a good job coordinating with private and parochial schools, my research turned up cases in Southwest Virginia and elsewhere where non-public school students were refused access to the H1N1 vaccine, including a severely disabled, home schooled child who ended up catching swine flu.  This bill will ensure the appropriate level of statewide planning to so those kids will be protected in the future.”

Englin worked closely with the Virginia Catholic Conference to ensure the bill included appropriate language to preserve parental consent for vaccination, and he brought together Department of Health officials and public school, private school, parochial school, and home schooling advocates to negotiate language to satisfy the concerns of all parties.  At one point, a disagreement between competing factions of home school advocates appeared to have stymied the bill.  However, Englin worked with members of the Health Subcommittee to resurrect the legislation and win unanimous approval from the subcommittee members.

“Nobody has been a stronger advocate for our public schools than me,” said Englin, whose son is an Alexandria City Public Schools fifth grader.  “However, when it comes to protecting the health and safety of our children, it shouldn’t make a difference what kind of school a kid goes to.”

The bill passed the House of Delegates on Feb. 11 by a vote of 96 to three, and the Senate passed it unanimously Monday.

Delegate David Englin is Vice Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and is serving his third term in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he represents the 45th District, which includes parts of the City of Alexandria, Fairfax County, and Arlington County.  He serves on the Finance Committee, the Health, Welfare, and Institutions Committee, and the Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee.

Spurred on by the Tea Party movement, Republicans in Richmond this year are pushing a slate of bills intended to assert Virginia’s independence from the U.S. Government.  These bills range from the patently unconstitutional (House Bill 10 violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution) to the outright dangerous (guns manufactured under House Bill 69 could be exempt from Federal domestic violence laws.)  Of course, I opposed these measures.

One bill intended merely as a symbolic restatement of the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution could have unintentionally threatened tens of thousands of jobs by denying the U.S. Government’s purview over Federal and Federal contractor jobs located in Virginia.  Therefore, I successfully persuaded the House of Delegates to amend the bill correcting that oversight.  Especially at a time when we are trying to persuade Northrop Grumman to locate its corporate headquarters here, the General Assembly should be careful about thumbing its nose at Federal jobs and contractors.  While I am still not crazy about the bill, Thomas Jefferson’s rules, which govern parliamentary procedure in the House of Delegates, require a member to vote in favor of a bill he or she successfully amends, so I did.

Unfortunately, crossover was barely a speed bump for efforts to expand the prevalence of guns in Virginia.   House Republicans approved bills to repeal the “one handgun per month” rule for gun sales, to create a lifetime concealed handgun permit with less public safety oversight, to allow handguns to be stored in boats and motorcycles, and to allow concealed handguns to be carried into emergency shelters.  They also repealed the rule allowing localities to fingerprint concealed handgun permit applicants.  I was proud to vote against each of these measures, which only serve to solidify Virginia’s reputation as arms dealer to the eastern seaboard.

During debate on Monday, I spoke out against House Bill 1300, which would prevent the Air Pollution Control Board from denying cap-and-trade permits for sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.  Cap-and-trade can effectively reduce carbon emissions because carbon dissipates equally regardless of where it is emitted.  However, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide produce dangerous ground-level ozone smog in the area where they are emitted.  Therefore, this bill would force the Air Pollution Control Board to allow let dirty power plants to meet their clean air obligations on paper while threatening public health and safety in real life.  While the bill passed the House, I am working with the Senate to amend it to protect Northern Virginia, which has the worst air quality in the state.

After an arduous first half of the General Assembly session, the following items on my own legislative agenda moved forward for consideration by the Senate:  House Bill 267 makes technical changes to the Advanced Health Care Directives Registry legislation I championed in 2008 to facilitate the upcoming launch of registry at no cost to taxpayers or users;  House Bill 270 requires the Department of Health’s emergency vaccination plans to ensure that all school-aged children have equal access to vaccines, such as H1N1, whether they attend private schools, charter schools, traditional public schools, or are home schooled;  House Bill 273 will give the City of Alexandria the power to improve retirement benefits for deputy sheriffs, emergency medical technicians, and fire marshals by letting them retire after 25 years of service, like other public safety personnel;  House Bill 355 strengthens transparency and accountability in the budget process by requiring the Department of Taxation to make its annual report of corporate tax benefits and the associated revenue losses available online for public scrutiny.  Additionally, at my request, the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control reversed its prohibition on hotel manager’s receptions that include complimentary wine and beer for guests and their visitors, thus accomplishing the policy goal of my House Bill 354, so I withdrew the bill.

With crossover behind us, our focus will shift to the budget, and I hope to report progress on that front next week.  In the meantime, sign up for my email list at www.davidenglin.org to stay apprised.  As always, I welcome your ideas and your feedback at 703-549-3203 or DelDEnglin@house.virginia.gov.  Thank you for the opportunity to serve.

Richmond

Today’s bill begins the final phase of a two-year effort that started with 2008 legislation sponsored by Englin and Senator George Barker (D-39) to establish Virginia’s Advanced Health Care Directives Registry as a statewide registry for living wills and advanced medical directives so medical professionals and emergency responders can access these documents when they are needed most.

The General Assembly today amended that law to remove the requirement that directives be notarized before being entered into the registry. This conforms the law with private sector best practices and enables the Department of Health to move forward with a public-private partnership to deliver the registry at no cost to taxpayers or users. By adding an emergency clause to the legislation, the General Assembly ensured that the law will go into effect as soon as Governor Robert F. McDonnell signs it, so that the Department of Health may launch the registry before April 16, which is Advanced Directives Day. Without the emergency clause, the bill would have gone into effect July 1.

Englin noted that this bipartisan effort, which began under the Kaine Administration and has enjoyed the continued support of the McDonnell Administration, brings together sometimes divergent interests.

“This will be especially helpful for gay and lesbian Virginians, who may designate their partners as the people to make medical decisions on their behalf — a legal power married couples enjoy by default,” said Englin. “But it also has support from conservatives who understand that this could avoid a replay of the Terri Schiavo case, which involved a painful familial dispute over who had the power to remove her from life support. By ensuring that family members, health care providers, and emergency responders know exactly what people’s wishes are for their medical care and exactly who people want making life or death decisions for them when they are incapacitated, the Advanced Health Care Directives Registry will be an important tool for all Virginians.”

Aneesh Chopra, who is currently the Chief Technology Officer of the United States, worked with Englin in 2008 and early 2009 when he was Virginia’s Secretary of Technology to ensure that the language of Virginia’s Advanced Health Care Directives Registry law leaves the door open for future efforts to expand the use of electronic medical records.

“Electronic medical records can save billions of dollars in health care costs and improve the quality of care,” said Englin. “I am hopeful that the success of the Virginia’s Advanced Health Care Directives Registry will segue into electronic medical records in the future.”

Englin credited Kim Barnes, Information Technology Coordinator for the Virginia Department of Health, for working diligently over more than 18 months to bring this project to the verge of fruition.

“Kim deserves a great deal of credit for months of work negotiating the details of the public-private partnership that has put the launch of this new system in sight,” said Englin.

Delegate David Englin is Vice Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and is serving his third term in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he represents the 45th District, which includes parts of the City of Alexandria, Fairfax County, and Arlington County.

My new position on the House Finance Committee has given me the opportunity to support and advocate for responsible transportation funding solutions and other revenue and tax reform proposals.  For example, last week, I was one of a small handful of votes in favor of a bipartisan, comprehensive, sustainable transportation funding package.  The proposal had the strong support of virtually the entire Northern Virginia business community — including businesses whose taxes would increase — because they understand that investing in our transportation infrastructure is necessary for job creation and economic growth.  Additionally, at the request of the City of Alexandria, I carried forward legislation to double the Northern Virginia sales tax on motor fuels to 4.2 percent, which would have eventually put more than $80 million a year of additional funds into public transit in our region.  This too was defeated by a subcommittee majority of “No Tax Pledge” Republicans.  However, on a positive note, the same subcommittee approved House Bill 355, my legislation to create more transparency when the General Assembly scrutinizes whether various tax advantages are effective public policy.

As predicted, the corporate interests who stand to make hundreds of millions of dollars over the next 75 years from the I-95/395 HOT Lanes project pulled out all of the stops last week to defeat my efforts to protect our neighborhoods from this problematic proposal.  Current law allows the Secretary of Transportation to enter into agreements that give away public highways and other infrastructure — property owned by you, me, and every taxpayer — to for-profit corporations with little oversight.  In the case of the I-95/395 HOT Lanes project, this has resulted in an inadequate environmental analysis that leaves the VDOT-Fluor-Transurban project team unable to produce data to support its claim that the proposal will avoid harm to neighborhoods like Parkfairfax, Fairlington, and Shirlington.  In response, I sponsored a package of legislation designed to require a complete environmental analysis and other transparency and oversight reforms.  Unfortunately, on party-line votes, the House Transportation Committee last week tabled all of these measures.  In addition to bowing to pressure from an army of corporate lobbyists, many of the very legislators who keep blocking new revenue for transportation openly admitted that the General Assembly’s ongoing failure to pass such a solution makes giving away public assets to private corporations the only viable option.

The tax reform I am most passionate about — my Middle Class and Small Business Tax Relief Act — finally received a fair hearing last week, which is a modicum of progress given that it was pocket vetoed last year.  This legislation, which I have been working on for about 18 months, would eliminate the state sales tax on food, lower income taxes for 42 percent of Virginia taxpayers, eliminate the corporate income tax for 22,000 struggling businesses, and protect funds for education and transportation with a 1.25 percent income tax rate increase on the wealthiest four hundredths of a percent of Virginians.  While the bill was “gently tabled” (which is a euphemistic way to acknowledge its merit without moving it forward) it fostered a productive discussion, and Finance Subcommittee One suggested that the full Finance Committee use it as a springboard for future hearings about tax reform.  Given the transformational scope of my proposal, moving the committee toward an open conversation about progressive tax reform is certainly a step forward.

For updates on these and other reform efforts, sign up for my email list at www.davidenglin.org.  As always, I welcome your ideas and your feedback at 703-549-3203 or DelDEnglin@house.virginia.gov.  Thank you for the opportunity to serve.

Richmond

“We are very pleased to have worked with Delegate Englin to effect positive change not only for Alexandria hotels but for all ABC licensed hotels in Virginia,” said Tina Leone, president and chief executive officer of the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce. “With this revision, Alexandria will be more competitive in attracting additional business and leisure travelers. This change is a real victory for the hotel and tourism industry in Virginia.”

Throughout the nation, high-end hotels hold evening hospitality receptions that include complimentary drinks as an amenity for guests and their visitors. However, prior to this week’s decision, the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control interpreted Virginia law to forbid this practice in the Commonwealth. Of the 49 Kimpton Hotels nationwide, including 12 in the D.C. metropolitan area, their three Virginia hotels — all in Alexandria — have been the only ones not able to provide this level of hospitality expected by their customers.

“This is an economic competitiveness issue for the communities I represent,” said Englin. “Kimpton alone employs nearly 350 people in Alexandria, and they generate more than $2 million in tax revenue to the state and $3 million in tax revenue to the city. When I learned that Virginia’s prohibition gave their competitors in D.C. and Maryland a leg up, I committed fix it.”

Englin requested that the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control review its prohibition and drafted House Bill 354 to address the issue legislatively if necessary. This week’s decision negates the need for legislation, so Englin withdrew his bill today.

“An administrative fix was far preferable, since the hotels may now begin offering this service immediately,” said Englin. “I appreciate ABC being responsive to our concerns so hotels like the Monaco, Lorien, and Morrison House in Alexandria can compete on a stronger footing with hotels across the Potomac.”

W. Curtis Coleburn, chief operating officer of the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, verified Wednesday that Virginia hotels may now host manager’s receptions that “include guests accompanying registered guests, so long as the practice is in no way a shift or device to evade the restriction on gifts of alcohol by licensees.”

Delegate David Englin is Vice Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and is serving his third term in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he represents the 45th District, which includes parts of the City of Alexandria, Fairfax County, and Arlington County.