With the open of the sixty day General Assembly today, the House of Delegates debated a pair of open government measures, and both failed.
House Minority Leader Del. Ward Armstrong (D-Martinsville) introduced a rules change to require that House floor sessions be broadcast for the public to observe. After a brief debate, with Del. Terry Kilgore (R-Gate City) speaking against the proposal, the plan was defeated, 55-43.
House Democrats also proposed overturning the 2006 change in legislative process that allows subcommittees — with just two votes required — to kill bills with secret votes. In 2006, 491 bills were killed secretly. That number rocketed to 840 in last year’s session. Del. Ken Plum (D-Fairfax) spoke in favor of the change, while House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) opposed it, claiming that writing down who votes for what isn’t “efficient.” That proposal, likewise, failed, so the General Assembly will continue to hold hundreds of votes in secret.
Ironically, the House Democratic Caucus recorded these two debates, and has made each of them available on their blog — live broadcasting and recording votes.
January 10th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Where’s the roll call? I can’t find it anywhere.
January 10th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
I couldn’t find it, either, but I’ll look into it this evening.
January 11th, 2008 at 9:43 am
According to http://www.tricities.com/tristate/tri/opinions.apx.-content-articles-TRI-2008-01-11-0001.html, it was strict party line, with the exception of Bob Marshall, who voted with the Democrats. (!!)
January 12th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
[...] the majority of Republican members of the house (including Harrisonburg’s Delegate Matt Lohr) voted against a bill that would require them to record subcommittee votes, effectively killing the [...]
January 14th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
[...] in the General Assembly still think they can get away with this vindictive crap, under the cover of unrecorded voice votes. Thanks to the good folks who created Assembly Access, we can see you. We’re watching. And [...]