By Kristen Smith
Capital News Service

 

RICHMOND – Gov. Bob McDonnell has signed into law legislation to expand the list of prohibited chemicals used in making synthetic marijuana and other designer drugs.

McDonnell announced Wednesday that he had signed House Bill 1941, which included an emergency clause making it effective immediately.

In a statement, the governor said the new law “continues Virginia’s commitment to combating the spread of illegal drugs in the commonwealth and preserving the safety of our schools and neighborhoods and builds on legislative efforts earlier in my administration to combat drugs and punish drug dealers.” (more…)

By Kristen Smith
Capital News Service

 

RICHMOND – Parents of Virginia public school students will be given educational information about eating disorders under a bill passed by the General Assembly.

House Bill 1406 was proposed by Delegate Richard P. Bell, R-Staunton, and co-sponsored by Delegates Mark Keam, D-Vienna, and Kaye Kory, D-Falls Church.

Both the House and Senate unanimously approved HB 1406, which requires each school board in Virginia to “annually provide parent educational information regarding eating disorders for pupils in grades five through 12.” The bill is awaiting Gov. Bob McDonnell’s signature. (more…)

The House and Senate adjourned sine die earlier this evening, wrapping up the 2013 session on time. 2,897 bills were filed, and many of those will now go before Governor McDonnell, who can either sign them or veto them. The General Assembly will reconvene briefly, on April 3, to respond to the governor’s vetoes.

By Kristen Smith
Capital News Service

 

RICHMOND – The Senate on Monday unanimously joined the House in passing a bill that requires women to be notified of dense breast tissue in mammogram results.

Senators voted 40-0 for House Bill 1778, which had been approved 98-0 by the House on Jan. 25. The legislation now goes to Gov. Bob McDonnell.

Delegate Eileen Filler-Corn, D-Springfield, introduced HB 1778, which “clarifies the conditions under which a mammography services provider must notify a patient of dense breast tissue.” (more…)

Today the 2013 General Assembly session kicked off, holding brief House and Senate sessions, followed by the governor’s State of the Commonwealth address this evening. There are only a few new members, since elections were last held in 2011, so there were minimal changes in committee assignments. (Those changes are already incorporated throughout Richmond Sunlight.) This is a 45-day session, which is to say that it’s not a budget session, so if all goes well, they’ll be wrapping up in late February. With 1,857 bills—and counting—make Richmond Sunlight a regular stop throughout the session to keep up with everything going on in the legislature.

Something interesting happened on Richmond Sunlight last week—three bills were listed here that weren’t listed on the legislature’s website. SB704, SB705, and SB706 were all displayed on Richmond Sunlight, all filed by Sen. Tom Garrett (R-Lynchburg), but the legislature’s website listed completely different bills under those same numbers. The bills on Richmond Sunlight were as follows:

Electric utilities; advanced meters. (SB704)
Prohibits any electric utility from installing an advanced meter on a customer’s premises or requiring a customer to use any advanced meter unless the customer has requested it. An advanced meter is a meter that is capable of measuring, recording, storing, and reporting usage according to predetermined time criteria and that allows two-way communications suited for demand-response programs. Electric utilities are also required to uninstall an advanced meter at a customer’s request; prohibited from giving any meter use data from an advanced meter to any person other than the electric utility; prohibited from shutting off service to a customer based on the amount of electricity the customer uses or the customer not having or using an advanced meter; prohibited from imposing any disincentive on a customer for not agreeing to the installation or use of an advanced meter; prohibited from obtaining data from an advanced meter more than once per month unless requested by a customer; and required to notify customers in writing that the installation and use of an advanced meter is not mandated by state law and is not permitted without the customer’s request. The measure also repeals an existing provision that prohibits an investor-owned electric utility participating in an energy efficiency program from connecting advanced metering technology and equipment on the customer’s side of the interconnection without the customer’s express consent.

Hunting nuisance species. (SB705)
Makes it lawful to hunt or kill nuisance species on Sunday. Among the species that could be hunted on Sunday are blackbirds, coyotes, crows, cowbirds, feral swine, grackles, English sparrows, starlings, and those species designated as nuisance species by regulations of the Board of Game and Inland Fisheries.

Transportation of loaded rifles or shotguns; exemption. (SB706)
Provides an exemption for persons having a concealed handgun permit from local ordinances that prohibit carrying or transporting a loaded rifle or shotgun in a vehicle on public highways or roads.

As you can see, the same bills on the legislature’s website (SB704, SB705, SB706) are completely unrelated, filed by different legislators.

So what was going on?

The simplest explanation was that these bills had been filed and then un-filed, but I didn’t see how that was possible. If the patron had pulled the bills, they’d still be listed, and their numbers certainly wouldn’t be reassigned. At a dead-end, I contacted Senate Clerk Susan Schaar (who, like the rest of the staff at the General Assembly, has been wonderfully, crucially helpful to Richmond Sunlight over the years) and asked her what was going on. She explained that, in fact, they had been un-filed, though under extraordinary circumstances.

They’re moving to a new electronic bill filing system—legislators no longer need to submit bills on paper, and now can do it via computer. A new legislative assistant inadvertently hit a poorly labelled button, and accidentally introduced three pieces of legislation. Schaar authorized pulling the bills, since they was never really properly introduced in the first place, as only a legislator has the administrative power to do that.

In the brief time that the trio of bills existed on the legislature’s website, Richmond Sunlight dutifully captured and displayed all of the information about them. When they were pulled and replaced with new, unrelated bills with the same numbers, the site updated all of that information appropriately, but kept the tags and comments, resulting in a trio of very confusing, utterly unrelated comments and wildly inappropriate tags. With no other course of action available, I deleted the comments (one of which I had written) and replaced the tags, leaving no sign that the inadvertently filed bills had ever existed. Though I’m still not sure that’s the best thing to have done, I don’t know of a better approach. Hopefully this is an edge case that won’t soon be repeated, because the site’s data structure wasn’t built to handle disappearing bills.

(A tip to Sen. Garrett: if you’re going to file “Hunting nuisance species,” you’ll need modify it so that it complies with federal law. Grackles, blackbirds, and crows are protected under the Migratory Bird and Game Mammal Treaty with Mexico, which limits hunting each of these birds to just 124 days a year. This bill would raise the limit to about 140 days, more than is allowed under federal law.)

The legislature adjured “sine die,” as they say, on March 10, right on schedule, but they’re certainly not done. The primary job of the legislature in even-numbered years is to pass a budget, and that’s something that they couldn’t agree on by the end of the session. (Nor did they manage to appoint all of the necessary judges.) So they’re taking eleven days off before reconvening for a special budget session, starting March 21 (Wednesday of next week). If the two sides will use the intervening time to hammer out a budget deal, then the session may only last a few minutes. After that, they’ll have to convene again for the veto session—when they deal with any bills that have been vetoed by Governor Bob McDonnell—which is scheduled for April 18.

By Ashley McLeod
Capital News Service

RICHMOND – More than a year before last November’s elections, Spotsylvania County insurance agent Bryce Reeves started campaigning for the 17th Senate District seat. A lot of people figured he would need more than an early start: Reeves, a Republican who had never held elective office, was challenging Edd Houck, a Democrat who had held the Senate seat since 1984.

But on Election Day, Reeves won – by 226 votes. His victory helped tip the balance of power in the Senate from a Democratic majority to Republican control.

As his first legislative session enters its final weeks, Reeves has enjoyed numerous successes: Of 14 bills he sponsored, nine passed the Senate – and six of them have passed the House as well.

Thanks to his efforts, Virginia likely will require insurers to tell homeowners whether their policies cover earthquakes; require government agencies to cooperate on dam safety; and continue to exempt textbooks from the sales tax.

“I worked really hard and met a lot of people, and I consider it an honor and a privilege to serve,” Reeves said in a recent interview in his office in the General Assembly Building. “It’s an amazing and unique process.”

Senate District 17 includes Fredericksburg and Orange County and parts of Culpeper, Albemarle, Louisa and Spotsylvania counties. Reeves lives in Spotsylvania with his wife, Anne, and their two children, Nicole and Jack.

Reeves has lived in Virginia for 18 years but grew up in Houston. He attended Texas A&M University, graduating in 1990 with a bachelor’s degree in industrial education.

After college, Reeves accepted a commission as second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, where he completed 13 years of service. He eventually became captain and served as a U.S. Army Ranger.

While at Fort Benning, Ga., Reeves was recognized as the Enlisted Honor Graduate by the U.S. Army Airborne Paratrooper School. He also received a master’s degree in public administration from George Mason University in 1998.

Reeves accepted a position with the Prince William County Police, working as a detective in the vice and narcotics bureau. He served on a drug task force for Northern Virginia and Maryland and became an expert on illicit drugs.

In the Senate, Reeves has been assigned to four committees: General Laws and Technology; Privileges and Elections; Rehabilitation and Social Services; and Courts of Justice. He believes his military and law enforcement experience gives him extra insight on legislative issues.

“I feel I have a better understanding when it comes to certain bills, like in the Courts of Justice (Committee) – being able to understand rules of evidence and articulate a different viewpoint than maybe a trial attorney, or maybe someone else who’s never arrested anybody or served overseas would have,” Reeves said.

“And it’s due to my experience in the Army and police force.”

Reeves said one of his priorities is veterans’ issues. He sponsored a bill (SB 254) to increase the number of agents handling veterans’ disability claims in the Virginia Department of Veterans Services; it has passed the Senate and is on track for final approval.

Both the House and Senate have passed Reeves’ measure (SB 433) to require funeral directors to notify the Department of Veterans Services about unclaimed cremated remains; the department then would determine whether the “cremains” belong to a veteran eligible for burial in a veterans’ cemetery.

Passing state laws is a long way from Reeves’ start in politics. In 2007, frustrated by government, he ran for a seat on the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors.

“They say, ‘Stop complaining, get involved,’ ” Reeves said. “So I ran, and I lost, which was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me.”

Having little background in politics, Reeves decided to get more education. He was accepted into and completed the University of Virginia’s Sorensen Political Leaders Program in 2009; he was even selected as class president.

So Reeves was ready when he challenged Houck, who ranked third in seniority in the Senate, was a state budget negotiator and chaired the Senate Education and Health Committee.

According to Reeves, his team made more than 166,000 phone calls, knocked on more than 39,000 doors and raised more than $1 million during the campaign.

The Senate race was so close that there was almost a recount. In the end, Houck conceded. The official results showed Reeves with 22,615 votes and Houck with 22,389.

“We created a vision that people saw and they felt part of,” Reeves said. “It’s just a matter of working hard and putting sweat equity into it. It doesn’t matter what you have in your bank account or what pedigrees or degrees you have on the wall. If you have a servant heart, you can do anything. You can be anything you want to be.”

About Sen. Bryce Reeves

Born: Nov. 28, 1966, in California
Education: Texas A&M University (B.S.); George Mason University (M.P.A., Public Administration); University of Virginia, Sorenson Political Leaders Program
Profession: President of Bryce Reeves Insurance and Financial Services Inc.; president of Reeves Asset Management Group
Senate District: 17, which includes Fredericksburg and Orange County and parts of Culpeper, Albemarle, Louisa and Spotsylvania counties
Political party: Republican
Email: district17@senate.virginia.gov
Phone numbers: 804-698-7517 (Richmond); 540-891-5473 (district office)

By Mason Brown
Capital News Service
RICHMOND – As the General Assembly enters the third week of its 2012 session, the delegates representing the Hopewell-area – Kirk Cox of Colonial Heights, Rosalyn Dance of Petersburg and Riley Ingram of Hopewell – took time to discuss their legislative goals.

Cox, the Republican majority leader in the House of Delegates, said his major focus is simple: passing a state budget for the next two years. But he has other goals, such as ensuring adequate funding for programs such as the Virginia Retirement System.

(more…)

This year’s two-month General Assembly session got underway today, with promise of being a lively one. As expected, there was a 20/20 vote in the Senate over leadership positions, Democrats voting to keep themselves in power and Republicans voting to put themselves in the chairmanships. Also as expected, Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling, a Republican cast the tie-breaking vote, and all of the Senate chairmanships have claimed by Republicans. All of those new committee memberships and chairmanships are duly reflected on Richmond Sunlight’s committee listings.

You can watch the legislation roll in each day. Tag some bills (that’s what makes the magic happen), comment on legislation, and track those that interest you in Photosynthesis. We’ve got a powerful new search engine powering the site, too, so make sure you use that “search” box at the top of the page!

One final note about this session. Last year, experimentally, we partnered with VCU’s Jeff South, who runs the Capital News Service, which has undergraduate journalism students cover the General Assembly, writing stories about legislation that would have been big news 10–15 years ago, but that go without coverage today. As the capital press corps shrinks to just a few people, the sort of coverage that they offer has become enormously valuable. So Richmond Sunlight published all of their articles to our blog, and linked to those articles from any legislation mentioned within them, so that people looking at bills can read articles that explain them. That went really well for everybody, so we’re doing it again this year, as what we envision as a permanent partnership. The first story appeared just today: Chaneé Patterson’s “Momentum Builds to Let Schools Open Before Labor Day,” an article looking at the eight bills that would change or outright eliminate the statewide school calendar. This coverage will continue throughout the session, and I know you’ll enjoy reading it as much as I do.