DAWNetwork

by Ann Rasmussen
Policy Director
Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy

We’ve now flown into the second week of the General Assembly session and our heads are spinning! We’re beginning to see our bills in committee meetings, and we’re keeping a very close eye on our budget amendments, too, though they are much more difficult to track. By the end of this week, the Interfaith Center will have advocated in committee for Del. Cosgrove’s HB 1678 that provides a sales tax exemption for Energy Star appliances during the first weekend of October each year, as well as Cosgrove’s House Resolution HJ 575, which designates the first week of October each year as “Energy Conservation Awareness Week.” We also will have advocated in committee for Sen. Stolle’s SB 1168 that changes the Code of Virginia to allow the state Supreme Court to waive the caps on fees paid to court-appointed attorneys, Del. Hargrove’s bill to abolish the death penalty, and Sen. Ticer’s and Sen. Devolites-Davis’ bills to expand TANF eligibility to include persons convicted of drug felonies who have completed their sentencing.

Additionally, we will have made numerous legislative visits around the issues of payday lending and indigent defense funding. We’re seeing that many of our issues are up against transportation. Anything with a fiscal impact (which is almost everything) faces an upward battle. Legislators are extremely reluctant to designate money in other areas until the transportation budget is laid out. Knowing that we are all in this together – each contributing our own part by making calls or visits to legislators, or writing letters to the editor, or passing on information to our houses of worship – is inspiring to me. Thank you for the role you play in creating a more compassionate Commonwealth!

To track bills in the 2007 General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, PLEASE CLICK HERE