Rob Bloxom General Assembly Update

This is Rob Bloxom with this week’s Capitol Report. The water in the city of Richmond is on and safe to drink, so the sprint to catch up from three lost days begins.

The House has 1935 bills and counting that need to be considered in seventeen days. To follow the bills that are of interest to you, go to the Virginia General Assembly website. The site has been revamped and I feel sure each and every one of you will be able to find a bill or two of interest. The website lis.virginia.gov shows the bills by member, topic, or bill number. Something not as easy to follow are the changes that are made to the bill in the process.

This week the constitutional amendments were on the floor for debate, and they all passed. They will advance to the Senate to be heard. My committee assignments and sub committees all appear to be the same as last year. My committees are Appropriations, Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources, Privileges and Elections, and General Laws.

The committees are still working on all the bills to be referred and then distributed to the appropriate subcommittee to be heard. Due to the delay in our start time, next week will be a long and tough week. As it looks now, I may have twelve bills in all. This is a heavier legislative load than I normally like to carry. I have already dispatched two of my Election bills – HB 1862 and HB 1863. Since these two bills were already presented and are duplicates of other bills, I have asked the chairwoman to strike them. One bill that was passed expanded the days to register to vote to ten days before Election Day. The problem we were trying to solve relates to the influx of people that register and vote on Election Day. In the past the poll books closed twenty-one days before the election because they had to be printed. Now with electronic poll books, it can be completed with only a ten day window. My bill that did not pass was to shorten the number of election days for a primary to two weeks, which is a decrease from the current forty-five days. I have always felt forty-five days is too long for elections. It is hard on the registrars, staff, and volunteers. I knew the chairwoman would not allow the days before a general election to be shortened but had hoped that her thinking about the primary might be different.

I have two bills dealing with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. One is dealing with permitting that just raises the dollar amount that can be approved administratively. The other moves the maintenance dredging fund from the Port of Virginia to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. The Port of Virginia is great about dealing with funding for landings and docks on the Eastern Shore but could not get the dredge funds appropriated for projects. We are hoping that this change will correct this.

In the next few weeks I will continue to address my legislation as well my budget proposals. I am happy to meet with constituents visiting Richmond and listen to their specific interests.

As always, feel free to contact me while I am in Richmond with any questions or concerns. The Richmond office can be contacted by phone at (804) 698-1000 or by email at delrbloxom@house.virginia.gov. My district office in Mappsville may be reached by phone at (757) 824-3456. If you are coming to Richmond, I encourage everyone to take the time to visit the General Assembly Building and my office which is room number 711.