Rob Bloxom Reports from Richmond

Hi This is Rob Bloxom with this week’s Capitol report.

There were a lot of bills that I was trying to adjust or kill last week which took a lot of time and effort. The first was a bill to require turtle excluders on all crab pots. I was successful in getting the patron to adjust the bill to require them on recreational crab pots only. I am still opposed to this bill and will continue to be. The bill requires VMRC (Virginia Marine Resources Commission) along with VIMS (Virginia Institute of Marine Science) to establish turtle protection areas. This assumes there is a problem with catching turtles in all crab pots. A study from 2009 to 2011 employing sixteen commercial watermen with 5475 pulls caught three turtles. The excluders also reduced the crab catch by half in the watermen’s test. These plastic devices cost about six dollars a piece and will be excellent barnacle catchers, thus another headache for our watermen that they do not need. This bill is headed for the Senate and I will ask several of my friends in the other chamber to help kill it.

The next bill I had to spend a lot of effort on was a bill to outlaw Paraquat in Virginia. This is a vital herbicide in a farmer’s toolbox in the continuous no-till program. A person must take classes beyond the standard applicators’ training to be licensed to handle Paraquat. Paraquat can only be mixed, transported, or applied by a person who holds this license. The patron was trying to outlaw it due to studies saying that it causes Parkinson’s Disease. It is also manufactured in China which was another point of contention. However, from my call to the farming community on the Eastern Shore, I found that Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and the research station in Painter had completed extensive testing on it. They reported that it has a very short active life span and it became inert when it came in contact with clay. There was no direct link that could be associated with Parkinson’s. My main problem is the patron would not meet with any of the opponents of the bill, including Farm Bureau. In the end, the bill was carried over to next year, which effectively kills it for the current year.

The last topic of my report will be the proposed mid decade redistricting that the Democrats have proposed. The referendum will be April 21 to “temporarily” change the Constitution of Virginia to allow them to redraw the congressional districts. Virginians just adopted a bipartisan/nonpartisan commission to draw the districts in both congressional and state legislative districts in the Constitution with an overwhelming endorsement from the voters. The new maps that were drawn would have ten Democrat majority districts and only one majority Republican district. Currently Virginia is represented by six Democratic congressmen and five Republican congressmen which is representative of how Virginians typically vote. If one studies the maps that have been proposed, an individual could drive eleven miles through Fairfax and be driving through five congressional districts. I call this the “Fairfaxing of Virginia”. The Democrats say this is what we must do to combat President Trump’s presidency but I disagree. I have reminded everyone that all Presidents and Governors that I have seen always stretch their authority as far as they can until the judicial branch and/or the legislative branch checks their overreach. One is able to see that happening now, plus all heads of the government at the state or federal level time out.

In this highly charged political environment we need to take a step back, take a deep breath, and really take a hard look at changing our Constitution on a temporary basis. I hope you will come to the same conclusion that I have and strongly oppose this amendment. Please do not “Fairfax Virginia”.

As always, I welcome any questions or concerns at my district office at (757)824-3456, Richmond office at (804)698-1000 or email me at delrbloxom@house.virginia.gov.

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