Hi, this is Rob Bloxom with this week’s Capitol report. We are quickly approaching the end of this year’s session.
The budget has now been put into conference which means the Senate rejected our amendments, and we rejected theirs as well. All the amendments were changes to the introduced budget that Governor Youngkin proposed on his departure. In Virginia, a new budget is introduced by the preceding Governor that the new Governor, for lack of a better word, inherits. This method of budgeting ensures that the legislative branches control the money in Virginia. Each chamber has appointed its six conferees to negotiate the final budget. I am happy to report that I was chosen to be one of the House conferees of which four are Democrats and two are Republicans. It is a great honor to have been chosen to confer with the Senate. Since I have been a conferee for the past four years, the dynamics are very interesting to witness. Strong personalities as well as strong opinions often result in heated moments, but usually the chairmen negotiate to a starting point with a revenue number of the resources available, followed by the conferees melding the two chambers’ spending priorities. My job now is to fight for the House budget.
The gambling bills are still alive as well as the marijuana bills, but all are tied up in negotiations within the budget. The paid family leave bill is also mixed in the budget. There are many major issues that are in negotiations with the Senate. If Governor Spanberger, who ran as a centrist, wishes, she can tame a lot of these bills and live up to her campaign image. The pressure on her will be great to sign some of these progressive bills and the list is long from “gun control”, the unionizing of Virginia’s governments, unlimited access to gambling, and what I consider to be terrible business bills. If her ultimate goal is to run for President, then she has the opportunity to show her fortitude and grit and wield the veto pen to dispatch the more extreme proposals.
A lot has been written in the newspaper regarding the April 21st election on the temporary redrawing of Virginia’s congressional maps. There are examples in multiple states of Democrat and Republican extreme gerrymandering, a practice that we soundly defeated in Virginia with a state wide referendum. I also do not agree with the excuse that “They did it first,” so now we have to respond. I hope Virginia will reject this power play and have the election in the current districts. We currently score an “A”on all the charts showing how fair our maps are, and with the new proposed congressional maps, we will drop to the most extreme gerrymandered state in the union.
As always, please feel free to contact my staff and me with any questions or concerns you may have by calling my district office at (757)824-3456 or during session at the Richmond office (804)698-1000 or by emailing me at delrbloxom@house.virginia.gov.
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How the hell is the wording on the ballot legal? It’s incredibly misleading! ” to restore fairness” my ass