Week #7, February 22-26 The last full week of the Special Session ended with the House completing its consideration of Senate bills and visa-versa. Many of the Senate bills were amended and, thus, put into a ‘conference’ posture, meaning conferees from each body meet and try to resolve differences on each bill. The conference reports are then voted up or down. While we completed many of the conference reports, many others, especially for controversial bills, were not completed. Those will be taken up over the weekend before we adjourn on Monday, March 1. These include bills such as the budget, tax conformity, electric vehicle rebates, legalization of marijuana, electric school buses, “packing” the Virginia Court of Appeals, and more. We did make some progress on reopening our schools by passing SB1303. The bill requires in-person instruction to be available by July 1. That was the earliest date we could get the votes for, as the Democrat majorities continue to stonewall reopening to appease the teacher unions. This week a primary Richmond television station’s broadcast broke a major news story that revealed further wrongdoings of the Virginia Parole Board. It appears the past and present chairs of the Board broke the law in releasing convicted murderers, including one who murdered a Richmond policeman. The former Board chair subsequently was elected to the bench by the Democrat Majority. Additional allegations include not notifying victims and families, not allowing prosecutors their legal say regarding the releases, falsifying documents and destroying official records to hide paper trails. These charges require further investigation and transparency rather than being covered up by the administration. This week was the first week of operation of the new state computer system to enroll, schedule, and track COVID-19 vaccine distribution. While I have received few complaints about the new system so far, as I predicted it is another “sign up and we will call you” system. That means we have no insight into the VDH’s selection process for the scheduling of shots. Highlighted bills this week: HB2040 Forgive overpayments to the unemployed. Translation: The Virginia Employment Commission remains overwhelmed by claims, appeals, errors, and allegations of fraud. This bill forgives repayment of overpayments or errors in payment amounts. We were able to get the funding from the General Fund instead of laying the funding on the backs of the businesses that actually pay taxes to fund unemployment. HB2163 DMV Data Sharing. The bill prevents the DMV from sharing data with ICE. Translation: data on illegal aliens who have Virginia driver’s licenses and ID cards cannot be turned over to ICE even for criminal investigation purposes. This prohibition will hamper ICE in locating, investigating, or charging illegal aliens in Virginia who are suspected or known to have engaged in illegal actions, such as murder, human trafficking, gang activity, etc. I voted against this horrible bill. HB2001 State and Local Building Codes: Local and state government buildings will have to be constructed to more costly international standards. Translation: school buildings, courthouses, office buildings, and similar structures will cost local governments (YOU!) much more to build and maintain. They will have to be equipped with monitoring and controls for water, sewer, HVAC, lighting, and more in order to try to keep the electric grid on when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. HB1935 Tax Conformity. Virginia will conform to the Federal Tax Code so you and your tax preparer can now do your 2020 Virginia Taxes. Translation: The Democrats wanted to tax business expenses during the PPP loan period to raise more money to spend, but Republicans and a few Senate Democrats managed to achieve up to $100,000 of expense deductions permitted to help the smaller businesses. SB1271 Allows local and regional governing bodies to meet virtually during COVID-19. The House Democrats amended the bill to allow the House to meet virtually any time in the future. Fortunately, the Senate rejected the amendment, but this does show how the current House Democrats would prefer this poor method of governing. SB1164 Advanced Cycling of Polystyrene (aka Styrofoam). Last week House Democrats slowed down the bill in an apparent attempt to oppose all plastics use, but this week a bipartisan group of us legislators managed to pass the bill to allow new technology for recycling, reduce land fill usage, and to allow the reuse of the basic components of Styrofoam to be used in new manufacturing. HB2330 Percentage of Income Payment Plan (PIPP) for Electricity Bills. This bill taxes other electricity users’ bills to subsidize low income users’ electric bills. It shifts rising Green Energy costs to individual and business meter payers, especially driving up electricity bills for businesses such as manufacturing. Payable through the local DSS, it can fund whole home refit, replacing NG, LP, oil, coal, appliances with all electric (heat pumps). This is a blank check to spend whatever DSS decides upon or how high the tax is to pay for PIPP. Tucked into some of the bills presented here this week are rays of hope and tidbits of good news. We still have a few days remaining in the 2021 Session as I compose this report, so major good news is still possible. I am moving most of my House of Delegates operations back to my District Office in Glade Hill. Janet says that is very good news, indeed! You can contact me at DelCPoindexter@house.virginia.gov or (540)576-2600.
