Newsletter

January 19, 2003

Dear Friends:

With the second week of the 2003 Session, we began to get down to the business of sorting through the thousands of bills that have been dropped into the hopper, along with the myriad of proposed amendments to the budget. As of Friday, over 2,500 bills, resolutions, and joint resolutions had been submitted. Then last week, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee announced that Delegates alone had offered 651 budget amendments. (The Senators' requests haven't yet been tallied.) If they were all adopted (they won't be), they would nearly double the $2 billion hole we need to plug.

Patronage

This was also the week to gather up support from other members for our legislation. If we were in the U.S. Congress, we would be "sponsors" of our bills and "cosponsors" of others'. Here in Richmond, we are "patrons" and "co-patrons." (And, this being Richmond, we are "patrons" even if we are Senator Mary Margaret Whipple or Delegate Karen Darner. Matrons need not apply.)

Lining up co-patrons for bills and resolutions serves several purposes. It gives other members a way of showing support for the bill's underlying intent, even if the measure doesn't go all the way through to the House or Senate floor where they would have the chance to vote for it. It also can demonstrate interest in the legislation on a bipartisan or multiregional basis. For instance, this year I submitted a bill to help the state's free clinics join a state-run liability insurance pool. The state free clinic association asked Delegates from across the Commonwealth who have free clinics in their districts to join me on the bill, to show the important role those clinics play in health care delivery in every corner of the state.

Members who have not signed onto a bill before it is filed, may request to be added as a co-patron by signing a form granting consent and signed by the chief patron. All of this must be done before the last action of the committee (should it end there) or the first vote on the floor of the House.

Let the Snipe Hunt Begin

Our plate this session is overflowing with real problems - the budget, transportation, education, health care, and on and on. Nonetheless, we found time last week to deal with a situation that doesn't exist. On Thursday the House whooped through a bill prohibiting any local school board from denying access to, or otherwise discriminating against, the Boy Scouts of America or Girl Scouts USA. The fear apparently is that some groups might want to pressure their local school boards to retaliate against the Boy Scouts for their anti-gay exclusionary policy. (The concern about the Girl Scouts is less clear: maybe it has something to do with Thin Mints.)

No matter that the record is devoid of a single Virginia school board contemplating any discriminatory action against the Boy Scouts, much less taking steps in that direction. No matter that Congress included a similar prohibition in the Federal "No Child Left Behind" act. It was explained that a state law is necessary because local school boards don't always read the Federal statutes and might just undertake a vendetta against the Boy and Girl Scouts anyway. And as for the lack of evidence of a problem: Well, you can't be too careful..

When I was in Boy Scouts, the highlight of summer camp was the Snipe Hunt: sending the newest campers out into the woods in the dead of night, armed with flashlights and gunnysacks, in search of a nonexistent animal. I don't know what brought that to mind.

Next session I may introduce legislation to combat the threat of piranhas in Chesapeake Bay.

What Are We Doing Here?

Several events last week brought into focus some basic questions about the role of government and the responsibility of public officials as stewards of our collective future. On Tuesday morning, I spoke to a group representing over 40 citizens' groups from across the Commonwealth who joined together to promote the Children's Agenda in seven critical policy areas -- health, early care and learning, economic security, K-12 education, child welfare and parenting, juvenile justice, and youth development. This is a time of testing for us: the tough budget conditions we face are forcing us to confront our priorities as Virginians and our duty to our children.

The next day on the House floor, my colleague Del. Ken Melvin from Portsmouth spoke of the needs of another vulnerable population, the mentally ill. He pointed out that in the year 2000, there were 68,000 Virginians with mental retardation, 4,200 of whom are on a waiting list for services. Virginia, the 6th richest state in the nation in per capita income, is 40th in the nation in spending on the health of our citizens. There are 240,000 adults and 75,000 children with symptoms of serious mental illness, 18,000 homeless people with serious mental illness, and 21,000 jail admissions involving people with serious mental illness.

Delegate Melvin concluded by focusing on the many new members of our body - over one fourth of House members have served one year or less. "I say to the new members that you have a generational responsibility," he said, "not to this generation, but to the next one. And that responsibility is to simply leave Virginia a better place."

On Wednesday evening, the Arlington delegation traveled from Richmond to Mount Zion Baptist Church in south Arlington to join hundreds of our friends at the funeral service of Charles Monroe. Eight speakers selected by the family, representing the personal and political periods of Charles' life, spoke with warmth and eloquence about a remarkable and multidimensional man (he was both a cello player and a black belt in karate).

At the service, I was struck by the strong sense of community echoed in the words spoken and the people present. Charles was both a beneficiary of and a strong contributor to that sense of community. His family roots, deeply planted by his exceptional parents, Tom and Eleanor Monroe, run through his Nauck neighborhood and continue into the broader community. Charles grew up with a sense of duty: to serve our county and to be a role model - not as a passive icon, but as an active participant in making Arlington a better place. His sister, Patricia Monroe Meek, spoke for the family and told us, "Charles never saw his talents and abilities as his possession. They were simply his tools to help take others to a higher plane."

The Groaning Board

This is High Season for after-work receptions sponsored by various groups and organizations. The past week's hosts included Equality Virginia (a nonpartisan advocacy group for gay and lesbian Virginians), the Virginia Association of Broadcasters, a coalition of emergency service providers, the Virginia Society of Anesthesiologists (good food, but I couldn't feel my tongue afterwards), Anheuser-Busch (not a Heineken in sight), and the Virginia Auto Dealers.

These are social occasions, but a lot of business is done as well. Our schedules are packed during the day - committee meetings start as early as 7:00 am, and floor sessions and other meetings often stretch as late as 6:00 pm. That means that often the only chance we have to touch base with other members is over the celery and carrots. It's a strange life, but nobody drafted us . . .

Until next week -

Bob Brink