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Tuesday, February 11, marked crossover, the half way point in the General Assembly session. Crossover is the period when all of the legislation in the House has to be completed and sent to the Senate and all of the Senate bills have to be completed and sent to the House.
I think this would be a good time to recount where some of the legislation I introduced stood and what is on the horizon that will have important consequences for area residents. The House of Delegates has approved and sent to the Senate HB 979 that would provide for students at the Edward Via School of Osteopathic Medicine to qualify for Tuition Assistance Grants. The TAG grants provide financial assistance to Virginia residents who attend private universities, including graduate schools. Since the Via School of Medicine trains family practitioners that will serve in rural and underserved areas, these TAG grants will continue to help make health care more assessable in rural communities. HB 978 will allow Virginia Tech to transfer 95 acres of farm land along US 460 to the Virginia Tech Foundation to expand the operations of the Corporate Research Center. The Virginia Tech Foundation created the Corporate Research Park in 1985 and since then it has constructed 28 buildings, with 130 companies and over 2,000 employees. Because of its success the CRC has run out of land to grow. The land transfer will allow the CRC to continue its spectacular job creating opportunities for our region. HB 983 allowed the City of Radford to complete two changes to its charter. The city council asked that the town’s finance director report directly to the city manager and the town attorney will only represent the council and not the school board. Because the city’s charter is granted by the General Assembly even these rudimentary changes have to be approved by the Assembly. During the past two years I have heard from a number of small business owners who participate in the E-Va. initiative. E-Va was established during the Warner Administration as a way to enhance the purchasing power of state agencies by using an on-line procurement system. But to make the system work businesses that wanted to buy and sell on the system had to pay a registration fee and then an individual product service fee. For many small businesses owners that meant they had to pay the state just for the privilege to sell to the state. As I continued to hear more complaints I sponsored legislation, HJ 119, directing the General Assembly’s bipartisan audit unit, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, to conduct a study to see if E-Va was undercutting state efforts to support small business. Sometimes similar legislation gets rolled into one large piece of legislation that covers several items in state law. Such is the case of HB 1449 (?) sponsored by Delegate Crockett-Stark. Legislation that I sponsored, HB 1316 and legislation sponsored by Delegate Shuler were rolled into this one bill. My legislation, that is fully included in HB 1449, requires each state institution to establish a threat assessment team to better manage incidents and individuals in light of the tragic events of April 16. It is important to institutionalize this process so that people or events don’t fall through the cracks. One piece of legislation that I introduced that didn’t pass was designed to increase the maximum time someone ordered to be held for mental observation under a temporary detention order from 48 to 96 hours. In talking with mental health professionals one of the things that becomes apparent is how well some individuals can mask their unstable behavior. By extending the detention time I was intending for mental health professionals to have more time to make a more accurate diagnosis. But with state funding tight, additional resources were not available to fund this change. The state’s declining revenue was a continued impediment for another important piece of legislation that I sponsored. HB 986 would have provided a $250 tax credit for teachers who use their own money to pay for educational supplies used in the classroom. While the legislation did not pass several teachers sent me several heartfelt letters explaining how they regularly have to dig into their own pocket to cover expenses. As always, if you have any questions or concerns about my legislation or any other action by the General Assembly, do not hesitate to contact me. My e-mail address is
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. The phone number for my Richmond office is (804) 698-1007. If you would like to send a letter, you may send it to P.O. Box 406 Richmond, VA 23218.
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