Dear Friends and Neighbors,
This Monday and Tuesday are the two
busiest days of the session as we wrap up
action on all bills originating in the House.
Then we start all over again with a fresh
batch of bills coming over from the Senate.
Last week ended with a major surprise
– an announcement by the Governor and
the Speaker of the House on a
compromise bill to ban smoking in
restaurants except under very
limited conditions. I have publicly supported
this in the past, but honestly didn’t
imagine that any such bill would have a
chance of emerging from subcommittee. But
within a few hours after the announced
compromise, the General Laws Committee, of
which I am a member, met and overwhelmingly
passed the bill – sending it on to the
full House. It will come up for its first
vote on Monday. For the full text, click
here.
While we will literally vote on hundreds
of bills over the next two days, I am
particularly pleased that the House is
taking action to re-enact
Virginia’s
anti-spam law after it was declared
unconstitutional by the Virginia Supreme
Court. Virginia was one of the very first
states to pass a law banning unsolicited,
anonymous bulk email. In what I thought was
an absurd decision, the Supreme Court found
that Virginia’s law was overly broad
because it included both commercial and
non-commercial email – therefore
impinging on the First Amendment right to
freedom of speech. From my perspective, if
the email is unsolicited and anonymous, then
it is spam. It shouldn’t matter whether
the content is commercial, political, or
otherwise. But unfortunately that is not for
me to say. HB 1796 amends the definition of
spam to include only commercial
advertisements and promotions; therefore
making the Code enforceable again.
Also on the docket are two of my bills
that came out of committee this past week.
These will be up for a final vote in the
House on Tuesday.
Holding Absentee Landlords
Accountable (HB 2653) –
Speaking from experience, it can be
enormously frustrating for a neighborhood to
deal with a rental property where the
occupants consistently break local noise and
other breach of the peace ordinances. This
session, I introduced legislation that will
allow localities to use their zoning
ordinance to hold a landlord responsible for
such behavior if the landlord has been
notified in writing and has failed to take
measures to address the issue. The bill
passed unanimously out of the Committee on
Counties, Cities, and Towns.
Promoting Renewable Energy (HB
1994) – Increasing the use of
renewable sources of energy is not only good
for the environment, it is also key to
solving some of our most vexing national
security concerns. In 2007, the General
Assembly implemented an incentive-based
system to increase the use of renewable
energy by public utilities with a target of
having 12% of our energy coming from
renewable sources by 2022. While there is
ongoing debate over a mandatory versus
incentive-based system, the Governor’s
Commission on Climate Change recommended
increasing the target to 15% by 2025. I am
pleased to sponsor the measure, which is
part of a larger package of bills aimed at
encouraging energy efficiency and investment
in renewable energy. The bill passed
unanimously out of the Committee on Commerce
and Labor.
Finally, this Sunday evening Chairman of
the Appropriations Committee Lacy Putney
presented amendments to the biennial budget
to deal with the Commonwealth’s
$3 billion revenue shortfall.
Virginia, unlike the federal government,
must have a balanced budget under our
constitution. I will have more on the
specific cuts next week.
Thanks to everyone who has filled out a
survey and to those who have taken the time
to write or stop by during the session.
Your feedback is always welcome!
Sincerely,
David Bulova
