The halfway point of the legislative session is known as “crossover,” whereby all House bills still being considered must cross over to the Senate, and vice-versa. Practically speaking, this means that each respective chamber of the state legislature is completing its vetting process of those bills that began in their respective chamber. The one major exception is the budget bill, which receives more time for deliberation in the respective chambers.Outside of the ongoing budget deliberations, two significant events occurred at the end of last week that I would like to mention.

On Friday morning, I was pleased to join House colleagues from both sides of the aisle to announce a $1.2 billion higher education bond package. This bond package will allow our institutions of higher learning to begin construction as soon as the bill is signed into law, serving as an immediate economic stimulus for the Commonwealth. Many of the capital projects included in the package focus on research and high-tech workforce development, which are critical investments that will produce long-term economic growth. The bond package is designed to limit cost overruns by allocating sufficient funds for pre-planning designs. The Senate is expected to introduce a comparable bond package, and I am looking forward to working with the senators to harmonize the two bills. It is important to recognize that the catalyst for these bills was Governor Kaine convincing legislators last year that this higher education investment is critical to sustaining and growing Virginia’s economy.

On Friday afternoon, the House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee made significant changes to House Bill 1332.  Many of my constituents and newspaper editorials were critical of the original version of the bill, which would have significantly weakened the authority of the Air Pollution Control Board. The substitute, which has received praise from the environmental community, preserves the board’s full power and authority and actually strengthens financial conflict of interest rules for board members. I expect this revised bill to pass the full House in short order.

As always, please contact me at DelSShannon@house.state.va.us or at 703-281-5200 to provide me with input on the many bills we are considering this legislative session