June 24 to June 30, 2019

VA Politics > June 24-30, 2019

Summary

  1. We shouldn’t get to precipice of disaster: Rep. Spanberger
  2. Poll suggests support for a Democratic majority in the General Assembly has fallen since last year
  3. Virginia’s immigrants making strong contribution to state economy
  4. The Boomers Ruined Everything
  5. Change Virginia’s ‘hush and hurry’ tendency on environmental regulation
  6. State approves new teacher education programs to fight shortage
  7. Bipartisan senators want Big Tech to put a price on your data
  8. Spanberger panel hears from farmers, stockmen
  9. After paperwork lapse, senior House Republican asks state board to put him on the ballot
  10. Kaine met privately with Northam ahead of visit with Va. congressional delegation. ‘It was a positive meeting’
  11. U.S. Senate passes border aid bill, heads to battle with House

OnAir Post: June 24 to June 30, 2019

Virginia

Poll suggests support for a Democratic majority in the General Assembly has fallen since last year

Mechelle Hankerson and Ned Oliver
Virginia Mercury – June 26, 2919

A plurality of respondents (43%) said they preferred Democrats to take control of the two chambers Republicans narrowly hold, but the number dropped nine points since VCU asked the same question last July. Republicans saw a smaller dip, with support for a GOP-controlled legislature dropping four points to 28 percent.

Virginia’s immigrants making strong contribution to state economy

Kate O’Connor
Virginia Mercury – June 26, 2919

new report from the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis says immigrants are key contributors to the state’s overall economy, despite challenges that include health insurance access, discrimination, language barriers, “brain waste” and housing costs.

After paperwork lapse, senior House Republican asks state board to put him on the ballot

Mechelle Hankerson
Virginia Mercury – June 25, 2919

One of the state’s most senior Republican delegates isn’t officially a party nominee for his re-election bid — yet.

At Tuesday night’s Board of Elections meeting, attorneys for Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Scott, asked that he be declared the Republican nominee for the 1st House of Delegates District even though his nomination paperwork from a local party convention never made it to the state Department of Elections.

Change Virginia’s ‘hush and hurry’ tendency on environmental regulation

Virginia Mercury – June 24, 2919

Last week, New York passed legislation committing the state to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040 and net-zero carbon emissions throughout the economy by 2050. This progressive environmental policy stands in stark contrast to the shenanigans of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Last Friday, our Air Pollution Control Board granted a new permit for the largest natural gas power plant in Virginia, and one of the largest in the United States.

State approves new teacher education programs to fight shortage

Mechelle Hankerson
Virginia Mercury – June 24, 2919

In an effort to combat Virginia’s teacher shortage, 15 Virginia colleges and universities will start new four-year teacher education degree programs this fall.

The Virginia Board of Education approved the programs last week. The State Council for Higher Education of Virginia, which oversees public colleges and universities, approved the new programs at public institutions in May

Kaine met privately with Northam ahead of visit with Va. congressional delegation. ‘It was a positive meeting’

Ned Oliver
Virginia Mercury – June 25, 2919

Members of Virginia’s congressional delegation are scheduled to sit down with Gov. Ralph Northam and his cabinet this week for the first time since the discovery of a racist yearbook photo plunged his administration into turmoil.

VA Senate

VA House

US SenateU.S. Senate passes border aid bill, heads to battle with House

Robin Bravender
Virginia Mercury – June 25, 2919

The Senate version passed on a vote of 84-8 with broad bipartisan support after the chamber voted to reject the House version. Virginia’s two Democratic senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, voted for the bill.

Bipartisan senators want Big Tech to put a price on your data

By Kim Hart
Axios – June 23, 2019

Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) will introduce legislation on Monday to require Facebook, Google, Amazon and other major platforms to disclose the value of their users’ data, as first reported Sunday evening on “Axios on HBO.

“These companies take enormous, enormous amounts of data about us… If you’re an avid Facebook user, chances are Facebook knows more about you than the U.S. government knows about you. People don’t realize one, how much data is being collected; and two, they don’t realize how much that data is worth.”

US House

Democrats relent as House passes McConnell-backed border aid bill

Robin Bravender
Virginia Mercury – June 27, 2919

Four Virginia Democrats — U.S. Reps. Elaine Luria, 2nd, Bobby Scott, 3rd, Abigail Spanberger, 7th, and Jennifer Wexton, 10th, — voted for the bill, along with the state’s four Republican congressmen, Ben Cline, 6th, Morgan Griffith, 9th, Denver Riggleman, 5th, and Rob Wittman, 1st.

We shouldn’t get to precipice of disaster: Rep. Spanberger

Morning Joe
MSNBC  June 24, 2019

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., of the Foreign Affairs Committee, joins Morning Joe to discuss the president calling off a strike against Iran and why she’s alarmed by the advice Trump is receiving.

Spanberger panel hears from farmers, stockmen

By Clint Shemmer
Culpepper Star-Exponent June26, 2109

Healthy soil is good for farm crops, farmers, the future of family farms, and for America’s natural landscapes.

That was the message delivered Tuesday as a House agriculture subcommittee chaired by Rep. Abigail Spanberger heard testimony from representatives of the National Grazing Lands Coalition, Practical Farmers of Iowa, the Soil Health Partnership, and the California Farm Bureau Federation.

Politics  & Government

U.S. Supreme Court decision delays census citizenship question

Robin Bravender
Virginia Mercury – June 27, 2919

‘Poison pill’ won’t have to be swallowed, yet: Opponents, including Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, cheered a U.S. Supreme Court decisionThursday delaying a plan to place a citizenship question on the 2020 U.S. census, which many feared would dissuade immigrants from responding and skew the federal funding streams and legislative line drawing that rely on the census.

The Boomers Ruined Everything

By Lyman Stone
The Atlantic  June 24, 2019

As dire as this all sounds, there is cause for hope. If the problem is too many senseless rules, then the solution is obvious. Strict licensure standards can be repealed. Minimum lot sizes can be reduced. Building-height ceilings can be raised. Nonviolent prisoners can have their sentences commuted. Even thorny problems such as cost control in universities can be addressed through caps on non-instructional spending, while solutions for government debt and obligations are widely known, even if they are politically unpalatable.

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