In the 2017 General Assembly session, which ended on February 25, we were able to make some progress in spite of a $1.1 billion budget shortfall.

First, we approved amendments to the state’s biennial budget. After drawing on a $560 million Rainy Day Fund, the budget funds the state share of a long-overdue two percent salary increase for teachers, a three percent raise for state employees, and a $7,000-per-year increase in starting salaries ($36,000) for state troopers. As always, we met our constitutional obligation to balance the budget.

Fifteen of my bills now await Governor McAuliffe’s action. The legislature referred two of my bills for further study. In the session’s last week, I served on seven conference committees to negotiate final language for several bills.

My legislation requiring the city of Alexandria to address raw sewage discharges passed both houses. Although the bill will allow Alexandria to discharge an additional 550 million gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River, it requires all discharges to stop by 2025.

While this will cost the city about $150-$200 million to fix, I am committed to helping locate state funds to support construction over the next eight years. I especially appreciate Agriculture and Natural Resource Chairman Senator Richard Stuart’s dedication to finding a solution and the support of Senator Adam Ebbin and Delegate Paul Krizek who consistently supported solving this problem.

My legislation requiring owners of coal ash ponds to provide the public better information passed. I hope the Governor will restore some of the key provisions removed in the House of Delegates.

My legislation to make it easier to hold drunk drivers accountable for injuring victims passed both houses unanimously. This bill was necessary in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Birchfield v. North Dakota decision last year which now requires a search warrant for nearly all withdrawals of blood.

I introduced two college transparency bills. One requires 30-days’ notice of a proposed tuition increase, an explanation of the need and the date and time of any vote on a tuition increase at state-supported colleges. My second bill requires colleges and universities and community colleges to publish a list of all courses guaranteed to transfer so that students do not mistakenly take non-transferable classes and delay graduation.

During the last year, I have been involved in cases in which child support payors passed away while in arrears for child support. I was surprised to learn that this was not a priority debt during the administration of an estate and basically gets treated like credit card debt. My legislation to require child support arrearages to be paid before general debts passed both houses without a single dissenting vote.

All bills passed by the legislature now go to the Governor who must either amend, sign or veto them by March 27. Next week, I will cover some other bills that the legislature passed and the following week I will report on some bills that the legislature did not pass.

In the meantime, please complete my constituent survey at www.scottsurovell.org/survey and email me at [email protected] if you have any questions.

It is an honor to serve as your State Senator.

Submitted: 

The Prince William Chamber of Commerce celebrated passion and excellence in the business community with their annual Business Awards banquet on February 28 at Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas. Northern Virginia Community College was the Presenting Sponsor. James MacGregor, Publisher of the Washington Business Journal served as Master of Ceremonies. In addition to the Chamber’s awards, the event also featured awards presented by the Mayors of the Cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.

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The Bull Run Civil War Round Table in Centreville, Va. offers a $1,500 scholarship to a high school senior who resides in Fairfax or Prince William County and will attend college in the fall of 2017.

The applicant can be from a public or private school and plans to attend a college or community college. The deadline is April 1.

Information and application instructions can be found at bullruncwrt.org. The Bull Run Civil War Round Table works to preserve Civil War sites in the local area as well as to provide speakers and tours of many local Civil War sites.

Everyone is welcome to attend its meetings at the Centreville Library every second Thursday of the month at 7 p.m.

We have one week to go in session and negotiations are rapidly reaching conclusion as we push to finish out work so we can get back to our families and our jobs.

This past week, my legislation to raise Virginia’s threshold between misdemeanors and felonies from $200 to $500 failed. Virginia’s threshold has not changed since 1981. Our existing system unnecessarily focuses police and prosecutors on minor crimes instead of violent crime while tainting thousands of Virginia’s suffering from depression or drug addiction with felony charges for life.
The House of Delegates passed my legislation requiring Dominion to provide better information on coal ash pollution, disaster preparedness, and recycling. I am not happy that a permitting moratorium was removed, it is better than no bill at all and the Governor will also have a chance to amend the legislation.

The House is also poised to pass my legislation that would require the police to provide police records to next of kin in deaths involving suicide or unattended deaths. Some police departments refuse to provide this information. I think it will help families achieve closure and assure high quality policing.

Two of my more significant bills have been referred for further study. As a part-time legislature, we frequently refer meritorious, but complex proposals to groups who meet outside of session that have better staff support, can take a deeper dive into policy choices, and provide a longer period for stakeholder vetting.

My legislation that would require school systems to purchase personal computing devices for all students expected to use electronic textbooks was sent to the Future of Public Elementary and Secondary Education Joint Committee. I am hopeful we will finally come up with some guidelines to make a personal digital device an essential learning tool in the Commonwealth.

Also, my legislation requiring regulation of predatory internet lenders was sent to the Virginia’s Bureau of Financial Institutions who was directed to create a working group to propose a regulatory framework in 2018. Today, internet lenders are making loans in Virginia at rates north of 500%. For example, this week I went to www.cashnetusa.com and they are offering loans for $100, $300, or $1800 at a daily rate of 0.8192% or in other words – an APR of 299% before you include the 15% “transaction fee” on your initial loan. This means if you borrow $100 and make no payments you would owe $458.86 after one year before late fees. Others have seen rates as high as 5,000%. We need to get this under control.

This week, I also hope to be part of negotiating the final terms of my legislation placing controls on the City of Alexandria’s raw sewage discharges. The House passed similar legislation that takes a different approach. Also, about 10 more of my bills are set to pass the House of Delegates this week.

We will begin the process of packing up our office in preparation of moving to temporary office space for the next four years. The current General Assembly Building is an agglomeration of four asbestos-laden, leaky, and unreliable buildings with uncoordinated elevators and lousy accessibility. We will move down the hill for four years as “the GAB” is demolished and reconstructed through 2022.

Finally, I have received nearly 400 responses to my Constituent Survey. Please make sure you provide your opinions soon at www.scottsurovell.org/survey.

It is an honor to serve as your state senator.

Crossover week of the 2017 Session came to a close as we finished initial action on over 3,000 bills. Twenty-two of my bills of were passed by the Senate and moved on to the House of Delegates.

My two Saturday Town Hall meetings had the largest crowds I have seen in eight years. There was significant concern regarding federal immigration raids on U.S. 1. On Friday, I received alarming reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had arrested numerous Latinos in a raid on U.S.1. While the deportation of convicted felons has been consistent policy, random street sweeps and arrest or deportations of law abiding residents is unprecedented in our community. I will work to get better information and seek to stop these actions.

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From Delegate Mark Dudenhefer: 

Hello from your state capitol in Richmond. As of February 3rd, the House has completed 24 of the 45 days of the 2017 session. On Sunday, February 5th, the committees responsible for the budget bills unveiled their complete proposals. Two important deadlines are happening this week. One of the deadlines is called “Crossover” the deadline with which each chamber must complete work on bills that originated in their chamber. Thursday the House will vote on their version of the budget.

Things to Mention:

1. HB 1691 Widewater Bill

This bill authorizes the Department of Conservation and Recreation to convey some property to the Widewater Beach Subdivision Citizens Association. This bill passed the House today and will now go to the Senate for consideration.

2. HB 1829 CPR Bill

This bill requires that teachers seeking or renewing a teacher’s license are required to demonstrate hands-on training of the skills necessary to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). It is imperative that hands-on training is included in the curriculum for emergency first aid training. The bill was approved by the House and is awaiting Senate action.

3. HB 1769 Malicious Bodily Injury or Laser Pointing at U.S. Armed Forces

The bill adds uniformed members of the United States Armed Forces, including members of the Virginia National Guard, to the list of persons the malicious or unlawful wounding of whom, or the pointing of a laser at whom, is subject to an enhanced penalty. Unfortunately, the Court and Justice Committee chose not to hear this legislation citing funding shortfalls.

4. HB 1757 School Nurses

This bill requires that each local school board employ at least one full-time equivalent school nurse in each school or one nurse for every 550 students. After passing the committee on Education, the bill was tabled in the Appropriation Committee for lack of funds. Even though the bill failed, it was important to raise awareness of the importance of a school nurse in every school.

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The last week of January was especially busy as the General Assembly approached February 7th – Crossover – the day we are required to complete all work on bills originating in our chamber. The bills saved for last usually involve the hardest issues to resolve.

Out of the 40 bills I introduced twenty-two have passed the Senate or are poised for passage before Crossover.

Last week saw another victory for water quality. This session, I introduced three bills to help control water pollution caused by coal ash. One of my bills was reported by the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee over the objection of Dominion Power. The bill prohibits the issuance of any final permits until Dominion to identifies and describes all water pollution occurring at coal ash ponds and demonstrate corrective measures, evaluate coal ash removal or “clean closure,” and demonstrate that leaving coal ash in place or “cap in place” will not put the community at risk during hurricanes, floods or other major weather events.

Also, the legislation also requires Dominion to evaluate options to recycle coal ash using new technologies and identify locations where recycling might work. Coal ash recycling is being used in George, North and South Carolina to clean the environment and create jobs. Coal ash is used in concrete and we currently import significant amounts of coal ash into the United States from China. I am hopeful the bill will pass the full Senate next week.

On Sunday, the Senate Finance Committee announced its proposed amendments to the State Budget. The good news is that the Committee found a way to fund 2% raises for teachers along with other state employees, and extra raises for court clerks and especially our State Police. The House Budget does not include a pay raise for teachers so that is not guaranteed. The bad news is that my request for funding the next stage of construction at Widewater State Park was not funded, nor my request to fill two vacant but authorized Fairfax County Judgeships.

Several of my other bills passed the Senate this week. First, my legislation requiring 30-days’ notice before any tuition increase is voted on passed the Senate unanimously. The Senate also passed my bill making it easier to hold drunk driver’s liable for punitive damages in civil cases and legislation which requires community colleges and universities to publish lists of courses that are guaranteed to be given credit to transfer students. Many students take the wrong classes – this costs students more tuition and causes them to take up space at our four-year colleges that other students could fill when classes must be retaken.

The Senate also passed my legislation that creates and electronic government document authentication system. The Federal Government and other states have already taken steps to electronically authenticate government records. If implemented, this allows citizens to access official copies of official records – such as vital records, deeds, or government licenses – must faster and saves taxpayer dollars.

We will experience Crossover this week, debate on the State Budget and we will begin debate on bills from the House of Delegates.

Please come to my town halls on Saturday, February 11 at 9:00 a.m. at Walt Whitman Intermediate School and 1:00 p.m. at Hayfield Elementary School. Also, please complete my constituent survey at www.scottsurovell.org/survey.

I look forward to your feedback and appreciate your input. It is an honor to serve as your State Senator.

Week three saw our General Assembly in full swing and movement on many bills – on Wednesday, eleven of my bills were heard in one day!

First, over 100 residents came out for my two Town Halls in Prince William County. There were many questions about my “hand’s free” legislation, coal ash legislation, increasing teacher salaries, tuition affordability, predatory lending, and other issues.

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Three of my bills have been passed by the Senate and moved on to the House.  Mostly importantly, we reached a compromise solution that will require the City of Alexandria to have measures in place to prevent 95% of all raw sewage discharges into the Potomac River by 2025.

Reaching this conclusion was not easy and the City is not happy about it, but water quality is a concern to all Virginia’s regardless of political party.  The resolution would not have occurred without the help of City of Alexandria Senator Adam Ebbin and Committee Chairman Richard Stuart who represents the Northern Neck.

Second, I also introduced legislation this session to require Virginia to take the initial steps to start regulating internet lenders.  Today, Native American Indian Tribes and foreign companies are making loans to Virginians over the internet.  Interest rates between 300% and 5,000% have been documented in the state.  My legislation passed the Senate with bipartisan support and headed to the House of Delegates. 

Also, we received mixed news on the funding of widening U.S. 1 and the construction of bus rapid transit.   Two years ago, the General Assembly enacted legislation to require all transportation projects to be objectively scored for congestion relief, economic development, safety, environmental benefits, and relative cost before being acted upon by the Commonwealth Transportation Board.  The intent was to remove politics from the road funding process.

First, the 36th District has more users of the Virginia Railway Express (VRE) than any other district in Virginia.  The funding analysis recommended $92 million of funding to help capacity improvements for VRE.  VRE already takes one lane’s worth of cars off I-95 and improving VRE is critical to reducing congestion on I-95.

However, Fairfax County submitted two applications for the widening of U.S.1 and the construction of bus rapid transit.  Fairfax County’s applications were ranked 40 and 41st out of 60 in Northern Virginia and were not recommended for funding although two other projects in western Fairfax County were recommended for $100 million of funding.  Myself, Senator Ebbin, and Delegates Krizek and Sickles have already met with the Department of Transportation to examine how to improve our application when funding is re-examined in two years.

Also, all of Prince William County’s applications for U.S. 1 funding were ranked poorly and not recommended for funding.  I will be setting up meetings with my Prince William colleagues to improve those applications. 

This week, I have several bills up in committee to improve cycling safety.  Also, my bill to require thirty-days notice before any university can increase tuition will be considered.  Tuition costs have skyrocketed and the public deserves more notice and input before tuition is increased.

If you would like more information regarding my legislation, please go to my online newsletter (scottsurovell.blogspot.com), my website (www.scottsurovell.org), “like” me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/surovell) or send me an email at [email protected].  It is an honor to serve as your state senator.