Archive for July, 2014

I hope you had a wonderful Independence Day! I enjoyed seeing many of you at the Harrisonburg parade in the evening, thanks to everyone that came out.

Valley Business Summit
As you might recall, last year several area legislators along with local business and economic development organizations hosted a business summit at Blue Ridge Community College to help entrepreneurs learn about various resources and strategies for starting and growing their business. Due to the great success of the event last year, we have decided to host it again this year on Monday, August 4.

The event will remain FREE and open to the public, but a RSVP is required. The format is going to largely remain the same, although we will be hearing from some different speakers on varying topics important to business owners. We will again have a feedback forum at the conclusion of the event for state legislators (including myself) to hear your suggestions and concerns related to the business climate in the Commonwealth.

The Business Summit will begin with registration from 7:30 am to 8:00 am and is set to conclude around noon. Again, it’s free to attend, but a RSVP is requested by July 28. Click here to learn more about the event and to RSVP.

Session Summary
As of July 1, the majority of legislation that passed into law during the 2014 General Assembly Session went into affect. Every year the Division of Legislative Services issues a publication that outlines the legislation that might have the most effect on the daily lives of citizens. You can click here to view that document.

Please understand that this is by no means a complete list of bills that passed into law during the 2014 session. For more information about legislation from the 2014 Session, please visit lis.virginia.gov. You can also contact our office if you have any questions.

VA Follow Up
Thank you to everyone that honored my call to action in June to contact your federal representatives to express your extreme displeasure with the way that our veterans are being treated by the veterans administration. The gross mismanaged that recently became public simply cannot be tolerated. I too contacted key federal officials expressing my concerns, and was pleased to receive a prompt response that seemed encouraging. As I said before, I hope congressional leaders will continue to pursue the inequities at the VA to ensure that they will be corrected.

Return to Session
Speaker Howell recently announced that we would be returning to session in September to take up the Medicaid expansion debate. As my colleagues and I advocated, Medicaid expansion should have never been tied to the budget, but should have been considered as a separate issue all along. While I still have significant concerns with expanding the program, I look forward to returning to Richmond to fully consider any and all proposals. I will be sure to keep you updated as more details become available.