Legislative Report 2/21/10, Hands-Free Phones

Coming down the homestretch now, and one victory to report as SB546/”Railroads to be Mentioned Specifically in the Landlord Liability Law” sailed right through the House, after Sen. John Edwards of Roanoke did a masterful job of patroning it before the House Agriculture Committee. Bill Tanger, President of the Friends of the Rivers of Virginia (FORVA) was the point man behind this bill, as the paddlers and fisherman are vitally interested in getting access across RR tracks at a number of locations to get to put ins, take outs, and fishing spots along a number of rivers. The cyclists have also been supporting it since there are situations where trails cross RR tracks. The RR’s have generally been resistant to these requests, citing liability, and now with the limited immunity granted by this bill it is expected that they will be more receptive to requests for crossings.

…and one bill still alive that we have been supporting, which is SB517, Sen Norment’s (from Williamsburg) bill which would ban the use of cell phones by the drivers of moving vehicles, unless they are operated in hands free mode. This bill is a classic example of the partisan climate that currently pervades the legislature, and those interested in seeing how a majority party can obstruct the progress of a bill in their house if they choose to do so, should go into the legislative website — http://legl.state.va.us and plug in SB517 to follow the path Sen. Norment has been subjected to.

Assigned to the Transportation Committee (which most would think is where it belongs, since it applies to the drivers of motor vehicles) in the Democrat controlled Senate, it was reported out 10 – 5, and then passed the full Senate 25 – 15, with most of the D’s voting for it, and most of the R’s against, but a couple of each party voting the other way. You might wonder why this should be a partisan issue, and I think it is because the more conservative legislators feel that it represents an imposition of the government on the rights of the individual, safety and driver distraction not with standing. Also a factor probably is that some R’s feel that it is a Democrat backed bill (even tho Sen. Norment is an R, although criticized by some in his party for being too “moderate”) and they will vote against anything like that, regardless of its merit.

Then the fun began when the bill crossed over to the much more conservative House. Although the House has a Transportation Committee, the Speaker assigned the bill to the Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee, a very conservative committee that cynical observers refer to as a “Killing Field”, when a bill gets referred there that doesn’t appear to belong. Not to leave it at that, the Chairman of that Committee referred it to a SubCommittee, with the lop sided composition of 4 R’s & 1 D, which looks suspiciously like what the cynics refer to as a “firing squad”.

So that’s where Sen. Norment should be on Thursday at 7:30 a.m., although the docket hasn’t been posted yet. Much as I dislike those early subcommittee meetings, I’ll be there also. Since the SubComm is filled with delegates from the western part of the state, any constituents on this distribution be sure and weigh in. Any one else is invited to do so, also, since this is the last chance to be heard and let the delegates know that there are people who favor this bill.

Here’s the SubCommittee line up:

Ben Cline (Lexington) 804 698-1024 delbcline@house.virginia.gov

Cliff Athey (Front Royal) 804 698-1018 delcathey@house.virginia.gov

Todd Gilbert (Woodstock) 804 698-1015 deltgilbert@house.virginia.gov

Bill Cleaveland (Roanoke) 804 698-1017 delwcleaveland@house.virginia.gov

James Shuler (Blacksburg) 804 698-1012 deljshuler@house.virginia.gov

I’ll let you know how things went on Thursday morning.

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