SB97 has been passed by the House.
“Now we need all hands on deck to contact their delegates to support SB 97 when it hits the House floor, which will be soon.”
First on the Docket at 8:30 a.m. with Senator Reeves doing a strong job of presenting (and starting his presentation with “As a former police officer”), Supporters were given 3 minutes to state their case, of which I only took two to pre-empt the “Not enforceable” argument, and my comments were supported by Sen. Reeves, the State Police rep, and Del. Habeeb from Roanoke (surprisingly, the only attorney on the 22 member committee) who stated that the “Not Enforceable” argument became moot when 2 foot was put into the law ten years ago.
Then some discussion, and questions of Del. Habeeb acting as Committee Parliamentarian (which I didn’t, and still don’t, fully understand) as Delegate Comstock requested adding the “Following Too Closely” language back into Sen. Reeves’ bill, since “Following Too Closely” had previously passed this Committee and then the Full House.
After a little discussion on that topic as to whether the two bills were “Germane”, Chairman Rust said “Let’s get THIS bill passed in THIS committee first, before we talk about adding something into it. With that, a motion to Report was made and seconded, followed by a vote of 14-6, with two absences, Minchew & Toscano, that I am fairly confident would also have voted to Report.
It should be noted that Del. Habeeb gave the bill very strong support, and is to be Thanked, while the only one who spoke in opposition was Tim Hugo from Prince William, who concentrated on the “Motorist won’t be able to pass the bicyclists without crossing the double line, if three feet is passed, ” argument.
Both Sheryl Finucane and I were too busy to take a photo of the board, so won’t know who the six nays were until the results are posted on the website, but one will be Hugo, and another Garrett (keeping his anti-bicycling record at 100%.
Now we need ALL Hands on Deck to contact their Delegates to support SB 97 when it hits the House Floor, which will be soon.
(Do not take anyone’s vote for granted, even if they’ve supported this in the past.)
If you’ve been sitting this campaign out (as a number of RABA members obviously have, as shown by the Salsa reports), its time to lift a finger and get this bill across the goal line. This is the best chance we’ve had in all the years I’ve been working on these bills, so please give us a little push.
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