Greetings from your State Capitol.

This has been a very “interesting” week.  On Monday we saw a ploy by the Democrats to force a vote on an abortion bill that even the patron stated was not the language he wanted considered.  It began with the Rules Committee sending the bill to the floor without allowing the patron to offer amendments or even explain the bill and not allowing any public testimony.  Once on the floor, the patron offered amendments to accurately reflect his intention, to codify language that has been in the budget for many years, of not using tax dollars to pay for abortions except in certain circumstances.  This language has been in the federal budget for 50 years and has been the policy of Virginia for a like period.  The speaker made an incorrect ruling that the amendments were “not germane”, meaning they could not be considered. This resulted in a motion to override the speaker’s ruling which failed.  After this action, the patron asked to strike his bill, which was refused.  A vote on the bill was forced and the bill failed 1-96.

The action of not allowing a member to strike their own bill was something I have only seen once before in all of my years of service, and it was wrong that time too.  It has been the long-standing custom and practice that the patron of their bill should always have the ability to strike their own bill rather than let it be used as a political ploy.

On Tuesday we saw vindictive retribution on Republican member’s bills.  There were over ten bills carried by Republicans that had received little or no opposition that were killed on a party line vote without any rationale given.  One of those was my HB1306, allowing veterinarians to keep necessary medications on their trucks to allow them the ability to treat animals in need more quickly.

On Wednesday, I made a floor speech citing the biblical reference to love in 1 Corinthians 13.  It was an attempt to refocus our attention on trying to work together and to address matters based on policy, not political or personal.  Unfortunately, within 5 minutes of my comments we saw the most senior Republican, and former chair, of the Appropriations Committee removed.  This type of action has never occurred in anyone’s memory.

We have seen the major policy agenda items of the house Democrats go over to the senate.  Policies that put restrictions on legal gun owners, reduce penalties on felons, mandates that will increase the cost of buying a home, creating new entitlement programs and further mandates on what our schools must teach within their existing curriculum, just to name a few.

I will continue to work for open dialogue on all issues, greater local control of community matters, fiscal restraint, holding criminals responsible for their actions, and ensuring quality education opportunities for all of our youth.

Our daily schedule will be far less hectic in the coming weeks.  With so few of my bills going before the senate and with our committees now hearing many issues we have already addressed; I will have more time to meet with constituents.

I welcome your emails, calls and visits.  My email is DelBorrock@virginia.house.gov, my phone is (804) 698-1066 and my office is 1107 in the General Assembly Building.  You can follow all legislative action and access other information by going to VirginiaGeneralAssembly.gov.