Indoor Clean Air Act killed in subcommittee.

J.C. Wilmore, smelling blood in the water, made a trip to the General Assembly today in order to sit in on the subcommittee where Sen. Brandon Bell’s (R-Salem) Indoor Clean Air Act was scheduled for a quiet knifing. The tactic was planned in order to prevent the bill from going to a House vote, where it would likely pass. Unfortunately for the members of the subcommittee, word had leaked to the media, and the room was packed with the public and the media.

The bill was killed, 6-0, a vote that went officially unrecorded under the new House rules. Thankfully, J.C. and the media showed up, preventing Delegates Gear (R), Albo (R), Wright (R), Cosgrove (R), Armstrong (D) and Abbitt (I/R) from claiming, down the line, that they certainly hadn’t voted against it. Del. Albo and Del. Wright behaved badly, as J.C. tells it.

Do yourself a favor and read J.C.’s narrative. This is the vision of governance under the new Republican House leadership: a half-dozen delegates can kill a popular bill without even leaving their fingerprints on it. Thank goodness they still allow the public to attend subcommittee meetings. No doubt they’ll look to close that little loophole next year.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

8 replies on “Indoor Clean Air Act killed in subcommittee.”

  1. I hope the media pick up this story and run with it. I understand that this happens all the time, both on the local and national levels. Still, my glasses have enough of a rose tint to make me hope that, if more folks became aware of this hijacking of due process, they would get out there and do something about it.

  2. In the house of representatives, I understand they h ave something called a discharge petition to get things out of comittees. It requires a majority vote. Does anyone know if there’s an equivalent device in the house of delegates?

  3. …going to a House vote, where it would likely pass…

    We’ve been hearing all week that the house was more conservative and would probably not pass the bill… Kaine even said he would veto.

    How can you say this was unrecorded? It was a 6-0 vote! Doesn’t leave much to wonder about… You can wonder when there’s a 4-2 vote but not this time. Republicans AND Dems voted this down. ALL 6 of them. And thank goodness for them! They all earned points in my book.

  4. Lucy,

    Our left of center friends are absolutely correct to call it an technically correct to call it an unrecorded vote but the proceedings, like the vote itself, certainly is no secret. Leaving the “Dave Albo is a frat boy” meme aside for a second, why is the left of the blogosphere bringing up SB 648 as the sterling example of what’s wrong with the new house rules? Why point to this as the indicator that now “popular” bills will be furtively dispatched in the dead of night… Albo’s quoted in most major papers as to why he wasn’t going to vote for this bill. The best criticism to make of the new system is that the full committee vote may have produced a different result, and you are putting too much power in the hands of the commitee chairs to essential make them “mini-Speakers” being able to refer bills to hand selected committees.

  5. No, the best criticism would be bills that are going along just fine, and then end up being killed and its not exactly obvious (or it’s hersay) who killed them in unrecorded voice votes in subcommittees. It’s about government transperancy and record keeping. A year down the line, you want to know what happened to a bill, there is no record, except that it died in a subcomittee. Unrecorded doesn’t mean unknown, it just means unrecorded, as in, its not recorded in the records of the state of Virginia. This bill would have died quietly in subcomittee had someone not noticed it and brought it to everyone’s attention.

    I always thought conservatives were the ones who said we can’t trust government and liberals were suppose to believe that government is the best since sliced bread. Now it seems like liberals are the ones saying you can’t trust government and we need oversight and transperancy (though I’ve always said that), and conservatives are basically saying ‘hey, don’t worry, we know what’s best; you don’t need to know, just assume we have your best interests in mind.’

  6. I would say if you have a problem with the way the house and senate are carrying out their duties then get a lawyer or something and prove it’s illegal. Were there legal rulings when they rules were changed? The Democrats as well as Republicans have agreed to this system. Why blame it on Republicans, Democrats, Liberals or Conservatives? Why all the crush now that a bill you wanted to pass has failed?

    I’m not saying the process is right or wrong. I’m saying, in this particular case, there is no reason to question who voted for what…

  7. John,

    I’m all for changing the rules again to create a mechanism for recording and publishing subcommittee votes (maybe only when it results in a PBI?) I feel like it’s an honest oversight of a rule change that was meant to thin committee dockets of really off the wall bills (Some disclosure: 1. I’m a partisan Republican, so you can usually throw my opinions on the intentions of Speaker Howell and Del. Griffith out the window without comment. 2. I do not support 648 and I’m glad it isn’t moving forward) But there isn’t any actual secrecy here and I have a few problems with your comment:

    1) How can you argue this bill was “going along fine?” It was heavily amended in the Senate, defeated once, brought up to be reconsidered, then heavily amended, then brought back at the 11th hour and narrowly passed (as I noted on SST, both Cuccinelli and Chichester voted against it, and that almost never happens to a bill that passes the Senate). In the form it was passed, i.e. a statewide ban as opposed to a local option to ban, even its patron admitted it was not likely to fly in the House.

    2) I’ve already admitted I’d love to see the information public. But give a call to the staff at the committee (http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?061+sub+H110030223) and just ask them to look at their notes. Or call the legislators on the committee. I guarantee that not a one will tell you any different than they did.

    3) I don’t trust government. I don’t trust them to tell business owners and patrons what’s better for their business or their health. There is a good deal of transperancy, and there is ample opportunity for oversight. I agree it could and should be better.

    4) The real question we should be asking is why is Jack Reid (House General Laws Chairman) the only guy who gets to decide that this bill is “thick enough” to go forward?

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