Legislation

VCC LEGISLATIVE REPORT – 2005 GENERAL ASSEMBLY SESSION

Dear Partner in Advocacy,

Now that the 2005 session of the Virginia General Assembly is officially in the record books, I want to share with you the outcomes of matters of primary concern to the Virginia Catholic Conference (VCC).  Before doing so, I convey special thanks to the Diocese of Richmond’s Michael Stone (Office of Justice and Peace) and the Diocese of Arlington’s Father Gerry Creedon (Chair, Peace and Justice Commission), Bob Laird (Office for Family Life), and Anne Murphy (Catholic Charities, Parish Social Ministry) for coordinating our Catholic Advocacy Day and for transmitting VCC legislative alerts at key points during the 47-day session.

Just as importantly, I can assure all of you who joined in any of our advocacy activities that your efforts were worthwhile and produced positive results.  Many of you traveled considerable distances on Advocacy Day to speak for people who have no voice; many of you tracked the VCC's progress via the Arlington Catholic Herald and Catholic Virginian; and many of you responded to alerts the VCC disseminated at critical junctures through its diocesan partners.  Your responses to those alerts, in five areas that got especially "hot" this year (preventing abortive drugs from being deemed contraceptives, protecting human embryos from destructive research, enabling local school boards to provide bus transportation to nonpublic-school students, providing state funding for critical social programs, and ensuring labor protections for immigrant workers), yielded outcomes of which you can be quite proud.  On four of those five issues, the end result matched the position you advocated; the only exception was the school-bus initiative, which still advanced much farther than parent advocates had anticipated this year.

In the months ahead, in the 2006 session, and beyond, I look forward to working with you to build upon the foundation we've laid this year. May God's blessings be with you as you continue to champion human life, human dignity, and social justice in our Commonwealth.

Sincerely, Jeff Caruso
Executive Director
Virginia Catholic Conference

VCC LEGISLATIVE REPORT – 2005 GENERAL ASSEMBLY SESSION

Respect for Unborn Life:  A bill introduced by Senator Russell Potts sought to force Virginia taxpayers, for the first time in state history, to subsidize embryonic stem-cell research.  The legislation was approved by the Senate Education and Health Committee (chaired by Senator Potts), but Senator Ken Cuccinelli proposed a floor amendment to limit funding to research from stem cells that are not derived from the destruction of human embryos.  Twenty-three of the Senate's forty members voted in favor of the amendment and thereby recognized an important distinction between ethical, life-affirming research using adult stem cells and research that exploits human life at its earliest stage.  With the VCC's support, the modified bill then passed the Senate by a unanimous vote and the House by an overwhelming majority.

VCC-opposed legislation seeking to redefine "contraception" to include drugs and devices that prevent a newly conceived embryo from implanting in the uterus passed the Senate Education and Health Committee.  On the Senate floor, Senator Jeannemarie Devolites Davis opposed the bill and led the debate that succeeded in thwarting the measure.

Bills to require state licensure of abortion clinics and to include information about a fetus’ ability to experience pain in informed-consent information given prior to an abortion cleared the House but were rejected by the Senate Education and Health Committee in identical 9-6 votes.

Death Penalty:  Although a VCC-endorsed measure to ensure that no inmate is executed while she is pregnant cleared both the House and Senate unanimously, bills supported by the VCC to prohibit the execution of juveniles under the age of 18 and to impose a moratorium on executions failed to win approval in either chamber of the General Assembly.  However, the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling the execution of juveniles "cruel and unusual punishment" provides renewed hope for a state juvenile-death-penalty ban in 2006.

Freedom of Conscience:  Proposals in both the House and the Senate sought to force employers who offer prescription coverage to pay for contraceptives.   Both bills were defeated in committee. Conference testimony noted that the proposals "raised fundamental religious freedom concerns" and emphasized that employers who believe that contraception is not morally appropriate should not be compelled to subsidize it.

Poverty Reduction:  The General Assembly unanimously approved legislation to reduce the state tax rate on the sale and use of food items from 3 percent to 1.5 percent beginning July 1 of this year.  The reduction will help low-income families, who spend a higher portion of their incomes on grocery items than other households.  Another VCC-supported bill will ensure that those who have served their time for drug-related possession felonies can receive food stamps.  Currently, federal law denies this benefit to persons convicted of drug felonies but permits states to opt out of that restrictive provision.  The General Assembly responded this year with passage of a measure providing that a person otherwise eligible for food stamps shall not be barred due to a prior felony-possession offense.

Budget Items:  The General Assembly increased state funding in three areas that were focal points of VCC advocacy: homeless assistance, prenatal care for low-income women, and truancy-reduction services to benefit Richmond youth.   Legislators added $850,000 to the budget for emergency and transitional shelters, $300,000 to help construct "single room occupancy units" (a permanent housing option for single, homeless adults), and $140,000 to support coordinators for homeless children's services.  They also designated money to make an existing state prenatal-care program available to more women with limited financial means, and allocated funds for an initiative supported by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development to reduce truancy in the City of Richmond. However, another VCC-supported budget amendment -- to provide subsidies to working families whose wages do not enable them to afford adequate housing -- failed to win General Assembly approval.

Education:  A bill to permit local school districts to provide bus transportation to nonpublic-school students reached uncharted territory.  Unlike similar measures in previous years, the legislation was approved by vast margins in the House Education Committee (17-5) and the full House of Delegates (73-25).  Although the Senate Education and Health Committee blocked the bill's enactment by a 9-6 vote, its movement was unprecedented and signals a promising shift in the General Assembly's view of policies that would recognize the contributions and just claims of parents who send their children to nonpublic schools.  In addition, the House's passage of a measure that would have created tax credits for scholarship organizations was another encouraging development for those whose children attend nonpublic schools, although that bill also failed to win Senate approval.

Justice for Immigrants:  The House advanced several VCC-opposed bills designed to limit undocumented immigrants' access to basic services, including one to make them ineligible for worker's compensation and another to deny those in high school access to state colleges and universities.  One Senate committee defeated the college-related legislation, but another panel approved the worker's compensation item (which ultimately failed when the full Senate
sent it back to a different committee in the session’s closing days).  A third proposal, which would have impacted many immigrant workers by denying driver's licenses to those who cannot communicate in English, was rejected by a House committee.  However, a fourth measure, seeking to establish new legal-presence verification procedures for Medicaid and certain state and local benefits, passed both chambers.

Marriage:  The General Assembly successfully completed the first stage of amending the Virginia Constitution to provide that “only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by this Commonwealth and its political subdivisions.”  To complete the state constitutional-amendment process, the legislation (which passed this year) would have to be approved by the legislature again in 2006, and the matter would then be placed before voters later that year.