Interesting read - Rep. Rigell in the New York Times defense vs. spending cuts...

Interesting reading in the New York Times story about an emerging split in the GOP over Pentagon cuts, which includes a nice sized take out on U.S. Rep. Scott Rigell, R-Virginia Beach.

The story focuses on Republican vows to cut spending even in the ballooning militayr budget, but then notes that many GOPers aren't quite sure where to make those cuts. This is a dicey subject for Rigell because of the district he represents in Hampton Roads, and because of the budget cut mantra he puts out.

Rigell beat former Rep. Glenn Nye over the head about Pentagon cuts to Joint Force Command and also about Nye's inability to completely derail plans to move a Norfolk-based aircraft carrier to Mayport, Fla. But when you start to talk serious about spending cuts in the federal budget, it's impossible to avoid talking about the massive amounts that the country shells out for the military.

So Rigell is walking on treacherous territory here. And from his comments to the NYT - you can see it.

But so far, few Tea Party-backed members on the House Armed Services Committee have said specifically where they would cut. In public remarks at the hearing on Wednesday, several spoke up in favor of favorite military programs or of protecting military installations at home, illustrating the difficulty of balancing their overarching philosophy and goals with the immediate concerns of their districts.

And later.

Representative Scott Rigell, a Republican newcomer from Virginia who at first sparred with the Tea Party but then signed a pledge supporting many of its positions, said that he, too, was committed to a strong military and the spending it required. In an interview after the hearing, he said that “as a very first priority, it is our constitutional duty to stand an army.”

Mr. Rigell said he supported in the Pentagon budget “any responsible, wise reduction that can clearly be identified as waste,” but needed more specific information before he could judge where to cut. His son, he said, is a member of the Marine reserve and drives an amphibious assault vehicle, an earlier version of the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. On Mr. Gates’s decision to eliminate the E.F.V., Mr. Rigell said, “The abruptness of the decision is concerning me.”

Mr. Rigell, who represents a district that is economically dependent on its military installations, spoke against plans to move one of five nuclear aircraft carriers based in Norfolk to Florida, taking with it 10,000 jobs.

 

Think tank disputes McDonnell's claims on job creation....

The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis is throwing some cold water on Gov. Bob McDonnell's testimony before Congress that Virginia has created over 55,000 net new jobs since Feb. 2010.

Here's a snippet:

Despite headlines touting the creation of 50 jobs here and 100 jobs there, Virginia has made no real progress in jobs creation since the recession ended in June 2009, according to a report published yesterday by The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis, an independent fiscal policy think tank based in Richmond.

“We’re right where we were at the official end of the recession,” says Michael Cassidy, President and CEO of The Commonwealth Institute. “We had an employment level of 3.6 million jobs back then and we’re still at that level. We’re in a very large jobs hole in Virginia,” he says, “and we’re going to be in it for some time.”

Here's a link to the report.

 

Oder's 36% cap on payday, car title and open end credit loans in subcommittee right now...

The Senate Commerce and Labor Committee has already signalled that the General Assembly is unlikely to place a cap on the interest collected on predatory loans - by shooting down a number of bills from Peninsula lawmakers seeking a 36 percent yearly cap.

With Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw running the show it's unclear whether the bills would ever survive on the Senate side.

But Del. Glenn Oder's bill is still alive on the House side at least right now - and the proposal would cap all payday, car title and open end credit plans at 36 percent. Oder was hoping to get folks to vote for his plan - and he's been working the hallways hard in the past couple hours.

It's a pretty sweeping bill and it's set to come up in the next few minutes in a sub committee of the House Commerce and Labor Committee. The deck is already stacked against the bill because of the makeup of the sub committee.

The sub committee has a bunch of folks who aren't inclined to vote for the plan including committee chairman Terry Kilgore, who doesn't always have to show up to sub committees but he's here today.   

And that's not to mention the fact that folks like Del. Ken Alexander, D-Norfolk, the former head of the Legislative Black Caucus, hasn't shown up at the hearing yet which reduces the odds of success even more. (There's some rumbling about why Alexander isn't here among advocates of cracking down on payday loans.)

Oder doesn't look hopeful up at the podium right now.

UPDATE: Bill killed.

UPDATE: Oder was joined at the podium by Mel Hall, a Northern Virginia resident who drove to Richmond to testify about his run in with payday lenders. Hall said in July 2009 he took out a $2,000 loan to make payroll for his construction company because of a lull in business and acknowledged that his "options were severely limited.

"I'm still paying on it. I've paid a total of $10,000," Hall said."My balance is still over $3,000."

Oder was clearly frustrated when the bill was killed and called the loss "tremendously disappointing" because he said he had the votes to get the bill to full committee if "people were in their seats."  

"It's a waste of time when people don't show up," Oder said.

Asked if he thought some Democrats - including Alexander and Del. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, deliberately "took a walk" - an old school political euphemism for disappearing from a committee to change the outcome - Oder simply smiled.

"It's a parlimentary procedure sometimes used by folks who don't want to take tough votes," he said.

 

 

Krystal Ball launches new website to promote women in politics.....

Virginia Democrat Krystal Ball is keeping herself relevant with a new web site designed to encourage women to get involved in politics.

Ball became something of a hero in the blogging world during her 2010 congressional campaign, when pictures surfaces of her in a racy Christmas costume with her ex-husband. Ball said the release of the pictures was part of a sexist smear campaign.

She also pointed out that it was a silly costume at a private party, unlike Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown who posed naked in Cosmopolitan magazine in the 1980's and was still be taken seriously in politics.  

So take a look at what Ball is doing now.

UPDATE: DUH - I forgot to include the link to the site - it's www.krystalonline.com

Projects The morning of November 3rd, I woke up and asked myself: “What’s next?” I did take a little bit of time following the campaign to reacquaint myself with my family and eat some Thanksgiving turkey, but I have definitely stayed active and have a few projects in the works right now:

Young Women in Politics

 

New push at Virginia General Assembly for longer window for child sexual abuse victims to sue...

Del. Dave Albo and Sen. Fred Quayle are joining with sexual abuse survivors to push a pair of bills that would extend the window for civil lawsuits by victims from two years to 25 years.

Thursday morning, the two lawmakers will be bringing in survivors and advocates to talk about the need to allow victims more time to take on their abusers. The bill is pretty straightforward - and simple when you compare it to other legislative proposals - here's the text.

The cast of advocates includes:

Becky Ianni, Chair of the Virginia Chapter of SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests)

Dr. Marc McAllister, child abuse survivor and activist. 

Bill Casey, Director, Voices of The Faithful

Camille Cooper, National Association to Protect Children (PROTECT)

Albo is the chair of the House Courts of Justice Committee, so that gives him some extra pull on the issue. And you can see here that Albo's bill has already moved rapidly through the House of Delegates without a single vote against it. 

Meanwhile, Quayle's identical bill over in the Senate hasn't moved at all. That doesn't mean it won't go anywhere, because each chamber has a different pace. But it's something to watch.

 

 

Lawmakers rally to push for autism treatment on insurance coverage....

UPDATE: Austim bill clears the House Commerce and Labor Committee after two hours of testimony at 4 p.m. Thursday.

Lawmakers and autism treatment advocates are rallying at the General Assembly building today to push for a bill that would mandate that insurance companies cover autism treatment for children between the ages of two and six.

The legislation, sponsored by Del. Tag Greason, has an impressive list of consponsors already - including lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong.And this morning Greason is going to be joined by Del. Tim Hugo and House Speaker Williams J. Howell at a press conference. So needless to say the proposal has some strong backing.

But a similar bill with similar backing came up to the General Assembly last year - and failed to get out of the House Commerce and Labor committee.

According to the advocacy group Autism Speaks - the bill is actually going to come up before the full Commerce and Labor Committee this year - after failing to get out of sub committee in the past. It's unclear how they know that - but perhaps having the House Speaker on their side helped out.

Here's the text of the bill and here's a snippet of the background from that group:

Autism Speaks, the nation’s largest autism science and advocacy organization, along with Virginia Autism Project, parents, and other autism advocates, will gather at the Capitol prior to the House Labor and Commerce Committee and Senate Finance Committee hearings to call on both committees to pass the 2011 autism insurance reform bills. This is the third straight year this legislation has been introduced, but the first year that the bills will be heard by the full Labor and Commerce Committee in the Virginia House of Delegates. Lorri Unumb, Senior Policy Advisor & Counsel for Autism Speaks, Virginia House Delegate and one of the bills’ sponsors Timothy Hugo, as well as some of the Virginia parents who deal with this neurobiological condition every day and are fighting for passage of legislation to ensure private insurance companies cover autism will speak briefly.

Autism spectrum disorders are diagnosed in one in 110 children in the United States, affecting four times as many boys as girls. The prevalence of autism increased 57 percent from 2002 to 2006. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have called autism a national public health crisis whose cause and cure remain unknown. The Commonwealth of Virginia does not require private insurance companies to cover even essential autism treatments and services. In the absence of coverage, families often pay as much as they can out-of-pocket for services that can cost upwards of $50,000 per year. In the process, many risk their homes and the educations of their unaffected children – essentially mortgaging their entire futures. To date, twenty-three states – Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, and Wisconsin – have enacted autism insurance reform legislation.

UPDATE: Details from the presser below the jump:

 

McDonnell's prepared remarks to Congress on creating jobs...

Here's the full remarks of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell to Congress on economic development. I'm sure that we'll have video out soon enough, but here's the text so you can get an idea of what he had to say.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you for the kind invitation to join you all this morning to talk about the state of the American Workforce. 

Over 400 years ago, the Commonwealth of Virginia began as an international business venture – and we have a strong and proven track record of success. 

While over the past few years the economy unfortunately slowed down in Virginia, as it did nationally, the fervor and passion of the entrepreneurial spirit continues to remain strong in the people across the Commonwealth from Chincoteague on the Eastern Shore to the Cumberland Gap in the far southwest.

When I took office just over a year ago, we set out to create a Commonwealth of Opportunity. 

We are the northernmost “Right to Work” state, we have a pro-business environment that fosters economic growth with low taxes and reduce regulations. 

 

Cuccinelli's health care lawsuit fast tracked - hearing in early May....

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's lawsuit against federal health care reform has been fast tracked in Virginia's Fourth Circuit - meaning the state's lawyers will make the case against the federal government in early May.

Cuccinelli won the first victory against the health care reform bill in mid November when Richmond Judge Henry Hudson ruled that Virginia citizens could not be forced to purchase health care coverage. It wasn't an all out victory because Hudson didn't scrap the entire bill as unconstitutional, but it was the first time that a judge in any of the cases against health care had ruled against the federal government.

Both sides of the case know that the suit will eventually be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court - because whoever loses along the way is certain to appeal. Cuccinelli has lobbied for a faster track so that states don't spend too much time preparing for the new rules - that could be chucked out by the courts. Apparently the federal folks agreed.

Here's more detail from the AG's office:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit today granted a joint motion from Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and the federal government to expedite the hearing of Virginia’s suit against the federal health care law. The case is tentatively scheduled for hearing sometime between May 10 and 13. This replaces a briefing order previously issued by the court.

“Right now, there is a great deal of uncertainty for states, individuals, and businesses. Major decisions are already being made and money is already being spent to comply with a law that may not be around two years from now. We need this suit resolved as quickly as possible, for the good of our citizens and our economy,” said Cuccinelli.

Cuccinelli is still weighing whether or not to request that the U.S. Supreme Court take the case directly and skip the Fourth Circuit altogether.

The court ordered the following briefing schedule:

Opening briefs due February 28

Response briefs due March 28

Reply briefs due April 11

 

 

Rigell holds townhall in Virginia Beach Monday night....

U.S. Rep. Scott Rigell promised on the campaign trail that he'd consistently hold townhall meetings in Hampton Roads and he's starting early with one less that a week after his first State of the Union address in the Richmond.

Not sure what he plans on reporting back about - but he'll have some time to sound off on President Barack Obama's speech, the new class of lawmakers that includes a host of new GOPers and what it's like in Washington.

Here are the details.

Monday, January 31, 2011 

Congressman Rigell Hosts Congressional Town Hall Meeting

 Time: 7:00PM-8:30PM

 Location: Virginia Beach Central Library

             4100 Virginia Beach Blvd.

Virginia Beach, VA

 

U.S. Rep. Scott Rigell responds to Obama's State of the Union speech....

U.S. Rep. Scott Rigell, R-Virginia Beach, sent out this response to Barack Obama's State of the Union speech Tuesday night.

Like Wittman, Rigell wants more and deeper cuts into federal spending, and he'll probably get the chance to vote for them if the GOP leaderships puts forward serious plans to reduce federal spending.

"Tonight the President stressed the importance of fiscal discipline, and I welcome this change in message. It is my sincere hope that it is also a change in substance that will be reflected in the budget that the President will submit to Congress.

To say that our current trajectory of spending is unsustainable fails, in my view, to capture the risk it presents to our country. If left unchecked, I believe that federal spending will result in catastrophic consequences, not only for our grandchildren, and our children, but this generation as well.

Each week of the 112th Congress, I have joined my Republican colleagues in passing bills that reduce federal spending, including voting to repeal the Health Care Law, which would reduce spending by $2.6 trillion, cutting Congress' own budgets by 5 percent, and rolling back government funding to the pre-bailout, pre-stimulus 2008 levels. We are fulfilling our pledge to end Washington's spending spree and we will continue to make the tough but necessary decisions needed to put America back on a path to job creation and fiscal responsibility."