Rip's Session Report - Week Five
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Happy Valentine's Day weekend! I hope you have had a wonderful Valentine's weekend full of love.
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It is a General Assembly tradition to show our gratitude towards our Administrative Assistants for Valentine's Day.
Our amazing AA, Lisa has been a part of Team Sullivan for nine sessions and is the glue that keeps our office together. We are lucky to have her on our team!
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As always, my team and I are here to support you. Do not hesitate to reach out to us by using the link below.
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District 6 resident, Ilia Malinin recently won his first gold medal for Team USA Men's Figure Skating.
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HB 55 enables Fairfax to use a roadside noise monitoring system that will help rid our neighborhoods of annoyingly
loud, illegally loud, vehicles.
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Even though the Tysons Casino Bill has changed, I still stand firmly against any casino in Fairfax County.
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Crossover is right around the corner, and refers to when the House and Senate trade bills to be considered by the other chamber.
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District 6 Constituents in Richmond!
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We love to see visitors and constituents at Team Sullivan Headquarters. Please feel free to stop by my office in Room 908 of the General Assembly Building.
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Fairfax League of Women Voters
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Jewish Community Relations Committee
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Speaking of Constituents...
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Our Local Gold Medalist: Ilia Malinin
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Image from The New York Times
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Olympian Ilia Malinin, is competing in his first Olympics this year in Milan. Malinin brought home his first Gold Medal and made history on the world stage by landing a quadruple axel, a figure skating move that no skater has ever landed before.
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The twenty-one year old "Quad God", and gold medalist stunned the world by doing a backflip during his performance and landing on one skate.
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And though the individual competition didn't go as he hoped, he has changed the sport and represented our country with determination and grace.
There are surely more championships and medals in his bright future.
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Watch Ilia's history making performance.
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Malinin is a Vienna native and 6th District resident who we are proud to have representing us and the nation.
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District 6 residents have expressed their frustration with the loud cars around our community, and I completely agree.
Vehicles with modified mufflers are illegal and this bill will provide an effective tool to help our law enforcement identify and fine the drivers of these vehicles more efficiently.
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Under existing Virginia law, vehicles that have modified mufflers (or mufflers removed entirely) are illegal.
Modified mufflers cause noise pollution in our communities and can even be made to mimic gun fire.
But it can be challenging to have local law enforcement catch them, since by the time the police can get to the scene the vehicle has already left. It can also be challenging to identify decibel levels in cars passing by.
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This bill will create a two-year pilot program that will allow certain localities – including Fairfax – to use high-tech monitoring systems to track and issue fines to vehicles that exceed a decibel limit of 95 dB.
This bill will give police a tool to more effectively enforce current law.
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For context, an average vehicle creates around 70-80 decibels of sound. Vehicles with illegally adjusted mufflers usually emit well over 95 decibels. HB 55 will not create new crime, but rather provide law enforcement with an additional resource to help pursue these vehicles more efficiently.
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Supervisor Bierman's
Testimony for HB 55
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The Richmond Times-Dispatch published an article discussing HB 897— my legislation that creates new environmental standards data centers must meet to qualify for state sales tax exemptions.
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WHRO published an article discussing Virginia's goal to increase shared solar capacity as a cost-effective solution for customers who want to access clean energy (HB 807).
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Tysons Casino Update: Tysons Location Removed from Legislation
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There were important developments this week regarding the Fairfax casino legislation.
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On Thursday morning, I – together with Vienna Mayor Colbert, Senator Salim, Senator Boysko, Delegate Shin, and Delegate Seibold – held a press conference to address the Tysons Casino bill. The press conference was organized by the No Fairfax County Casino Coalition.
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Crossover Is Approaching!
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One of the most important dates in the General Assembly session is Crossover.
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Crossover is the date when all of the bills submitted in either the House or Senate must pass their respective bodies. If bills are not passed by their respective bodies by crossover, they are effectively dead.
Monday and Tuesday of next week we will have marathon floor sessions to ensure all the legislation that has passed committees is voted on by the House and sent over to the Senate for consideration.
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I will have more information about the progress each body made next week once we have gotten past crossover.
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If you missed some of my work this past week, my team has clipped my presentations of various bills for your convenience.
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HB 894: Private School Bullying Bill
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HB 900: State Transportation Funding
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HB 1472: Messiah Johnson Bill
Introduction
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Please feel free to check out my newsletters from previous weeks!
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That's all for our Week Five Newsletter! Stay tuned as my team and I will send you weekly newsletters to keep you informed of everything going on in Richmond.
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As always, please let me know if there is anything my office or I can do to support you. Please feel free to email us or stop by our office in Richmond!
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I’ll see you around the neighborhood.
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Office of Delegate Rip Sullivan
PO Box 994
McLean, VA 22101
United States
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