By Senator David Suetterlein

This week at the Capitol saw lots of legislative action and dozens of visitors from across the Commonwealth advocating for their priorities.

It was great to have members of the Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce and members of the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce in Richmond last week. I enjoyed hearing from them and sharing about my legislation, including Senate Bill 257.

Senate Bill 257 would allow a superintendent to extend a teacher’s provisional three year license for up to two more years if the superintendent thinks the teacher is performing well while the teacher is continuing to meet the long list of state requirements for a permanent teacher license. I presented the bill to the Senate’s Public Education Subcommittee and received a favorable hearing. Several Southwest Virginia superintendents have expressed support for SB257 because they believe it will help us produce more local teachers. The bill should receive its first vote later this week.

This week, the full Senate voted 22-17 to advance my anti-gerrymandering redistricting reform SB106. Several of the Democratic senators responsible for the current the gerrymandered senate districts spoke against my bill. They specifically attacked my bill’s provision that “existing political boundaries shall be respected to the maximum extent possible.”

It is truly an honor to represent portions of Bedford County, but I could better serve Bedford County citizens and each of my counties with a more compact district map rather than having six divided counties, four divided towns, and countless divided communities. My bill also requires a mathematical compactness measurement and recognizes that any future lines should be drawn in the bounds of the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause and the federal Voting Rights Act. SB257 will now head to the House of Delegates for consideration.

The Enhanced Public Safety Telephone Services Act passed the Senate this week in the form of my bipartisan SB513. This bill brought forward by Senator Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) and myself provides or implementation of next generation 911 emergency services as telephone technology moves away from the current analog telephone network in favor a digital, IP network. The widely recognized critical nature of this bill and its mission has made it one of the major bills that has attracted very little disagreement.

Last week, I let you know about the partisan politics aimed by Senate Democrats at our neighbors in Patrick County and the effort to reopen Pioneer Hospital. I am happy to let you know that after the Democrats defeated the first bill structured to reopen Pioneer Hospital they heard from lots of folks and decided to remove the partisan barrier to the second bill’s passage. My colleague Senator Bill Stanley’s second Patrick County Hospital passed the full Senate unanimously. A companion bill is making its way through the House of Delegates and the Governor has indicated he plans to sign the bills.

The General Assembly is speeding towards its “crossover” deadline when it must complete action on its own bills, but there is still time for you to come see your government in action. The General Assembly is scheduled to be in session until March 10. If you plan to visit Richmond, I hope you will come by and pay us a visit in Room 516 of the Pocahontas Building. You can also always share your views with me by emailing District19@senate.virginia.gov or calling 540-302-8486. I also post updates on my efforts at Facebook.com/Suetterlein.

Thank you to the Bedford Bulletin for the opportunity to provide you this update. Next week, I will highlight other major legislation and the budget that is being considered by the General Assembly.

