Legislative
Updates
> Chairman's Message
Legislative Elections & 2012 General Assembly
By David Warriner, P.E.
VSPE Legislative Chairman
It seems that the
Legislative process for the 2011 session was just yesterday and yet here
we are starting the process for next year.
The reason for
this is that the blueprint for a successful session is driven by
out-of-session meetings with legislators when they are much less busy and
have time to hear the details of an issue rather than the sound bytes that
occur during session.
Members of the
Joint Legislative Committee (JLC) have utilized the VEPAC contributions to
attend several fund raising events for various legislators. These
sessions have been small and intimate giving us lots of both face and ear
time with various legislators. This will prove invaluable once
the busy season starts this winter.
This is why your
contributions to VEPAC are so essential and so needed. To
participate in these small gatherings requires approximately $1000 per
event. With all 140 legislators up for re-election, you can see how
money can go fast. The VEPAC trustees and the JLC spends
considerable time deciding which legislators to support and for how much.
There is not enough VEPAC money to go around, so we base our decisions on
the power position within the Assembly; their support in the past; their
potential ability to influence issues in the future; and as always, we
support the two Professional Engineers who are also legislators--Joe May
and Tom Rust.
The issues we
will be evaluating and working on this summer and fall include:
- Dam
safety regulations/requirements
- Stormwater
regulations
- Adjusting
continuing education requirements per discipline
- Certificate
of merit
- Unlicensed
practice
- OOEA,
CM, and PPTA criteria
- QBS
- The
practice of engineering
As always, if you
hear of an issue we should know about, please send us an e-mail with as
much information as you can. We will try to track it down and begin
work on whether to support, oppose, or monitor the issue.
In the meantime,
we could use a contribution to VEPAC, no matter how large or small.
Our balance will be fairly low after our round of contributions this
summer and last minute requests prior to the election are a common
occurrence. A timely contribution at that time can really help with
gaining an attentive ear in the future.
The political
process does not match up well with most engineers' way of thinking, but we
must realize it is the process that controls and regulates our profession
for good and bad. It is better to be proactive than
reactive and it is easier to maintain our profession than to rebuild it
should events in the General Assembly adversely affect us.
As always please
send questions and/or comments to us. We serve the membership to the
best of our abilities and feedback is an essential component of our
ability to do a good job.
I'd also like to thank those of you who played in the VEPAC golf
tournament or were sponsors. The VEPAC Golf Classic was even
more exciting this year because of the 'fun and games' put on my many
of the hole sponsors. Check out this year's golfers and
consider participating as this event gets better and better each year.
To obtain information about legislation introduced in the 2011 Session, click on the hyperlink below (the main home page for Legislative Services):
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