The past week of the session highlights both the frenetic pace that comes with forwarding hundreds of pieces of legislation to the opposite chamber before the “crossover” deadline, juxtaposed against the quiet of the short delay that precedes deliberations on the advancing bills from the other body. It provides a time to sift through the measures that have been defeated at the committee level, and reflect on the work accomplished so far.

I have been closely watching a bill of which I am a co-patron that would establish the process for electronic voting with a verifiable component for assuring our vote is tallied exactly as it was cast. In light of past elections, it is essential that voters trust the entire electoral process and our system should reflect the capabilities of our electronic age as well as safeguard the integrity of each vote. A verifiable voting record should be an aspect of that process.

I am disappointed the two bills that would have made this happen were transferred to the legislative commission charged with addressing electronic voting in Virginia. The commission will meet throughout 2006 with recommendations expected in December. While the decision is understandable, more to the point, elections happen in Virginia every year and by delaying action we merely frustrate an increasingly dubious electorate and put off the cost of refitting our voting machines.

I heard from a number of constituents about oversight for payday lending operations and the rampant increase in storefront businesses luring vulnerable individuals and families with a promise of easy money. A compromise bill to tighten the guidelines came out of committee with very little opposition. The issue involves protecting Virginia citizens from predatory practices while ensuring a free and open market for business and that balance isn’t always easy to maintain. During debate on the floor of the House, well meaning delegates worked to implement a process to further restrict multiple loans, and the patron, honoring a promise to supporters that no further changes would be made, struck the bill from the calendar—which leaves us without any change in the current process of regulating payday loans.

It might surprise some of you that the single issue on which I have received the most constituent response is support for a bill to improve emissions from smokestacks across the state. The original bill established numerical reduction levels in pollutants from electric generating plants and set up guidelines for analysis of air quality in plants around water or dense neighborhoods.

As you can imagine, the proposed changes raised opposition from large and small energy companies across the state. Both Dominion and Appalachian Power exhibited charts and graphs illustrating the significant progress each has made in decreasing total emissions. Proponents of the bill pointed to the lack of aggressive emission control at all power plants—with some discharging potentially dangerous levels of pollutants.

I received statements of support from every possible communication medium—letters, phone calls, e-mails, faxes and person to person visits. Those opposed to the bill were generally from the industry, but it did raise an interesting dilemma for me. Small electric cooperatives that serve rural communities, like those in the 12 th district, are working to compete against the huge power companies that dominate the Atlantic Coast. These rural co-ops work to meet all the EPA standards and, in part, base their rates on the federal regulations they must maintain. For these community co-ops the original bill posed financial and fairness problems that would cut into their operations more deeply than that of their large corporate competition.

The end result was a compromise bill that satisfied no one completely, but initiated a first step in cleaning up our air quality for communities around power plants. The major shortcoming of the bill from the environmental perspective is that it begins the process of lowering emissions but it allows power companies credit for over-compliance which can be used to circumvent emission levels at under-compliant plants. This will be an ongoing issue for all the parties concerned.

From this point on each chamber will address bills that have already passed the other legislative body. We are now in the checks and balances phase of the legislature. The House of Delegates will be considering, fine tuning or rejecting measures that have been sent from the Senate. The legislative work ahead will be analogous to offering a second opinion on a diagnosis, and the only obstacles will arise when the judgments are in conflict.

Probably the most significant aspect of passing the halfway point is what has yet to be addressed—transportation funding being the primary concern. Finding common ground for the future of our roads, rails, school, and health care will signal our most difficult challenge in the three weeks of session that still remain.

As usual, I hope if you have questions or concerns about legislation mentioned in this column, or any legislative matter, you will not hesitate to contact me at any of the following addresses. And again, I invite you to visit me in Richmond to discuss local or legislative issues of importance to you.