BY CHELYEN DAVIS

State lawmakers will return to Richmond on Wednesday to start the 60-day 2012 legislative session.
Between now and mid-March, the General Assembly will write a new two-year budget, tackle reforms to the Virginia Retirement System and K–12 education, and address issues ranging from uranium mining to gun rights, abortion to tax preferences to election laws.
So far, only about 250 bills and resolutions are showing up on the legislature’s website, but that number will swell—in the last long session, in 2010, nearly 3,000 bills and resolutions were filed.
The legislature’s session lasts 60 days in even-numbered years, when the budget is adopted; it’s 45 days in odd-numbered years.
Lawmakers will also face the first all-Republican leadership since 2001. In the Senate, the Republican majority is tenuous. There are 20 Democrats and 20 Republicans, with Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling being the tiebreaking vote that Republicans say gives them a majority. Democrats are still litigating that claim.
Republicans are expected to use their new power to push through conservative bills—abortion restrictions, gun rights, school choice and others—that in years past were killed by Senate Democrats.
That doesn’t mean voters will see a wholesale push on social issues in particular. Republican leaders have hinted that they want to focus on jobs and the economy, issues they view as the ones that got them elected in November.
House Speaker Bill Howell, R–Stafford, said the Senate, even with a Republican majority, is “probably not as conservative as a lot of the makeup of the House.” Some of the more conservative bills from the House “may not be warmly embraced” in the Senate, he said.
“It’s not like all of a sudden there’s going to be a dramatic change,” Howell said.
Local lawmakers have already filed some bills likely to generate controversy.
Del. Mark Cole, R–Spotsylvania, has a bill that requires public schools to keep track of how many students are illegal immigrants or the children of illegal immigrants and qualify for English as a Second Language classes. The state Board of Education would then compile those statistics and assess how much money those students are costing local schools, and ask the federal government for reimbursement.
“All I’m trying to do is get an idea of the cost of having to educate children who are not legally present in Virginia,” Cole said. “See if we can’t get the federal government to pay those costs or at least offset some of it, since it’s due to their failure to control the borders that we’re in this position.”
Cole said his bill wouldn’t track individual names, just numbers of students. Nor would it ask schools to reject students who are not legally present in this country.
“The bill does not deny anyone an education,” Cole said. “The federal courts have said we’ve got to try to educate everybody whether they’re in the country legally or not.”
Cole also has several bills related to the state’s concealed-weapons permits. One would essentially eliminate the requirement that you have a permit to carry a concealed weapon; it’s currently legal to carry openly without a permit, and Cole’s bill would say it’s also legal to carry concealed without a permit. He would keep the permit process in place for people who want a permit when traveling to states that recognize Virginia’s concealed-carry permit.
Cole has submitted one bill that would put the cost of party nominating primaries on the parties, not the state.
“I don’t think it’s right for the taxpayers to pay the costs for party nomination contests,” he said. “That should be paid for by the political parties, whatever party it is.”
He also has a bill that would limit the distribution of absentee ballots in nursing homes or retirement homes. Cole said that bill was sparked by some complaints from people whose elderly relatives have diminished mental capacity but voted absentee without the family’s knowledge.
Cole said he has filed some bills that he has in years past, hoping they’ll get passed this time.
“We’ll see how it goes.” he said. “It’ll be interesting to see the dynamics in the Senate and see how it actually goes.”
Sen. Richard Stuart, R–Stafford, also hopes a Republican majority will approve bills he has seen killed in the past.
One is his “castle doctrine” bill, which says you can shoot an intruder in your house. It specifically exempts a shooter from civil liability in such cases, if the shooting is justified.
“This is a bill I feel very strongly about,” Stuart said. “Essentially your home is your castle, and you should be able to defend your home with deadly force. You should be able to shoot that person, eliminate the threat without fear of being prosecuted or more importantly without the threat of being sued civilly by the spouse or significant other of the invader.”
Stuart, a former commonwealth’s attorney, has a number of law-and-order bills. One would require pharmacies to track every purchase of pseudophedrine—an ingredient in cold medicine but also in illegal methamphetamine.
Stuart said his bill would let police have “real-time information on people that are purchasing this stuff” in large quantities, and could help police break up meth labs. He said a pilot program in Westmoreland County led to one or two drug busts.
Stuart also has a bill that limits game wardens’ ability to check whether people are complying with game laws.
Stuart said game wardens are allowed to question hunters and fishermen about their activities, without having witnessed any potentially illegal activity on the part of those people.
“That is in direct violation of your Fourth Amendment constitutional right,” Stuart said. “That gives me a lot of concern.”
No other police officer can stop you just to check up on your activities, Stuart said. They have to observe you doing something illegal before they can stop you.
“The hunters in my district complain about it all the time,” Stuart added. “The game warden comes and interrupts their hunt to check them. The whole point of this is they’re out having a wholesome recreation. It just is contrary to our constitutional rights.”
Another Stuart bill institutes mandatory jail time for welfare fraud or other entitlement fraud.
A fraud conviction would bring a minimum six months in jail for a misdemeanor, and a year for a felony. The person would also be forever banned from receiving welfare or other entitlement benefits.
“It really raises the bar for the people who are guilty of welfare fraud or entitlement fraud,” Stuart said. “There are a lot of people out there who are truly in need, and [the money is] not there because of the others who are abusing and taking advantage of the system. We’ve got to send a clear message to the people who would abuse this system that we’re not going to tolerate that.”
The Fredericksburg region has several new lawmakers heading to Richmond—Sen. Bryce Reeves of the 17th Senate District; Del. Mark Dudenhefer of the 2nd House District; Del. Margaret Ransone of the 99th House District; Del. Peter Farrell of the 56th House District; and Sen. Tom Garrett of the 22nd Senate District.
They’ve been going through orientation and training sessions, looking for housing and finding their new offices.
Reeves said he has been given Room 320 in the General Assembly Building, and is moving a bed and a TV into a temporary apartment in downtown Richmond.
He has filed a few bills so far—two dealing with insurance and two with the sales tax—but plans more as the session gears up.
Ransone, too, has filed a few bills already. One would require drug testing for people receiving unemployment benefits, and another would ban conservation officers from hunting or fishing in the areas they patrol.

Chelyen Davis: 540/368-5028
cdavis@freelancestar.com

SOME UNUSUAL BILLS
Among the more unusual bills filed so far:

A 20-cents-per-bag tax on plastic bags
A bill to ban people from smoking in cars if children under the age of 13 are in the vehicle
A tax credit for launching your cremated remains into space
A bill to define life as starting at conception
Repeal of the requirement that girls get the HPV vaccine
A bill to let manufacturers of incandescent light bulbs get their products licensed through the state (presumably to avoid the upcoming federal ban)
A bill prohibiting legislation from referring to a tax by any other name but “tax”
Penalties for aiming a laser at aircraft
A bill to allow full-time faculty at colleges to carry concealed handguns on campus if they have a concealed-carry permit
A requirement that your driver’s license show your street address
A resolution to study whether Virginia should run a state-owned bank.