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It all happened late this afternoon, in rapid fire succession, all starting with a blatant mis-speak by Delegate Ben Cline (R-24, Rockbridge) when bringing his spending transparency bill (HB 2285) to the floor.

Explaining the Senate’s floor amendment to the bill and why it should be “severed” (which elicited some sarcastic “oooohs”):

“I talked to the patron and he’s okay with it.”

Speaker Bill Howell (R-28, Stafford), to what may have been the loudest laughter in session this year:

“You are the patron!”

After Majority Leader Morgan Griffith (R-8 Salem) parodied Cline to more laugher, Delegate Todd Gilbert (R-15, Woodstock) stepped up for a bill of his own:

“Mr. Speaker, I have a question of the patron. Would the patron yield?”

The House laughed louder than the original faux paux. Then Delegate Gilbert added, “I can go on. This is easy.”

It’s been a long “short session” and they’ve been on the floor for hours at a time. It’s definitely time to bring down this curtain and let them go home!

The Senate earlier this afternoon passed by a vote of 38-0 SB 936, by agreeing to the House’s amendments, thus avoiding a conference committee and sending the spending transparency bill to Governor Tim Kaine (contact here). The bill, patroned by Senator Ken Cuccinelli (R-37, Fairfax), did not receive a single negative vote in two Senate committees, one House sub-committee, two House Committees, one House floor vote and two Senate floor votes, three bill versions and three fiscal impact statements.

Within the last few minutes, on the House floor, the House agreed to the Senate substitute of HB 2285, patroned by Delegate Ben Cline (R-24, Rockbridge). Then, by a vote of 93-3, it rejected the Senate floor amendment which would have added legislative transparency to the budget writing process, but had nothing to do with the posting of actual state spending online. It was rejected because the same basic idea of the amendment was rejected by the House Appropriations Committee earlier this session as a free-standing bill. Lawmakers are hesitant to approve policy on the floor as bill amendments when previously rejected in committee where the pros and cons were aired out.

This action makes the bill conform to SB 936. It goes back to the Senate to accept or reject the House’s action, probably tomorrow. If it accepts it, it will go to the governor as an identical bill as SB 936. If not, there will be a committee of conference at which point the amendment will be accepted, rejected or negotiations will fall apart and the bill will die. Either way, SB 936 is a baseline, and there is the slimmest of chances — if the amendment is included — HB 2285 can be made a bit stronger. At the very least, SB 936 will go to the governor!

Lots of stuff going on, but let me draw your attention to two articles: An article by the Lynchburg News & Advance reports on a possible Republican pick-up in the 23rd House of Delegates seat this fall (currently held by Democrat Shannon Valentine), in part because of increased voter registration by Liberty University students. The reader discussion on the article’s thread is pretty robust.

The other article of note is the AP article about the Kansas abortion center case (see video here) first brought by former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline (another video here), who our 2008 Gala keynote speaker. The trial judge refused the motion to dismiss the case made by lawyers for the abortion center.

Disagreements Over Kaine Proposals Holding Up Budget Deal (Washington Post)

Va. budget negotiators hit impasse (Richmond Times-Dispatch) 

House budget would cut $650,000 for PBS station (Norfolk Virginian-Pilot)

General Assembly confirms interim Va. attorney general (Lynchburg News & Advance)

Lynchburg House race gets high profile (Lynchburg News & Advance)

Number of households with kids hits new low (USA Today) 

Judge refuses to throw out Kansas abortion case (AP)

Right, and Left Out (Washington Post)

Hopefully, sometime today, or, if not, then tomorrow, we will have a  spending transparency bill sent to Governor Tim Kaine (contact here) for his signature.

Here’s the status of both HB 2285 and SB 936: The former, patroned by Delegate Ben Cline (R-24, Amherst), is back in the House after getting conformed to the Senate version then amended further. The House must accept the amendments or reject them. If the former, it will go to the governor. If not, it goes to a conference committee. As amended, it has a bit more transparency than the Senate version.

The Senate version is back in the Senate because the House made amendments, but it should have no problems — the House amendments were offered by the patron, Senator Ken Cuccinelli (R-37, Fairfax), when it was in the House. When amendments by the other body are supported by the patron, they are accepted. Then that will go to the governor.

Right now, it’s a matter of seeing what the House does. If it accepts the Senate amendments, we’re golden. If not, it will probably end up mirroring SB 936. Either way, it looks like we’re going to get at least an moderately expanded window in which to view the doling out of our tax dollars.

The Senate earlier today passed, by a vote of 35-3, the amended House version of SB 817, the omnibus licence plate bill that includes the Choose Life plate amendment! Now the bill, with a veto-proof majority goes to Governor Tim Kaine for his signature (contact here).

The question now is, will the governor veto it anyway, and try to convince enough members in one chamber to sustain it or, the more likely, amend the bill without the Choose Life plate provision and see if he can get both chambers to go along? Friendly persuasion never hurts. But right now, it’s time to relish a great victory through a lot of hard work by a lot of people — and some smart legislating by certain lawmakers (see video here).

That said, it is telling how much effort it takes to get such a simple bill passed. No wonder more Pro-Life laws of substance don’t get passed, much less signed.