This article was written January 13 by Andrea Hopkins. It is just another example of my father's ability to think independently and act independently of the group think that is unfortunately occurring in our state capital.

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In the latest open government clash in Richmond, Delegate Bob Marshall has emerged as an unlikely hero – the lone voice of reason among House Republicans.

Marshall, a fiery social conservative who hails from Prince William County, was the only member of his delegation to vote in favor of recording subcommittee votes last week. The measure did not pass.

The subcommittee system remains an unaccountable black hole, where House lawmakers send unpopular measures to die. No comparable bill-killing chamber exists in the state Senate.

THIS RAISES a question. Can the state’s Republican senators help their House comrades locate their spines?

But back to Marshall for a moment. His support of this essential government-accountability measure likely stems from his personal experiences in the legislature. It isn’t just the bills of liberal Democrats that die in subcommittees; Marshall, who is a bit of a maverick and to the right of his delegation on social issues, has been a victim of this parliamentary trick.

A prolific producer of legislation for 16 years, Marshall watched a majority of his bills die in the subcommittee system without a recorded vote last year. In fact, his colleagues dispatched 55 of his bills in committee or subcommittee in 2007.

THERE’S A reason for this. Marshall’s bills often deal with hot-button issues like abortion, divorce and other matters of morality. If these bills are eliminated in a subcommittee, lawmakers don’t have to put their support or opposition on the record. And, they don’t have to explain their votes back in the district.

In the last session, the subcommittee black hole allowed lawmakers to sidestep potential Marshall-authored landmines like a bill to forbid no-fault divorces for couples with children and a bill to make abortion illegal in the state if Roe v. Wade is ever overturned. Such an easy out must warm the cockles of lawmakers’ hearts, since voting on such issues is guaranteed to alienate a portion of the electorate.

So far this year, Marshall has remained true to form and introduced 75 bills, covering a range of topics from the innocuous to the controversial. The proposal to ban abortion in Virginia, if federal law is changed, is back. But that’s not the only controversy into which Marshall is wading.

HE WANTS to privatize the state-run liquor stores, make abortion of a viable fetus a felony, allow localities to regulate payday lenders, eliminate a requirement that sixth grade girls get the cervical cancer vaccine and allow college professors to carry guns to class.

Certainly, some lawmakers would rather not vote on some of these measures.

But allowing as few as two delegates to kill bills – even illogical ones – without a recorded vote isn’t in the public interest. It’s a secretive process that drives a stake through the heart of government transparency. Lawmakers require transparency at the local government level; the same rules should apply in Richmond.

The article is continued here.

Source: TriCities.com