FFV trip to Richmond 2/17/14 and Reports and plans about HB933
D'Arcy L McGreer
Report by Kenneth Skilling on the trip to Richmond this 2/17/14:
The results of a visit by three FFV members to Richmond on Monday, February 17, can best be described as "mixed." On the one hand, FFV representatives felt that they had registered some of the serious objections to HB 933, a bill that would increase child support payments, and the FFV members clearly established that the bill was not merely a routine uncontroversial measure to update the amounts in the CS guideline. On the other hand, there were no clear indications that the bill can be blocked at this point.
The three FFV representatives, D'Arcy McGreer, Kenneth Skilling, and John Westbrook, spent the day contacting the offices of senators who are members of the Senate Courts of Justice Committee. The committee is soon to consider the child support bill, HB 933. (The bill has already been approved by the House of Delegates.) The basic idea of these contacts was (a) to make Courts of Justice senators aware of the shortcomings of the bill, and (b) to try to persuade them to vote against the bill when the committee considers it, or at least to postpone consideration of the bill.
Among the points made by one senator, and by the legislative aides who saw the FFV members, were the following:
(1) The senate is now controlled by Democrats, and they are most unlikely to reject any bill introduced by a Democratic House member and already approved by the full House. FFV members were told that northern Virginia Democratic senators would be particularly reluctant to block HB 933, because the bill's main sponsor was Del. Vivian Watts, a northern Virginia Democratic delegate. The legislative aide who gave this assessment of the situation advised that the best way of derailing the bill at this point would be to ask Del. Watts to agree to her bill being held over (i.e. postponed) until the 2015 legislative session, on the basis that the Child Support Guideline Review Panel had not completed a comprehensive review of all the topics that were on its agenda.
(2) Despite (1) above, another aide for a northern Virginia senator told FFV members that there was no solid Democratic front within the Senate Courts of Justice Committee, and the committee had, for example, recently rejected a bill backed by House Democrats that had the support of the Commonwealth's attorney general.
(3) Several legislative aides, and their senators, seemed to have little knowledge of the controversies surrounding the child support issue, and appeared open to being told about HB 933's shortcomings. Whether this interest in the bill will be translated into votes against it in the Senate Courts of Justice Committee is still unclear, but there are grounds for hope.
FFV's immediate action will be focused on ways of persuading Del. Watts to agree to her bill being held over until 2015. This step would not be seen as a radical change of course, and would provide a chance to persuade the CS review panel to address some of the guideline issues that are of particular concern for fathers, such as the 90-day "cliff effect." One significant point is that, during the visits to senators' offices, FFV representatives were told that it would be particularly important for those opposed to HB 933 to attend, and testify at, the meeting of the Senate Courts of Justice Committee at which the bill will be discussed.
FFV does not yet know when HB 933 will be discussed in the Senate Courts of Justice Committee. The expectation had been that consideration would take place on Wednesday, February 19. However, the agenda for the committee meeting on that day, released late on February 17, does not include HB 933. As soon as we know the date for consideration of the bill, we will let you know.
Additional notes by dlm:
Today’s trip (2/17/14) showed that even though communication by telephone, email and letters is still important, prepared face to face communication can still have a powerful affect, even if it not with the Senator, but the Senator’s assistant. HB 933 passed overwhelmingly in the House, so it seems to be a bill that is not controversial for the House of delegates, but could be with the Senate because of the efforts by those of us who went to Richmond today and sought face to face meetings with all the Senators on the Senate Courts of Justice and everyone who has communicated directly with this committee in the past. I have received emails from others about their efforts in recent weeks, some spending a day or even a week in Richmond to meet with legislatures. Your efforts in the past might have paved the way for us who went to Richmond today.
This Bill about child support the Senators like the delegates do not want to or are not concerned to really know and understand like other “hot button” and “well known” issues that make the news, therefore, repeated contacts and/or communication will only help to convinced the very busy Senator to understand better the implications of HB 933. I think this can be an advantage in that we and you are the one’s educating the Senators. Based on what Kenneth stated above, this bill will probably not be voted on until next Monday, therefore if you have not communicated with this committee yet you need to do so immediately. See the previous FFV messages on how to do that. If you have already consider sending another email or letter or telephone call to this committee and to your Senator with arguments you have not used before to show why HB933 should not be supported by the committee as it has from the House of Delegates. It needs to be killed, delayed or amended. You can do your own research and arguments or/and you can use the documents and arguments used in the previous messages already sent out on the FFV Google email list.
One argument I made with the spread sheet I put together with the present tables and the new proposed table of child support is that the new table based on the numbers makes it impossible for the poor or low-income non-custodial parent to pay the demanded amounts. This will result in just more poor non-custodial parents being put in jail, courts clogged, oppressed with all kinds of license suspension and forced to work “under the table” and/or just “drop out” of society altogether. But, there was a problem with my spreadsheet being too complicated for some of the senators and/or aids. I will work on a simplified version. If anyone wants to help me with this let me know.
We concluded after receiving advice from some of the Senator aids that we need a presence at the committee hearing on HB933 to speak against this bill. Therefore Kenneth has agreed to organize a “quick reaction force” that will attend the hearing. This group of individuals have to be ready to go to Richmond with only 12 hours’ notice. If you could be part of this quick reaction force please contact Kenneth now at nim...@verizon.net. So far, we might be like the Bronco’s in the Superbowl 2014, but maybe we could do what some of us wished the Bronco’s would have done in the fourth quarter, a miraculous grabbing victory out of the jaws of Defeat happening. What does that miraculous victory look like. If we can get the Senate Courts of Justice Committee to delay or table or even amend HB933 then the difference between the House and Senate versions will have to be negotiated between the two bodies. This gives us an opportunity to finally delay, table or kill this bill so that a better one for next year is produced.
Sender of this message: D’Arcy L McGreer, Cell: 703-389-4496. 2200 Wilsom Blvd, Ste 102 – 271, Arlington, VA 22201-3324. FFV website: http://www.virginiafathers.org/. Reply to fathe...@gmail.com.