News

_{No holiday gift should send a kid to the hospital}

RICHMOND – In response to growing concern about the safety of children’s toys sold at the nation’s stores, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Brian Moran proposed the ‘Virginia Toy Safety Act’ today to ensure dangerous toys are off our store shelves, we keep only safe toys in child daycare facilities, and penalize those who endanger children by selling recalled toys. Delegate Moran was joined by Delegate Shannon Valentine (D-Lynchburg), John Morgan from Voices for Virginia’s Children and Dr. Colleen Kraft, President of the Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatricians. According to the Consumer Products Safety Commission, last year 73,000 kids went to the Emergency Room because of toy-related injuries.

“As the father of two young children I know how important safe toys are to our families during this holiday season,” said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Brian Moran. “No parent should worry about their child going to the Emergency Room because of a toy they received Christmas morning.”

There are more than 9 million toys under recall worldwide from major manufacturers today. The ‘VA Toy Safety Act’ will:

• Direct the Office of the Attorney General and the Department of Health to remove recalled toys from the shelves in Virginia and to consider the development of standards for toys here in the Commonwealth.
• Mandate new regulations for our Child Daycare Council to keep high led based toys and toys with other carcinogens away from children in both homes-based child care and our child care centers.
• Create a new civil penalty for stores that knowingly resell recalled toys to families for their children.

“The ‘Toy Safety Act’ provides new protections from dangerous recalled toys being sold in Virginia stores,” said Delegate Moran. “The Federal Government has failed to provide needed protection to our families, so I’m asking Virginia to step forward.”

The Consumer Products Safety Commission has only one toy tester and a tiny force of 15 inspectors to check millions of toys at hundreds of ports of entry. A recent report released by the Washington Toxic Coalition found that an unacceptable number of children’s toys are contaminated with lead, mercury, and cadmium at levels that are dangerously high. Lead exposure in children and unborn children can cause brain and nervous system damage, behavioral and learning problems, slowed growth, hearing problems and headaches.

“Families in Virginia deserve to know our children are being protected from toys known to be dangerous and toxic. This legislation demonstrates our responsibility to keep our children as safe as possible,” said Delegate Valentine.

For more information or to sign on as a ‘Citizen Cosponsor’ of the ‘Toy Safety Act’ visit www.NoDangerousToys.com

invests in research and technology and making more room for Virginia students

ALEXANDRIA – House Democratic Caucus Chairman Brian Moran joined Governor Tim Kaine for today’s announcement of a Higher Education Bond Initiative and made the following statement. Governor Kaine and Delegate Moran were joined by College Presidents and Business leaders from across the Commonwealth. This is the most significant investment in higher education capital improvements in over five years.

“In the 21st century global economy, investing in our higher education system is key. An overwhelming three-quarters of new R&D centers built in the next three years will be constructed in India and China. Governor Kaine has taken a bold step today to invest in building capacity at Virginia’s colleges and universities. We will make room for aspiring young minds who help fulfill our critical shortages of teachers, nurses and doctors. We will invest in cutting edge research to compete in this new century. This is a critical initiative – the most significant in 5 years – to move forward on higher education and I am proud to partner with Governor Kaine to get it done.”

invests in reducing infant mortality and easing costs to small businesses

ALEXANDRIA – House Democratic Caucus Chairman Brian Moran made the following statement about Healthcare Access proposal released today by Governor Kaine. Delegate Moran was a member of the Governor’s Healthcare Reform Commission and is a member of the Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee in the House of Delegates.

“Today the Governor proposed a responsible set of initiatives to provide access to quality care for those Virginians who need it most,” said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Brian Moran. “We brought together the best experts in this Healthcare Commission and developed a set of fiscally responsible proposals. The plan invests in reducing our infant morality rate and easing the rising healthcare costs for small businesses. I look forward to working hard to make sure these initiatives are successful and we expand critically needed care.”

In Virginia, we have approximately 1 million uninsured and 70% of those are working or living in a household with a working family member. The Governor’s proposal comes from recommendations of his Healthcare Reform Commission and provides $5 million each year of the biennium for free clinics, health centers and the Virginia Healthcare Foundation. We will add positions to the Office of Minority Health and Public Policy and funding for Mission of Mercy and Virginia Dental Health Foundation for the thousands who can’t afford dental care. The proposal expands healthcare services to low-income women, provides for Breast and Cervical Cancer detection and expands FAMIS to cover 400 new women. Lastly, we developed a new small business health insurance program to help provide coverage for small businesses to low-income families.

“The Governor has begun to tackle a moral crisis facing Virginia – where we have the 17th highest infant mortality rate in the nation. This plan takes the first steps to expand prenatal care and provide critical services to mothers with children in that first fragile year of life. In addition, Governor Kaine has acted on the pressing challenge rising healthcare costs present for small businesses, and developed a strong pilot program to help decrease costs to employer,” Moran said.

Brian Moran is Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and a Delegate representing Alexandria City and Fairfax County. He is a former Arlington County Prosecutor and member of the Governors Healthcare Reform Commission. He was named the ‘Child Advocate of the Year’ by the Virginia PTA.

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Brian J. Moran keynoted the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy 25th Annual Meeting at the Imani Center in Richmond. Brian spoke about the role faith and values play in forming public policy and about the challenges facing a compassionate community. He discussed key priorities for 2008 of early childhood education, children’s healthcare, and environmental protection. The Virginia Interfaith Center is a nonpartisan coalition of faith communities working to create change through education and public policy.

The full text of Delegate Moran’s remarks (as prepared) follow:

REMARKS TO THE VIRGINIA INTERFAITH CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY 25TH ANNIVERSARY ANNUAL MEETING

by Delegate Brian J. Moran

House Democratic Caucus Chairman

Thank You for that kind introduction and for the invitation to be with you all tonight. It’s a pleasure and an honor to address your annual meeting. A special thank you to our host tonight, a good friend of mine, and a long-time advocate for the issues we all care so much about. Reverend Dwight Jones, thank you for having us, for your friendship, for your leadership and your guidance.

I also want to thank my good friend Doug Smith. I’ve had the privilege of working with Doug for several years now and he continues to be a great advocate. He truly is a voice for the voiceless.

I also want to take a moment to commend each of you for a quarter century of tireless work for the least among us. For 25 years, you have fought for those who all too often don’t get a seat at the table, and on this – your 25th year – I thank you.

I hope and pray that 25 years from now Virginians will be lucky enough to have you still fighting for them. But more than that, I hope that 25 years from now we are no longer fighting these same fights. Only then can we claim to have achieved a Compassionate Commonwealth. A compassionate commonwealth of equal opportunity for all of our citizens.

We have had remarkable successes in these first 25 years. Successes due to the committed leaders here in this room and across Virginia…leaders who share a set of values and a common approach to the public good…

Much is said and rightly so about our values and the way they shape public policy. We each come by our values and our morals in different ways – my focus today is helping my two young children develop their morals and values.

I am the product of a large Irish Catholic family – the youngest of 7. During my first years, I believed my name was either Jesus, Mary or Joseph.

We attend church every Sunday, received the sacraments and, as a catholic school student, attended 1st Friday mass and confession.

As important as those were to developing my values, the classes and teachings came second to the values I learned from my parents. Though at times modest and unassuming regarding their religion, they possessed tremendous courage, faith, love of god and family. They believed in the power of prayer, and I can still recall vividly as the family knelt and prayed the rosary for the safe return of our Apollo astronauts. They practiced charity and kindness, as they brought into our home two inner city foster children to join our family. And their deep faith was demonstrated when they helped us believe that everything would turn out alright, even after dad had been laid off from his job.

My parents values are my values, I hope they will become my children’s values, and I know they are the values that we share here tonight. They believed – as I do – that “we show thee my faith by my works.”

And that’s what this center is all about – about leaders who not only share strong values, but who roll up their sleeves and work for what we believe in. Our work, together, has brought tremendous accomplishments.

We believe that the hungry shall be filled, and so we eliminated the food tax which fell on those least able to pay it.

We believe that the poor shall see the kingdom of heaven, so we spent 10 years fighting for an increase in the minimum wage so no one working 40 hours a week has to live in poverty.

We believe those who thirst for righteousness are blessed, so we created an indigent defense commission to fight for equal justice for all Virginians.

We believe the meek shall inherit the earth, so we created an Earned Income Tax Credit that has lifted 2.5 million children out of poverty.

And because, today, we need the wisdom of Solomon just to get by in our modern world, we invested more in education than ever before in Virginia history.

We achieve these things in service to all, because we believe that, “here on earth, God’s work must truly be our own.”

And, our values are not just about the solutions we seek, but the way in which we achieve them – through inclusion – by reaching an outstretched hand of unity to Christians, Jews, Muslims and peoples of all faiths. That is why your group and the work you do is so important.

But our work remains far from complete.

Because how can we be satisfied, when the wealthiest nation on earth, the richest nation in human history, allows one in five of its children to live in poverty?

How can we be satisfied, when 47 million of our fellow Americans have no health care at all?

How can we ever be satisfied, when the nation that ranks first in millionaires is 37th in the world for infant mortality?

How can we say we are satisfied when the child of a family making 90,000 dollars a year is 8 times more likely, to get a college degree than the child of a family making $35,000 dollars?

We know as long as these inequities exist we don’t live in a just world.

When our founding creed declares that all are created equal, that means that every child deserves to grow up healthy. It means that every child deserves equal access to education. It means no family should live homeless and in poverty.

But today, we can’t look into the eyes of a homeless Virginian and say that our work is done. We can’t look into the face of a child born into poverty and say we did all we could do. We can’t look into the faces of the greatest generation and promise them that they will be able to age with dignity and respect. We can not look into these faces and say that we’ve kept our promise to “seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly before our God.”

That is why we are here tonight. It’s why we do what we do.

So how are we going to do this – how do we take the next steps towards a more just and compassionate Commonwealth? With the 2008 General Assembly starting soon, there are works to be done. I would like to offer a few suggestions of what we can do in Richmond this coming session.

This year we must work to expand coverage for prenatal care to the women who need it most and target state resources to the communities most affected. Virginia has the 17th highest infant mortality rate in the nation. Seventeenth! This isn’t a choice, it’s a moral imperative. So we are going to expand the work of the Office of Faith Based Services to help save these young lives. I’m going to ask the state to work with many of you in this room – to work with leaders of our faith community to coordinate our efforts and get a message out to those young mothers who don’t know what they need to do and don’t know where to go to get it.

Next, we are going to focus on strengthening access to opportunity for all. Following Governor Kaine’s lead, we will work together to expand early childhood education for Virginia families. We will make sure that every child gets a head start in this increasingly competitive global economy—no matter their race, their ability to pay, or where they’re from. Research tells us a child’s brain develops before kindergarten, and we have to invest in their young minds when it matters the most. It’s clear that the costs of inaction are far too high.

And our challenges extend outside the hospital and the classroom. We must work to preserve the natural wonders that God has given us—the forests of the Great Southwest, the Chesapeake Bay, the rivers, streams, and habitats that make up the natural beauty of our Commonwealth. I want my children and their children, and countless more generations to enjoy these beautiful treasures. This year we will provide incentives to construct more efficient and environmentally friendly state buildings, develop new ways to buy energy saving appliances at home and advance the cause of research and development for alternative and renewable energy solutions.

These are more than policy goals. This is us working for our values. It’s what I learned growing up with a father and mother who believed we honor god when we honor our neighbor – that when we do good works we practice our faith.

I am confident we can tackle these challenges before us because we have leaders like Delegate Kenny Melvin, Rev. Dwight Jones and Bobby Littlefield – and people like each of you. You are guided by a moral compass that leads you towards the difficult challenges that are too often overlooked… dedicated to fighting for the people who need our help the most.

Each of you are “ripples of hope” – crisscrossing from each corner of the Commonwealth and building a current that will usher in a more compassionate Commonwealth. We believe in a Virginia that is not only worthy of the great ideals of our Constitution, but lives up to the values of our scripture.

This work isn’t going to be easy, but we know that “the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

But we can not do it alone. There are too many Virginians who share our commitment to common values but are not yet engaged in this great work. It is our challenge to find more allies for our cause—We have to look at the small businessman who’s trying to grow his company…we have to reach the hourly worker living paycheck to paycheck…. We have to find the college student studying to be a doctor… we need the single mom struggling to get by…. And we owe it to the veteran who has given all they can to a grateful nation.

We need them in our corner.

We have a tremendous task before us. But thanks to each of you, we have a great start.

We can build a commonwealth that demonstrates the best of our shared values – the values my parents taught me – and the values I’m working to instill in my children.

Thank you all and god bless.”

_{petition author, Bryan Ault, supports repeal effort}

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Brian J. Moran announced legislation to repeal the Abusive Driver Fee’s in this session of the General Assembly. Brian has consistently opposed the abuser fees since their first introduction several years ago. Yesterday’s release of a report from the Joint Legislative Audit Review Commission confirmed that the fees have been ineffective and today Brian announced his legislation to repeal the fees and refund those drivers unfairly taxed. Last summer over 180,000 Virginians signed petitions in opposition to these fees.

“We have said all along that these fee’s are a Washington-style gimmick that wouldn’t stand the test of time. They don’t make our roads safer, fail to generate real money for transportation, and turn our police officers in to tax collectors,” said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Brian J. Moran “It’s time for their repeal. I hope my Republican colleagues will join my efforts in opposition to these fees.”

The report, released yesterday, said that the fees program could lead to 137,000 drivers’-license suspensions by the end of June 2008 and to 181,000 more in the next fiscal year.

“The people spoke in this falls elections when proponents of the fees were defeated, and the research now confirm that these fees provide no real safety benefit on the roadways,” said Moran. “It’s time we end the unfair taxation on only Virginia drivers.”

The JLARC report said the fees could fall well short of a $65 million-a-year goal. They cited collection procedural differences, uncertainty over the penalties, and discretion of police and judges.

“These findings are unfortunate, but not surprising because the ‘abusive driver fees’ were never intended as a traffic safety solution. The fees are failing in Virginia in the same way similar measures have failed in other states, and they must be fully repealed. I fully support Delegate Moran’s efforts to repeal the ‘abusive driver fees’ and refund money to the Virginia motorists who have already been unfairly penalized with these fees,” said Bryan Ault, the author of the online petition that garnered 180,000 signatures.

In 2004, Michigan enacted fees that have generated around 1/3 of what was anticipated in revenue and judges are calling for their repeal because they are seeing dramatic increases in the number of drivers cited for driving with suspended licenses. “I think it is a very destructive piece of legislation that is designed primarily for revenue purposes and is disguised as a highway safety measure,” said William C. Buhl, a Circuit Court judge in Van Buren County, Mich. “In my opinion, it increases the dangers on the highways because it creates an enormous, growing pool of unlicensed motorists.” (Washington Post, July 24, 2007) As well, in Texas, a 2007 study showed that the program was failing because of the inability of the offenders to pay the fees.

Brian J. Moran is Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and a delegate from Alexandria City and Fairfax County. He is a former Arlington County prosecutor and 2006 Sheriff’s Association Legislator of the Year. He has repeatedly been named Legislator of the Year by Mothers Against Drunk Driving.