State and National Government
This morning, Governor Glenn Youngkin reported to a joint committee about Virginia’s record general fund balance, and said he plans to use some of it to give back to Virginians. WFIR’s Emma Thomas:
Photo: AP
State Senator David Suetterlein says the Youngkin administration has developed plans to help avoid catastrophic highway gridlock when a major snowstorm strikes. A state Inspector General’s report released Friday says Virginia failed to carry out numerous lessons from similar previous snow emergencies on Interstate 81 when 40 miles of I-95 became totally blocked last January. Suetterlein says state officials have already acted in efforts to avoid any more repeats, starting with a response plan. WFIR’s Evan Jones has more:
Suetterlein knows I-81 quite well. His district covers many of the highway’s snow-prone miles between Salem and Wytheville.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia government failed to carry out numerous lessons from a 2018 snowstorm that caused highway gridlock, as exhibited by a similar event along Interstate 95 in January that left hundreds of motorists stranded, a state watchdog office concluded. The Office of the Inspector General report, released Friday, was critical of how the state transportation, police and emergency management agencies performed during the severe snowstorm that began Jan. 3, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
Logjams along a 40-mile (65-kilometer) stretch of I-95 in both directions not far from the nation’s capital led to outrage among motorists, some of whom were stuck in their vehicles overnight and pleaded on social media for help. In April, a state-commissioned report created by a nonprofit group didn’t place blame on any single person or agency. But it found state agencies collectively “lost situational awareness” and failed to keep up with growing gridlock through a confluence of heavy snowfall, abnormally high traffic and staffing shortages related to COVID-19. Up to 11 inches (28 cm) of snow fell in the area.
“They’ve got to prepare for when things go awry and they don’t get what they expect,” said Ben Sutphin, the audit manager for the I-95 investigation. The state’s communication to the public about the severity of the road hazards was ineffective or misleading, the report said. Drivers also underestimated dangers because of mild weather during the New Year’s weekend before the storm. The report specifically cited a message to stranded motorists that “state & locals coming ASAP with supplies & to move you.”
A lack of backup electrical power for state Department of Transportation road cameras also made it hard to monitor highway conditions, the report said. The inspector general didn’t fault then-Gov. Ralph Northam for failing to declare a state of emergency before the storm “because the forecasted event … did not rise to the level to issue an emergency declaration.” Northam, a Democrat, was in the waning days of his administration, with Republican Glenn Youngkin taking office less than two weeks later. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who was himself caught in the gridlock, said Friday that he hopes the report’s recommendations will be followed. “We should always be applying lessons learned to improve safety for Virginians.”
9th District Republican Congressman Morgan Griffith, who all long with all other GOP members on his side of the aisle in the House, has condemned the Inflation Reduction Act, which will now go to President Joe Biden for his signature after it was passed yesterday. The Senate approved the sweeping bill on a party line vote last weekend: “Under the misleading and inaccurate title of the ‘Inflation Reduction Act,’ Democrats put together a wrongheaded wish list that will raise taxes, unleash the IRS, implement the Green New Deal, and impose cure-killing price controls in medicine.
“This bill will not help Americans struggling with high prices. By raising taxes, subsidizing unreliable energy sources, and penalizing affordable fossil fuels, it will make the cost-of-living crisis worse. And thanks to the $80 billion this bill sends to the IRS to hire 87,000 new agents, more middle-income earners can expect a time-consuming and expensive audit. “These are the priorities of the current majorities in the House and Senate and the Biden Administration. Americans will take note as they survey the consequences of this outrageous bill.”
Meanwhile 6th District Republican Congressman Ben Cline released this statement: “Today, House Democrats approved a $740 billion spending bill at a time of 40-year high inflation, an ongoing recession, and over $30 trillion in national debt. The bill includes $16.7 billion in increased taxes for those making less than $200,000 a year; $38 billion in new taxes on American oil and gas producers; $480 billion in tax hikes that will hit workers through increased prices and slashed wages; and $369 billion — half of the spending — in government handouts to socialist ‘Green New Deal’ priorities, making us more dependent on China for minerals. Further, the package provides $80 billion to double the size of the IRS, adding an army of 87,000 new enforcement agents to spy into Americans’ private financial accounts and harass taxpayers and small businesses. This will make the IRS workforce larger than the Pentagon, FBI, State Department, and Customs and Border Patrol, combined.
Hard-working Americans in Virginia and across the Nation are desperate for relief from Democrats’ mismanagement of our economy. Unfortunately, this bill’s passage is a loss for all those whose paychecks and savings are being eaten up by 40-year high inflation. I will keep fighting every day against Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats’ reckless tax-and-spend agenda that is destroying the American dream.”
Democratic National Committee chair Jamie Harrison sees it differently: “without a single Republican vote, Democrats in Congress took on special interests and won. They took decisive action to lower the cost of prescription drugs, lower energy costs, and lower health care costs. They voted to reduce the deficit to help fight inflation. Democrats also took aggressive action to fight the climate crisis that will create jobs and increase our energy security. Finally, they made sure large corporations and billionaire tax cheats would pay their fair share in taxes, without middle-class families paying a penny more in taxes.”
After months of negotiations, a 755-page version of the Inflation Reduction Act passed the Senate with the House expected to possibly pass it today. GOP Congressman Ben Cline, who represents Roanoke, said live on WFIR this morning that he won’t vote for it. Hear the complete conversation from this morning – including Cline’s take on the Mar-A-Lago raid – on the link below:
WFIR Political Analyst Bob Denton says whatever may follow Monday’s FBI search of Donald Trump’s Florida home, you can count on one thing for sure — the former president will make every effort to turn it to his full political advantage. Denton says if anything, the unprecedented law enforcement search of a former president’s residence is likely to to rally Trump supporters, but among Independents, recent polls were already showing Trump losing support. Denton says it is too early to know how the search, and the legal process that will now follow it, might impact this fall’s Congressional elections — let alone the coming presidential campaign of 2024. More from WFIR’s Evan Jones:
Rep. Morgan Griffith
Members of Congress are mourning the traffic death of a colleague in her rural Indiana district, an accident that underscores the large amount of road miles that are frequently a part of the job description. 9th District Congressman Morgan Griffith says he puts in 35,000 to 40,000 road miles a year on Congressional business in a district that extends more than 200 miles from Salem to the far tip of southwest Virginia. His Congressional colleague Jackie Walorski was on an Indiana road Wednesday when a head-on crash took her life and those of two staffers. Griffith says highway risks are part the job in rural districts, and it doesn’t matter what party you belong to. More from WFIR’s Evan Jones:
Rep. Morgan Griffith
A new marijuana bill is working its way through Congress, and an area congressman says its passage would help federal lawmakers deal with future marijuana-related decisions. Morgan Griffith says that federal scheduling of the drug has impeded research into its affects. More from WFIR’s Emma Thomas:
Rep. Morgan Griffith
From Congressman Griffith’s Office: Friday, July 29, 2022 – Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) issued the following statement after voting no on the assault weapons ban:
“The assault weapons ban is an unconstitutional infringement on the rights of law-abiding gun owners. I will always stand up for the Second Amendment, so I voted no on this gun ban.”