The Committee’s Unvoiced Opinions

The Committee’s Unvoiced Opinions

By Jason Marshall- Eastside High School

         The approval process of a law or amendment can take several days, if not weeks and will be viewed and debated by a multitude of different delegates, senators, etc. One of the first and most crucial steps of this process is to pass a bill through an associated committee. The committee is where many bills are filtered through to ensure that only the most relevant bills proceed to the House or Senate chambers. These bills are often hotly debated and discussed by all members of that committee with the exception of the chairperson of said committee.

The chair is an extremely important role that keeps everything in order and keeps a committee together, however they are never able to voice their opinion. Many may think that this is of no concern since the chairperson is allowed to discuss their opinions during chambers, but every voice matters.

         This year’s MGA started off with an amazing variety of bills to be discussed and an even greater assortment of participants to convey their ideas. After speaking with a two of this years committee chairs, I have found that they too, have their own opinions on these bills and even advice for the patrons and anyone debating bills.

Nick Cooney of Radford High School was one of this year’s chairmen for the Senate’s (Old Dominion) Committee of Public Safety. His committee ultimately defeated two of the six bills proposed. In an interview, Cooney stated that “Both of the bills were interesting, but I believe that the committee simply didn’t understand the language of either bill." Cooney, soon after followed up with, “I don’t believe I would have significantly swayed the outcome of the bills, but I may have been able to help them understand what they were debating.”

Another committee chairperson, Sydney Brown, in the House’s (Commonwealth) Committee of Education had some interesting thoughts for her own committee. She believed that many were intimidated or scared to express themselves. “I encourage those in these debates to stand up for their beliefs” (Brown, Faith Christian School).

         After discussing with a few other Committee chairs, I found that they all basically had the same thing to say. They all said that there definitely were some suggestions they would have made to many of the bills; however, they all insisted that the patrons and debaters needed to stand up for what they believed. That they need to voice their opinion and that sometimes it only takes one voice to persuade the entire room, or one voice to decide the fate of a bill.