The Roanoke Times
February 22, 2012

When Republicans seized control of the evenly divided Virginia Senate last month, Democrats accused their counterparts of making a heavy-handed power grab with the aid of Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling's tie-breaking vote.

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"They can't be heard to complain about the fact that we continue to press for some semblance of power sharing," said McEachin, the chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus.

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In light of the Governor's release of his letter to Senators Saslaw and McEachin to the public they are releasing their response to the Governor to the public as well. A signed copy of this letter was hand delivered to the Governor's office at 2:45pm this afternoon. The text of the letter follows, and a PDF is attached to this message.

February 15, 2012
VIA HAND DELIVERY

The Honorable Robert F. McDonnell
Patrick Henry Building
Richmond, Virginia 23219

Dear Governor McDonnell,

Thank you for your kind note of yesterday. We are eager to work together, whenever possible, to accomplish the goals of the commonwealth and to ensure Virginians’ needs are met. However, I would like to emphasize that our concerns about the budget are not partisan, but substantive. We are eager to support a budget that offers real transportation solutions, returns money to classrooms and students, and does not harm the safety net.

Immediately after the election, when we could have and should have been coming together, you and the rest of your party engaged in harsh partisan rhetoric. Therefore, I find your concerns about partisanship to be rather ironic. Further, your release of your letter without waiting even twenty-four hours for a response smacks of gamesmanship and not of an effort to resolve our differences. In light of the release of your letter to the press, we are releasing our letter as well.

Friday, February 10^th was Kappa Alpha Psi Day at the General Assembly. Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. was founded January 5th, 1911 on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. With some 150,000 members throughout the world, the fraternity?s motto is ?Achievement: In Every Field of Human Endeavor?. This was their 4th Annual Virginia Legislative Day and each year they meet with legislators to discuss issues such as public education, economic development, health care, youth program initiatives and civil rights for all citizens.

WTVR 6
February 9, 2012

McEachin's legislation, Senate bill 649 would credit Thomas 27 years of service in the VA. Retirement System.

If the bills pass, those benefits would not only cover Thomas for the 27 years but the provision would be applied across the board.

"The retirement piece is new and we had to go through a lot of work to make sure we weren't doing special legislation so it will be available to other people should these unfortunate circumstances repeat themselves," said McEachin.

Additionally, he said Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli had a hand in helping them come up with that provision.

"I would like to thank him for his ideas with this bill. That was the part that he came up with, the VRS option. It was creative and helpful and appropriate to Mr. Haynesworth," added McEachin.

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Richmond Times-Dispatch
February 10, 2012

Legislation that would encourage local school boards to maintain a supply of EpiPens to administer to students suffering from severe allergic reactions appears on track to pass the General Assembly this year.

Senate Bill 656, sponsored by Sen. A. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico, unanimously passed the Senate Education and Health Committee and now heads to the Senate floor. Companion legislation in the House of Delegates, House Bill 1107, cleared the House Education Committee Wednesday on a 20-1 vote.

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The bill would authorize a school nurse or a trained and authorized school employee to administer the injection of epinephrine to a student who has a prescription on file or who is believed to be suffering from an anaphylactic reaction.

Read the entire article...

The Republican take over of the General Assembly seems to be leading to a discernible pattern of discrimination. Discrimination, that is, against those with less income. Whether it is making it more difficult to vote or requiring parenting classes or now subjecting those who receive assistance to drug testing, the party in charge is making a statement that those who earn less are somehow less capable, less worthy and even less equal.

Legislation now working its way through the House and Senate would require recipients of the government program Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or TANF to undergo drug testing. In other words, simply because these families have lower incomes they would be singled out for scrutiny and punitive actions. The justification for this unfair measure is that these people are receiving a government “hand-out.” If that is the criteria for drug testing, then the state should be considering instituting drug screenings for those who receive Tuition Assistance Grants and other academic support. Moreover, many corporations in the Commonwealth, particularly the coal industry, receive governmental subsidies. Perhaps we should be drug testing the CEOs and other management personnel from those corporations. Government largesse is widespread in Virginia and the nation. Were that the sole criteria for mandating drug screenings, many, many Virginians would be subject to them prior to receiving government funds.

In 2008, the United States entered an economic downturn, the most severe since the Great Depression of the early twentieth century. Many, many jobs were lost, most families’ incomes fell and, with these occurrences, purchasing diminished, leading to a reduction in manufacturing and production. With this decrease, even more people lost jobs as factories cut back responding to a decline in orders. This vicious cycle has made the poor economic climate more pernicious and more difficult to overcome.

The reality of this situation is that, not only are many Americans unemployed, but finding a job, even after retraining, has become increasingly difficult. The length of time of unemployment has amplified significantly, with all the negatives that accompany that situation. Families find themselves unable to maintain their lifestyle or pay their bills and sometimes even unable to maintain their homes. During the present economic situation, over 5.5 million manufacturing jobs have been lost with over 54,000 manufacturing facilities shuttered.

As a society, we are focused on addressing this situation and attempting to resolve not only these perilous economic times, but to try to strengthen our economy to ensure this does not happen again. While some specific disagreement exists about how to address this pernicious situation, politicians and economists agree that creating and maintaining jobs is an essential ingredient. Employed Americans can take care of their families, pay their bills and pay their fair share toward necessary government services.

Moreover, in this global economy, we want to try to ensure that America is the most robust partner. We want to be the go-to country and not the exporter of jobs and the importer of goods. Our trade deficit with China has been rising and millions of jobs, not goods, have been exported overseas. Reversing this trend and ensuring American economic strength in the world is vital for our future.

The Buy American Act that I introduced this year in the legislature will help accomplish all these goals. This bill requires that the iron, steel and manufactured goods used in public construction projects, that is, the building, altering or repair of any public building or public works project be manufactured in America. The bill includes an exception if the iron or steel is not available or if the costs of these goods are prohibitive. In other words, all this proposed legislation says is that, when reasonable and available, the Commonwealth should buy American. This simple and patriotic directive can help address the present economic situation and help avoid its reoccurrence.

Infrastructure spending increases jobs. Each 1 billion dollars spent on infrastructure creates 18,000 to 35,000 jobs (dependent on the specific type of infrastructure projects). When this infrastructure spending includes Buy America provisions, which means that the materials for the infrastructure project must be manufactured in the United States, manufacturing jobs increase an additional 33% over the 18 to 35,000 jobs per billion dollars spent. A recent Duke University study confirmed the effectiveness of Buy America programs, stating, “Domestic content requirements have helped develop a robust U.S. component supply chain and give vital opportunities to U.S. firms.”

Moreover, this kind of legislation has an extremely broad base of support nationally. Over 91% of Americans support a mandated Buy America program including 90% of Republicans, 94% of Democrats and 89% of those who self-identify as Tea Partiers. Not only do Americans want American goods used, but, unsurprisingly, as a nation, an extremely high percentage, 97%, have a favorable opinion of American products. Americans know that the iron and steel produced here will be of the best quality, able to withstand years of use and not faultily produced with unseen, but potentially dangerous, flaws.

Buy American legislation has a lengthy bipartisan history. In 1933, almost a century ago, the first federal Buy American Act was passed to ensure that tax dollars were spent in America and to create jobs here. In the 1940’s, during the World War, the Buy American policies were extended to the defense industry. President Reagan signed an expansion of Buy America for federally funded highway and transit projects during his tenure in the 1980s. However, without state laws in place, opportunities are missed to increase American manufacturing and purchase. This diminishes the job producing power of Buy American. The legislation attempts to remedy that for Virginia.

Buy American is just common sense. We need to be building our own economy, not supporting and supplementing that of another country. We need to be creating and maintaining American jobs. As we debate regulation and taxes, government economic policies and the efficacy of Keynesian philosophy, near universal agreement exists on the absolute importance of keeping jobs and manufacturing in the United States. This legislation provides a simple and popular mechanism to do just that. Americans and Virginians will see the benefit in the quality of the infrastructure projects made with American manufactured goods and the jobs created to produce those goods.

Associated Press
January 30, 2012

Sen. Donald McEachin of Henrico County and Del. David Englin of Alexandria outlined their proposals Monday at a news conference in Richmond.

McEachin said pollution from the state's electric utilities result in illnesses and premature death.

Proponents cited a study by the Clean Air Task Force that links 647 premature deaths annually to fine particulate pollution from Virginia power plants.

McEachin and Engliln said the State Corporation Commission does not consider public health impacts when it reviews permit applications for new or modified power plants.

Recently, the death of a young girl because of a severe allergic reaction shocked and distressed Central Virginians. The cause of her death was frightening in its simplicity: exposure to an allergic trigger, in this case a peanut.

In the past few years, we have become more aware of the potentially fatal danger of allergic reactions ? and that the number of severe allergic episodes seems to be increasing. In the United States, 6 percent of school-aged children have food allergies and more than 1,500 people die each year in this country from an allergic reaction.

The severe reaction is called anaphylactic shock, and it occurs when the blood vessels constrict causing a heart attack. While public places and institutions make every effort to ensure that individuals are not exposed to allergic triggers, the reality is that this is simply an impossible task.

For some people, just touching the hand of someone who has touched a nut or just being in a room where nuts are present is sufficient to cause a serious reaction. We will never be able to prevent all exposures or keep all areas free from molecules that cause severe reactions in those who are allergic.

Fortunately, however, we have the ability to possibly reduce the number of deaths and lessen the allergic reaction. An injected dose of epinephrine provides relief by relaxing the airwaves, allowing the individual to breathe. Epinephrine is not dangerous, although it may cause mild symptoms such as rapid heart rate and nausea in an individual who is not suffering from an allergic reaction. The only individuals potentially at risk from an injection of epinephrine are those with serious heart conditions.

The epinephrine dose can be given by a device colloquially known as an EpiPen. Using a spring mechanism, the preloaded injector puts just the appropriate amount of medicine into the person. EpiPens come in two sizes, EpiPen Jr. for children and the regular size for adults.

Because of the structure of the device, it is much safer and easier to use than a typical hypodermic needle. In families where a child has a severe allergy, siblings as young as 6 years old have been taught to use the EpiPen to assist the victim.

At the present time, Virginia schools do allow EpiPens, but only if they are brought in by individual students who bring the equipment, a prescription from their doctor and a parental-consent form. That EpiPen can only be used by that particular student, even if another child unexpectedly has an allergic attack.

I have introduced a bill this session that would allow schools to have EpiPens among their supplies and would allow school nurses and other trained personnel to use an EpiPen on any student if that student has an unexpected allergic reaction. This has the potential to save numerous lives.

If a student's family has not been aware of the severity of his or her allergy, the parents may not have gotten the prescription and equipment from their doctor. Other students, unfortunately, may not be under the regular care of a doctor, and may not even realize their risk.

Some families simply cannot afford the visit to the doctor or the purchase of the EpiPen. Also, some children may have an unanticipated allergic reaction. An exposure to a new food could trigger a reaction or a reaction might be unusually severe.

These children are presently all at risk. An EpiPen, easily available and accessible for all students in the school nurse's office, could make all the difference.

Fears of lawsuits for "unauthorized" use of an EpiPen have proven to be unfounded. Instead, school officials have been sued for not using an EpiPen to save a life.

This is not a partisan issue, this is not a rural or urban issue, this issue doesn't grow government or invade citizens' personal lives. This bill is that rare opportunity where we, as legislators, can truly make a difference for people, perhaps even save a life.

All too often, as we sit in the Capitol, we make grandiose arguments and we wax eloquent about differing philosophies. We try to make every piece of legislation part of a partisan agenda, part of proving a point and, sometimes, part of a plan for re-election.

This legislation accomplishes none of those goals. It does not put any political party on the defensive or make any political party look good. It is not there to placate a loud, clamoring outcry from citizens or to help advance a personal or political agenda. This bill is almost frightening in its simplicity and common sense.

We have a unique occasion to come together, to not grandstand or pontificate, but to vote for a bill that very well could, in the near future, save a child's life.

Originally published in the Times Dispatch,, Sunday, January 22^nd, 2012

Richmond—Senator A. Donald McEachin (D-Henrico) released this statement about Senator Mark Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg)’s refusal to discuss the Voting Rights Act. Senator McEachin said, “I was very disappointed today that, in debate on the Floor of the Senate, Senator Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg) refused to discuss the Voting Rights Act. The Senate is supposed to be a deliberative body, and we should be prepared, willing and eager to discuss legal issues and our governing philosophies.

“Moreover, Senator Obenshain is the chair of the Privileges and Elections Committee and a candidate for the Republican nomination for Attorney General. Both these positions require and demand expertise and knowledge of the law. This makes his refusal to even discuss the issue even more egregious.

“Finally, the Voting Rights Act is a significant part of Virginia’s recent history and has numerous impacts on the Commonwealth today. Agree or disagree with the Voting Rights Act, its tenets effect all Virginia citizens and all elected officials should at least be willing to debate it, but especially the chair of the elections committee who wants to be our attorney general.”