Now that the regular legislative session and the reconvened veto session are both over -- and new laws are set to take effect on July 1st -- I am holding my regular community hours this weekend on Saturday, June 19th, at the Franconia Government Center (6121 Franconia Road) from 10 a.m. to noon.

Virginia voters elect just three non-federal statewide officeholders every four years -- governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general.  Unique to the Commonwealth is the fact that our governor cannot run for re-election after one single term.  Because lieutenant governor is largely a part-time ceremonial role, the attorney general -– who is allowed to stand for re-election -– has a potentially large stage from which to gain media coverage and advance an agenda.

While the budget dominated the news during the regular and reconvened sessions this year, more progress was made on the biotechnology front. This has long been an area of great interest to me. In 2008 I chaired the Joint Subcommittee Studying Biosciences and Biotechnology, which laid the groundwork for advances made in 2009 and now 2010.

The 2010 regular session is almost over, I think. As I write this, six senators and seven delegates, the "conferees," are trying to narrow the differences between two budgets that are both hard on K-12 education and healthcare for the disabled and elderly. These two broad categories together comprise more than 50 percent of state spending. While the end result will be disappointing, and sometimes even counter-productive in reducing out-year spending, I believe that reaching compromise is within reasonable striking distance given the severe resource constraints.