Active, highly partisan and ultimately productive are how Del. Rip Sullivan (D-McLean) described this year’s General Assembly session at the McLean Citizens Association’s July 3 board meeting.
Sullivan, an attorney who first was elected in a 2014 special election, represents a new area following redistricting. His new district omitted the slice of Arlington he formerly covered, but kept McLean and added Great Falls, the latter of which used to be represented by now-retired Del. Kathleen Murphy (D).
The redistricting process used different methods this time around, which resulted in a great deal of turnover among legislators in both houses.
“I tell people only half-jokingly that the hardest part of this session was learning everyone’s name,” Sullivan said. “The freshman class on both sides of the aisle is just a spectacular group of people.”
The new group also hasn’t waited to make its influence felt.
“When I got to the General Assembly, the prevailing wisdom for a freshman was to go sit in a corner and listen and watch and learn,” he said. “This freshman class, to the extent that was a rule, broke it daily. They were active, they were busy, they were impactful.”
Not everything went according to Sullivan’s liking this session. Gov. Youngkin, who lives in Sullivan’s new district, vetoed a record number of bills, “which would seem to suggest a historic amount of partisanship,” he said.
One of Sullivan’s bills that made it into law empowers the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to implement a tree-canopy ordinance that incentivizes builders to preserve as many existing trees as possible and not clear-cut sites, he said.
Sullivan’s favorite bill, HB 121, originated with a small group of McLean High School students who told their principal a couple of years ago that they were not learning enough about allergies and anaphylaxis.
The school then implemented a program, which all students take, detailing how to recognize and deal with an anaphylactic reaction.
The General Assembly passed Sullivan’s bill, which includes severe-allergic-reaction-awareness training under the Standards of Learning and requires high-school students statewide to take it as part of their health and physical-education curricula.
“You never know,” he said. “It could save someone’s life someday.”
Sullivan touched on the proposed Tysons casino bill, which he described as “only mostly dead,” a quote from the movie “The Princess Bride.”
“There is a group that’s organized out there, still pushing the idea,” he said. “My sense is, from talking to the folks who still support the idea, they’re not done trying.”
Sullivan said he was glad to see the casino bill die during this session, but added opponents need to be ready for another onslaught.
“There have been a long list of bills in the General Assembly I’ve been glad to see die, only to see them come back the next year,” he said. “You’ve got to sort of whack it again,” he added, making a Whac-a-Mole chopping gesture with his arm.
One proposal that certainly is deceased is the notion of bringing the Washington Capitals and Wizards sports teams to Alexandria, Sullivan said.
No bills pertaining to data centers passed during the session, he said, including one of Sullivan’s (HB 116) that would have encouraged operators of such facilities to be “good corporate citizens” regarding energy and water usage, air quality and other factors.
Sullivan promised to try again with that bill and several others that fell by the wayside this year.
An MCA member himself, Sullivan has lived in McLean for 50 years and is a Langley High School graduate.
“There are no nooks and crannies of McLean and Great Falls that are foreign to me,” he told the MCA board. “I’ve been here a long time.”
