Cline sponsoring more than 25 bills in General Assembly this year

Del. Ben Cline is one of the busiest legislators in the General Assembly this year.

Cline, R-Rockbridge County, is sponsoring more than 25 bills — nearly twice as many as usual and many of them are high on the Republicans’ agenda for social change and reduced government.

The delegate, whose district includes most of Amherst County, is heading the so-called Conservative Caucus in the House, which supports his bills to end the corporate income tax, require drug screening for welfare recipients, deny in-state tuition for illegal residents, and prohibit non-medical research on human embryos.

 Cline is head of the House committee that nominates judges for courtrooms ranging from the state Supreme Court to the lower courts in each locality.

That legislation, bearing Cline’s name as sponsor, hit a roadblock in the Senate midweek when the body’s Democrats insisted two potential judges’ names be removed from its list of more than 50 nominees. 

 In addition to his legislative load, Cline and his wife, Elizabeth, are expecting twins to be born during the session.

Monday is particularly busy for Cline, who defended six of his bills in front of four House committees and subcommittees. 

Three bills passed their first-round tests in committee, one was amended and passed, and his fellow lawmakers asked him to rewrite two of them. 

A seventh Cline bill, the one requiring drug screenings for welfare recipients, was combined with a similar bill sponsored by Del. Dickie Bell, R-Staunton. That means Cline won’t have to do the heavy lifting as it continues to move through the House.

The action lasted until about 7 p.m. Monday. It was a typical day for a legislator who carries more than two dozen bills.

Cline is in his 10th session in Richmond. His job the other 10 months of the year is prosecuting cases in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court in Harrisonburg.

He’s getting ready to celebrate his 40th birthday, but only for the 10th time on his actual birth date in this leap year. He was born on Feb. 29, 1972.

Some of the legislation Cline is proposing this year includes bills to:

 Transfer a 31-acre site the state owns on the James River to Amherst County, which plans to develop it into a park. The bill already has passed in the House.

 A bill to punish people who recruit teenagers into criminal gangs.  It started as a bill to punish those who use Facebook and Twitter to recruit, but was amended to make all gang recruitment a felony with a mandatory prison term.

 Revise the state code concerning farm-use vehicles to make it clear vehicles weighing less than 7,500 pounds can be operated legally on roads.  

 Exempting computer purchases from the retail sales tax.

 Require the Virginia Cooperative Extension to keep an office in each county.

 Limit judges’ authority to defer judgment in criminal cases, requiring them to find defendants guilty or innocent right away for most offenses.