Virginia's emergency committee looking at reductions to the federal workforce is planning a tour across the Commonwealth.
This spring and summer, the Emergency Committee on the Impacts of the Federal Workforce and Funding Reductions will be taking its act on the road. The first stop on the tour will be in Northern Virginia, likely in Arlington — an area with one of the highest concentrations of federal employees and contractors.
"I would just kind of had hoped that we would have had more senior leadership from Northern Virginia," says Delegate Rob Bloxom, a Republican from Accomack County, who is vice chairman of the emergency committee.
He says Speaker Don Scott did not fill the committee with House leadership from that part of the state.
"I'm not going to say that it lacks firepower. But we're missing some senior leadership on there," Bloxom said.
Future appearances of the emergency committee include a stop in Hampton Roads and Southwest Virginia.
"We absolutely owe it to the people of Virginia to understand the scope of the problem," says emergency committee chairman David Bulova, a Democrat from Fairfax County. "But also to see what it is that we can do in Virginia in order to be able to protect our economy, protect our budget and safeguard those families that are being immediately impacted,"
The committee is expected to come up with recommendations sometime after the April reconvene session of the General Assembly; and perhaps in advance of a special session to deal with the budget fallout of a dramatically reduced federal government.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
