3
Senate Bill 260
PASSED:
The Virginia Senate today voted 38-0 to approve
mental health reform legislation backed by Sen. R.
Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, that would extend from six
to 24 hours the time during which a person under
psychiatric evaluation can be kept in emergency
custody before being released or assigned a hospital bed.
Five Reforms to Stand Behind to Make Our Politics Matter:
1. Demand a Right to Vote for all Americans
The last decade has seen a steady assault on voting rights in the United States, with restrictive Voter ID laws, changes in early-voting and same-day registration rules and, in 2013, a US Supreme Court ruling that Congressman John Lewis, D-Georgia, said “stuck a dagger into the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965."
But voting rights are too precious to be left to change. The NEED to be defined and defneded PERMANENTLY.
2.Get More States on Record for Real Reform of Elections
In just three years since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, we have come one third of the way to amending the US Constitution to reclaim our democracy and to ensure that people, not corporations, shall govern in America.
3. Vote for a Raise
The notion that opportunity should follow hard work is at the heart of the American economic ethos. The current minimum wage fails to meet a basic standard of reasonableness, and violates American values.
This is especially true when we view the issue through the "effort should yield opportunity" lens. Failing to raise the minimum wage is a failure to uphold the most important normative principle of the American economy. We are unable to uphold the promise that if you work incredibly hard and strive and invest, you can experience mobility for yourself, and position your children to continue ascending. Our social contract is breaking
4. Vote for Equal Rights
We need the ERA because we do not have it yet. Even in the 21st century, the U.S. Constitution still
does not explicitly guarantee that all of the rights it protects are held equally by all citizens without regard to sex.
5. Work to Make Every Election Matter!
America has woefully low voter turnout, as compared with other major democracies around the world. Restrictive laws get some of the blame. So, too, does a money-drenched process that makes elections a spectator sport. But there is also the reality that this country’s electoral systems have too many structural flaws that make it hard to vote. That needs to change.
Modernize Voter Registrion Expand Early Voting
Improve Polling Palce Resources Simplify Ballots and Voting Machines