State Government

Jefferson Forum
June 11, 2019

Exclusionary regulation at the local level is the root cause of unaffordable housing, and a rollback of exclusionary regulation is the best long-term solution, argue Salim Furth and Emily Hamilton, research fellows at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center. “Contemporary American land use law embodies the bad idea that private land ought...

Jefferson Forum
June 11, 2019

International trade is now a regular topic of conversation across the Commonwealth and the U.S.   Last year, Virginia manufacturers exported $15.11 billion in goods.    In particular, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) will accomplish what many thought impossible nearly a year ago – freer markets and fairer trade.  Now, Congress has to do its...

Jefferson Forum
June 11, 2019

A U.S. District Court judge in Galveston, Texas has decided the Obama administration’s 2014 definition of “Waters of the United States” took place without complying with the federal Administrative Procedures Act (APA). The Obama EPA “…wanted to ensure that the [Clean Water] Act enabled jurisdiction over a particular category of...

Jefferson Forum
May 30, 2019

On a typical day, there are more than 20,000 phone calls placed to domestic violence hotlines across the country according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. That is 20,000 families suffering from violence at the hands of an abuser. The goal of our bipartisan legislation put forward by Democrat...

Jefferson Forum
May 30, 2019

IndieDwell converts shipping containers into affordable housing. The Idaho-based business has taken an idea championed locally by entrepreneurs Sheila and Sidney Gunst (see “Thinking Outside the Container“) and turned it into a growing business enterprise. The company now sells 640-square-foot dwellings, including the cost of delivery and installation, for $78,000....

Jefferson Forum
May 30, 2019

The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) submitted WOTUS comments to the U.S. EPA on April 15, 2019. The 25-page document is worth reading. The AFBF comments are on a subject dear to the hearts of all who own land in the United States. The comments are submitted regarding the revised...

Stephen D. Haner
May 30, 2019

There is a hotbed of carbon tax advocacy at George Mason University, led by a former GOP congressman sent packing by South Carolina voters because he’s ready to tax them into embracing solar and wind. Robert Inglis was part of the carbon regulation panel discussion May 17 at the National...

Stephen D. Haner
May 14, 2019

While it would have been a popular step with his political base, and one he was expected to take, Governor Ralph Northam may have been smart to pass on seeking to veto state budget language preventing Virginia membership in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Nothing in the budget language prevents...

Jefferson Forum
May 14, 2019

In the last issue, I wrote about a new study published in Nature Sustainability, and the blog was entitled “Growing Corn Kills People”. After some difficulty I was able to obtain a copy of the maize study listed above, which I did not have on April 11. The conclusion that growing corn (maize)...

Jefferson Forum
May 14, 2019

My Reason colleagues and I have long argued that per-gallon fuel taxes should be replaced by mileage-based user fees (MBUFs). I served on the Transportation Research Board committee that alerted the transportation community to the looming decline of fuel tax revenues, in 2006. My colleague Adrian Moore served on the...