Assembly Approves Bioscience Committee
Both houses of the Virginia General Assembly have approved a plan to appoint a joint legislative biotechnology subcommittee. The subcommittee of legislators from the Virginia House of Delegates and the State Senate will complete its meetings by November 30 and report the findings to the 2009 General Assembly. Staff and volunteers from the Virginia Biotechnology Association were instrumental in advocating for the legislation.The sponsor of HJ 248, Fairfax Delegate Mark Sickles (D), felt strongly that the time had passed for studying the issue. The purpose of the subcommittee, as he said in testimony befor
e members of the Senate Rules Committee, is to take the best recommendations from previous study commissions and present specific action items for the 2009 session.
According to the legislation, the joint subcommittee shall: review and implement appropriate recommendations of state and national research investigations in the discipline of biotechnology, including the Governor’s Commission on Biotechnology; examine, continue, and enlarge the work begun by the Governor’s Commission on Biotechnology; determine how resources may increase the development of the biotechnology industry through technology transfer and commercialization of new ideas and discoveries; assess how strategic initiatives in biotechnology may generate economic development and investment in Virginia, particularly in rural and urban regions of the Commonwealth; and develop and recommend a strategic and visionary plan that establishes Virginia as a national and global leader in bioscience research and applications by 2018, and enables the Commonwealth to maintain its national and global leadership thereafter.
For more information about the new legislative subcommittee, please call us at 804-643-6360.
