As the Virginia General Assembly convenes, Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites (R-34th) said she would continue working on technology legislation.
Last year in the House of Delegates, Devolites, then delegate for the 35th District, was responsible for authoring legislation that would create criminal penalties for spammers.
For 2004, one bill Devolites will introduce is an extension of the anti-spam legislation she authored last year. It would create penalties for spammers who use means other than e-mail to promote their business, such as the hiring of hackers, the creation of viruses that don't harm the hardware but compromise security, and the use of "zombie networks."
Another bill Devolites intends to introduce will be on the SSTP, or the proposed national Internet sales tax.
"You've got a taxing authority outside the commonwealth," said Devolites on her concerns about such a tax. Another concern she had was the lack of an elected representative from Virginia on the taxing board.
Regarding other legislation, Devolites agreed with her Northern Virginia colleagues in saying that the budget, as well as any tax restructuring proposals that would go along with it, would dominate debate in the General Assembly for 2004.
"Clearly, the biggest issue again is the budget, with the [state's] billion dollar shortfall," said Devolites.
While the legislative body she will be working with will be smaller, and her committee assignments weren't yet known to her, Devolites predicted that her experience in the Senate would be similar to her six-year tenure in the House of Delegates.
"It's nice to have a four-year term, and the job's exactly the same," Devolites said.