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- Description is exactly "In this second part of the oral history interview, former Congressman Rick Boucher focuses this interview on the legislative achievements he was involved in during his time in the State Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.
After getting elected to the Virginia State Senate in 1975, Boucher immediately immersed himself in state policy, including areas of environmental conservation, domestic abuse, drug reform, and telecommunications. His first major legislative achievement was being primary author on Virginia’s first oil and gas act, which addressed vagueness regarding jurisdiction and regularized the development of natural gas coincident with coal.
Another legislative piece was a tax on marriage, that—while prima facie unusual—provided a consistent stream of funding for spousal abuse shelters. Further, he helped to reform sexual assault laws by revising laws disallowing for general reputation testimony to be used in court. Later, Boucher was approached by Lewis Hurst in order to address Virginia’s drug laws, which had previously treated all drug offenses with the same severity. In a years-long effort, the state fundamentally reformed the drug laws, becoming the first state to legalize medical marijuana use.
His work in these issues continued into his terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Three days after being elected, Ernie Dickerman, President of the Virginia Wilderness Committee, approached Boucher to introduce his first bill as a Representative: Virginia’s first wilderness legislation. Under this bill, acreage of Virginia’s wilderness was protected, enhancing tourism and protecting natural resources.
The start of his involvement with telecommunications was in addressing the needs of his district, where many rural residents were unable to receive network television signals. He led negotiations that allowed for rural residents to receive distant television signals in the 1980s. Later in the 1996 Communications Act, he helped introduce competition in telecommunications between cable and telephone companies.
To end, Boucher discusses the Clean Air Amendments of 1991, where he was involved with establishing a cap-and-trade system to limit sulfur emissions in the state of Virginia. Although the program was not up taken to limit greenhouse gas emissions nationwide in the Clean Air Act, he is proud of the system in Virginia and believes that it is necessary to reduce emissions.
Following his passion for public service from the first interview, here Boucher emphasizes the need to be active in the lawmaking process. Despite how active he was in introducing bills and chairing committees, his name was not often on the final bills at the time of promulgation. While some may take issue with their name being erased, Boucher pragmatically looks at the purpose of his job. He is satisfied when the job is done, as he is enabling Congress to properly function as a lawmaking body. "
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