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Roosevelt's campaign website highlights the following issues:
Educate, Innovate, Lead
Once elected to represent the 49th District, Mr. Roosevelt will focus on sponsoring (patron) legislation at the General Assembly to enhance current curriculum by integrating an advanced STEM focus that provides fast tracking of undergraduate credits toward early undergraduate degree completion in order to increase accelerated graduation rates. Mr. Roosevelt will advocate for state paid internship programs for low-income households, veterans, the homeless and other groups facing chronic unemployment or underemployment. He will also work with stakeholders at all levels to build relationships between the state and small, medium, and large companies, thus ensuring that businesses build and expand operations in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Mr. Roosevelt will work with education, business, community and other elected leaders to better plan the transition into the workforce for our students, veterans, and their families. He believes that a truly collaborative atmosphere among all stakeholders will allow our educational system to prepare students to find good jobs immediately after high school, or with additional workforce training or advanced education degrees, depending on each students' focus and goals, and particularly centered around current, new and emerging STEM fields.
Veterans Platform: Prepare, Train, Transition and Support
Mr. Roosevelt believes that our veterans need a more direct, easy to navigate and personalized support system in transitioning to civilian life. While the federal government has programs to support veterans and the state provides some preferential aid in hiring veterans, there is no comprehensive bridge to help veterans move smoothly from military to civilian life. Mr. Roosevelt believes that education, business, community and military leaders must work together to treat each veteran as a valued hero who will bring great value to any employer. However, the Commonwealth of Virginia's list of recommended fields for veterans is very limited and does not capture many of the skills, experiences, certifications and training that veterans have. Employers are not aware of how much each veteran they hire could benefit their organization. Furthermore, veterans are not able to adequately capture their value or directly market themselves to employers. Mr. Roosevelt intends to create a bridge from military to civilian life by connecting leaders and veterans in community, working collaboratively with all stakeholders in the 49th District to create mechanisms that will enable veterans to: identify existing skills, find and apply to training, certification or secondary education programs and then to connect directly to employers and successfully market themselves.
Evaluate, Investigate, Collaborate and Execute:
Prior to his election as Delegate for the 49th District, Mr. Roosevelt will work with community and business leaders in the 49th District to evaluate current transportation challenges and opportunities and pre-craft smart, fiscally lean and sustainable legislation and initiatives to help improve access to transportation and roadways for all constituents of the 49th District. Mr. Roosevelt believes that we can solve the transportation needs and challenges of District 49 in a way that will not increase the tax burden on the households of the 49th. He believes that the tax dollars that each household contributes are hard-earned and a significant sacrifice from that household's monthly budget. For this reason, government and elected officials have a significant responsibility to make sure that all monies are used in a way that demonstrates that we can balance problem solving with wise use of resources. Upon his election, Mr. Roosevelt will already have collaboratively written legislation that will be pre-approved for the 2018 Virginia General Assembly Legislative Session. Mr. Roosevelt believes that the transportation needs of the 49th District are significant and greatly impact quality of life and cost burden on household budgets. For these reasons, he believes that he must be ready to patron legislation and get it passed even before his election so that the District's transportation needs will not have to wait until the 2019 Legislative Session to be addressed. Since announcing his intention to run for Delegate and becoming part of the 2017 Campaign Trail, Mr. Roosevelt has steadily developed relationships with other legislators so that he will immediately be able patron and get passed legislation to provide much needed transportation relief for his constituents.
Train, Compete, Sustain & Expand
If elected to represent the 49th District, Mr. Roosevelt will work collaboratively with community, business and educational leaders in the 49th District to identify key areas of common interest to improve life in the District by attracting and keeping a variety of jobs that enable families to build and sustain strong, financially stable households. He will work with the people of the 49th District and other legislators from the General Assembly to introduce legislation that removes barriers to and promotes quality training and a more competitive and fair atmosphere for small businesses in Virginia, which will allow currently operating small (and larger) businesses to sustain current operations and have the freedom and economic ability to expand, grow and bring more economic impact to the District and the Commonwealth of Virginia at large. Mr. Roosevelt believes in successful mentorship programs that are established by deregulating state laws and working collaboratively at all levels to build and execute a vision that enables families to pursue and achieve a better standard of living. To achieve these objectives Mr. Roosevelt will advocate for deregulation of state requirements that prevent the educational system, businesses, and leaders from working together to align education with jobs and opportunities. Mr. Roosevelt will also foster a collaborative relationship between the private sector and state government to enhance training programs while simultaneously advocating for lower business taxes and tax reliefs for startups and small businesses who come to Virginia and continue operations for the 49th District. By deregulating processes, businesses can innovate faster, which brings more economic growth and higher paying jobs. Business licensing and compliance regulations should be simplified to understand the processes.Furthermore, new businesses will find the atmosphere more attractive in Virginia and will choose to locate or relocate here, thus adding economic value to the local community through more and higher paying jobs, increased spending by families in the district, more support jobs in the District and more tax revenue for the localities in the District and the Commonwealth of Virginia itself. Mr. Roosevelt will focus particularly on business opportunities for young professionals in emerging and or critical areas such as: innovative technology, cyber, local law enforcement and will champion legislation to support these enterprises through workforce training, career transition and redevelopment. Young professionals willing to help bring these new or greatly needed industries to the District will be able to access new set-asides.
