William J. Howell
Speaker, Virginia House
of Delegates
On January
8, 2003, Bill Howell was
sworn in as the 54th
Speaker of the Virginia
House of Delegates.
He leads a nearly 400-year
old institution, the oldest
continuously elected law-making
body in the world.
First elected a delegate
in 1987, he represents the
28th House District
which includes parts of
Stafford County and the
City of Fredericksburg.
Speaker Howell
performs a number of important
duties as presiding officer
of the 100-member chamber.
He assigns all bills to
House committees and appoints
the chairmen and members
of each of the 14 standing
committees
of the House. The
Speaker names delegates
to all House-Senate conference
committees, including
the
one for the
biennial state budget, and
appoints lawmakers and citizens
to various state boards
and commissions. In
addition, Speaker Howell
is the chairman of the House
Rules Committee and the
Joint Rules Committee.
Under Howell’s
leadership, Virginia has
adopted fiscally responsible
state budgets with forward-looking
investments
in K-12 and higher education,
public safety, mental health
and other core services
while avoiding costly new
programs. In 2007,
Howell took the unprecedented
step for a Speaker of
sponsoring and successfully
enacting a comprehensive
transportation plan with
significant institutional
reforms, historic land use
changes and over $3 billion
in statewide and regional
funding for roads, rail
and transit. He has
championed improving health
care access and the Medicaid
program through greater
choice, better quality and
cost savings. A strong
supporter of restoring the
Chesapeake Bay, he also
led the effort
to enact Virginia’s national
model program for open-spaces
land preservation using
free-market principles.
Speaker Howell
is the first House leader
to create a non-profit,
independently funded research,
education and
advocacy organization, the
Virginia Reform Initiative
(VRI), which he chairs.
Through VRI, Howell is spearheading
a broad-based effort to
transform Virginia state
government in a forward-looking
and fiscally responsible
manner.
A top priority for VRI is
promoting new ideas and
market-based reforms to
improve the delivery of
government services,
maximize the return on investment
of limited taxpayer dollars,
and minimize the costs of
government wherever possible.
Howell is
involved in many legislative
leadership and historic
preservation activities.
Since 2003, he’s been a
member of the Board of Directors
of the American Legislative
Exchange Council (ALEC). Currently,
he is the Treasurer, and
in
2009 will be Chairman of
ALEC, the nation’s largest
nonpartisan, individual
membership association of
state legislators.
In 2001,
ALEC honored Howell as State Legislator of the Year. The Civil War Preservation
Trust honored
him as the 2005 and 2007
recipient of their State
Leadership Award for
his success in promoting
innovative land conservation
tax credits.
Prior to
being speaker, he chaired
the House Courts of Justice
Committee and led the Virginia
Code Commission.
Business
and civic groups also have
benefited from Bill Howell’s
life-long commitment to
public service. He
is
a former director of the Virginia State Chamber of Commerce, a past president
of the Fredericksburg Regional
Chamber of Commerce, a former
president and campaign chairman
of the
Rappahannock United Way,
and a past vice-chair of
the board of directors of
Mary Washington Hospital.
Howell leads a voluntary,
weekly Bible study when
the General Assembly is
in session, serves as a
Sunday school teacher, and
is
a strong
supporter of Young Life,
a non-profit Christian organization
making a positive impact
upon the lives of children
and young people.
A student
of history, Howell patroned
legislation for and serves
as chairman of the Virginia
Sesquicentennial American
Civil War Commission, which
is preparing to mark the
150th anniversary
in 2011 of Virginia's participation
in that important chapter
of America’s past.
In addition to overseeing
the first total renovation
in 100 years of the historic
State Capitol in Richmond,
Howell was a leader in organizing
the successful commemoration
in 2007 of America’s 400th
Anniversary at Jamestown,
which was attended by the
President of the United
States and the Queen of
England.
Howell earned
his Juris Doctorate
from the University of Virginia
School of Law in 1967 and
his bachelor’s degree in
Business Administration
from the University of Richmond
in 1964. The University
of Richmond Alumni Association
honored Howell in 2005 by
presenting him their
Distinguished Service Award.
A citizen-legislator,
Bill Howell practices trust
and estate law in a log
cabin
that he had
restored
and which
overlooks
the Rappahannock River near
his home in historic Falmouth.
He and his wife, Cessie,
have been married
for 41
years, have
two sons, and enjoy seven
energetic grandchildren.
Howell was born May 8, 1943.
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