In collaboration with the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP), VPM is excited to launch a new monthly segment titled “Policy Matters.” Hosted by VPM radio programming manager Benjamin Dolle and VPAP executive director Chris Piper, the segment will highlight the top political and legislative issues of the past few weeks. It will air the last Thursday of each month during Morning Edition at 7:45 a.m.
“VPM is proud to partner with VPAP for Policy Matters, because quite simply, it does,” said Dolle. “As we wrap up an extended General Assembly session and prepare for an important election season this year, keeping up to date on the latest political and legislative topics is vital, and we're happy to have Chris in to bring context to the decisions being made by our legislators that affect our daily lives.”
The first episode premiered on Apr. 25 and introduced listeners to VPAP, their mission and what they do for communities in terms of providing unbiased data on upcoming elections. Other topics featured in the debut episode included VA Governor Glenn Youngkin’s record-breaking number of amendments to the state budget and his record number of vetoes as well as campaign finance deadline visuals that include how much money has been spent or raised by a particular campaign.
VPAP was established in 1997 with the goal of providing Virginians access to public documents reflecting the financial aspects of politics that is free of partisan bias. Their work has since expanded and now offers citizens access to diverse political news and public data on topics like campaign finance, elections, registrations and disclosures, legislative votes and political developments. With a shared vision of an informed citizenry, VPAP and VPM are well-positioned to partner on this project.
Listen to each episode here.
