BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. GRIFFITH. Mr. Speaker, I rise to support this bill. It is an important bill.
Mr. Speaker, I represent the community of Fairlawn, Virginia. Fairlawn is in Pulaski County, but it has a Radford City ZIP Code.
Mr. Speaker, my colleagues may say that is not such a big deal because, in most of the 50 States, the cities are within a county. In Virginia, the cities are completely independent.
All the tax money of the numerous businesses in Fairlawn often gets sent mistakenly to the city of Radford, which is completely independent of Pulaski County, thus denying Pulaski County or making it a hassle for them to track down the accurate amounts of money that they are supposed to receive on the local part of the Virginia sales tax.
Further, this confusion can create other problems. Recently, our area was hit with Hurricane Helene. Pulaski County got its designation early.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. GRIFFITH. Mr. Speaker, when Hurricane Helene hit, the County of Pulaski was designated a couple of days before the city of Radford for FEMA assistance, and the people of Fairlawn were told that they were not in Pulaski but in Radford, so they couldn't get assistance.
Mr. Speaker, this is why we need the bill.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT