Current Legislative Initiatives

Healthy Schools Act. Great effort is being made to reform public education in the District of Columbia. Test scores are rising. Curricula are being strengthened. School facilities are improving. Charter school options are increasing. Now, it even appears that more parents are choosing to enroll their children in our public schools.

What has been overlooked during this reform effort, however, is improving the nutrition, health, and wellness of our public school students. Facing a childhood obesity epidemic, poor student nutrition, insufficient physical activity, an unsustainable environment, and risk of long-term health consequences, there is significant cause for concern. Teaching students to live a healthy lifestyle and making school environments healthier can have a major, lifelong impact on the wellbeing of our youngest generation. To learn more about my Healthy Schools legislation, click here.

The Energy Efficiency Financing Act. One of the biggest hurdles for energy efficiency projects in the District are the significant up-front costs. Recently, though, jurisdictions around the country have adopted a new program, called a Property Assessed Clean Energy ("PACE") loan program.

The Energy Efficiency Financing Act of 2010 (for a copy of the introduced version of the bill, click here) would authorize the District to issue, sell, and deliver of up to $250 million of District of Columbia revenue bonds to finance low-interest loans to District property owners for the purpose of making energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements. The property owners who elect to participate in the program would repay the loans through an assessment on their property taxes. To learn more about the bill, click here.

Procurement Reform. As the Chair of the Committee on Government Operations and the Environment, I have made it a priority to reform the contracting and procurement process. My committee has held several hearings on contracting reform initiatives, and has reviewed dozens of reports by procurement task forces, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Office of the Inspector General, the D.C Auditor. In addition, we have had extensive discussions on procurement with a variety of experts, including legal scholars, contracting and procurement professionals, members of the business community, labor leaders, officials in other jurisdictions, and several contracting associations. To learn more about my efforts on procurement reform, click here.

Bills introduced by Cheh

To see a list of bills introduced by Councilmember Cheh, click here.

How a Bill becomes a Law

To learn more about how a Council bill becomes a law, click here.

Voting Record

To see Councilmember Cheh's voting record in Period 19, click here.