WASHINGTON — Virginia lawmakers will try to win back the public’s trust as they get back to work in Richmond Wednesday.

One of their top priorities will be ethics reform, in light of former Gov. Bob McDonnell’s two-year prison sentence.

Democratic Virginia State Sen. Chap Petersen, D-34, of Fairfax will introduce an ethics bill in the new General Assembly session that he says is not complicated.

”It’s specifically in reaction to the Bob McDonnell situation,” he says.

Petersen and Republican State Sen. Richard H. Stuart, R-28, of Stafford are cosponsoring a bill that would basically ban gifts to lawmakers, if the gift is more than $100 in value and if the gifts are both tangible and intangible. An example of a tangible gift would be a watch, while a meal would be an intangible meal.

Petersen says last year the changes lawmakers made to ethics reform were only minor, and that they really didn’t change the law. His bill would be real change.

“This is a major issue.  We have a crisis of confidence in our legislature.  We have to solve it and only the legislature can do that.”

The limits on the gifts also would apply to a lawmaker’s immediate family members.

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