Dear Friend,
The seventh week of Session has come to a close. Below is an update on some of the past week’s work in the legislature.
The Seventh Week of Session
This past week the standing committees of the House and Senate completed nearly all of their work, sending bills to each chamber’s floor for final considerations. This coming week will require deep collaboration between each chamber as differences in recommendations on remaining bills are resolved in committees of conference, which are small working groups of Delegates and Senators who work to produce a consensus approach to the given policy.
The Budget Conference
The most important bill that is in a committee of conference is the budget bill. I am honored to have been selected as a conferee, joining Delegates Torian (Chairman of House Appropriations), Sickles (Vice-Chair), Bulova, Austin, and Bloxom as the House’s voice on final changes to the budget. The Senate selected Senators Lucas (Chair of Senate Finance & Appropriations), Deeds, Locke, Boysko, McDougle, and Pillion as their conferees. Together, we will correct differences in each chamber’s budgets to arrive at a biennial budget for the Governor’s review. The House and Senate do have a difference of opinion regarding distribution of funds and technical applications of taxes; however, we are united in our commitment to make transformative investments in Virginia’s public education system, buttress our healthcare system, invest in a clean economy and resilient infrastructure, and work to ensure all Virginians are supported through livable wages and support for working families.
As a budget conferee I have heard input from a wide array of groups regarding:
K-12 funding particulars such as lifting the support staff cap, investing in economically disadvantaged schools, increasing teacher salaries, special education improvements, and investing in school construction among others.
Budget priorities from the Virginia business community that span major economic development initiatives as well as early childhood education investments.
Historic rehabilitation tax credits and other preservation related initiatives.
A multitude of healthcare initiatives including free clinics, medicaid expansion for all children, improving nursing home medicaid payments, support for community healthcare workers, as well as many other pressing investments.
Higher education initiatives spanning funding structure tweaks to financial aid programs and piloting dollars for new and fledgling programs to fuel Virginia’s workforce.
Vital environmental issues such as ensuring Virginia’s participation in RGGI, promoting multimodal transportation, protecting our waterways, and planning needed resilience measures.
Among the plethora of interests, requests, and proposals I have heard, budget conferees will also need to consider more structural differences and innovations to the State Budget. For example, the Governor included a digital sales tax for streaming and storage services. The Senate removed the Governor’s exemption for business-to-business transactions, establishing another nearly $1 Billion in revenue for the State. Another point of interest is differences in modernizing the State’s information technology infrastructure, specifically which systems are updated first. You can read more about the issue in this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Ahead of budget negotiations, Governor Youngkin, as is custom, sent a letter to the budget conferees outlining and reemphasizing his priorities. You can find the letter within this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch analyzing the negotiating landscape.
Other Legislative Action
In addition to the budget, several important pieces of legislation are in conference, or have recently reported out of one. Skill games was a topic of much debate this year. While they can and have provided boons to small businesses and can offer additional tax revenue to the state, I join my colleagues and many community members in concern over their proliferation, regulation, and impact they will have on our neighborhoods. A conference report was agreed to in the General Assembly which sought to put guardrails on the rollout of these machines. This legislation is heading to the Governor for his review. You can read more about the conference report here. You can watch the House’s final consideration of the conference report at this link.
Another topic of much discussion was a retail marketplace for marijuana. The factors of consideration for lawmakers were to establish a marketplace that would eradicate or severely hinder the illicit market while ensuring safe and quality products and access to equity for small businesses to participate. This legislation is also going to the Governor’s desk for review. You can read more in this article. You can watch the House’s final consideration of the conference report here.
While skill games and retail marijuana were rightfully the subject of much consternation and attention, they are certainly not the only products of this renewed democratic majority’s work thus far in the General Assembly. Bills to increase the minimum wage and ban assault firearms are already on their way to the Governor. Additionally, bills to shield menstrual data from search warrants (HB78); ensuring insurance coverage of contraception (HB819); statutory increases to teacher pay. (HB187 & SB104); as well as many other pieces of policy. Following the conclusion of the General Assembly’s work, I will provide more thorough reviews of legislation that has passed the General Assembly and is before Governor Youngkin.
Black History Month
With the end of Black History Month, I wanted to highlight a few of the wonderful, touching, and enlightening points of personal privilege delivered by my colleagues throughout Black History Month.
Delegate Josh Cole spoke to Negro spirituals and the transcendental role they played for enslaved African Americans in this floor speech from February 2.
Delegate Candi Mundon King delivered this floor speech on February 6 speaking to the international kinship and pervasive shared history members of the African Diaspora share.
Delegate Alex Askew rose to speak to the contributions of African Americans in and from Virginia Beach, stretching from the origins of the first landing to this year’s legislative update to the Virginia Beach City Charter. You can watch his speech here.
Delegate Michael Feggans spoke to the daunting and metamorphic time of Jim Crow Era for those seeking to serve their communities, such as black law enforcement officers, in this floor speech.
Delegate Katrina Callsen delivered a moving Valentine’s Day floor speech on Loving Vs. Virginia as well as her own family history. You can watch the speech here.
Delegate Karen Keys-Gamarra delivered this floor speech, February 15, on fair treatment and humanity and how the disgraces of yesterday still echo today.
Delegate Delores McQuinn spoke in this floor speech to her simile of black women as atoms; fundamental building blocks, unbreakable, yet their contributions are largely unseen.
Delegate Cliff Hayes delivered a point of personal privilege on February 21 speaking to the potency of memory and the collective spirit felt by all. You can watch it here.
Delegate Destiny LeVere Bolling spoke to the everyday citizens who are unaware of the impact they will have on history in this speech from February 22.
Delegate Rae Cousins spoke to the history of Richmond in this floor speech from February 23.
Delegate Jackie Glass delivered this speech on February 28 regarding the vital role of the overlooked stories of martyr mothers of Black History leaders.
Although this is not a comprehensive list, these speeches illustrate the diverse backgrounds and perspectives my esteemed colleagues brought during Black History Month.
Other Points of Personal Privilege
During each day’s Session, members of the General Assembly can rise on the floor to give recognition to visitors watching from the gallery. This past week I had the privilege of introducing Peter Blake and moving passage of a resolution commending his service to the Commonwealth as the director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. You can watch the presentation here.
Additionally, this past week the House defeated the Senate for the 12th consecutive year in the annual Capitol Square Classic Basketball game in benefit of Massey Cancer Center. Additionally, the Governor’s office beat the Lobbyists. Despite long days at the General Assembly, members find time for camaraderie and companionship. Whether it is for basketball games for good causes (which raised just under $100,000 for Massey Cancer Center) or if its with some friendly post-game taunting, like this resolution from Senator Aaron Rouse challenging the validity of the House’s victory and this response from Delegate Marcus Simon.
During the past week of Session, my staff and I met various representative individuals and groups including:
Longwood University Leadership
Housing Opportunities Made Equal
Richmond Redevelopment & Housing Authority Leadership
Norfolk State University Leadership
Dulles Greenway & Loudon County
Arlington City Representatives
Virginia Poverty Law Center
The Commonwealth Institute
Dennis Clark, New Librarian of Virginia
Old Dominion University Leadership
University of Mary Washington Leadership
Energy Efficiency Council
Baptist Minister’s Conference
James Madison University Leadership
UVA Health
Virginia Sexual & Domestic Violence Action Alliance
Virginia Agribusiness Council
Virginia Farm Bureau
Hazel Health
Capitol Caring
Virginia Home
Encircle Virginia
Legal Aid Justice Center
It is my goal to keep my constituents informed of the work happening at the General Assembly. There are several websites which provide troves of helpful information. Livestreams and past recordings of Session, as well as committee meetings can all be found at this link. Legislation, as well as meeting calendars and committee information can be found here. A searchable database of legislation can be found here.
If you have legislative priorities, questions or concerns to share with me, email me at delegate.carr@betsycarr.org or call my office at 804-698-1078.
Super Tuesday
This coming Tuesday, March 5, is Super Tuesday, the day 16 states and territories will hold presidential primary elections. More information can be found on the Department of Elections’ website.
Virginia Wildlife Conflict Helpline
The Legislative Sportsman’s Caucus held their final meeting of the year this past Thursday. We were joined by Dr. Scott Barras, State Director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services Program who gave updates on invasive species and predator management for livestock producers. Additionally, he discussed the Virginia Wildlife Conflict Helpline, a collaborative project between the USDA and the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. The helpline, reachable at 804-739-7739, assists in calls concerning bears in neighborhoods, deer on airplane runways, questions of animal identification, and animal disease reports. Dr. Barras shared a map of call density; the Richmond Metropolitan and D.C. Metropolitan area were the runaway leaders by call volume.
Dr. Barras shared with myself and Delegate McClure (Arlington) that some call density is explained by our districts’ more limited experience with wildlife, but more is explained by the density of humans, reduction of animal habitat, and increased chance for human wildlife conflicts.
Thank You
It is an honor to serve in the House of Delegates. Please never hesitate to contact me at delegate.carr@betsycarr.org or 804-698-1078 if I can be helpful to you.
Sincerely,
Betsy