Reconvened Session and Public Comment on Virginia's Response to Federal Cuts

Well, that’s a wrap – almost! This last Wednesday, the General Assembly converged on Richmond to act on the Governor’s vetoes and amendments. If the General Assembly accepts amendments to a bill, the bill becomes law. If amendments are rejected, the Governor has 30 days to sign or veto the bill – or if the Governor does not act, the bill becomes law without his signature.

We also elected a new member of the Virginia Supreme Court. Congratulations to new Justice Junius P. Fulton, III of Norfolk. Fun fact – Virginia is one of only two states where judges are appointed by the legislature. After watching nearly $100M spent in the recent Wisconsin Supreme Court election, I think I like our system better.

EMERGENCY COMMITTEE – SEND US YOUR IDEAS

As mentioned in my last newsletter, House Speaker Don Scott established the Emergency Committee on the Impacts of Federal Workforce and Funding Reductions to help Virginia brace for the impacts of cuts at the federal level. I am honored that the Speaker asked me to serve as chair.

You can help! Our next meeting is on April 8 at the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus in Alexandria. We will hear from several organizations about the impacts to the regional workforce as well as from the UVA Weldon Cooper Center on how cuts will affect the economy state-wide. This is all important data. However, at the end of the day, our most important task is to translate this data into action. 

That is where you come in. The public is invited and encouraged to provide written comments. Specifically, the committee is seeking suggestions for tangible actions (legislation or budget) that the General Assembly can take to assist affected workers in the short-term and make our economy more resilient in the long-term.

Visit the committee’s webpage where you will find a link to make comments. You can also view presentation materials from our meeting on February 22 and our upcoming meeting on April 8.

The challenge is not hypothetical. According to modeling by the UVA Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, a 10% cut to the federal civilian workforce would result in a $6.1B hit to Virginia’s GDP and almost $250M in lost tax revenue. In addition, about 30% of Virginia’s budget revenue is from federal funds. The percentage is even higher in specific areas. Federal funding accounts for 59% of health and human services, 49% of veteran affairs, and 39% of commerce and trade.

RECONVENED SESSION AND MY INITIATIVES

This year’s reconvened session was one for the record books. The Governor vetoed 157 bills and made recommendations on 160 bills. The Governor signed six of my bills, which you can find here. He also proposed amendments to two of my bills:

• HB2036 – Street Takeover and Exhibition Driving. HB2036 addresses the very dangerous and growing problem of exhibition driving. This is the practice of purposefully taking over a public street or publicly accessible parking area and engaging in wheelies, burnouts, donuts, etc. in close proximity to people. See here for a story about the bill. The bill enhances penalties for this dangerous behavior (including the ability to impound vehicles) and provides penalties for aiding and abetting. In recognition of the seriousness of the problem, the Governor added an emergency clause (which I accepted) so that law enforcement can use this tool immediately, rather than waiting until July 1. The amendment passed the House 96Y-0N and the Senate 36Y-4N. 
• HB2050 – Occoquan Reservoir PFAS Reduction Program. HB2050 establishes a program to reduce PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” in drinking water from the Occoquan Reservoir. The Occoquan Reservoir is one of the region’s major drinking water supplies. Recent testing shows that water from the reservoir is above U.S. EPA limits for PFAS. As a result, Fairfax Water faces a very stark choice. Either (1) find and eliminate sources of PFAS before the regulatory deadline of July 2029 or (2) spend $389M in capital upgrades to remove PFAS during treatment. The latter will have a significant impact on customer rates. I am grateful that my colleagues agreed that polluters, and not utility customers, should pay for the cost of clean-up. The Governor’s recommendation aligned the deadline to any future changes made by the U.S. EPA. I agreed and the bill passed unanimously in the House and the Senate.

The reconvened session was not all rainbows and sunshine for my bills! The Governor vetoed my HB2037 to give local governments the authority to require installation of solar canopies for non-residential development proposing 100 parking spaces or more. As Virginia faces increasing demand for electricity (in large part due to data centers driven by cloud storage and AI), there is increasing focus on solar energy. HB2037 is a way for urban areas to do our part by taking advantage of literally thousands of acres of flat, open asphalt. It also reduces pressure to convert farmland to utility scale solar – which resulted in strong support from both environmental groups and the Virginia Farm Bureau. Click here for a story on the bill as well as a supportive opinion letter in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. While the bill didn’t pass this year, I am looking forward to tackling the issue in the next session.

BUDGET AMENDMENTS – UP IN THE AIR

In addition to amendments to bills, the Governor made 205 recommendations to the budget. The General Assembly rejected most of these recommendations – including those related to my budget initiatives. A few key items include:

• K-12 School Funding. During the Great Recession, the General Assembly cut funding for school support staff as a cost saving measure. This helped the state but forced localities to make up the difference – mostly through increased real property taxes. Almost 20 years later, my amendment finally restores this funding in the amount of $222.9M. The Governor’s recommendation proposes to reduce this amount by almost two-thirds.
• Affordable Housing. A challenge faced by many of our cities (and even older suburbs) is the lack of developable land for affordable housing and the high cost of redevelopment. My amendment provides $4.5M to assist local governments with assembling, planning, clearing, and remediating sites for the purpose of promoting them for private redevelopment. The program has a particular focus on converting outdated and underutilized office space for other uses. The Governor’s recommendation proposes to eliminate this funding.
• GMU Operating Support. GMU is the largest university in Virginia and is a critical part of our economy. However, it has one of the lowest per-pupil rates of support among Virginia institutions of higher education. My amendment provides $3M in additional operating support to keep tuition down. The Governor’s recommendation proposes to reduce this amount by $1M.
• Stormwater Local Assistance Fund. Cleaning up polluted urban stormwater runoff is a key component to restoring local streams and the Chesapeake Bay. My amendment provided $40M for the Stormwater Local Assistance Fund to help local governments implement stormwater quality projects. The Governor vetoed this line item – reducing the fund to zero.
• State Parks Maintenance. We are blessed to have an amazing state park system. Unfortunately, we have a huge maintenance backlog of over $270M. The resulting “maintenance by emergency” approach is not only bad for users but an inefficient use of tax dollars. My amendment provides $20M toward addressing this backlog. The Governor’s recommendation proposes to eliminate this funding.

The ball is now back in the Governor’s court! He can either accept the budget returned to him by the General Assembly, veto specific items, or veto the entire budget. 

UNSUNG BILLS

While some of the larger issues debated by the General Assembly are covered in the news, I wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the good work in Richmond that may not get as much attention. Here are just a few of my picks for the 2025 session.

• HB1941 – Invasive Plant Sales. Invasive plants cause millions of dollars in damage to our ecosystems and agriculture. Once established, they are extremely hard to eradicate. Kudos to my fellow Fairfax County delegation members Delegate Holly Seibold and Senator Saddam Salim for passing a bill to require retailers to alert customers that a plant is invasive and to consider purchasing native or non-invasive plants. This bill has been signed by the Governor.
• HB1961 – Cell Phone Use at Schools. Fairfax County Public Schools has already moved to limit the use of cell phones during school hours. This bill directs all school boards across the state to develop and implement age-appropriate policies relating to the possession and use of cell phones on school property. The General Assembly accepted the Governor’s amendments to this bill, meaning that it will become law.
• HB2165 – Personal Use of Campaign Funds. Virginia has some of the weakest campaign finance laws in the nation. I have introduced numerous bills to place caps on campaign contributions (there are currently no limits). HB2165 finally prohibits an elected official or candidate for converting contributions for personal use. This is a small, but meaningful step that should have happened years ago. This bill has been signed by the Governor.
• HB2515 – Junk Fees. This bill prohibits advertising a price for goods or services without clearly displaying the total price, including mandatory fees and surcharges. The General Assembly rejected proposed amendments by the Governor, which means he has 30 days to decide whether the bill will become law in its enrolled form.
• HB1766 – Unemployment Insurance. This one is very timely as many federal workers apply for unemployment benefits. Virginia’s benefits are among the lowest in the nation – with a cap of $378 per week and a maximum duration of 26 weeks. $378 translates to less than $20K per year, which is near impossible to live on in Northern Virginia. The amount hasn’t been adjusted since 2014. HB1766 would have increased benefits by $100 per week. The Governor amended the bill to cut the increase to $52 per month. That is (barely) more than half a loaf, so the General Assembly agreed and the bill is now law.

Are you interested in a specific topic area that I haven’t covered? Send me an email and I will provide you with an update on anything that happened during the 2025 session.​

Thank you for the opportunity to serve!