Category: News & Updates

The Virginia General Assembly adjourned “Sine Die” Saturday, February 25th after considering approximately 3,000 bills!  Our legislators also filled judicial vacancies, approved/rejected the Governor’s nominations, and passed a “skinny budget” which addresses Virginia’s most pressing financial needs.  You may find the version of the budget as passed on the LIS website.

Dialogue on the budget between the House and Senate will continue for weeks, the goal being to settle the differences in the budget proposals between “Governor Youngkin’s Republicans” and “our” Democrats. 

Dear friends,

The House and Senate committees working on the budget have released their proposed changes to the budget for fiscal year 2023-24. The information gathered by the Commonwealth Institute and the charts available at their website provide a summary-level assessment of key general fund changes proposed by the money committees and Gov. Youngkin compared to the current budget.  The institute (and President Joe Biden) remind us that, “budget proposals are the clearest expressions of our priorities and values.” 

Dearest members,

Yesterday, the Roanoke Times dramatically headlined the front page of the paper: “Bills Fall to Wayside”. . . referencing the work being done in Richmond at the General Assembly.

Effective today, Wednesday, February 8, aside from working on the budget… each house may only consider the legislation and amendments of the other house. (We will report more about the budget next week.) Though almost 2,000 bills were introduced this session, most “died in committee.”

Continue reading “Legislative Committee General Session Update – 2/8/2023”

Greetings!

Observing the 2023 Virginia General Assembly with this divided government provides us with a real-life example of why our votes are so important! The Republican majority in the House passed three bills that would have drastically restricted or even eliminated abortions in Virginia, a legislative priority of our governor. The Senate’s Democratic majority is our “brick wall” against extreme measures, and the Education and Health Committee there effectively nixed all three of those bills.

Unfortunately, the Democrats’ push for stricter gun laws, including efforts to ban assault weapons, is being axed by the House Republicans due to their holding the majority. Republicans continue to try to roll back the progress made when Democrats held a majority in the House, Senate, and statewide offices of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General.

HB2192 would transform Catawba Hospital into a state-of-the-art substance abuse treatment and recovery services facility.

HB2192 has cleared a major hurdle toward passage with unanimous, bipartisan support of the Health, Welfare and Institutions subcommittee. (More HERE on Cardinal News: “House panel unanimously backs Catawba transformation project“) The “Catawba Hospital; substance abuse treatment and recovery services” bill, with Del. Sam Rasoul of Roanoke as patron, Del. Joseph P. McNamara of Salem as chief co-patron, and Del. Chris Head of Botetourt County among several more co-patrons, “Directs the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to transform Catawba Hospital into a state-of-the-art facility at which a continuum of substance abuse treatment and recovery services is provided in addition to the array of behavioral health and other services currently provided to geriatric individuals in need of mental health care.”

Virginia’s General Assembly began on January 11th for a 46 day “short” session (projected to end February 25th). We are represented in Richmond by a divided government right now, with a Republican majority in the House this year, and a Democratic majority in the Senate. This session’s discussions will be focused on amendments to The Budget, in addition to all the discussions of the thousands of bills typically filed by legislators during an election year.

Download RVDW’s RVDW Weekly Session update here.