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Crossover has arrived and the majority parties in both chambers of the General Assembly are touting the work they did with their legislative agenda. Now with the arrival of crossover, it is now time for both chambers to take up the opposite’s legislation.
Republicans hold a 52-48 majority in the House of Delegates and on Tuesday they touted their work to fulfill 2021 campaign promises that helped them flip seven seats. “When we went to the voters to ask them for a two-year lease on the people’s House, we made it clear that they, not we, would be the drivers behind our agenda,” said Speaker Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah.“As the House completes its work on our legislative priorities, I’m pleased to report that we’ve accomplished what voters sent us here to do.”
House Republicans fulfilled their promises specifically on removing mask mandates in schools, tax rebates, tightening up laws around abortion, reducing access to the voting ballots, and banning critical race theory. The Senate, however, killed most of that legislation on their side with the exception of the bill that will likely ban school districts from requiring students to wear masks in school, which was pushed by Democratic state Sen. Chap Petersen of Fairfax.
“We’ve acted to make our schools safer and more responsive to parents,” Gilbert continued. “We’ve acted to make our neighborhoods safer, and we’ve acted to put more money back into the pocketbooks of working Virginia families.”
As for the economy, Republicans in the House delivered on their promise of rebates for Virginians. “We passed a $300 per filer, $600 per couple tax refund,” said House Finance Committee Chair Roxann Robinson, R-Chesterfield. “We passed a bill to double the standard deduction, and a bill that will roll back a gas tax hike until prices can come back down. We also took action to lower power bills by rolling back mandates that will cost families $800 per year. Families told us they need help, and I’m proud to say we listened.”
Other economic bills passed by House Republicans that they specifically touted Tuesday:
- HB 90 repeals the 2.5% grocery tax,
- HB 1144 temporarily suspends part of the gas tax,
- HB 472 doubles the Standard Deduction for Virginia income tax filers,
- HB 118 essentially removes Virginia from RGGI
- HB 935 provides tax rebates of $300 to every filer, $600 to joint filers.
House Republicans also passed several bills aimed at rolling back some of the new policies enacted by Democrats to increase voting access to Virginians. Here are the bills that Republicans bragged about on Tuesday:
- HB 1090 restores Virginia’s voter ID law,
- HB 34 ends the use of unattended drop-boxes for ballots
- HB 39 Reduces Virginia’s early voting period from 45 days to 14 days.
- HB 927 will require the counting of absentee ballots in the precinct where they would otherwise be cast.
- HB 1140 gives voters more notice in more places if their registration is about to be canceled for some reason.
Public education was a large part of the session for House Republicans as it was for them during the 2021 campaign cycle. They passed a long slate of bills aimed at taking power from school boards and giving it to parents.
“Of all the issues we heard about on the campaign trail, education was the one we heard about the most,” said House Education Committee Chairman Glenn Davis, R-Virginia Beach. “Parents wanted their children back in school, in person and they wanted to be the ones to decide whether their children wore masks at schools. Our Republican caucus listened and fought for those parents.”
The bills Republicans touted passing on Tuesday include:
- HB 4 rolls back a 2020 law that made reporting of some crimes to law enforcement optional,
- HB 127 restores “race-blind” admissions to our Governor’s Schools, where Black students are vastly underrepresented,
- HB 340 provides multiple options for high school students to achieve an advanced diploma.
- HB 356 opens the way for “Lab Schools” in collaboration with colleges and universities.
- HB 787 bans critical race theory,
- HB 1009 gives parents notice and the right to opt-out if their school will be teaching materials they believe are sexually explicit,
- HB 873 school resource officers are present in every public school,
- HB 1272 lets parents choose whether their children will be masked in school.
- HB 563 creates a school construction fund to help local governments rebuild crumbling schools,
“We passed legislation to expand charter schools and make it easier for our colleges and universities to open lab schools so all students have a chance at a first-class education regardless of zip code,” Davis continued. We voted to put resource officers in every school for the safety of our students. We fought to ensure parents are notified if their students will be studying sexually explicit material. House Republicans want to ensure parents, not bureaucrats, are in charge of their children’s education.”
Republicans in the House also passed legislation that would have an impact on the relationship between a woman and her healthcare provider involved in an abortion.
HB 212 would expand the process of obtaining written informed consent from the mother involved in an abortion. HB 304 would require physicians to place babies who are born without a chance of surviving on life support. Both bills passed Tuesday on 52-48 partisan lines.
“While an egregious abortion ban did not advance this session, two bills, HB 212 and HB 304, that would further stigmatize patients and providers passed the Republican-majority House of Delegates today,” the Virginia Reproductive Equity Alliance said in a statement Tuesday. “Like all abortion restrictions, these bills are designed to deny people power over their own bodies, lives and futures. Virginians deserve to be able to make their own decisions about their health care with the support of their trusted providers, not politicians.”
Republicans did not tout these bills in their reflective press release Tuesday. “These bills will soon be sent to the Senate and we look forward to working with Senate Democrats to defeat them,” Virginia Reproductive Equity Alliance continued.
Whether any of this passes in the state Senate in order for it to make it to Governor Glenn Youngkin’s desk for signature is the real question. Democrats in the state Senate killed a lot of these bills that were being pushed by Republicans in their chamber.
“Senate Democrats have stood firm to ensure justice, protect rights, and provide safety to everyone at home, school, and work,” Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Mamie Locke said in a statement Tuesday. “We stand up for all Virginians–no matter their zip code, gender, orientation, identity, ethnicity, race, or religion. We have stood together as a brick wall against threats to create communities of second-class citizens, and will continue to do so in the second half of this General Assembly Session.”
The problem for them, however, is that they also cannot pass any legislation without agreement from House Republicans and Governor Youngkin.
“Senate Democrats so far this Session have passed legislation to protect workers, address workplace safety particularly in terms of covid, availability of sick leave and family care, housing and food stability, and assurances for businesses to continue their growth in the commonwealth,” Sen. Majority Leader Dick Saslaw (D-Fairfax) said in a statement Tuesday. “I look forward to working with the House of Delegates to pass these bills as we further the business of the commonwealth.”
As always, the governor has veto and amending power as well. His political aspirations align with the House Republicans this session.
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