May Update

Dear Friend,

The Governor has completed his actions on legislation returned to him from the General Assembly’s reconvened session, including the budget. Ahead are holidays like Memorial Day as well as various graduation commencements. I hope you get a moment to enjoy the holiday weekend and spend time celebrating the accomplishments of loved ones. Below is an update on state and local news.

State Budget

The Governor has made his final action on the state budget. As a refresher, at the April reconvened session, the Governor returned the General Assembly’s budget with 205 amendments and 8 line item vetoes. The General Assembly agreed to 41 of the amendments, and sustained 6 of his line-item vetoes. The rest of the amendments were rejected and two of his vetoes were ruled to be out of order. The resulting budget, which reflects compromise from the legislature with commitments to core values, was returned to the Governor. The Governor signed the budget, after adding 37 line-item vetoes. You can find his vetoed items, including his rationale, at this link. In whole, these vetoes amount to around $900m in funding removed from the budget.

The signed budget reflects amendments to the biennial budget passed last year. This budget bill builds on that previous budget with investments such as:

  • $1 billion in tax relief including rebates ($200 for individuals, $400 for joint filers) as well as increases to the standard deduction, and expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit.

  • An additional 1.5% raise for state employees and a $1,000 bonus for teachers and school-support staff.

  • Over $825 million to strengthen medicaid and expand access to maternal, pediatric, and mental and behavioral healthcare.

  • $35 million for economic development initiatives to attract quality, family-supporting jobs to Virginia.

  • $784.7 million increase in public education funding including $12 million of funding to boost mathematics achievement.

  • $310 million in school repair, construction, and modernization funds.

  • $52.8 million in special education funding.

  • Financial assistance to help lower higher education tuition costs.

  • $50 million in Hurricane Helene relief for south west Virginia.

  • $25 million in clean drinking water grants to assist localities in upgrading drinking water systems.

You can read more about the budget in this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

One final note, the House, upon further legal examination, ruled three of the Governor’s vetoes, as unconstitutional. While this is not a common maneuver, the legislature has exercised this power around three times in the past decade, and it is a meaningful avenue for the legislature to check the executive branch’s authority, ensuring decisions are not being made unilaterally. The three amendments in question are:

Governor Youngkin has stated that he does not agree with the legislature’s legal analysis and plans to operate under the belief that his vetoes were valid. Ultimately, this matter would need to be arbitrated in the courts to determine whether or not the vetoes were unconstitutional. Legislative leaders have expressed that they are unlikely to spend their efforts litigating the issue as the Governor’s term is expiring. You can read more about this development in this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Early Voting Begins

Early voting for primaries has begun. Primary elections for offices on the November General Ballot will be June 17, however you can vote early now. All 133 Virginia Counties and Cities will have a Democratic primary due to a primary race for statewide offices such as Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General. Thirty-one localities will have a Republican primary. Some localities can participate in primaries for House of Delegates, although there are no primary races for this office for Richmond City districts; however local races for Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney and Sheriff will have a primary. There will be no primary for the Governor’s race as each party has only one candidate qualified for the November ballot.

In Richmond, early voting can be done at the Registrar’s Office (2134 West Laburnum Avenue) and beginning June 2, at both City Hall (900 East Main Street) and Hickory Hill Community Center (3000 East Belt Boulevard).

Democratic primary voters in Richmond will see the below options on their ballot, in the order that they will appear:

Lieutenant Governor of Virginia:

  • Levar Stoney (former Mayor of Richmond)

  • Babur Lateef (Chairman of Prince William County School Board)

  • Aaron Rouse (Virginia State Senator)

  • Victor Salgado

  • Ghazala Hashmi (Virginia State Senator)

  • Alexander Bastani

For information on the roles and responsibilities of the Lt. Governor, visit this website.

Attorney General of Virginia:

  • Shannon Taylor (Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorney)

  • Jay Jones (former member of Virginia House of Delegates)

For information on the roles and responsibilities of the Attorney General, visit this website.

Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney:

  • Tom Barbour

  • Colette McEachin (incumbent)

For background, the Commonwealth’s Attorney is the lead prosecutor for crimes occurring within the City and helps shape our criminal justice system. Additionally, CA’s often undertake other initiatives to increase public safety, law enforcement oversight, legal access and other candidate-specific initiatives.

Richmond Sheriff:

  • William Burnett

  • Antionette Irving (incumbent)

For background, the Richmond Sheriff is in charge of overseeing the operations of the City Jail and for ensuring safe functioning of courtrooms as well as civil process procedures ranging from serving paperwork, enforcing court orders and other items. Additionally, Sheriff’s often pursue other initiatives to promote public safety and work with criminal justice groups to refine operations.

To check your registration status, visit the Department of Election’s Citizen Portal. Additionally, Ballotpedia has made available this tool to view your sample ballot.

Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission

JLARC met recently to establish its work plan for the coming months. Many important presentations and studies will be published on diverse and important topics such as the effects of gun violence, correctional education, school library book removal, workforce and industry incentives and more. You can find the work plan and meeting dates here.

Emergency Committee on Federal Workforce

The Emergency Committee created by the Speaker to analyze and respond to significant federal workforce and funding restructuring, met in Wytheville, May 12. The meeting agenda included an extensive discussion on federal funding of medicaid and implications for rural Virginia as well as national perspectives. Additionally, rural tourism, economic development in rural Virginia, agriculture and tariffs, and food banks were all discussed.

You can watch a recording of the meeting and find the agenda, presentations, and other meeting resources here.

Real ID

The Federal Government has begun enforcement of Real ID-compliant identification for domestic flights and for access to federal facilities including military bases. Valid U.S. passports satisfy this new requirement, however, in Virginia, an upgraded license is available.

You can begin your application online at this link. You will need to visit a DMV to finish the process with the required supporting documents:

  • Proof of identity

  • Two proofs of Virginia residency

  • One proof of legal presence

  • Proof of your Social Security Number, which can be verified online

  • Proof of name change if your name appears differently on documents

  • $10 fee plus the cost of the ID you are applying for

You can find examples of approved documentation here and more information about Real ID here.

Zoning Refresh

The City is undergoing a complete zoning code refresh, meaning that City Government is rewriting the city ordinances that determine what can and can’t be built on a piece of property, for the first time since the early 70s. The purpose of the code refresh is to update our zoning ordinances to reflect how our city has grown and changed since the last update, but also to prepare for the future and how our neighborhoods and districts will continue to change. Public input is vital to ensuring the resulting zone code changes preserve the integrity and character of neighborhoods while also expanding housing and commercial opportunities for all Richmonders, both multi-generational and newly-arrived. Your input is encouraged. The below website is updated with opportunities for engagement. Additionally, City Planners have been holding town halls and visiting neighborhood associations.

You can find all the latest information on the zoning code refresh at this website from the City, and you can find more information about the Richmond 300 Master Plan here.  

Congressional App Challenge

The Congressional App Challenge is an annual competition open to middle and high school students to submit applications they’ve developed for mobile phones, the web, PC, robotics or other platforms. A panel of experts select a winner for each congressional district, who is invited to the House of Code science fair in DC.

Registration can be found here and eligibility, here.

Student Organ Donation Advocates (SODA)

Recently, I was honored to join the Student Organ Donation Advocates (SODA) Chapter at VCU for their Donate Life Month Exposition. SODA is a student-run organization that aims to increase registrations to the organ donation registry as well as raise awareness about the impact and science of organ donation as well as elevate the stories of those whose lives were changed by an organ donation. You can find VCU SODA’s organ donation registration link here.

Endorsements & Scorecards

I was honored to receive the endorsement of several organizations recently including, Freedom Virginia, Clean Virginia, and Humane World Action Fund (formerly The Humane Society) and the National Women’s Political Caucus.

Additionally, I was recognized for my voting record by several groups including the League of Conservation Voters and REPROrising.

St. Joseph’s Villa Crisis Receiving Center

St. Joseph’s Villa has celebrated its first anniversary of its Crisis Receiving Center, a new approach to help treat children suffering from acute mental and behavioral health crises. The CRC provides an alternative to the hospital setting for care and its environment is less stressful for the patient as well as less costly to the state.

In its first year, the CRC treated 150 children between the ages of 7-17. You can learn more about the CRC, the services they provide, and the regions they serve at this website.

Community Volunteer Opportunities

April was Global Volunteer Month, but many organizations, like Richmond’s own Community Foundation, are keeping the outreach up through all of May. There are numerous ways to volunteer for local charities, non-profits, and other projects. If you are interested, but unsure where to start, you can use the Community Foundation’s website to get engaged. Additionally, use this link to create a “volunteer passport.” With the passport, for every organization you volunteer with, you receive a “sticker,” 3 stickers gets you free ice cream and a raffle entry for free Kings Dominion Tickets.

Additionally, Richmond is home to many groups serving many different needs. If you need help getting connected with groups working on issues close to you, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

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

Spring Update

Dear Friend,

The Governor has finalized his actions on the bills that the General Assembly sent to his desk. The legislature will meet tomorrow, April 2, to respond. Below is an update on pending legislation and other community news.

Reconvened Session

The General Assembly will convene for both a special session as well as the reconvened session. During the reconvened session, the legislature will receive actions from the Governor and respond to them. Other matters of business are not included in the scope of a reconvened session. Therefore, the General Assembly will also convene a special session on April 2 to see to the election of judges among other items. You can watch the reconvened and special sessions live on Wednesday, 12pm, at this link.

The Governor received 537 House bills and 379 Senate Bills. Of the 916 bills sent to his desk, he signed 605 bills, amended 159, and vetoed 158 bills. For vetoed legislation, the General Assembly can override the veto with a 2/3rds vote. For with Amendments from the Governor, the General Assembly can either accept the amendments, or reject them by a simple majority vote. As a final measure, the Governor can then either approve the legislation as it originally came to him or veto it.

The budget, the most consequential piece of legislation passed by the General Assembly, received 8 item vetoes and a record 205 amendments. The General Assembly’s $1.1 billion economic relief package was left in tact, as well as bonuses for state employees including teachers and educational support staff. However, the General Assembly budget included a provision requiring the Governor to propose a new budget should there be major reductions in funding. He removed this provision and instead cut $300 million from the budget and proposed it be deposited into the “rainy day fund,” with anticipation of federal funding disruptions. You can read more about the Governor’s budget amendments in this article from The Virginia Mercury as well as this one from The Richmond Times-Dispatch. You can find the Governor’s item vetoes and amendments here.

The Governor signed many bills into law. You can find a complete list of signed legislation here. You can find a complete list of vetoed legislation here. Finally, find legislation that received an amendment from the Governor, here. You may enjoy the below further reading on the Governor’s actions:

I had 11 bills pass this session, 7 of which were signed and 4 were amended. My signed legislation includes:

  • Creating an alternative path to licensure for architects through apprenticeships.

  • Ensuring everyone who serves as a FOIA Officer for a public body receives training.

  • Streamlining technology contracts for localities and public bodies.

  • Making changes to support the Enterprise Zone grant program, including creating a workgroup to guide further changes and enhancements.

  • As well as several bills that made technical and clarifying changes to the code governing topics such as exchange student tuition, community land trusts, and substitute judge compensation rates.

My 4 pieces of amended legislation include:

  • Granting localities the authority to create ordinances for streamlined and tailored ordinances for tax-exempt non-profits (including faith communities) to develop affordable housing. The Governor amended the legislation to convene a workgroup tasked with creating strategies and guidance for localities to engage such non-profits in affordable housing ordinances.  

  • Establishing a consistent model of education in prison facilities, of which the Governor delayed the enactment by a year.

  • Establishing a Board of Directors for Richard Bland College (currently governed by William & Mary’s Board), which the Governor removed the one year delayed effective date (up to July 1, 2025, from July 1, 2026).

  • Making several changes to VCU Health System’s Governance in-line with JLARC’s recommendations on the topic. The Governor made changes on the size and make-up of the board among other changes.

Resources for Federal Workers

Virginia is home to over 150,000 federal employees. The significant reorganization of the Federal Government and the sweeping down-sizing of the federal workforce has already impacted many in our state and community. Recently let-go federal workers who are seeking unemployment may find this webpage from the Virginia Employment Commission helpful as well as this factsheet from the U.S. Department of Labor on the Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees program.

For finding new jobs, the Office of Personnel Management maintains this website for their reemployment and transition programs. Additionally the “Virginia Has Jobs,” webpage can assist in searches for both public and private employment.

As President Trump’s federal restructuring and reduction in funding continues, Virginia is working to be prepared. The House Committee on The Impacts of Federal Workforce and Funding Reductions will meet on April 8 in Alexandria. More information here.

Richmond People’s Budget Voting

Richmond’s Inaugural participatory budget is open for voting. As a refresher, the “Richmond People’s Budget,” is a new initiative to allow for Richmonders to propose and vote on projects in the neighborhoods in which they live, work and play. Voting is open through April 15. Visit this webpage for more information.

VCU Center on Aging

VCU’s Center on Aging is a statewide agency created by the General Assembly in 1978 to protect and improve the quality of life for older Virginians. Since their founding, the work of the Center on Aging has only become vastly more important: due to demographic phenomena such as declining birth rates and our median age becoming increasingly older, we must ensure we have the infrastructure and resources to care for our greying population. The Center on Aging is based in VCU’s College of Health Professions, and confers a Master’s degree in Gerontology. Additionally, they provide critical research and publications on topics such as elder abuse, social security, dementia and much more. They also award grants for Alzheimer’s and Related Dementia research and Geriatric Education and Training.

America: Made in Virginia—Celebrating Our Nation’s Founding

I was honored to join two special events celebrating the upcoming 250th Anniversary of our Nation’s founding.

Virginia Public Media welcomed documentarian Ken Burns for a special viewing and panel discussion of his upcoming documentary “The American Revolution.” The documentary will be released in Fall of this year.

Additionally, I joined the Virginia Museum of History & Culture for the opening of their “Give Me Liberty: Virginia & the Forging of a Nation” exhibit, which highlights Virginia’s leadership in the American Revolution and its influence in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. You can learn more about the exhibit here.

The VA250 Commission is coordinating the Commonwealth’s celebration. You can learn more at their website.

Celebrating Community Groups

In the past few weeks I have had the honor of joining several community groups  and organizations for special events.

I joined the Capital Trees Foundation for their 15th annual celebration. Capital Trees began as a collaboration of several garden clubs to create and improve green spaces. Visit their webpage for more information.

Additionally, I attended a leadership forum at the SPAN Center, the Capital Area Agency on Aging. The SPAN Center provides resources and creates a community for older Virginians and Virginians with disabilities. You can learn more about their work here.

I joined David Berdish of VCU’s Business School, who created the inaugural Circular Supply Chain Summit. The two day summit brought business and economic leaders, government procurement officials, supply chain academics, and other experts together to share ideas on supporting sustainable and circular economies. This is a burgeoning movement supported by Virginia’s only university with a program in supply chain management.

The Virginia Derby Day is an annual horse race held at Colonial Downs in New Kent. This year, the Derby was named a qualifier for the Kentucky Derby. American Promise won in front 8 thousand spectators, and will race at Churchill Downs, May 3.

I joined the Richmond Planet Foundation for a kickoff of the John Mitchell, Jr. Project, an exciting new initiative to highlight the monumental work of John Mitchell, Jr, the prominent editor and journalist of The Richmond Planet, as well as a civil rights activist, businessman, politician and banker. The Foundation has partnered with playwright Kristen Adele Calhoun to bring a play to Richmond’s Firehouse Theater on the life and legacy of Mr. Mitchell. Learn more about John Mitchell here.

Frida Kahlo at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

The VMFA will open “Frida: Beyond the Myth” on April 5. The VMFA is one of only two venues in the U.S. and the only on the East Coast, that will host this exhibit of Frida Kahlo’s paintings and provide an opportunity to understand the life and story of Frida, beyond much of the mythology of her life and work. You can read more about the exhibit in this press release from the VMFA and you can purchase tickets here.

Additionally, on opening day, the Museum will host “FridaFest,” 1-7pm, as an outdoor, all-ages event with food, beverage, music and more to celebrate the exhibit’s opening. Learn more here.

Richmond City Budget Process

The Mayor has proposed a new $3 billion budget to City Council, beginning the City’s budget setting process. April will include public hearings before amendments are proposed by City Council and eventually a budget is adopted in May. You can find the Mayor’s proposals here, as well as background on the process here.

Zoning Advisory Council

The City is undergoing a zoning code refresh, which you can read about here. As part of this work, the City has convened a Code Refresh Zoning Advisory Council and working groups who will assist the council. If you would like to participate in these working groups, visit this link. Additionally, if you were unable to participate in any of the recent zoning open houses, you can fill out this survey to share your thoughts. For all things Richmond 300, visit this link.

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

Sine Die Update

Dear Friend,

The General Assembly has adjourned, sine die, concluding the work of the 2025 Regular Legislative Session. Below is an update on the work the General Assembly completed as well as the road ahead, including an upcoming town hall.

Sine Die

The General Assembly adjourned sine die, Saturday, February 22. This session, nearly 2,000 bills, as well as hundreds of resolutions, were introduced, deliberated over, and acted on, resulting in just over 800 bills being sent to the Governor’s desk for action. The Governor now has 30 days to act on legislation once it has been communicated to him. He may sign the bill into law, veto the bill, send it back to the General Assembly with amendments, called “Governor’s recommendations,” or he may take no action which results in the bill becoming law. The General Assembly will meet April 2 for the Reconvened Session, where the legislature receives the Governor’s actions and then takes final action, to either override a veto (which takes a 2/3rds vote), accept a veto, or vote to accept or reject the Governor’s amendments. If amendments are rejected, the Governor takes final action to either sign the bill or veto it.

Following is an update on the state budget, my legislation and other notable bills from the 2025 legislative session.

Budget Bill

The House and Senate have sent their budget bill to the Governor. As a refresher, Virginia operates under a biennial budget, meaning we establish a brand new budget every two years. We are currently in the middle of the budget that was agreed to last summer. This session, as is the case in all sessions occurring on odd-numbered years, the Governor and the General Assembly considered amendments to the existing budget.

Our budget compromise from 2024 made historic investments in education, worked to shore up glaring weaknesses in our healthcare infrastructure, continued economic relief measures, and much more. This session, the Governor and Legislature discerned the best use of surplus revenues the state had accrued due to prudent spending and economic forecasting that warned of possible revenue contractions that did not fully materialize. Additionally, there has been much hand-wringing in anticipation of large scale impacts to state revenues and funding streams as a result of federal government restructuring, downsizing, and program termination. The House Speaker has created a bipartisan committee to study the potential effects and make recommendations. Additionally, the General Assembly is on standby to meet for a special session to respond to these changes as they are announced and enacted. Below are some highlights of how Virginia’s budget surplus was put to use.

Economic Relief & Tax Policy:

  • Increases the standard deduction by $250 for individual filers and $500 for joint filers.

  • One-time rebates of $200 and $400 for individual and joint filers respectively.

  • Increases the Earned Income Tax Credit  to 20% of the federal tax credit.

  • Pauses Virginia from automatically conforming to Federal tax code for two years.

Education:

  • $782.4 million in additional support for public education.

  • $222.9 million to fully fund crucial support staff positions.

  • An additional $150 million for school construction.

  • A 10% increase in state support for special education support, a $52.8 million investment.

  • Adds 4,500 slots for state-supported early childhood care and education services.

  • $12 million to increase student outcomes in mathematics.

  • $55 million for higher education access support.

  • $26.8 million for various student financial aid programs.

Healthcare:

  • Appropriates an additional $869 million to health and human resources expenditures, of which 89% is accounted for by increased enrollments and utilizations of current services.

  • Strengthens internal and external financial oversight of medicaid.

  • $10 million in operating support for nursing homes.

  • Expands coverage and/or increases support for weight loss drugs, substance use disorder, and brain injury services.

  • $6 million to support MARCUS alert sites.

  • $8.7 million to hire additional support coordinators at Community Service Boards to facilitate access to care for DD waiver recipients, a necessary investment from the recent large increase in DD waiver slots.

  • Support for pilot programs that serve patients with dementia including a program to divert and discharge patients from state hospitals to community placements as well as a program for Richmond and Roanoke to develop interdisciplinary plans of care and case management for dementia patients.

  • $25 million for drinking water improvement grants for localities.

Compensation:

  • Funding for a $1,000 bonus for teacher and support staff bonuses, with no local match required.

  • A 1.5% pay bonus for state employees.

  • Extends the workers compensation coverage for post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder, and depressive disorder to two years for law enforcement personnel and firefighters.

Commerce and Natural Resources:

  • $20 million for rental assistance pilot programs.

  • $15 million for a home ownership down-payment assistance pilot grant program.

  • $50 million for Hurricane Helene disaster relief.

  • $14.5 million to retain bioscience research in Virginia and support research to lower the cost of insulin.

  • $50 million to support the Richmond Combined Sewer Overflow project.

  • $50 million for the Community Flood Preparedness Program.

  • $20 million for deferred maintenance at state parks.

Public Safety & Transportation:

  • $5.9 million for community violence intervention programs.

  • $3.5 million to support sexual assault and domestic violence victim agencies and victim witness programs.

  • Removes language that would have withheld funding for local law enforcement agencies that do not comply with new requirements for federal immigration enforcement.

  • Makes preparations and grants permission for the Virginia Port Authority to amend its lease with the Virginia International Gateway Terminal with the intent of the Port Authority purchasing the terminal at the end of its current lease in 2065.

General Government & Capital Outlay:

  • Funding to complete the rehabilitation of the Byrd Park World War I Memorial Carillon.

  • Language that directs the VCU Health System to stop payments to the City associated with the now-defunct East Clay Street real estate deal. This language does not nullify the original contract. Additionally, the City did not lose money on this deal; Richmond has net $6.1 million through VCU paying for the demolition of the site as well as through PILOT payments associated with the project. The City now has ownership of the ready-to-be-developed parcel. Should VCU Health continue making payments, they would be paying what is essentially a payment in lieu of taxes on City property used entirely for non-tax-generating City purposes. Finally, VCU Health is the largest employer in Richmond and serves as a major source of support for vulnerable Virginians. The ongoing payments interfered with their mission. You can read more about this development in this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of the budget’s provisions. You can find a more detailed summary produced by the House Appropriations Committee here as well as the full conference report here in pdf form and in an interactive webpage format here.

Additionally, you may enjoy this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch as well as this one from The Virginia Mercury. The Commonwealth Institute published this statement on the budget as well as their analysis on the budget compromise now before the Governor.

Notable Legislation of the 2025 Session

The General Assembly concluded work on a wide variety of issues of importance to Virginia and its residents. Below are some of the bills that passed that constituents and groups expressed interest in during the legislative session. This is by no means a comprehensive recap of what was accomplished this session. If you have questions or concerns on specific legislation or topics, please don’t hesitate to contact my office at delegate.carr@betsycarr.org or by phone at 804-698-1078.

  • HB1928 to increase the minimum wage incrementally to $15/hour by 2027. Should the Governor sign the bill, then the minimum wage will rise to $13.50/hour in January 2026. 

  • Three constitutional amendments: HJ1 enshrining the right to reproductive healthcare in our constitution; HJ2 establishing the automatic restoration of voting rights for formerly incarcerated individuals; and HJ9 which repeals language in our current constitution that prohibits same sex marriage.

  • HB1829 and HB2686 which seek to improve mathematics learning outcomes for K-12 students.

  • HB2165 to prohibit campaign funds from being spent on personal use. 

  • HB1607 banning the sale, purchase or transfer of assault firearms as already defined in code. 

  • SB1233 permitting the use of pedestrian safety and stop sign violation cameras. This bill also makes tweaks to the photo speed ticketing devices currently in use in school and highway work zones.

  • HB2036 expands reckless driving to include “exhibition driving.”

  • HB2724 permitting and also establishing guardrails for automatic license plate readers, which are currently in use with no guardrails. While there are still some stakeholder concerns over privacy implications and potential abuse, this bill will require regular reporting so further legislative action can be taken.

  • HB2485 creating a regulated, legal market for recreational cannabis. 

  • Two widely discussed measures to improve prescription drug access and affordability: HB2610 which directs the state to contract with a single pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) and HB1724 to establish a prescription drug affordability board. 

  • HB1941 requires retail establishments who are selling invasive plant species for outdoor use to have signage disclosing as much and encouraging alternatives.

  • SB1307 allowing localities the authority to call a referendum to pass an additional tax for the purpose of generating revenues for school construction.

Several articles were published that provide helpful and interesting further reading on the happenings of this past legislative session. This article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch highlights the big issues considered in a short session. The Speaker is quoted in this article from The RTD about his expectation that we will have a Special Session to address federal actions. Additionally, The Virginia Mercury published this review of legislation that was passed. 

You may enjoy this article highlighting the growth and development of second year legislators. 

My Introduced Legislation

This session, the House had a bill limit of 15 bills per legislator. I introduced 15 bills, had 13 pass the House, and 11 ultimately passed. Below is information on the 11 bills that are on their way to the Governor.

HB2150 prohibits technology contracts from having terms that are in conflict with Virginia law. This provision should streamline the procurement and use of some technology contracts.

HB2151 amends the code for Community Land Trusts, such as Richmond’s Maggie Walker Community Land Trust, to reflect how CLTs operate and ensure they are in compliance.

HB2152 requires attorneys who are serving as FOIA officers to receive training on the Freedom of Information Act, from which at present, attorneys are exempted from but all other FOIA officers are required to complete.

HB2153 also known as Faith in Housing for the Commonwealth, allows localities to adopt ordinances for a special permitting process for all tax-exempt non-profits to develop their land for affordable housing.

HB2154 creates an alternative path to licensure for architects by way of apprenticeships.

HB2156 makes technical amendments to Virginia code governing exchange student tuition and fees collection. This will ensure the code reflects how these programs are administered.

HB2157 establishes a Board of Visitors to govern Richard Bland College, which is currently under the authority of the College of William & Mary’s Board.

HB2158 initiates a process to create a standard model of education for inmates in Virginia Department of Corrections facilities. It creates a task force to facilitate deep collaboration between various government agencies with a 5 year goal of having an implementable and standardized educational model at all DOC facilities. Additionally, this bill requires several data sharing responsibilities for DOC and requires they use evidence based functional literacy screening and instructional services.

HB2161 makes several changes to VCU Health System’s governance structure. The legislation implements recommendations from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission’s study on VCU Health’s governance. The bill is designed to enhance the board’s expertise and it’s ability to act with independence and objectivity, while maintaining a necessary level of coordination and collaboration between the health system and the university.

HB2162 adjusts the code to reflect the budget’s increased compensation rates for substitute judges.  

HB2163 makes minor changes to the Enterprise Zone Grant Program, administered by the Department of Housing & Community Development, and creates a workgroup to assess further changes to the program as well as review the process of establishing and removing enterprise zone designation.

First Meeting of the Emergency Committee on Impacts of the Federal Workforce and Funding Reductions

On the last day of session, the House’s Emergency Committee that the Speaker established, met to begin responding to the Trump Administration’s major federal changes. You can watch a recording of the meeting here. Additionally, you can find links to the meeting’s resources at this link, which includes a presentation of the federal dollars in Virginia, a presentation from the Virginia Employment Commission on Federal workforce, a presentation on federal dollars that support our localities, and other resources.

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

Labor Day Update

Dear Friend,

Labor Day Weekend is here and with the bustle of back-to-school and fall season preparations on the horizon, I hope you take this holiday weekend to enjoy a last hurrah of summer. Below is an update on recent state meetings, as well as other relevant local news and community events.  

School is in Session

Classes have resumed in Richmond’s public schools and institutions of higher education. The return of students at our schools underlines the crucial message to not speed and drive defensively. Tragic deaths of VCU students in the past few years are fresh on many minds and we can all do our part to keep our students safe at VCU, VUU, RPS schools, as well as the numerous private schools in and around Richmond. In addition to promoting student safety, many RPS school zones now feature photo-speed ticketing devices.

Joint Money Committee

The Joint Money Committee met August 14, to receive remarks from Governor Youngkin as well as updates on state revenues and forecasts for the Virginia economy. The General Assembly and the Governor adopted a budget that was prudent in spending, recognizing forecasts of an economic recession for mid to late 2024. This recession has not yet materialized, and the state is looking at $1.2 billion in surplus revenues. Should forecasts remain optimistic, the General Assembly will deliberate the best use of these funds in the upcoming session. The Governor made it clear in his remarks that he would like to see the revenue surplus put to tax relief and some more pressing investments. Chairman of House Appropriations, Delegate Luke Torian, expressed the House’s sentiment that excess revenues are not a surplus if crucial infrastructure is underfunded such as our public education system, in addition to needed conservation and climate mitigation investments, as well as many pressing healthcare infrastructure needs.You can read more about the meeting and Virginia’s fiscal status in this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch. You can watch a recording of the meeting at this link and find the agenda and presentation at this link.

Health & Human Resources Committee Boot Camp

The members of the Health & Human Services Committee as well as the Health & Human Resources Subcommittee of Appropriations met August 19 & 20 for a legislative healthcare boot camp. August 19, was focused on all things medicaid including how it is funded, how policies are set, and the application of medicaid in long term care centers. You can watch a recording of these presentations at this link. The following day was focused on behavioral health, intellectual disabilities, and developmental disabilities. You can watch those presentations at this link.

Medicaid Policy Conference

Medicaid represents the second highest expenditure in state government budgets. One out of five citizens is enrolled in medicaid. At the invitation of the Council of State Governments (CSG), I joined legislators from other states including Illinois, Mississippi, Vermont, Hawaii, North Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia to attend a "Medicaid Policy Academy" in Washington, D.C., August 26-28. Topics explored or analyzed included eligibility, enrollment and governance, oversight of state medicaid programs, private sector health interests in innovations and health care delivery, and state medicaid innovations. Future challenges facing the medicaid program include workforce shortages, shifts in eligibility and an outsized role in long-term care financing. In addition to having the opportunity to learn from other states' medicaid programs, as participants in the "Academy," we were introduced to many national experts helpful in various aspects of this very complex subject. You can find the agenda and the presentations from this conference at the CSG website.

Martin Luther King Commission

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Commission met August 21 to hear from Dr. Gianluca De Fazio on Lynchings in Virginia, as well as to establish a work plan and create work groups. You can watch a recording of the meeting, including Dr. De Fazio’s presentation, at this link.

Richmond’s Combined Sewer Overflow Project

Richmond’s Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Project was approved by the Department of Environmental Quality. The City submitted a final plan that was able to drastically cut costs from $1.3 billion down to around $650 million. You can read more about the history of Richmond’s CSO system, and the decades long maintenance that has been required in this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Sierra Club at the Science Museum

The Sierra Club will host programming at the Science Museum’s RF&P Forum Room on the second Tuesday of each month. The next meeting will be September 10, 7pm and include a meet & greet with environmental advocates from the Sierra Club and the Science Museum. More information available here.

VCU Minority Political Leadership Institute

VCU’s Minority Political Leadership Institute (MPLI) is accepting applications for their next cohort. If accepted, participants undergo an eight month curriculum that includes everything from policy deep-dives and meeting with lawmakers and state administrators to assisting with public service projects and undergoing leadership development. You can learn more and apply here.

Virginia She Served Business Builder Program

The Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity has launched the “Virginia She Served Business Builder (VS2B2)” program to support Virginia’s military women. VS2B2 will support actively serving, reservist, veteran women, and military or veteran spouses who are interested in creating a small business or expanding their current one. The VS2B2 will provide a free virtual curriculum with essential skills and training. To learn more and apply, visit this website.

Virginia Public Media Groundbreaking

Virginia Public Media (VPM) has broken ground on their new headquarters located at the former surface parking lot between 1st & Foushee Streets on East Broad Street.  VPM is expecting to move into their new headquarters by early 2026. You can learn more about the project in this article from VPM.

Flu Season

As summer winds down and students return to class, we inch closer to flu season as well as other seasonal increases in illness. The Richmond City Health District has numerous resources to help you and your loved ones stay well this fall and winter. Visit their website for more information. Additionally, other resources can be found in pharmacies across the Richmond area. For example, Walmart has recently opened testing and treatment at all locations for Flu, COVID-19, and Strep. You can learn more here. Similar services are provided at pharmacies like CVS.

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

August Update

Dear Friend,

As we enter August, several community gatherings and holidays enter the horizon. I hope you are beating the heat and enjoying the dog days of summer. Below is an update on recent work of the General Assembly, upcoming community events, and helpful resources and reminders.

Special Session Update

The General Assembly convened for a special session on July 18. The House and Senate passed legislation that repealed changes to the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP) that had been included in the compromise budget passed earlier this year. As mentioned in my previous newsletters, the VMSDEP program’s associated cost has grown exponentially with little guardrails prompting the Legislature and Governor to adjust the program to control the cost for institutions of higher education. Families who use the program expressed concern with the expedited effective date of the changes resulting in the repeal to allow for public input and further study of policy options. You can read about the General Assembly’s actions in this article from The Virginia Mercury.

Joint Subcommittee on Health & Human Resources Oversight

The Joint Subcommittee on Health & Human Resources Oversight met Tuesday, July 9, to receive updates on the Medicaid Unwinding process from the Department of Medical Assistance Services, as well as receive an update on the increase of Developmental Disability waiver slots from the Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Services. You can find the agenda for the meeting here and watch a recording at this link.

National Night Out

Tuesday, August 6, is National Night Out, a national effort to encourage communities to gather with local law enforcement and other first responders to strengthen sense of community, build productive and respectful relationships between communities and law enforcement, share important information to reduce crime and substance abuse, and celebrate togetherness amid Summer’s long days and warm weather. Gatherings are organized by civic associations and neighborhood groups and often include cookouts, parades, contests, and family friendly programs.

Festivities are organized by neighborhoods. To find out if your neighborhood is planning an event, get in contact with your local civic association. If you are unsure whom to contact, you can find a directory of civic associations at this link from the City of Richmond. If you would like to plan a National Night Out gathering and would like to coordinate a street closure and invite members from the Richmond Police Department, you can do so at this link.

Sales Tax Holiday

This weekend, August 2-4, will be Virginia’s Sales Tax Holiday. Qualifying items are school supplies, clothing, footwear; hurricane preparedness items including generators and chainsaws; and qualifying Energy Star and WaterSense home appliances. For more information on qualifying items, visit this guide from the Department of Taxation.

Back to School

The first day of school for Richmond Public Schools is August 19. Families can reference this comprehensive webpage from RPS for back-to-school paper work, bus routes, checklists, and much more.

Additionally, there are numerous school supply drives happening in the coming weeks across the City. Whether your family could benefit from the drive or is in a position to contribute, you may be interested in the VCU Ultimate Backpack Supply Drive, happening August 8, at the Richmond Convention Center (more information here), the YMCA Bright Beginnings Program (more information here), or supporting RPS’s efforts to ensure students are set up for success (more information here).

Richmond People’s Budget

The Richmond People’s Budget is a new initiative from the City Government. A fund has been dedicated to responding to the most requested Capital Improvement Projects from each City Council District. Anyone 14 years of age or older who lives, works or studies in the City is invited to submit their proposals for projects. Later this year, voting will be open for citizens to review and support their preferred projects, which will then be moved forward and funded in Summer of 2025. More information can be found at the dedicated website for the Richmond People’s Budget.

Richmond Civilian Review Board

The City is accepting applications from City residents for the Civilian Review Board. The Board consists of 8 members, four appointed by the Mayor and four appointed by Council. Applications for Council-appointed seats are live and available at this link. Members will serve 3-year terms during which they will review police activity and make recommendations to City Government. You can learn more about the Civilian Review Board here.

Inclement Weather

Temperatures have remained high, with severe heat warnings being issued on a frequent basis. The City has set up cooling stations across the City including at Public Libraries. When temperatures reach 92 degrees or higher, the City has a walk-up inclement weather station at 1900 Chamberlayne Avenue. More information available here. Additionally, the Department of Social Services has energy assistance services. More information here.

Additionally, we are in the middle of Atlantic Hurricane Season, which runs through November. The Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) has a comprehensive guide including preparedness guides available here.

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

New Laws in Effect

Dear Friend,

Summer festivities are in full swing. Whether you are staying local during the summer or finding time to travel, I hope you find a chance to rest and relax. The first of July marked the enactment of many new laws; and, Independence Day is upon us with a plethora of celebrations taking place. Below is an update on newly enacted laws, other state news and local happenings.

Special Session Update

The General Assembly will convene July 18, 2pm to vote on legislation repealing changes made to the Virginia Military Survivors Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP) in the compromised budget. The program has undergone exponential growth that has been unsustainable for institutions of higher education, prompting the initial changes. In response to concerns from veteran families over the changes and how soon they would go into effect, the legislature has moved to repeal the changes so further study, including a review by the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission as well as public testimony, can be considered before changes are adopted. You can find the legislation at this link. You can watch a livestream of the session here.

New Laws in Effect

July 1 marked the enactment of the 845 pieces of legislation that were approved by the General Assembly and the Governor. These pieces of legislation range a wide array of topics; from minor tweaks to major changes. Some pieces of legislation will be immediately noticeable and others will cause behind-the-scenes changes. Below is a small recap of some of the newly enacted laws.

New Biennial State Budget

The most significant legislation is the State budget. I have covered the compromise budget that was passed in mid-May in previous newsletters, but a helpful refresher can be found in this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Gun Safety

  • HB36 & SB44 create a felony that carries a maximum of 10 years in jail for parents who allow their children access to firearms if the child is known to pose a threat of violence.

  • HB22 bans the use, possession, or distribution of auto sears, also known as switches, which are small devices that convert firearms into automatic firearms.

  • SB363 makes it a class 1 misdemeanor to posses and a class 6 felony to purchase, sell, or distribute any firearms that have had their serial number removed or destroyed. This law does not apply to antique firearms.

Marriage Equality

HB174 prohibits the denial of a marriage license on the basis of sex, gender, or race of the parties involved.

Hate Crimes & Anti-Discrimination

HB18 & SB7 expand anti-discrimination and hate crime law to include victims who were targets of hate crime based on their ethnic origin or individuals who were unlawfully discriminated against in employment or places of public accommodation on the basis of their ethnic origin.

Subscription Payment Plans

HB744 is a new consumer protection law that requires vendors that offer automatic renewal provisions with their continuous service products to alert Virginia customers of their option to cancel 30 days prior to the contract renewal date.

Utility Shut Offs

HB906 prohibits public utilities from disconnecting service during periods of extreme temperatures, during declared state of emergencies, and on Fridays, weekends, state holidays or the day preceding a holiday.

Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority (ABC)

Through a provision in the budget, ABC is now an independent state agency. Additionally, several ABC-related bills have gone into effect.

  • HB688 & SB635 make “cocktails-to-go” permanently legal, by repealing the 2024 sunset date that was included in previous legalizing legislation. Additionally, third-party delivery licenses are set to be repealed in 2026, while a workgroup meets before then to establish recommendations.

  • SB26 allows for public consumption of alcohol on campgrounds, with some controlling provisions.

  • Several pieces of legislation standardized and streamlined the mixed beverage licensure for performing arts venues (such as Richmond’s Riverfront Amphitheater) and sports facilities.

Further reading on ABC-related laws can be found in this blog from ABC as well in this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Nicotine Product Regulations

HB1069 & SB550 establish a regulatory framework to curtail the sale of illegal and unregulated nicotine vapor and cigarette products. A registry will be created at the Office of the Attorney General with products that meet certain criteria, including FDA approval. Additionally, HB790 & SB582 prohibit internet sales of vapes unless it is to retail dealers and also creates large penalties for retailers who sell vapes or other liquid nicotine products to individuals younger than 21 years old.

Preventing Financial Exploitation of Elders and Vulnerable Adults

HB692 & SB174 allow elders and vulnerable adults to submit and update lists to financial institutions that the institution can contact if there is suspected financial exploitation of the elder or vulnerable adult.

Clockwise from top left: Touring the International Rescue Committee’s Richmond Office; Representatives from Ceres a nonprofit advocacy group focused on sustainability; Touring the Moore Street School with Colette McEachin and Jerome Legions; Presenting a commending resolution for The Shepherd’s Center to Julie Adams-Buchanan.

Data Privacy & Security

Several bills regarding data protections were enacted, including:

  • HB707 establishes data protections for children including a ban on storing data of minors if it is used for target advertising. Additionally, it is prohibited for online and data firms to collect geolocation data of minors.

  • HB78 prohibits the issuance of a court order for the collection of one’s menstrual data.

Speed Limits

HB1071 grants localities the authority to lower the speed limit on state roads running through the localities commercial or residential zones.

All Terrain Vehicle Impounding

HB234 & SB516 permit localities to adopt an ordinance for the lawful seizure and impounding of an ATV or off-road motorcycle that is illegally operated on a sidewalk or highway.

Cannabis Use Protections for Employees

HB149 & SB391 ensure that employees are not discriminated against on the basis of their lawful use of medicinal cannabis oil. The law contains exceptions for jobs such as law enforcement officers.

Tenant Protections

Numerous tenant protections have come into law including:

  • HB957 holds landlords liable to remedy damages for tenants who had to vacate the property due to a building code violation that threatened their health and safety. Further conditions on the bill require the tenant to have notified the landlord and then to have been forced to vacate due to a condemnation of the building or unit.

  • HB73 requires courts to expunge eviction records for dismissed cases.

  • HB764 allows victims of domestic violence or sexual assault who have a permanent protective order to terminate a lease early.

College Admissions

SB46 prohibits legacy admissions at public institutions of higher education.

Legal Age for Marriage

HB994 establishes 18 as the legal age for marriage by removing previous language that granted conditions by which minors could get married.

Animal Welfare

HB223 & SB11 allow the court to prohibit those guilty of felony animal cruelty from ownership of companion or equine animals, for life. Those guilty of misdemeanor animal cruelty can be prohibited from ownership of the same such animals for a period of up to five years. An additional new animal welfare law is HB1354, which prohibits the declawing of cats with exceptions for cases such as recurring infection or abnormality in the claws or paw.

Restroom Access

HB474 requires that retail establishments that do not have a public restroom but have an employee restroom, allow members of the public to use the employee restroom if they have a qualifying medical condition such as pregnancy, Crohn’s Disease or other conditions.

Further Reading

This is certainly not a comprehensive review of Virginia’s new laws. The Division of Legislative Services publishes “In Due Course,” a helpful and more thorough review of newly enacted laws. You can find the 2024 edition at this link. You can find a list of all approved bills here. In addition, there are numerous articles that have been published including:

  • This article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch highlighting bills that resulted from Richmond tragedies, but also a broader review of other new laws.

  • The Virginia Mercury published a housing law focused article, available here.

  • Axios Richmond published a broad round-up, available here.

Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission

On Monday, July 1, JLARC met to receive reports from the Auditor of Public Accounts spanning localities in fiscal distress to institutions of higher education. Additionally, the Commission received oversight reports and annual status reports on both the Virginia Retirement System as well as Virginia529.

You can watch a recording of the meeting here and find links to the reports at this link.

Fourth of July Celebrations

There will be numerous festivities across the Richmond region for the Fourth of July. Activities include a Naturalization Ceremony at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture (more information available here). The Diamond will host a home game for the Flying Squirrels followed by a special fireworks display. Dogwood Dell will host a free night of live music and celebration. Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden will offer free admission. The Capitol will host an Independence Day Celebration brought by the Virginia 250 Commission (more information here). For more local happenings, visit this guide from Richmond Region Tourism.

Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Conference

I joined several of my colleagues from the Virginia General Assembly in attending the 2024 SREB Annual Meeting & Legislative Conference in Dallas, Texas. Topics discussed included building a first rate teacher workforce in high poverty schools, using artificial intelligence to increase effectiveness and educational outcomes, career pathways for economic success, and addressing diverse literacy needs across lifespans. You can find presentations and other information from the SREB at this link.

Virginia Outdoors Foundation Grants

The Virginia Outdoors Foundation has made $1.7 Million from its Preservation Trust Fund available for grants supporting projects that increase public access, promote water quality, historic and cultural resources, wildlife habitat, or high-quality farmland and forests. More information available here.

Legislative Scorecards

Following each legislative session, various groups issue “legislative scorecards,” a form of accountability from legislators to issues of importance to these organizations. Recently I was informed of my “100%” rating from the League of Conservation Voters; my “100%” scoring from Equality Virginia; my “A+ Champion” designation from Repro Rising Virginia; and my designation as an “Economic Security Ally” from Freedom Virginia. Indicated above are links to the various scorecards.

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

June Update

Dear Friend,

School has ended and the temperature and humidity have begun to climb. I hope you get a chance to enjoy the long days and spend some quality time with your loved ones. Below is an update on the state budget and legislation.

Compromise Budget

The General Assembly met Monday, May 13, to consider a compromise budget that the Governor and House and Senate budget conferees worked on together. The budget is the most important piece of legislation for which the General Assembly is responsible. Conference negotiations required both the legislature and the Governor’s office to make significant concessions on each of their priorities. Conference negotiations worked off of the conference report that the General Assembly sent to the Governor at the end of session. The work centered on preserving the funding for all the General Assembly’s priorities, including K-12 education and mental health. The Governor would not sign a budget which raised taxes or contained RGGI. The legislature’s priorities could be fully funded without tax increases due to increased revenues.

A significant concession is the exclusion of language in the budget requiring Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional market that caps carbon dioxide emitting industries at an allowed level of emission and requires them to purchase allowances for additional emissions. Proceeds on the auction of these allowances are invested in climate resilience efforts.

While RGGI plays a significant role in Virginia’s long-term plan to combat climate change, its exclusion from the budget was due to the Governor’s hardline stance of no new taxes, of which he considers RGGI to be. Removing RGGI allowed us to pass a budget, with no shutdown, that makes historic investments in our priorities, including education, healthcare, and several other environmental initiatives.

Delegate Rip Sullivan expounded on the loss of RGGI in his excellent and informative floor speech during the Special Session; you can watch it here. One final note on RGGI: the legality of the Governor’s decision to remove Virginia from RGGI is the subject of a current lawsuit.

Another feature in the budget is a suite of changes to the Virginia Military Survivors & Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP), an educational benefit program for spouses and children of military service members who were killed, taken prisoner, missing in action, or permanently disabled due to military service. The program has been expanded numerous times over the years and the associated cost has become unsustainable for Virginia’s public higher education system. For a history of the program as well as data and analysis on the exponential cost increase, watch this presentation from the House Appropriations Committee Staff.

In response to concern from veterans and their families, a bipartisan taskforce between the legislative and executive branch has been assembled to evaluate the changes and arrive at a long-term solution. The first meeting of the taskforce will be June 10, 2pm at the Virginia War Memorial (621 South Belvidere Street). More information, including public comment, can be found here. Further reading can be found in this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch, that includes letters from the Governor as well as the House & Senate Money Committee Chairs.

Education

  • $2 Billion in additional funding for the public K-12 system.

  • $370 Million to implement several JLARC recommendations aimed to support at-risk students.

  • 3% salary increase each year for teachers and other school staff members.

  • $61.2 Million to expand reading specialist staffing.

  • $3.8 Million to fully staff the Office of School Quality.

  • $205.4 Million for Higher Education efforts to increase access, affordability and degree production. This includes limiting in-state tuition increases.

  • $40 Million to mitigate the aforementioned increased costs associated with the VMSDEP waiver program.

  • $100 Million to support a Virginia Research Triangle focused on life sciences.

Healthcare

  • $191.4 Million to add nearly 3,500 medicaid developmental disability (DD) waiver slots as well as a 3% rate increase each year for DD services.

  • $745.2 Million to fully fund medicaid and children’s health insurance forecasts.

  • $40 Million over the biennium to support a value-based purchasing program for nursing homes; a medicaid reimbursement method that incentivizes higher staffing levels.

  • $27.6 Million over the biennium to develop crisis infrastructure.

  • $4.5 Million each year to increase funding for System Transformation Excellence  & Performance (STEP-VA), the Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Services’s initiative to improve the state’s public mental health system.

  • $6.2 Million over the biennium to fully fund community health workers in local health departments.

  • $3 Million each for free clinics and federally qualified health centers.

Environment

  • Removing the delayed enactment on my 2021 legislation creating a gradual ban of polystyrene food service containers.

  • $50 Million to support the Richmond Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Project.

  • $201.1 Million for the Water Quality Improvement Fund.

  • $100 Million for the Community Flood Preparedness Fund. The Governor proposed this in replacement of Virginia’s participation in RGGI. While these funds will be used for important resilience efforts, the volume pales to RGGI’s revenues as well as the varied ways RGGI dollars were deployed.

  • $20 Million for a pilot program at the Department of Environmental Quality to solicit private sector investment in nutrient reduction projects.

  • $5 Million over the biennium to coordinate invasive species management between the Virginia Departments of Agriculture & Consumer Services, Forestry, Conservation & Recreation, and Wildlife Resources.

Tax Policy

  • Does not include any tax cuts for wealthy individuals or for corporations and does not include tax increases.

  • The digital sales tax that was previously included has been removed; however, the budget does include a study to prepare legislation for the 2025 session.

Economic Development & Workforce

  • $175 Million for the Virginia Housing Trust Fund.

  • $456.7 Million over the biennium to support early childhood care and education programs.

  • Authorization for a $40 Million treasury loan for Newport News to secure a federal investment of $400 Million to build housing for Navy Sailors docked in Newport News.

  • 3% salary increase each year for state and state-supported employees.

Public Safety

  • Removes language that overrides the Code to restrict mixed-sentence eligibility for the earned sentence credits program.

  • $75.9 Million for community violence intervention programs.

  • $21.3 Million to maintain funding for victim services grant programs.

  • $6.7 Million each year for Department of Corrections to establish a career progression plan for correctional officers.

Transportation

  • Nearly $150 Million over the biennium for operating assistance for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).

  • $70 Million to expedite the widening of I-81 near Salem.

This is certainly not a comprehensive review, you may enjoy the following resources from the House Appropriations Committee:

In addition to these resources, several articles have been published recently that provide excellent summaries of the budget deal and recaps of the process. The Richmond Times-Dispatch published this article highlighting the compromised budget and The Virginia Mercury published a similar article as well as a brief round-up spotlighting 5 key portions of the budget, available here.

If you are curious about specific policy areas and where they fit with the budget, please feel free to email me at delegate.carr@betsycarr.org.

Final Action on Legislation

May 17, was the Governor’s deadline for final action on legislation returned to him from the April 17 reconvened session.

The Governor vetoed an additional 48 pieces of legislation, bringing his total to 201 vetoes; a runaway record number. The legislature had rejected numerous amendments on bills at the reconvened session. Those bills were returned to the Governor, who could either veto them or sign them.

Vetoed legislation included:

  • SB237 & HB609: ensuring the right to access and use of contraceptives.

  • SB212: licensing and regulations for skill games.

  • HB568 & SB517: removing tax exemption status from organizations like United Daughters of the Confederacy.

  • SB729: creating the Virginia Clean Energy Innovation Bank, which would coordinate significant amounts of federal loans.

Further reading on vetoed legislation can be found in this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch as well as this one from The Virginia Mercury.

While most bills that had been returned to the Governor without his recommendations were vetoed, some were approved. This includes my HB1071 which grants localities the authority to lower the speed limit on state highways running through a locality’s commercial or residential zones.

Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission (JLARC) Work Schedule

JLARC met on May 21, to elect its chair and vice-chair and go over the Commission’s work plan for the year. Delegate Mark Sickles was elected as chair and Senator Mamie Locke was elected vice-chair. You can watch a recording of the meeting here. You can find the Commission’s work plan here.

Additionally, the Commission met June 5, to hear reports on the VCU Health System; Custom Grant initiatives; Tolling, traffic, and Public-Private Partnerships; and the Auditor of Public Accounts presented their work plan. You can watch a recording of the meeting at this link. You can find links to the reports here.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial Commission

On June 5, the MLK Memorial Commission met to elect a chair and vice-chair (Delegate Delores McQuinn and Senator Mamie Locke, respectively); hear a report on the Library of Virginia’s Black Delegate Book project; as well as reports on 2024 projects including a tribute for Senator Yvonne B. Miller and a history of lynchings in Virginia. You can watch a recording of the Commission meeting here.

Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) Report

HOME recently completed a study, commissioned by Councilwoman Ellen Robertson, on racial disparities in neighborhood home values. The report includes recommendations on how to balance equitable home valuations while minimizing displacement as well as considerations on the effect of appraisal bias and underinvestment on home values in black neighborhoods.

You can read the report here and find an article on the report’s findings here.

Virginia Poverty Law Center (VPLC) Tenant Town Hall

The VPLC will host a housing discussion, June 11, 6-7:30pm at the Richmond Public Library (101 East Franklin Street). The town hall will consider laws, policies, and funding methods to combat Virginia’s housing crisis. Additionally, VPLC lawyers will explain tenants’ rights and how to protect them. Registration is not required but is requested. You can register here.

Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation

The Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC) is a nonprofit, established by the General Assembly in 2020. The mission of VIPC is to expand innovation, opportunity, and job creation in Virginia.

On Monday, May 20, I joined VIPC leadership for an announcement by the Governor of a new initiative of VIPC; a direction of $40 Million dollars from a federal grant to seven venture capital firms who will match the investment to create a pool of around $100 Million to be deployed to small Virginia businesses who have sited lack of access to capital as a key hinderance to their growth.

You can read more about this initiative in this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Great Aspirations Scholarship Program (GRASP) Awards

GRASP is a nonprofit based in Richmond that assists students in overcoming barriers to higher education; from career counseling, school research and budgeting, financial aid applications, and more. GRASP also awards scholarships and stipends to students who complete their program, which extends through the student’s higher education career to ensure their transition is successful.

This year, GRASP awarded 37 scholarships totaling $74,000 and 32 stipends worth $400 per month to students from Armstrong, Huguenot, John Marshall, Thomas Jefferson, and Richmond High School for the Arts (formerly George Wythe). You can read more about the awards in this article from The Richmond Free Press and learn more about GRASP at their website.

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

Spring Update

Dear Friend,

Virginia’s transitory Springtime is blissful and fleeting. I hope you have had time to enjoy the beauty of Virginia’s dramatic bloom and the longer, sun-filled days.

The General Assembly met for its Reconvened Session to receive and respond to the Governor’s actions on the legislation passed during the 2024 Session. Below is an update on state news and local happenings.

Reconvened Session

The General Assembly sustained the Governor’s 153 vetoes; recognizing the one-seat majorities in each chamber and the need for our Commonwealth’s legislature to work efficiently and with a sense of priority during its Reconvened Session. The 153 pieces of vetoed legislation include bipartisan bills and consequential legislation that would have improved the lives of Virginians. You can watch responses from sponsors of vetoed legislation including me speaking on my HB1088 which would have created educational materials for environmental literacy and climate change here; Delegate Marcus Simon speaking to his HB1539 which would have prohibited extradition of doctors and patients who performed or received abortions in Virginia here; and Delegate Nadarius Clark speaking to his HB351 which would have required a firearm owner to purchase or demonstrate ownership of a locking device when they are purchasing a firearm here.

Deliberations were had on the Governor’s amendments to several bills including SB212 to permit, tax and regulate skill games, which ultimately failed to pass; HB1491 and SB454 to allow Dominion and Appalachian Power Cooperative to recoup costs associated with small modular nuclear reactors, which passed; HB173 to prohibit the import or sale of plastic firearms or unfinished firearm frames, which the Speaker ruled the Governor’s amendments to not be germane; as well as many other pieces of legislation. You can watch deliberations on the Governor’s amendments here.

For legislation returned to the Governor without his recommendations adopted (in other words, when the legislature denied his amendments) the Governor has until May 17 to take final action. He can either veto, sign, or take no action which results in the bill becoming law.

The Budget

The General Assembly unanimously rejected the Governor’s amendments to the Budget. Both the House and Senate leadership, as well as the Governor, joined in the Rotunda of the Capitol after Reconvene Session to clarify that the rejection of the Governor’s budget amendments was done to spur a reconciliatory budget negotiation. Budget conferees and the Governor will find a path forward together to arrive at a budget that sees each party and branch of government making concessions on some goals to provide for their constituencies more broadly.

A special session is scheduled for May 13, where a new budget report will be made available. The General Assembly will vote on the new budget on May 15.

You can read about the Reconvened Session in this article from The Virginia Mercury as well as more information on the budget negotiations in this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

My Commission Appointments

The Speaker appointed, and in some cases re-appointed, me to:

Commissions are important ways for legislators to engage more deeply on issue areas, spend time learning about and honoring key historical events and figures, creating forums of discourse for stakeholders and subject matter experts, and coordinating with localities, other states, federal partners, and other leaders on specific projects. You can find a list of all current commissions and studies at this link.

Richmond City Budget

Richmond City Council is in the midst of their budget work. Their next meeting will be Monday, May 6, 1-3pm where budget amendments will be presented. Following this is a meeting Monday, May 13, which will include a public hearing.

More information and background on the City’s budget, as well as other upcoming meetings and helpful links can be found here.

Richmond Diamond District Open Houses

There will be three open houses to gather public input for the Diamond District, May 8, 9 and 14. May 8 and 14 will be virtual and May 9 will be at the Bon Secours Training Center.

More information here.

E-Cycling Event

The City is holding an e-cycling event, May 11, 10am-2pm at 1710 Robin Hood Road. Residents are invited to bring old electronics, documents for shredding, and household hazardous waste for disposal. More information is available here.

Richmond Police Neighborhood Assistance Officers

The Richmond Police Department is recruiting Neighborhood Assistance Officers (NAOs); uniformed, volunteer members of the police department who do not have special arrest privileges, service weapons, or marked vehicles. NAOs work whenever their schedules permit and assist with traffic control, vehicle assistance, sobriety checkpoints, among other tasks and duties.

You can learn more about the program and apply here.

Interns in my Office

My office hosts interns during the legislative session as well as in the interim.

During Session, I had a phenomenal roster of students from varying backgrounds including a Master’s degree student at VCU, a capitol semester student in their undergrad studies at VCU, two students from my alma mater of Hollins University, a senior from the University of Richmond who is now beginning their law studies, a recent graduate of VCU who is now working at the National Institute of Health before she pursues a degree in medicine, a senior at Maggie Walker Governor’s School, and a junior at Trinity Episcopal School who participated through their “Junior Work Week” program.

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

2024 Reconvened Session

Dear Friend,

The Governor has reviewed and acted on legislation that passed the General Assembly. Now the General Assembly will meet for its scheduled Reconvene Session on April 17, 11am, for the legislative branch of our government to receive and respond to the Governor’s vetoes and amendments. Below is more information on Reconvene Session as well as other state and local news.

The Governor’s Actions

The Governor completed his review of the 1,046 bills that were sent to him from the General Assembly. He signed 777 into law, amended 116 bills and vetoed 153 bills. The budget bill was among the amended bills, it received 242 amendments. The Governor’s review sets a new record for vetoes as well as a record amount of amendments to the budget bill. This unprecedented number of revisions and rejections contrasts the bipartisan and collaborative spirit of the General Assembly; many of the bills he vetoed or amended were bipartisan, including the budget.

You can find a complete list of vetoed legislation at this link. Among the vetoed bills were numerous pieces of important legislation including:

  • 30 bills to increase gun safety including HB2, banning assault fire arms; HB637, establishing training for law enforcement to implement substantial risk orders; HB797, requiring firearm competency for a concealed carry permit; HB1195, establishing a waiting period for firearm sales; and HB1174 prohibiting firearm sales to those under 21 with exceptions for law enforcement, military and other related professions.

  • Several bills protecting access to safe reproductive healthcare such as HB519, prohibiting the Board of Medicine for punishing health providers who perform abortion care and HB1539, preventing extradition of health care providers for performing abortion on patients from states that have made such procedures illegal.

  • HB1, increasing the minimum wage.

  • HB698, establishing a safe, regulated, and taxed retail cannabis market.

  • HB1177, directing Virginia’s use of the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC).

  • HB1244, limiting the use of solitary confinement.

  • HB776, authorizing lawfully admitted immigrants who have applied for citizenship, the ability to become law enforcement officers.

The Governor offered amendments to 116 bills. Some amendments are technical in nature or minor in scope. Others are substantial departures from what the legislature passed. You can find a complete list of amended bills at this link.

The Governor heavily amended SB212, a bill legalizing and regulating skill games, slot-like electronic games popular in convenience stores and rest stops. The General Assembly deliberated the topic heavily before agreeing to a conference report that was less stringent than the House’s version of the bill. The Governor has amended SB212 to include further guardrails such as local bans, a cap on the number of machines and more. You can read more in this article from The Virginia Mercury.

Other amended bills include SB35 (Board of Medicine to require unconscious bias training), HB285 (removing small bus shelters from the Uniform Statewide Building Code), HB173 (banning the manufacture, import, or sale of plastic firearms and unfinished firearms), and many more.

Many bipartisan bills were signed into law. You can find a complete list of approved bills here. The nearly 800 pieces of approved legislation include:

  • HB22, banning auto sears (small devices that convert firearms to become fully automatic) and SB44 which creates a felony for parents or guardians who allow a child to access a firearm when it has been made known the child posses a threat of danger or violence.

  • HB78, prohibiting the issuance of a search warrant for menstrual health data.

  • HB174, protecting marriage equality regardless of sex, gender, or race.

  • HB769, curbing multiple forms of elder abuse.

  • HB252, establishing a statewide registry for sickle cell disease to facilitate more informed policy and treatment coordinations for a chronically underfunded and overlooked disease.

  • HB586, establishing harm reduction training standards for law enforcement officers.

  • HB106 & HB108, improving the regulation and access to shared solar programs.

  • HB149, providing employee protections for those lawfully using cannabis oil for medicinal purposes.

  • HB617, creates name, image, and likeness regulations for high school student-athletes that are similar to those already in law for college student-athletes.

This is certainly not a comprehensive review of the Governor’s actions on legislation passed by the General Assembly. If you are interested in a certain policy area or specific legislation, do not hesitate to contact my office at 804-698-1078 or at delegate.carr@betsycarr.org.

The Budget

The Governor communicated 244 amendments to the General Assembly’s budget. Notable amendments include:

  • Removing the General Assembly’s language to direct Virginia’s re-entrance into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

  • $100 million for flood prevention projects, to offset the loss of revenues from Virginia not rejoining RGGI which has funded $370 million in flood prevention projects since Virginia joined in 2020.

  • A departure from his original proposed tax changes and a rejection of the legislature’s approved tax policy. His amendments return much of the tax code to its previous form.

  • Reinstating language that limits earned sentence credits for individuals serving concurrent or consecutive sentences for crimes that are not eligible for earned sentence credits.

  • Reinstating the delayed effective date of my 2020 legislation to gradually ban polystyrene food service containers.

  • Removing vital changes necessary to ensure the Virginia Military Survivors & Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP) remains operable.

  • Removing state funding for fetal anomaly abortions.

Further reading on Governor Youngkin’s budget amendments can be found in these more general articles from The Virginia Mercury, as well as The Richmond Times-Dispatch and also Virginia Public Media. Additionally, you may find useful this more thorough review of tax policy considerations; The Commonwealth Institute’s side-by-side comparison of the General Assembly’s budget and the Governor’s Amended Version; this closer reading of the removal of state funds for fetal anomaly abortions; this article on the independence of the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority; and this article highlighting an amendment ending Virginia’s use of a school attendance recovery program.

You can find all of the Governor’s budget amendments here.

My Legislation

I passed 17 bills from the 2024 General Assembly; 2 were vetoed, 1 was amended, and 14 were signed.

The Governor vetoed my HB1088 and HB1100. HB1088 would have tasked the Department of Education with developing instructional materials on environmental literacy for local school districts to adopt. Ensuring our young citizens and emerging leaders and voters fully understand our place in the environment is imperative for fostering better stewardship, respect, appreciation, and attention to our environment. HB1100 would have made an optional ordinance available for any locality to mandate the conservation of mature, fully grown trees during development. In current law, this ordinance is only available to localities in Planning District 8. My bill would have extended this option to all localities. You can read the Governor’s veto statement for HB1088 here and for HB1100 here.

The Governor amended my HB1071, which follows up my 2021 legislation (that granted localities the authority to lower their speed limits) by removing ambiguity in the code that gave VDOT final authority on local decisions to lower speed limits. The Governor amended HB1071 by adding a re-enactment clause (which requires the bill to pass again next year before becoming effective) as well as directing VDOT to study   local control over speed limits. You can read the full text of his amendments at this link.

The Governor signed my remaining 14 bills:

  • HB1073: prohibits some predatory towing practices.

  • HB1080: limits license suspensions to 10 years to reflect the time period by which courts purge such cases.

  • HB1082: authorizes the court to issue a restricted license to a driver who has had their license suspended due to unpaid fines.

  • HB1084: extends temporary disabled parking placards from 6 months to 12 months.

  • HB1108: provides transparency and fairness for state procurement projects using construction management as the method of project delivery.

  • HB1113: increases the maximum thresholds on job order contracting, an alternative form of procurement.

  • HB1116: increases the limits on when localities can establish small purchase procedures on procurement projects.

  • HB1125: establishes the Business Ready Expedited Permitting Program, to be administered by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.

  • HB1126: grants current Virginia members of Congress the authority to perform the rites of marriage.

  • HB1131: removes Richmond from the list of eligible host cities for a Casino.

  • HB1133: changes Virginia529’s legal name from Virginia College Savings Plan to Commonwealth Savers Plan.

  • HB1365: greatly limits when institutions of higher education can withhold student transcripts as a method of debt collection.

  • HB1455: establishes the Virginia Memory Project as the state’s alzhimers’s and dementia registry.

  • HB1457: makes necessary statutory changes to reinstate the Virginia Investment Performance Grant, an incentive used by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.

The Port of Virginia & The Key Bridge Collapse

As a member of the House Transportation Committee I recently attended a briefing led by the Secretary of Transportation on the Port of Virginia’s assumption of additional volume as a result of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. Virginia’s Port system is available to step up to the challenge due to significant investments that were made in the recent past to expand the efficiency and capacity of the port. More information can be found in this article.

Department of Historic Resources

DHR works to investigate, analyze, and protect Virginia’s rich history, including the maritime history along the Chesapeake Bay, Atlantic shoreline, and Virginia’s many navigable rivers. DHR’s underwater archaeology program began during the 1970s, and works on and in 84% of state owned land that is submerged. From the sunken ships at Yorktown to fish weirs in the Clinch River, researchers with DHR regularly respond to preservation needs and partner with local landowners, resource managers, and non-profits to better document and understand our shared maritime past.

I recently had the privilege of joining the Department of Historic Resource’s Roanoke Regional team and Statewide Underwater Archaeology team, led by Brendan Burke (State Underwater Archaeologist), for a tour in Botetourt County of an archaeological complex including an unfinished canal tunnel, aqueducts, and locks known as the Marshall Tunnel complex. Abandoned in 1856, the partially-finished tunnel was designed to allow canal boats to pass through portions of the Blue Ridge Mountains and connect tidewater Virginia with the Ohio River drainage. This site is now a national treasure in marine archaeology because of the potential for documentation of  an undisturbed site.

For more information about the work of DHR including directories of sites, research resources, and current programs, visit their website.

Department of Wildlife Resources

I also had the privilege of joining the Department of Wildlife Resources as they tended to the Bosher’s Dam Fish Ladder and as they collected samples of fish near Ancarrow’s Landing, both to track the species of fish present in the James River as well as to pull specimen for stocking initiatives across the state. You can learn more about the work of DWR in our fresh water systems at this link. Additionally, DWR hosts a wide array of volunteer opportunities and is always eager to open up their work to the public. More information here.

In a related note, you may enjoy this recent article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch highlighting the angling allure that the City’s purchase of Mayo Island is sure to bring.

City of Richmond Job Fair

The City will host a job fair, April 16, 10am - 2pm, at the Richmond Convention Center. The job fair will feature everything from dress closets, headshots, and general information sessions to on-the-spot interviews and hiring. Attendees are encouraged to dress professionally and bring multiple copies of their resume. RSVP at this link.

E-Cycling Event

The City is holding an e-cycling event, May 11, 10am - 2pm at 1710 Robin Hood Road. Residents are invited to bring old electronics, documents for shredding, and household hazardous waste for disposal. More information is available here.

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

2024 Legislative Session Wrap-Up

Dear Friend,

The 2024 Legislative Session has adjourned, sine die. Below is an update on the final week of legislative work, bills communicated to the Governor, the General Assembly’s budget, and what lies ahead.

The Final Week of the 2024 Legislative Session

On Saturday, March 9, the 2024 Legislative Session adjourned Sine Die, concluding the work of the General Assembly. The legislature considered 3,594 pieces of legislation this Session, including bills, constitutional amendments, commending and memorial resolutions, and resolutions requesting studies. In terms of bills, The House passed 656 House Bills of the 1,547 its membership introduced. The Senate passed 390 Senate Bills of the 737 its membership introduced. These bills head to the Governor for his review; he has 30 days to take action on legislation. The General Assembly will meet for a reconvene session on April 17 to receive and respond to the Governor’s actions.

You may enjoy this article highlighting why this Legislative Session was important as well as this article recounting this Session and capturing the sentiments of members on the last day of Session. Finally, the Virginia Public Access Project has created this graphic of the fate of 2024 legislation.

Seven Day Bills

In accordance with the Constitution, the Governor is subject to a seven day deadline for bills that are communicated to him before the last week of Session. This year, 84 bills met that criteria. Of these bills, 64 were signed into law, including my HB1113, which increases limits on Job Order Contracting, an alternative form of procurement useful for localities performing maintenance and small renovations. Additionally, bills were signed into law that will prohibit legacy admissions at state colleges and universities; ensure marriage licenses are not denied issuance on the basis of sex, gender, or race of the parties; as well as many other provisions. A full list of bills signed into law can be found here.

Additionally, 12 bills were amended including changes to Virginia Beach’s Charter, health insurance coverage for contraceptive drugs and devices, as well as several other provisions. A full list of amended bills can be found here.

Finally, 8 bills were vetoed. These include a bill to ensure that policies pertaining to parental notification of sexually explicit content should not be construed as permission to censor books in public schools; a bill to facilitate firearm transfers from those under a protective order or convicted of a misdemeanor; as well as a bill to direct Virginia’s re-entrance into the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). You can find a list of vetoed bills here and the Governor’s veto statements here.

The General Assembly can take action on recommendations and vetoes placed on seven day bills either during the Legislative Session, or they can decide to delay action until the Reconvene Session when the rest of the Governor’s recommendations and vetoes will be received. The General Assembly has decided to delay their actions until the April 17, Reconvene Session.

The Budget Bill

The House & Senate Budget Conferees completed their work this past week and a conference report on the budget bills was finalized. The agreed budget provisions can be found here. This represents a tremendous amount of input, consideration, work, and compromise made to arrive at a budget that makes crucial investments while advancing Virginia forward prudently amid forecasts of pending economic recessions and a sharp reduction in federal funding. Additionally, this budget underlines previous legislative actions that have been repealed, sidelined, or uninitiated by the current administration and previous House majority. These include Virginia’s participation in the Regional Green Gas Initiative (RGGI), removing language that prevented the full implementation of the Earned Sentence Credit, as well as removing the significant delay placed on my 2020 legislation that initiated a gradual ban on polystyrene food service containers. Finally, another point of interest was the budget proposal to establish a Virginia Sports & Entertainment Authority for the purpose of issuing nearly $2 Billion in bonds for the Potomac Yard Arena project, along with accompanying mechanisms for oversight and control over the project. This proposal was in the House budget but was excluded in the final budget. You can read more about the development of this issue in this article from The Virginia Mercury.

You can watch the final deliberation and vote on the General Assembly’s budget at this link. You can also read about the final budget proposal in this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch, this more general article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch, as well as in this write-up from The Virginia Mercury.

While the budget is hundreds of pages long and contains countless lines of appropriations and controlling language, I do want to highlight some signifcant changes the General Assembly’s budget made to the Governor’s proposed budget. While this is certainly not a comprehensive analysis, below is a selection of the General Assembly’s budget provisions.

Higher Education:

  • Provides an increased funding of $205.4M over the biennium to increase access and mitigate tuition increases.

  • Includes a $55M increase over the biennium to support financial aid and operating costs for the Virginia Community College System.

  • Grants an additional $79.5M to support financial aid initiatives.

  • Includes final needed funds to complete the merger of Old Dominion University and Eastern Virginia Medical School.

Health:

  • Retains the landmark investment the Governor made by fully funding all priority one developmental disability waiver slots, but acknowledges that funding all slots must also include support to the provider network to ensure there is capacity. As such, this budget includes a 3% rate increase for DD services each year over the biennium and a quarterly phase-in of slots to control the uptake.

  • Fully funds $745.2M over the biennium for the medicaid and children’s health insurance forecasts.

  • Allots $150M in FY2025 as contingency funds to reflect higher rates of medicaid enrollment than previously forecasted.

  • Adds $40M over the biennium to support a value-based purchasing program which incentivizes higher staffing levels at nursing homes.

  • Includes $11.3M over the biennium to increase medicaid dental rates by 3%.

  • Provides $27.6M over the biennium to continue developing behavioral health crisis infrastructure.

  • Adds $6.2M over the biennium to fund community health workers in local health departments.

  • Includes $5.5M over the biennium for Child Advocacy Centers.

K-12 Public Education:

  • Overall includes $1.2B more than the introduced budget.

  • Provides $243.1M over the biennium to continue the hold harmless provided by the State as a result of the elimination of the grocery sales tax.

  • Provides $539.1M over the biennium to account for the state’s share of a 3% salary increase each year for teachers and support staff.

  • Adds $116.7M to the Governor’s introduced budget for a total of $527.8M over the biennium to support early childhood care and education programs.

  • Includes $371.3M over the biennium to implement recommendations from the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission’s (JLARC) study on K-12 funding in Virginia.

Commerce:

  • Provides $175M for the Virginia Housing Trust Fund to create and preserve affordable housing.

  • Includes $114M to support life science research initiatives at UVA, VT, VCU, and ODU, which supports creating a rival to North Carolina’s Research Triangle.

  • Includes $79.5M over the biennium to support increasing the state’s minimum wage to $13.50 in 2025 and $15 in 2026.

State Employees:

  • Includes $178.8M in FY2025 and $366.4M in FY2026 for a 3% salary increase each year.

Transportation:

  • Provides $65M in FY2025 and $84.5M in FY2026 for additional operating assistance for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, includes $25,000 for a joint subcommittee to explore long term cost-containment strategies.

While this is certainly not a comprehensive list of the budget’s provisions, I hope it provides more insight. You can find the complete conference report here. If you have questions regarding portions of the state’s budget, or are curious about a particular issue, please do not hesitate to contact me at delegate.carr@betsycarr.org or by phone at 804-698-1078.

Other Legislative Action

The final week of Session often sees long, start-stop floor sessions as the House and Senate work on committees of conference, which are small working groups of Delegates and Senators who work to resolve competing policy proposals to establish a consensus report to be considered for a vote. This year, 65 House Bills were sent to conferences.

The final conference reports included bills streamlining and expanding the calculations used for earned sentence credits; requiring firearm purchasers to also purchase or prove ownership of a firearm locking device if they reside in the same household as a minor; requiring labeling for sale of invasive plant species; excluding of small bus shelters from the uniform statewide building code, a necessary move to streamline and promote the construction of bus shelters. Additionally, there were were conference reports on multiple bills to mitigate the sale of nicotine vapor products to minors and the promulgation of the illicit imported vape market; as well as many, many other proposals. You can find a full list of conference reports that have been agreed to at this link.

In addition to the long agendas and substantial work on the House Floor, members rose for points of personal privilege to highlight or discuss matters of importance to them, their district, their communities, and the Commonwealth. Last week included several notable points of personal privilege including:

  • Delegate Sam Rasoul rose to speak to the start of Ramadan and its spiritual significance. You can watch his floor speech here.

  • Delegate Karrie Delaney rose to highlight women in aviation. You can watch her floor speech here.

  • Delegate Phil Hernandez rose earlier in the week to speak to his personal connection to the hearing impaired community and underlined the need and ways we can support the deaf and hard of hearing community. You can watch his point of personal privilege here.

My Introduced Legislation

I passed 17 bills this legislative session, one, mentioned above, having already been signed by the Governor. The bills I’ve passed are below.

  • HB1071: Clarifies expanding authority of any locality to reduce their speed limit to as low as 15mph.

  • HB1073: Prohibits towing operators who are not subject to contracts (including price caps) with a locality from approaching the driver of a wrecked or disabled vehicle if law enforcement is on scene. This preserves the contracted price and services that law enforcement requested tows are subject to and that non-contracted towers currently shirk.

  • HB1080: Is an efficiency bill that eliminates instances when drivers have their licenses suspended despite the underlying case having been purged by the courts (which often happens 10 years after the offense), leaving defendants in a grey-area with an ambiguous path forward.

  • HB1082: Authorizes the court to order a restricted license to a judgement debtor who's license was suspended for failure to pay. This bill recognizes the need to drive as a means to employment so the underlying judgement can be paid.

  • HB1084: Allows temporary disabled parking placards to be issued for 12 months (as opposed to the current limit of 6 months). It also eliminates a nominal fee currently associated with extending temporary disabled parking placards.

  • HB1088: Directs the Board of Education to develop model policies and instructional materials on environmental literacy and climate change for adoption by local school districts.

  • HB1100: Makes available statewide an optional ordinance currently only offered in Planning District 8 (Northern Virginia). This ordinance requires the conservation of trees during the land development process.

  • HB1108: Is a broad consensus bill providing increased transparency and competition for public procurement projects utilizing construction management and design-build contracting as the method for delivery.

  • HB1113: Was signed by the Governor and increased the limits on Job Order Contracting, a type of alternative procurement useful for localities doing small repairs or renovations.

  • HB1116: Increases the limits on small purchase procedures adopted by localities in which they can forgo competitive sealed building so long as the project’s cost is below the bill’s threshold of $300,000.

  • HB1125: Creates the Business Ready Expedited Permitting Program, administered by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. This bill will allow two sites and four projects a year to be given a permitting concierge treatment by VEDP who will oversee the completion of all required permits in a timely fashion, with guardrails to ensure public comment periods are not abbreviated.

  • HB1126: Extends the privilege to perform rites of marriage to current Virginia members of Congress.

  • HB1131: Removes Richmond from the list of eligible host cities for Casino gaming.

  • HB1133: Changes the legal name of Virginia529 from Virginia College Savings Plan to Commonwealth Savers Plan.

  • HB1365: Limits when transcript withholding can be used a debt-collection practice by institutions of higher education.

  • HB1455: Establishes the Virginia Memory Project at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Virginia Center on Aging as the State’s Alzheimer’s and Dementia disease registry, tasked with collecting and analyzing data on Alzheimer’s and related Dementias.

  • HB1457: Makes changes necessary to reinstate the Virginia Investment Performance Grant, a key incentive tool used by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.

  • I introduced 29 bills this year, passing the above 17. Many of my bills that did not pass were brought by or responded to legitimate concerns from my district and I look forward to continue working on these issues in the next legislative session. Some of these bills include:

  • HB1072: In response to tragic pedestrian fatalities, this bill would have allowed institutions of higher education to set-up school zones and therefore make use of speed mitigation tools such as increased fines, additional signage, and of key interest, photospeed monitoring. The House did not pass any expansions to the placing of photospeed monitoring devices, except for one bill, SB336, which allows devices to be placed within 1000 feet of schools (current law is 750 feet) only if a traffic fatality has occurred in the area in the recent past (the bill states since January 1, 2024).

  • HB1077: Would have allowed cyclists to perform “safety stops,” which are rolling stops at some stop signs that allow them to negotiate intersections to avoid being hit from behind or having to cross busier intersections with no momentum or starting speed. This bill failed to report from the Senate Transportation Committee, who tabled two other bike safety bills as well, all in response to concern expressed by VDOT, DMV, State Police, and the Secretary of Transportation’s office.

  • HB1105: Would have created the Zoning for Housing Production Pilot Program, an incentive grant program to reward localities who opt into zoning practices currently offered in state code that promote the construction of affordable housing. This bill came from a recommendation in the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission’s 2021 Affordable Housing study. The Senate Finance & Appropriations Committee substituted this bill to become another study, signaling a lack of understanding in the background of this bill. This bill would require around $5M in seed funding which added to the Senate Money Committee’s reluctance.

  • HB1121: Sought to require the Department of Corrections to make available online educational courses for inmates. Upon introduction stakeholders committed to this issue brought up a recent change to Second Chance Pell Grants that went into effect in July 2023. They committed to working with me over the summer to craft a bill that can utilize this change to maximize the impact and access to meaningful higher education programs for Virginia’s imprisoned population.

  • HB1122: Sought to grant Richmond access to an optional ordinance relating to inclusionary zoning for affordable housing. After convening a stakeholder workgroup to address concerns, a collaborative spirit developed between previously opposing groups and led to an idea for legislation to be introduced next session that will provide for more expedient deployment of affordable housing than the originally introduced legislation.

  • HB1124: Was the Faith in Housing for the Commonwealth Act, which would have granted faith organizations by-right development authority to construct affordable housing. There were concerns over the density allowed as well as technical concerns. This bill was sent to the Virginia Housing Commission to arrive at a fine-tuned bill for introduction in the 2025 Session.

  • HB1456: Sought to require new school construction to include the infrastructure necessary to implement roof-top solar. This bill was tabled in House Appropriations due to its indeterminate fiscal impact. I look forward to working to fine-tune the language of this bill as well as review other means of promoting energy efficient and carbon neutral government buildings.

Neighborhood Infrastructure Walks

The Museum District Association is planning an infrastructure walk, where neighbors walk the district and note items in need of repair and report them on RVA311. The event, March 18, at 5pm, concludes with a happy hour.

I share this event not only for residents of the Museum District who may be interested, but for other neighborhoods who may be interested in organizing this for their own neighborhoods. Strong, consistent, and thorough reporting of infrastructure needs is a crucial way for citizens to get their projects prioritized by the City.

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

Penultimate Week of Session

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

Sixth Week of Session 2024

Dear Friend,

The sixth week of Session has come to a close. Below is an update on some of the past week’s work in the legislature.

The Sixth Week of Session

This past week began with the House Appropriations Committee unveiling the House budget. The proposed budget was then reviewed by the members of the House who had opportunities to contest items in the budget, as well as offer further amendments on the House Floor. On Thursday, the budget was taken up for a vote. Uncontested provisions were voted on in a block. Then, members deliberated over contested portions of the budget before voting on each item’s passage. You can watch the full consideration of the House budget at this link.

The House and Senate bills, having both passed their respective chambers, will now be before each other’s chambers. The budgets differ in many ways, and the remaining time at the General Assembly will be dedicated to rectifying these differences to arrive at a budget proposal to be sent to the Governor. Large differences range in the conditions of funding, distribution of funds across secretariat portfolios, and changes to the tax system. The House budget requires Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which is a multi-state carbon marketplace that seeks to reduce emissions by taxing carbon production and then use tax revenues to invest in energy efficiency and climate resiliency. This is not included in the Senate budget. While both chambers rejected Governor Youngkin’s tax proposals, the House and Senate did include a novel sales tax for digital storage and streaming services. The Senate extended this to business transactions as well. Authorization and funding for a Northern Virginia Arena development was not out-right authorized in either chamber’s budget. While the Senate includes no language (and has not passed any legislation) for the arena, the House did include language that had been included in the House bill (HB1514). This language adds extra guardrails to protect Virginia, but most importantly would delay any state expenditures until the General Assembly passes the language again in the 2025 Session. While both budgets prioritize education and healthcare, the mechanisms and avenues of these investments differ. This can also be said of important infrastructure decisions, like increasing funding for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which the House includes and the Senate does not.

Further reading on the competing budgets can be found in this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch and this one from The Virginia Mercury. You may also enjoy this commentary on the negotiation landscape of the budget as well as this article analyzing the denied tax proposals.

You can watch a recording of the House Appropriations Committee’s report here and their briefing to the House members here. You can watch the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee’s report here. Additionally, each Chamber’s reports can be found online here and a break down of approved amendments can be found at this link.

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 the YWCA Empower RVA Teens to the House. I also had the honor to participate in a surprise award presentation to Speaker Don Scott, who received the United Network for Organ Sharing’s inaugural “Living It Forward Award.” You can watch a recording of the presentation here.

During the past week of Session, my staff and I met various representative individuals and groups including:

  • Virginia Government Employees Association

  • Virginia Conservation Network

  • Virginia Education Association

  • Medical Society of Virginia

  • University of Virginia Leadership

  • Virginia Transportation Construction Alliance

  • Virginia Heavy Construction Contractors Association

  • Virginia Community Criminal Justice Association

  • St. Joseph’s Villa

  • YWCA Empower RVA Teens

  • Community Associations Institute

  • Virginia Military Institute Students

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.

I-95 Bridge Rehabilitations

Five bridges over I-95 in Richmond are being rehabilitated. There will be occasional, significant impacts to traffic. Beginning 8pm, March 1 through March 4, I-95 traffic will be reduced to one lane at mile marker 74 and the ramps for exit 74C will be closed. More information and other impacts can be found here.

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

Crossover Session Update

Dear Friend,

The fifth week of Session has come to a close. Below is an update on some of the past week’s work in the legislature.

The Fifth Week of Session

This past week marked an important milestone for the 2024 Session. Tuesday was Crossover, the last day each body has to act on its own legislation. After Crossover, each chamber can only act on legislation from the other body. In the wake of Crossover, the legislative landscape evolves. Policy proposals that are unique to one chamber (meaning there were not identical House & Senate Bills) restart the legislative process in the other chamber. Proposals that exist in both a House and Senate bill often meet smooth sailing as long as the bills are identical. If each chamber has a competing proposal, then crossover marks a rigorous and collaborative process to hopefully arrive at a bi-cameral solution. When this is not possible, bills will be sent to a conference; a small workgroup of legislators tasked with a last effort to arrive at a piece of legislation that both chambers can agree.

The House has taken action on a wide array of issues this session. This past week, several bills of interest met their final action in each chamber. HB1514, would establish a necessary State Authority for the financing and development of a Northern Virginia Arena. The House passed this bill, but with a healthy dose of skepticism over the project’s potential return on investment. The House bill contains an enactment clause; meaning the General Assembly would have to pass this bill again next year before any state commitment is finalized. You can read more about the Arena bill here.  Another topic of interest has been the regulation and licensure of skill games. The Senate passed a loose set of regulations while the House version includes higher tax rates, local authority to block these games, among other guardrails. You can read more about the competing bills here. Of course, in the preceding weeks, bills have been passed on issues such as gun safety, criminal justice, marijuana, the minimum wage, abortion protections, and much more. Nineteen of my 29 bills have passed the House. This article from The Virginia Mercury provides an inventory of where legislation stands on various topics after Crossover.

Appropriations Committee Reports

After Crossover, budget considerations in the General Assembly heat up. Today, Sunday, House and Senate Budget Committees will each meet to release their committee reports. Each report reflects the budget recommendations from the subcommittees of each chamber’s budget committee. I chair the Higher Education subcommittee in House Appropriations. You can watch the House Appropriations committee report at 1pm today (Sunday, February 18) at this link. Committee reports will be posted online here. You can find the member introduced budget amendments that are being considered (including my own) at this link.

The state budget is a bill, albeit the most important bill, and as such it is heard on the House Floor. After today’s reports, members will have a few days to review and propose further amendments. Then, on Thursday, the House members will vote on the House budget. Uncontested items in the budget are voted on in a block. Contested portions of the budget as well as amendments brought forward on the floor, are considered individually. Following the budget bills passing each chamber, the two bodies will review each other’s budgets and a conference will be established of members from each chamber’s budget committee to arrive at a consensus budget bill. All this must be done by Tuesday, March 5.

I am hopeful that today’s committee reports reflect a House budget bill that dutifully acknowledges the fiscal constraints Virginia will face in the next biennium, including an ending of federal pandemic relief funds as well as a looming recession, and prudently steps forward with meaningful investments in our Public K-12 education system and shores up our healthcare ecosystem with judicious investments in vital services. Next to these glaring funding needs, our state budget can also support transformational education opportunities for all Virginians, crucial investments in our environment and infrastructure, as well as many other initiatives to improve the lives of Virginians.

During each day’s Session, members of the General Assembly can rise on the floor to give recognition to visitors watching from the gallery. Last Monday, I had the privilege of introducing the Reverend Ben Campbell of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church who gave the morning invocation.  On Valentine’s Day, I recognized the work of VCU’s Pauley Heart Center during the 4th morning hour for personal privilege. In addition, at the League of Women Voters weekly morning roundtable, I discussed my affordable housing bills.

During the past week of Session, my staff and I met various representative individuals and groups including:

  • Senior Connections

  • AARP Advocates

  • Richmond Bar Association

  • Virginia Tech Corp of Cadets

  • Service Employees International Union

  • Virginia Personal Care Providers

  • Dominion Energy Employees

  • League of Women Voters

  • Planned Parenthood Advocates

  • Athletic Trainers

  • Wildlife Network

  • Virginia Agribusiness Council

  • Virginia Farm Bureau

  • Virginia21 Advocates

  • George Mason University Leadership

  • George Mason Student Advocates

  • Arlington City

  • Ladies Professional Golf Association & Solheim Cup Representatives

  • Students for Equity and Reform in Virginia

  • Virginia Housing Alliance

  • Equifax

  • Richmond Public Schools Interfaith Advisory Council

  • Virginia Association of Recovery Residences

  • Virginia Food Industry Association

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.

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

Fourth Week of Session 2024

Dear Friend,

The fourth week of Session has come to a close. Below is an update on some of the past week’s work in the legislature.

The Fourth Week of Session

The General Assembly is barreling towards Crossover, which is the last day each body can act on legislation that originates from its own members before sending them to the other body. Committee dockets have been long, but efficient. Floor Sessions have stretched for long hours. Monday and Tuesday are expected to be long days on the Floor. Crossover marks the beginning of the time when the two distinct bodies of the General Assembly will work together to find a consensus package of legislation to send to the Governor. The House has passed two bills of high priority to our Democratic majority; HB1 to increase the minimum wage and HB2 to ban assault weapons.

In the busy lead-up to Crossover, the committees I sit on considered many important and interesting pieces of legislation. In General Laws, we worked through the 187 bills docketed to us since the start of Session to report 130 bills out. These bills include: edits to the Virginia Public Procurement Act and the Freedom of Information Act, which came from the subcommittee I chair; regulation of skill games; a cannabis retail market; regulation over nicotine vape products that are posing a daunting health crisis for Virginia’s children; tenant protections and affordable housing measures; and even considerations and discussions around licensure for automated systems used to replace human professionals, to name a few of the topics discussed.

In Transportation, we received 97 bills from the Speaker and reported 60. These bills include some of my own that reinforce local authority to lower speed limits, limit predatory towing, and implement bike safety measures, but they also include topics such as local authority to regulate towing; toll policy updates; manufactured housing property rights; transportation infrastructure streamlining; transparency for gig-workers in transportation network companies (like Uber); as well as many other diverse topics. We finished with a presentation from the Virginia Spaceport Authority, which you can watch here.

In Appropriations, we received 259 bills and reported 152. This reflects the unique role of the Appropriations Committee, which is tasked with reporting the House Budget Bill. Appropriations, like other committees, considers policy when deliberating legislation, but only fiscal policy. Other Committees vet the consequences of legislation in terms of their topic area, whether it be Transportation, Health & Human Services, General Government, or others. If legislation has an associated cost to the State, it will come before Appropriations who consider if the State can afford said cost and if that action is consistent and not in conflict with other State funding obligations. The result is very tough decisions and members often have to lay bills on the table that in other committees they would vote to report. This year that was especially the case; innovative ideas for state healthcare and housing, as well as economic drivers for the film and creative industry, were left in committee.

The General Assembly has taken action on numerous bills and issues such as; skill games regulations; authorizing a Northern Virginia Arena state authority; authorizing medical-aid in dying; ending tax-breaks for Confederate related organizations; marijuana law expansions; as well as many other topics. For a final note of further reading, you may enjoy this eclectic round-up of bills from the previous week.

I am expecting to pass 19 pieces of my own legislation from the House; ranging from administrative housekeeping to impactful conservation and affordable housing bills. For a list of all my bills, visit this link. Below, I will briefly highlight some of my legislation.

Urban Tree Canopy preservation is an issue of much interest in Richmond. Dr. Jeremy Hoffman, studied the environmental injustice of urban heat islands. These studies connect the wide differences in how heat waves impact Richmond with larger issues of formerly redlined neighborhoods, economic disparities, and consequences for our environment at large. Slightly related, a VPM article from late last summer highlighted the staggering amount of bus stations that lacked shelters and the insurmountable costs and barriers to building more. In this spirit, I introduced HB1100 which would make available statewide, an ordinance to preserve trees during land development. This legislation, along with a proposal from Delegate Delores McQuinn (HB285) to streamline the regulatory framework for building bus shelters, helping to right some environmental injustices and to promote a healthier and environmentally resilient Richmond.

Affordable Housing is a pressing need in our City and statewide. I am expecting to pass HB1105, which creates an incentive grant program for localities to adopt zoning ordinances to promote affordable housing. Grants can go to a wide array of public needs, creating a win-win for affordable housing production and common good infrastructure build-out. I had introduced HB1122 to make a further affordable housing statue available to Richmond. After discussions with relevant stakeholders, this bill has been continued to 2025 to arrive at a policy proposal that can be more expediently deployed with greater impact.

Transportation Safety is another issue of paramount priority in Richmond. I am expecting to pass HB1071 which reinforces the authority of localities to lower their own speed limits. HB1073 will prevent predatory towing in Richmond for those who have a wrecked or disabled vehicle. An added benefit is that this will curtail tow-truck operators who drive recklessly to arrive first at the scene of an accident. Additionally, HB1077 implements the safety stop for bicyclists, a practice that promotes bicycling and reduces traffic incidents. I had also introduced HB1072 to allow institutions of higher education to implement school zone crosswalk measures such as additional signage and photospeed monitoring. This was in memory and reflection of the traffic tragedies on VCU’s campus last year. This bill did not pass subcommittee, but I remain dedicated to mitigating traffic fatalities.

In addition, 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 the Virginia History Day winners, Jewish Community Federation advocates, and Richmond Public School advocates.

During the past week of Session, my staff and I met various representative individuals and groups including:

  • Rural Caucus of Virginia

  • Virginia Economic Development Partnership

  • Department of Professional & Occupational Regulation

  • Arc of Virginia

  • Virginia Film-workers

  • Christopher Newport University Leadership

  • The Nature Conservancy

  • Affordable Energy Coalition

  • American Society of Suicide Prevention

  • League of Women Voters

  • Institute for Advanced Learning & Research Leadership

  • Virginia Poverty Law Center

  • Swipe Out Hunger

  • Virginia Space Grant & NASA Langley

  • James Madison University Student Government

  • Richmond SPCA

  • Jewish Community Federation of Richmond

  • Virginia Commonwealth University Pauley Heart Center Leadership

  • Virginia Forever

  • Stratford Hall and Menokin

  • Special Olympics of Virginia

  • Virginia Beer Wholesalers

  • Virginia Maritime Association

  • Brain Injury Awareness Association

  • Judicial Candidates

  • Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy Student Advocates

  • Hollins University Leadership

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.

Virginia Governor’s Fellow Applications

Applications are being accepted until March 4 for the 2024 Governor’s Fellow Program. This prestigious program offers rising college seniors, graduating college seniors, and enrolled graduate degree candidates an opportunity to get first-hand experience in government administration.

More information including applications and qualifications can be found here.

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

Third Week of Session 2024

Dear Friend,

The third week of Session has come to a close. Below is an update on some of the past week’s work in the legislature.

The Third Week of Session

This past week saw busy committee meetings. Crossover, the last day for each body to act on legislation that originates from its members, is just on the horizon, February 13. In order to get bills through subcommittees and committees in time, agendas had to be loaded full this week. Some subcommittees have had their final meetings before crossover as well. Many bills passed unanimously, reflecting the bipartisan work and wide scope of nonpartisan legislation the General Assembly works on each year. Other bills saw spirited debate and rigorous review through subcommittee, full committee, and on the House floor as well.

Bills on a variety of topics were heard this week; among them were hearings on skill games, photo speed ticketing expansions, eliminating the car tax, to-go cocktails among others. Further reading can be found in this article highlighting a variety of bills, this one on skill games, an article about paid family and sick leave, this one involving my budget amendment for state employee pay, and finally this update on Governor Youngkin’s tax proposal.

This past week several of my bills were heard and passed from committee.

HB1126 passed the Civil subcommittee of Courts of Justice unanimously. This bill would allow Federal representatives to perform rites of marriage.

HB1088 passed the K-12 subcommittee of Education and later full committee before being referred to the Appropriations committee. This bill would task the Department of Education with establishing environmental education materials for adoption by local school districts.

HB1080 passed the Transportation committee unanimously. It is a government efficiency bill, helping those whose driving privileges have been suspended but their case was purged by the court. It limits suspended licenses to a period of 10 years which reflects the period of time by which cases are purged.

HB1084 passed the Transportation committee unanimously. This bill allows temporary disabled parking placards to be issued for longer than 6 months (the current maximum allowed), with a new maximum of 12 months, as long as a healthcare provider can certify that the qualifying condition is expected to last that long.

HB1071 passed the Transportation committee. It clarifies the code to ensure localities are able to lower their speed limits to 15 without relying on VDOT for the final authority.

HB1131 passed General Laws unanimously. It removes Richmond as an eligible host city for a casino.

HB1108 passed General Laws unanimously. It provides transparency for state procurement projects that are being delivered using construction management as the procurement and delivery process.

HB1113 passed General Laws unanimously. It increases the limits on job order contracting, a type of procurement method for goods and services used most commonly by localities.

HB1082 authorizes courts to order a restricted license for those who are paying a motor vehicle-related civil judgement and as a result had their driving privileges suspended. It passed its subcommittee unanimously.

HB1077 passed its subcommittee in Transportation. This bill allows cyclists to treat certain stop signs as a yield; a practice known as the bike safety stop.

HB1100 passed the Counties, Cities, and Towns committee. It extends an optional ordinance from Planning District 8 to statewide. The ordinance, if adopted by a locality, would provide conservation of trees during new land development.

HB1455 establishes the Virginia Memory Project at the Virginia Center on Aging as the statewide registry for Dementia and Alzheimers. This bill passed its subcommittee in the Health & Human Services committee unanimously.

HB1456 passed its subcommittee in General Laws unanimously. It would require that some new government buildings, like schools, be built with infrastructure to support rooftop solar.

HB1125 passed its subcommittee in General Laws unanimously. It would establish the Virginia Business Ready Sites Permitting program at the Virginia Economic Development Partnership as a concierge expediting program for major economic development projects.

HB1073 seeks to prevent predatory towing practices for wrecked or disabled vehicles. It passed its subcommittee in Transportation unanimously.

In addition, 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 the Virginia Business Higher Education Council.

During the past week of Session, my staff and I met various representative individuals and groups including:

  • AFL-CIO

  • Central Virginia Labor Federation

  • United Way

  • Law Enforcement Sheriffs

  • Virginia Business Higher Education Council

  • Equality Virginia

  • Virginia Partnership for Out of School Time

  • JMU Leadership

  • Virginia Institute for Marine Sciences

  • UVA Wise Leadership

  • Chesapeake Bay Foundation Advocates

  • Autism Advocates

  • Virginia Restaurant Lodging and Tourism Association

  • Virginia Academy of Clinical Psychologists

  • Rx Partnership

  • Richmond Association of Realtors

  • Daily Planet Free Clinic

  • Virginia Academy of Nutritionist and Dietitians

  • Open High School Student Advocates for Conservation  

  • Garden Club of Virginia

  • Marymount University Leadership

  • Virginia Business Roundtable

  • Virginia Voices

  • Clinicians for Climate Change

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.

Massey Cancer Center’s Capital Square Classic

The Massey Cancer Center Capital Square Classic basketball game will be February 29. This fundraiser pits the Governor’s office against the lobbyists and the House against the Senate in two games at the Siegel Center in benefit of the Massey Cancer Center.

More information is available here.

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

Second Week of Session 2024

Dear Friend,

The second week of Session has come to a close. Below is an update on some of the past week’s work in the legislature.

The Second Week of Session

Committees have been working through large dockets of legislation and bills have begun to pass the House. As of Friday, 33 bills have been sent to the Senate from the House. The Senate is slightly ahead of schedule, due to their bill limits and that the last election did not change the majority party. The Senate has passed 78 bills to the House. Both bodies have significant work to do in the coming weeks. February 13 is “crossover,” the last day for each body to complete work on their legislation. You can find a list of bills and resolutions that passed the House here, and a list of bills that passed the Senate here.

An important function of the General Assembly is the nomination and election of judges. Virginia used the legislative election method for judicial selections. The legislature fields candidates for judicial vacancies and finalizes selections into a resolution that is then voted on by the General Assembly. This past week, the General Assembly made appointments and renewals to local and district courts, but more importantly, the legislature filled both vacancies at the State Corporation Commission. Having all three seats filled is a critical win for consumer protection and regulation in Virginia. Kelsey Bagot moves to fill a seat carrying a 6 year term. She is an attorney for NextEra Energy and was formerly an advisor to a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Sam Towell is an attorney at Smithfield foods and formerly was an attorney in the Office of the Attorney General. Due to election cycles, his seat will expire in 4 years. Kelsey Bagot and Sam Towell join Chairman Jehmal Hudson, who was appointed to a six year term in 2020. You can read more about the appointments here.

This past Thursday, my HB1105 was heard in the General Laws subcommittee on Housing and Consumer Protection. It was moved to be reported and referred to Appropriations by an unanimous vote. This bill would establish an incentive grant fund at the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). Grants would be awarded to localities who decide to implement zoning ordinances that promote the production of affordable housing. This incentive fund takes a realistic approach to affordable housing production. The state can and has established optional zoning practices, but they are rarely implemented at the local level. Incentive grants are a necessary addition to encourage adoption and get badly needed affordable units produced.

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 the Virginia Association of Recovery Residences and the Virginia Association of Museums. On Wednesday, I introduced Bishop Gayle Harris of the Episcopal Diocese who offered the morning invocation.

During the past week of Session, my staff and I met various representative individuals and groups including:

  • Virginia Automobile Dealers Association

  • Virginia Reproductive Equity Alliance

  • MS Society

  • Virginia Restaurant and Lodging Tourism Association

  • Associated General Contractors of Virginia Association

  • Virginia Emergency Management Association

  • Breast Cancer Foundation

  • Southern Environmental Law Center

  • Wetlands Watch

  • Virginia Pharmacists Association

  • Medical Society of Virginia

  • American Council of Pediatrics

  • Virginia Tech Leadership

  • Radford University Leadership

  • Council of Independent Colleges of Virginia

  • American Cancer Society

  • J. Sargent Reynolds Community College Leadership

  • Childhood Cancer Foundation

  • AARP of Virginia

  • James Madison University Leadership

  • Virginia Association of Museums

  • Birth in Color (Doula Advocates)

  • Family Lifeline

  • Early Impact Virginia

  • Church World Service

  • Virginia Radiological Society

  • Virginia Community Healthcare Association

  • Homebuilders Association of Richmond

  • Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

  • Randolph Macon Advocacy Students

  • Virginia Apartment Managers Association

  • Pace-o-matic

  • Richmond Parent Teacher Association

  • SeaGrant

  • AFL-CIO

  • Judicial Candidates

  • Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

  • Old Dominion Highway Contractors Association

  • Community College Foundation

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.

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

First Week of Session 2024

Dear Friend,

The first full week of Session has come to a close. Below is an update on the work of the legislature as well as an overview of some of the issues the General Assembly will be working.

2024 Legislative Session

Friday was the deadline for bills to be introduced; 1,545 bills were introduced in the House and 736 in the Senate, not including resolutions. These bills cover a wide array of issues. It is the work of the General Assembly to consider each proposed policy and determine how it will impact the lives of all Virginians.

The most important piece of legislation is the budget bill. Virginia passes a biennial budget in even-numbered years, and amendments to that biennial budget in odd-numbered years. This year, Governor Youngkin is doing several things for the first time. The most notable is that this is his first time crafting a biennial budget; in 2022, he worked on amendments to outgoing-Governor Ralph Northam’s budget plan. Another notable first-time task for the Governor is to pass a budget with a Democratic-controlled General Assembly, which represents a new negotiating landscape. Finally, another novel experience for this Governor, and for many legislators, is passing a budget amid a rather bare fiscal outlook. Previous years have seen record revenues and large surpluses. Pandemic aid is now drying up and a recession is forecasted for sometime in the second and third quarter of 2024. We must be prudent with our spending, prioritizing the pressing needs of Virginians. The State should also be reasonable with its tax policy; not burdening vulnerable Virginians, but instead ensuring vital projects are funded at their required levels through a progressive and equitable tax system.

The General Assembly will consider legislation on issues including reproductive healthcare, gun safety, minimum wage increases, environmental protection, school funding reform, clean energy, voting rights, and much more.

Several recent articles highlight bills being introduced this session. The Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote on several of the early filed pieces of legislation in this article and the Virginia Mercury wrote this broad primer just ahead of the Assembly first meeting.

Other articles touch base on the goings-on like “Lobby Day,” which sees hundreds of advocates using the state’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday to meet with legislations, read more here. Further reading, focusing on specific legislation, can be found in this article about the Potomac Yard Arena plan, this article about local control over school funding, and in this article that spotlights three more eclectic pieces of legislation. Finally, this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch covers an important business ready site permitting bill Senator Mamie Locke and I are carrying.

Committee assignments have been finalized. In addition to sitting on the Appropriations, General Laws (of which I am vice-chair), Transportation, and Rules Committees, I also will chair three subcommittees; Appropriations-Higher Education; Transportation-Infrastructure and Funding subcommittee; General Laws-Procurement and Open Government.

During the past week of Session, my staff and I met various representative individuals and groups including:

  • Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy

  • National Federation for the Blind

  • Virginia Moms for Change

  • Electrification Coalition

  • Marijuana Justice

  • Virginia Association for the Education of Young Children

  • Virginia Healthy Youth Foundation

  • Young Democrats

  • Moms Demand Action

  • Virginia Citizens Defense League

  • 911 Dispatchers

  • Medical Society of Virginia

  • VCU Physical Therapy students

  • Virginia Dental Association

  • Families of those Incarcerated at Keen Mountain Correctional Center

  • Monumental Sports

  • Reston Homeowners Association

  • National Guard Association

  • Virginia Commonwealth University Leadership

  • VCU Massey Cancer Center Leadership

  • Chesapeake Bay Foundation

  • Sierra Club of Virginia

  • Old Dominion University Leadership

  • Virginia Fire Chiefs

  • Judicial Candidates

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.

Early Voting Opens for Virginia’s Presidential Primary

Virginia’s Presidential Primary Election Day will be March 5. Early voting is open until March 2. In addition to the ongoing Republican Primary, President Biden is facing competition. You can read more about the primaries here and access your voting information including registration status and polling location at this link.

Richmond Hires Joe Damico, Former DGS Director

At the end of 2023, it was announced that Joe Damico, a longtime and incredibly admired state procurement official would be retiring from his role as the Director of the Department of General Services (DGS), which is the business-arm and represents the infrastructure of Virginia’s State Government. In what is a tremendous windfall for the City, Joe has joined the City’s Administration as Deputy Director of Public Works. His experience and leadership is an invaluable asset for the City.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch has written this article on Joe Damico’s new role.

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

The 2024 Session

Dear Friend,

The 2024 Legislative Session has begun. The 140 citizen-members of our Commonwealth’s historic legislative body gaveled in Wednesday, January 10, to begin this year’s 60 day lawmaking Session. I will provide weekly updates during Session. Below is the first.

2024 Legislative Session

Following redistricting, retirements, and elections, the General Assembly is welcoming many new faces. The Senate has 17 new members, some who came from the House, others who are new to the General Assembly. The House has 34 new members, two of whom served previously.

History was made on day one. The General Assembly elected Delegate Don Scott as the new Speaker of the House. He is the first Black Speaker in the legislature’s 405 year history. You can watch the nomination for the election of Delegate Scott, by Delegates Torian and Austin here. You can watch Speaker Scott’s swearing in and first speech at this link.

Following Speaker Scott’s swearing in, the House elected to return G. Paul Nardo as Clerk of the House. Paul Nardo has 12 years experience, including serving as Clerk the prior two years under Speaker Todd Gilbert. You can watch his nomination and election here.

Committee assignments were made following the establishment of leadership. I will serve on the Appropriations, General Laws, Transportation and Rules Committees. I will serve as Vice Chair for General Laws. In Appropriations, I serve on 4 of the 5 subcommittees, and chair the Higher Education Subcommittee. Additional appointments to subcommittees in other committees are still pending. You can find full committee information here.

The State of the Commonwealth was held at Joint Assembly of the House & Senate  at the end of the first day. You can watch Governor Youngkin’s remarks here, or read a transcript here.

I had the honor, with Senator L. Louise Lucas, President Pro Tempore, of delivering the Democratic response to the Governor’s remarks. You can watch the response at this link.

My bills have been filed and introduced. I am carrying bills to promote affordable housing, pedestrian and roadway safety, education for prisoners, environmental education and protection, as well as legislation to support small business and economic development. You can find information on all my bills at this link.

During the first week of Session, I met with several individuals or groups representing:

  • Virginia Community College Systems

  • Virginia Commonwealth University

  • CodeRVA Regional High School

  • Child Advocacy Centers of Virginia

  • Virginia Poverty Law Center

  • College of William & Mary

  • Justice Forward Virginia

  • Virginia Banker’s Association

  • Moms Demand Action

  • Virginia Humanities

  • Volkswagen

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.

Changes to FAFSA

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) has been updated and is now available to college applicants for the 2024-2025 school year. The FAFSA is the main application families use to determine their eligibility for federal student aid, and it has been notorious for difficult questions and length. It is ordinarily available to students beginning in October, however it has been delayed as the Department of Education was working to streamline and make a more user friendly application.

The new application is available. To learn more about the changes to the FAFSA and federal aid process, visit this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

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

New Years Update

Dear Friend,

2024 is here. I hope you have had an enjoyable and restful holiday season, full of cherished moments. Below is an update on relevant state meetings as well as a look-ahead to the 2024 Legislative Session.

Governor Youngkin’s Proposed Budget

In late December, Governor Youngkin presented his budget to the Joint Money Committee. This budget covers the next biennium, fiscal years 2025-2026. You can find a link to the budget here.

The Governor’s proposed budget contains a 12% reduction in income tax across all brackets. In an effort to offset the loss of revenue, the proposed budget increases the sales tax by 0.9% and will apply this increased rate to some digital goods that are not currently subject to state sales tax.

Additionally, Youngkin announced his intention to remove the local vehicle ownership tax; a process that will require extensive legislative action. Localities would be able to offset the loss of revenue with other increased taxes.

Following his introduction, the budget will now have to pass the General Assembly during the upcoming legislative Session. Members of the General Assembly will be able to submit amendments to the Governor’s budget, either to add or remove provisions, as well as edit or add language.

Due to Virginia’s limit on consecutive terms as well as the timing of biennial budgets, this is the only budget  that Governor Youngkin is able to initiate, oversee its passage through the legislature, and then preside over the Executive Branch during the spending of the appropriations.

You can read more about the introduced budget in this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch or this one from The Virginia Mercury.

Newly Enacted Laws

Several bills from the 2023 Session carried delayed enactments, including my HB1744 which established home study reciprocity for foster and adoptive care. They became law in the New Year. You can read about some of these new laws in this article from The Washington Post and at this link from CBS9.

A more thorough review of bills that passed last Session can be found in this publication from the Division of Legislative Services.

2024 Legislative Session

The 2024 Legislative Session begins January 10, 2024, at 12 PM. This year’s Session will last 60 days.

During Session, the 140 citizen-legislators of Virginia convene in Richmond to introduce, deliberate, and take action on proposed legislation, including the Commonwealth’s budget.

All legislation has to be introduced by late morning, January 10. You can find a link to all the legislation that has been introduced so far at this link.

Session moves fast and I will do my best to keep you updated on what is happening in the General Assembly through weekly updates.

In preparation for the upcoming Session, I have met with many groups such as:

  • McShin Foundation

  • Longwood University

  • Maymont

  • The Shepherd Center

  • Virginia Society of Interior Designers

  • American Heart Association

  • Richmond Association of Realtors

  • VA Kids Belong

  • Virginia Early Childhood Foundation

  • Virginia Public Media

  • Altria

  • Virginia Focused Ultrasound Foundation

  • University of Mary Washington

  • Richmond City Leadership

  • Council of Independent Colleges of Virginia

  • Asian Chamber of Commerce

  • Richmond Academy of Medicine

  • American Civil War Museum

  • Virginia Housing Alliance

  • Virginia Pride Liberation Project

  • James Madison University

  • The Hunt Institute

  • ChamberRVA

  • No Kid Hungry Virginia

  • Virginia Restaurant Lodging & Tourism Association

  • James River Association

  • Urban League

  • Virginia Business Council

  • The Mill House

  • Virginia Association Personal Care Providers

  • Virginia Business Higher Education Council

  • State Council of Higher Education of Virginia

  • United Methodist Foster Services

  • The Valentine Museum

  • Virginia Apartment & Office Building Association

  • Chesapeake Bay Foundation

  • Homebuilders Association of Richmond

  • Virginia Poverty Law Center

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.

Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission Presentations

The Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission met December 11 to hear reports on State Psychiatric Hospitals, GO Virginia (Growth & Opportunity), The Virginia Retirement System, as well as State Spending on the K-12 Standards of Quality.

You can find a link to the reports, as well as a recording of the presentations, at this link.

Retirement  of Joe Damico

Joe Damico, Virginia’s Director of General Services (DGS), has retired. Joe served the Commonwealth through his work at DGS for 20 years, 16 of which he served as Deputy Director.

Joe has been a model of service throughout his career. DGS oversees state procurement and real estate holdings; much of their work is behind the scenes. Despite this, some of the biggest work the State has completed has been under Joe’s purview. He tended to the renovation of Capitol Square including building the new General Assembly Building, renovating Old City Hall. He also helped consolidate a lot of DGS business on eVA, a citizen friendly digital platform.

We will miss Joe’s institutional knowledge, thorough and attentive service, as well as his savvy ability to balance feedback and guide DGS in the interest of the Commonwealth’s good. You can read more about his service in this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

E-Cycle & Christmas Tree Disposal Event

The City will host an e-cycle day, January 13, 10 AM - 2 PM, at 1710 Robinhood Road. In addition to electronics, paper materials, and household hazardous waste, residents can also bring their Christmas trees to be turned into mulch.

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

November Update

Dear Friend,

Happy Thanksgiving! We are entering the holiday season, and I hope you are able to find a moment to rest and revel in quality time with loved ones. In this reflective time of year, we have much for which to be grateful.

Election Day Results

November 7 was Election Day. I am very grateful to have the privilege of serving the citizens of the 78th District; I thank the 27,269 voters who entrusted me to be their representative in the House of Delegates. Citywide, 67,738 voters turned out, marking 42.49% voter turnout. I am encouraged and delighted to see such hearty turnout. Voting is the best way to ensure our democracy works. For full voting results, visit this link.

Most Richmond residents had unopposed races on their ballot for the House of Delegates and Senate. Senate District 15 which includes portions of South Richmond had a contested race. The results of the House and Senate races are below.

In addition, Richmond voted on the Richmond Grand Casino proposal, which was defeated.

House of Delegates

District 78: Betsy Carr (D)

District 79: Rae Cousins (D)

District 77: Mike Jones (D)

Senate

District 14: Lamont Bagby (D)

District 15: Ghazala Hashmi (D)

Statewide, the House of Delegates has flipped to Democratic control with 51 seats to the 49 for the Republicans. In the Senate, Democrats have maintained control, with 21 seats in the 40-member chamber.

The Virginia Public Access Project has user friendly election results, which can be found here. Additionally, they recently hosted a conversation between Democratic and Republican strategists, as well as academics. The talk, titled After Virginia Votes, can be found here.

Following elections, the House and Senate Democratic caucuses have elected their internal leadership. In the House, Don Scott has been selected as Speaker-Designee, setting him up to be the first African-American Speaker of the House of Delegates. Delegate Charniele Herring will be Majority Leader and Delegate Kathy Tran will serve as Caucus Chair. The full press release can be found here.

In the Senate, Senator Louise Lucas will remain President Pro Tempore. Senator Scott Surrovell has been elected as Majority Leader and Senator Mamie Locke will be Caucus Chair. Their full press release can be found here.

House & Senate Money Committee Meetings

The House Appropriations & Finance Committees met for an annual retreat on November 14. You can find the agenda here, and a recording of the presentations here. Additionally, the Senate Finance Committee held a retreat in Tysons Corner on November 15 and 16. Their presentations can be found here.

A key takeaway from the meetings was that Virginia’s large recent revenues are reutrning to pre-pandemic levels. Virginia has been enjoying budget surpluses, which have allowed the state to undergo significant investments in areas like education, workforce development and behavioral health initiatives. However, major contributors to the increased revenues, like federal medicaid matching and COVID relief funds, have dried up, and a looming recession detracts from future revenue forecasts.

The bottom line is that the legislature will need to be prudent this coming session when considering the Governor’s proposed budget. Initiatives such as major tax cuts or rebates cannot be a priority when funds are limited and the state has clear obligations to fund pressing needs such as education, medicaid, housing and mental health.  

You can read more about the money committee annual meetings in this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch. Additionally, this article from The Virginia Mercury highlights Virginia’s underfunded school system amid this bare financial outlook.

Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission Presentations

On November 13, members and staff of the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission met to hear presentations and reports. Reports included topics such as economic development initiatives, public defenders, the Virginia Information Technology Agency, as well as reports on JLARC’s impact and other legislative actions that could be taken.

You can find the reports here and a recording of the presentations at this link.

2026 National Speech & Debate Tournament

The National Speech & Debate Association has announced that Richmond will host the 2026 National Speech & Debate Tournament, June 14-19. The event is expected to bring 10,000 student competitors and visitors, and will be held in 750 rooms across schools in Central Virginia. This event will coincide with America’s Semiquincentennial Birthday, which is a theme of the event.

More information can be found on the Richmond Forum’s website.

Community Thanksgiving Events

On Thanksgiving, two community luncheons will be happening. The Giving Heart Community Feast will be at the Richmond Convention Center from 11 AM - 2 PM. Volunteers and food donors can learn more at this link. Additionally, there will be a Community Luncheon from 11:30 AM - 2:30 PM at Diversity Thrift. Interested volunteers should contact Cheezi at 804-304-3034.

Disposal of Unused Drugs

At a recent drug-take-back event at the State Capitol, I learned of a valuable resource for disposal of unused drugs. This website from the U.S. Department of Justice as well as the Drug Enforcement Agency, lets you find nearby locations that are disposal centers of controlled substances.

VCU Leadership Program Applications

The VCU L. Douglas Wilder School is now accepting applications for two leadership development programs. Those interested in the Minority Political Leadership Institute can learn more and apply here. Additionally, more information and the application for the Higher Ground Women’s Leadership Development Program can be found at this link.

Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program

The Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program encourages those who are experienced in a cultural tradition to teach it to a member of their community. Grants award $5,000; $4,000 for the mentor and $1,000 for the mentee. Grants have been awarded to a vast array of areas, including custom car bodywork, baking and cooking, and instrument manufacturing among many others.

Program information can be found here and application information can be found here.

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 804-698-1069 if I can be helpful to you.

Sincerely,

Betsy

Legislative Office

Delegate Betsy B. Carr
General Assembly Building, Suite 1110
201 North 9th Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219

804.698.1078 (phone)
delegate.carr@betsycarr.org

Campaign Address

Carr for Delegate
Post Office Box 14625
Richmond, Virginia 23221
info@betsycarr.org

Mailing Address

The Honorable Betsy B. Carr
Post Office Box 406
Richmond, Virginia 23218