2023 Legislative Agenda
Throughout session, I disseminate a weekly electronic newsletter with legislative updates and information about major policy discussions and other activities related to our state government. I encourage you to sign up here.
EXPANDING HEALTH CARE
House Bill 2210 Cover All Kids — Health care is a human right, but many in Virginia still do not have essential care. This bill expands health care to vulnerable kids by creating a Medicaid-like program for about 13,000 undocumented immigrant children in Virginia.
House Bill 2472 Non-Profit Hospital Disclosures — The federal government’s 340B Drug Pricing Program helps safety-net hospitals save money by purchasing prescription drugs at a discount, with a goal of ensuring these hospitals have additional resources to increase services for low-income patients. This bill requires participating hospitals to report if and how they are investing the savings into the local community.
Item 304 #7h Personal Care Services for Hospitalized Medicaid HCBS Recipients — For Virginians with a personal care attendant, that attendant may know their needs better than anyone, but right now, if that Virginian is on Medicaid, their personal care attendant stops being paid when they go into acute care. That’s why this budget amendment directs the Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) to request a waiver from the federal government to allow individuals on Medicaid to receive personal care services in an acute care setting for up to 30 days.
DEFENDING REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
House Bill 2219 Online Health/Reproductive Health Data Privacy — Information about your health is personal and must be safeguarded. This bill modernizes Virginia’s Health Records Privacy Act to protect consumer generated health information available through wearable technology and web applications, including fertility trackers, by limiting how it can be shared, monetized, and weaponized against an individual.
KEEPING KIDS SAFE AT SCHOOL
House Bill 2218 School Zone Speed Limits — Vehicle traffic deaths have increased in Virginia, and we must do more to protect our children from aggressive drivers near schools. This bill would give more power to Fairfax County and local governments in Northern Virginia to set speed limits in school zones and keep our kids safe.
BETTER PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Item 129 #4h Asian American History Model Curriculum and Resources — Our children deserve to learn our full history, but too often Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) contributions to our nation have not been taught in K-12. This request provides resources to the Virginia Department of Education to create a model curriculum, tools, and resources to teach AAPI history as part of the 2023 Standards of Learning curriculum review.
Item 137 #4h Additional English Learner Teachers — Every student in Virginia schools deserves the tools and attention they need to succeed. This request, which I made in partnership with Fairfax County Public Schools, increases the minimum number of English Language Learner (ELL) teachers from 20 for every 1,000 students to 22 for every 1,000 students.
LIFTING UP WORKING FAMILIES
House Bill 2205 Child Tax Credit — Given inflation, many Virginians are struggling to make ends meet. This bill provides targeted relief to working families and addresses child poverty for an estimated 1.3 million Virginian kids by establishing a state child tax credit of $500 for every child under the age of 18 in households making up to $100,000.
House Bill 2245 Free File — Hardworking Virginians shouldn’t have to pay to file their taxes. This bill breaks up tax preparers’ monopoly by re-establishing Virginia’s free system to file our state taxes.
Item 271 #1h Increase State Assistance with Personal Property Taxes — I heard from several constituents who did a double take upon receiving their car tax bill and asked that I seek additional relief. This budget request provides a one-time increase in the state portion of the car tax relief fund to address increased vehicle values due to inflation and supply chain delays.
BUILDING A MORE WELCOMING AND INCLUSIVE VIRGINIA
House Bill 2207 Accessible Technology — Technology is ubiquitous in how we perform our jobs, access government services, and learn in school. This bill updates Virginia’s Information Technology Access Act by requiring state agencies, local governments, institutions of higher education, and local school districts to ensure their information and communication technologies are accessible to all persons with a disability.
Item 123 #2h Create the New Americans Navigator Program — Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and this request is to create a program to help immigrant business owners start and grow their businesses, including by providing assistance in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Arabic and Korean.
Item 144 #1h Asian American and Pacific Islander Student Support — At a time when anti-AAPI hate incidents are on a rise, we should do more to support AAPI Virginians. This request provides resources for Virginia colleges and universities determined by the US Department of Education to be Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander-serving institutions to strengthen culturally-competent services, contribute to a sense of belonging, and offer learning opportunities for all students to learn and engage with our communities.
Item 283 #1h Transfer Funding for Language Access to Secretary of Health & Human Resources — In the biennial budget, the General Assembly allocated $5 million to increase language access at our state agencies. This request assigns the funding to the HHR Secretariat and makes unspent funds available in the next year.
Item 340 #1h Clarify Funding for Refugees — In the biennial budget, we set aside $2 million to aid refugees. Unfortunately, that funding has not been allocated, despite refugees across Virginia needing help with housing, childcare, transportation, workforce training and credentialing. This request clarifies how these funds can be utilized to serve vulnerable refugees and other community members.
PROTECTING OUR ENVIRONMENT
House Bill 2209 Bans High-PAH Sealants — Clean, safe water is essential to public health and the wellbeing of our environment and wildlife. This bill lets local governments prohibit the sale and use of pavement sealants with high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), which increases cancer risk, particularly in young children.
House Bill 2214 Resource Protection Areas — The Chesapeake Bay is an essential natural resource, economic driver, and national treasure. This bill requires notifying people if their property is part of a “resource protection area” so they can comply with preservation policies that protect the Bay.
HONORING OUR MILITARY FAMILIES
House Joint Resolution 533 Surviving Spouses Constitutional Amendment — This bill creates a voter referendum to amend the Constitution of Virginia to provide surviving spouses of service members who were killed in the line of duty with equitable tax relief. These families were unfortunately left out of previous exemptions that Virginians approved for other eligible surviving military spouses, and we now have an opportunity to honor them by sharing in their sacrifice.
Item 470 #4h Veteran Entrepreneurship Program — This request establishes two pilot veteran entrepreneur development programs aimed at helping veterans take the skills they learned in the military to start and grow their own business.
EXPANDING VOTING RIGHTS
House Bill 2212 Department of Elections Translations — Having accurate election information enables us to exercise our right to vote. This bill requires Virginia’s Department of Elections to provide key voting information in the most widely spoken languages in Virginia, ensuring that Virginians are not disenfranchised by language barriers.
INCREASING CONSUMER PROTECTIONS
House Bill 2215 Long Term Care Insurance — People purchase long-term care insurance to reduce financial uncertainty. However, insurance premiums have risen dramatically in recent years. This bill requires insurance companies to notify their policyholders if they request the State Corporation Commission (SCC) to increase their rates. It also requires the SCC to consider how a rate increase would impact policyholders when evaluating these requests.
House Bill 2213 Planned Blackouts Notifications — In a world where electricity is essential for things like teleworking, remote school, and use of home medical devices, Virginians deserve reliable electric service and clear and timely communication from providers about scheduled blackouts. This bill requires electric utility providers to notify affected customers at least 24 hours before a planned blackout.
BUILDING A COMPETITIVE WORKFORCE
House Bill 2211 Refugee Nursing Licensure — Virginia is in the middle of a nursing shortage, affecting health care providers and patients across the state. By clarifying the process by which internationally trained nurses are tested and certified for work in Virginia, this bill will help fill our critical nursing workforce needs while tapping into the skills of immigrants and refugees and empowering them to better provide for their families and fulfill their career potential.
House Bill 2217 Workforce Program Consolidation Study — An agile public workforce system is key to preparing workers to meet employer demand, thereby contributing to Virginia’s economic growth. However, our public workforce system is complex and convoluted, involving many state agencies. This bill proposes a study to realign our workforce system to maximize the best outcomes for Virginia’s job seekers and employers.
Item 287 #4h Mary Marshall Scholarship Program — This budget amendment helps address our significant nursing shortage by opening up the Mary Marshall Scholarship Program, a scholarship program for nursing students, to humanitarian parolees to help pay for necessary exams and credentialing.
Item 329 #1h Set Salaries at 50th Percentile — In the biennial budget, the General Assembly included raises for many employees at mental health care facilities across Virginia. This amendment would provide increased compensation to the hard working employees who were left out of the raise in the biennial budget, and is an issue my constituent Edna brought to my attention.
SUPPORTING OUR COMMUNITY
Item 347 #9h Lorton Community Action Center — LCAC provides critical assistance to low-income families in Fort Belvoir, Lorton, Newington and other portions of southeast Fairfax County. This request would help LCAC provide food, housing, child care and education, workforce training and mental health services and supports to vulnerable community members.
Item 347 #10h Ecumenical Community Helping Others — ECHO helps low-income families in Burke and Springfield. This request would help ECHO provide much-needed services to these families, including assistance with food, housing, child care, and transportation.