NEWSLETTER
GREETINGS FROM RICHMOND
Greetings!
The House of Delegates and the State Senate successfully met our mid-session deadline and have begun to consider bills that were originally introduced in the other chamber.
This year, 1,734 bills were introduced in the House of Delegates. We passed 824 bills, which will now be heard in the Senate. Of the 39 bills I introduced this session, 22 bills passed the House of Delegates, 4 bills were incorporated into other bills that accomplish similar goals, and 2 bills were recommended to be studied after session.
We have been able to get to this point in the session thanks to the hardworking staff who keep operations in the General Assembly running smoothly. I am grateful to our attorneys in our Division of Legislative Service who provide wise counsel, our Clerk’s team who ensures our legislative process is seamless, and the House staff who welcomes thousands of visitors throughout session. I want to give a special shoutout to Teddi, my Administrative Assistant this session — Teddi has provided my team with incredible support, and she was our team’s Valentine this past Friday.
Below are my updates from my past week in Richmond. As always, if I can be of any assistance, please email me at DelKTran@house.virginia.gov or call (804) 698-1042.
Cheers, Kathy
Legislative Updates
The House of Delegates continued to pass more historic legislation that will move our Commonwealth forward. A highlight of those bills:
In order to safeguard our environment, we passed the following bills:
House Bill 1526, also known as the Virginia Clean Economy Act. A significant step forward for Virginia, this bill will promote energy efficiency, curb carbon emissions, and shift our Commonwealth’s energy portfolio to 100 percent renewable energy by 2045.
House Bill 533 will prohibit, with some exceptions, food vendors from serving food using single-use styrofoam containers by 2023.
To lift up working families, House Bill 395 will raise the minimum wage by 2023 to $15 an hour from the current rate of $7.25 an hour.
We continued reforming our criminal justice system by passing House Bill 972. This bill will decriminalize simple possession of marijuana in Virginia and direct the Secretaries of Agriculture and Forestry, Finance, Health and Human Resources, and Public Safety and Homeland Security to study equitable paths forward for the legalization of marijuana.
Building on other bills that we passed this session to expand access to democracy and voting, we also passed:
House Bill 19 will reinstate the option of casting a ballot without photo identification. This option was previously repealed in 2013.
House Bill 201 will establish same day voter registration in Virginia starting on October 1, 2022.
House Bill 1678 will extend the hours for polling locations from 7pm to 8pm starting on in 2021 if the legislation is passed again during the 2021 regular session.
We expanded protections for vulnerable communities by passing House Bill 618. This bill will add gender, disability, gender identity, and sexual orientation as protected categories under our Commonwealth’s hate crime laws.
We increased accessibility to healthcare by passing House Bill 1506. This bill will allow pharmacists to dispense and administer certain drugs to individuals ages 18 and older.
We passed the last of Governor Northam’s commonsense gun violence prevention bills, House Bill 961. This bill, known as the assault weapons ban, has been significantly amended since it was introduced at the beginning of session. On February 17, the bill was passed by for the year by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. While it will no longer advance this legislative session, it will be studied by the Virginia Crime Commission after the session concludes. Some aspects of the bill are that it will:
Allow Virginians to keep suppressors and certain assault weapons if they were legally owned by July 1, 2020, and ban the future import, sale, manufacture, or purchase, and most transfers of suppressors and these firearms. The bill does not have a gun registration requirement.
Ban all import, sale, manufacture, transfer, or purchase of large capacity magazines, which are defined as any firearm magazine, belt, drum, feed strip, or similar device that has the capacity of, or can be readily restored or converted to accept, more than 12 rounds of ammunition.
Requires anyone who is in possession of a large capacity magazine to render it permanently inoperable, remove it fromVirginia, transfer it to someone outside Virginia, or surrender it to state or local law enforcement by January 1, 2021 or face a misdemeanor. There are some exceptions for military members, diplomats, government employees, and their spouses.
To lift up immigrants, we passed the following bills:
House Bill 1211, which I sponsored, will increase safety on our roads by requiring everyone, regardless of their immigration status, to prove they can pass the DMV’s knowledge, skill, and road tests as well as meet Virginia’s insurance requirements in order to get a standard driver’s license.
House Bill 1547 will allow all Virginia students, regardless of immigration status, to be eligible for in-state tuition if they meet certain criteria.
Finally, the House of Delegates passed House Bill 1414, an omnibus transportation bill proposed by Governor Northam. This bill will modernize Virginia’s road and rail infrastructure. It will benefit our community in the 42nd District in the following ways:
Increase SMART Scale funding available to Fairfax and Loudoun County by $200 million.
Restore an additional $45M for the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, which is used to improve our regional transportation infrastructure.
Increase the Virginia Department of Transportation’s road maintenance budget by $40, which includes maintenance of secondary highways.
Expands VRE and Amtrak service by increasing VRE service on the Fredericksburg line by 75 percent and doubling Amtrak service between Richmond and DC.
In order to address the sustainability of our Commonwealth’s transportation needs, this bill will:
Raise the gas tax by 4 cents a year for 3 years
Index the gas and diesel taxes to the Consumer Price Index instead of the sales price of fuel
Impose a new tier-based Highway Use Fee, structured to ensure fuel-efficient vehicles are not penalized.
Reduce most passenger vehicle registration fees by $20 starting in Fiscal Year 2022.
For a full list of bills that have passed the House of Delegates click here, and for a list of bills that have passed the Senate click here.
These are updates on bills that I introduced which passed the House of Delegates and are being considered in the Senate:
House Bill 1198: This bill will update our code to provide the Virginia State Workforce Development Board with flexibility to operate and respond to Virginia’s dynamic economy. The bill passed the Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology unanimously.
House Bill 1208: This bill will require school boards to develop processes to help students obtain bus passes if they have family members with medical conditions that make it harder for the students to receive transportation to school. It passed the Senate Committee on Health and Education - Public Education Subcommittee unanimously.
Constituent Meetings
This week my staff and I met with constituents to talk about the need to fully fund Priority One Developmental Disabilities Waivers, redistricting reform, and ways to support small businesses in our Commonwealth.
Upcoming Events
I will be hosting a town hall with Senator George Barker, Senator Scott Surovell, and Delegate Mark Sickles on Sunday, February 23 at 1pm at Laurel Hill Elementary School’s library (8390 Laurel Crest Dr, Lorton, VA 22079). Hope you can join us for an update on the legislative session!