Greetings!

We have wrapped up the first week of the 2020 Regular Session of the Virginia General Assembly. It was a busy week of meeting the initial deadline to introduce bills, filing budget requests, talking with stakeholders about my legislation, and settling into our new office. Below are updates from my first week in Richmond. I hope you complete my 2020 Legislative Session Survey, which is available here.

As always, if I can be of any assistance, please email me at DelKTran@house.virginia.gov or call (804) 698-1042. 

Cheers, Kathy

Breaking Glass Ceilings

This year, 40 women serve in the Virginia General Assembly, a record-breaking number. We continued making history by electing women to serve in key leadership positions for the first time in our state government’s 401 year history. 

Delegate Eileen Filler-Corn was elected as Speaker for the Virginia House of Delegates, the first woman and Jewish person to serve in this position. Delegate Charniele Herring serves as Majority Leader in the House of Delegates and Senator Louise Lucas serves as President Pro Tempore in the Senate, the first women and African Americans to serve in those positions. And Suzette Denslow is the new Clerk and Keeper of the Rolls in the House of Delegates, the first woman elected to this position as well.

Committee Assignments

On Thursday, Speaker Filler-Corn announced her decisions regarding committee assignment for members of the House of Delegates. This year, I will serve on the following House Committees:

1) General Laws

2) Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources

3) Health, Welfare, and Institutions  

I have not served on these committees previously, and I look forward to continuing to work on the issues they cover, including housing policies, safeguarding our environment, and expanding access to healthcare and social services. 

Legislation

The last day to file legislation is on Friday, January 17th. At that time, I will announce my finalized list of bills and budget requests for this legislative session. In the meantime, you can see the current list of bills I have introduced here and all the bills that have been introduced so far in the General Assembly here.

2020 Legislative Session Survey

As constituents, your input is very important to me! For previous sessions, I sent a hard copy legislative session survey, and this year we are trying something new by having an electronic survey. Share your priorities for our community and Virginia by completing my 2020 Legislative Session Survey by January 26th here. 

Visiting Richmond and the Capitol

We have added information to my website to help you plan your visit to Richmond and our Capitol during the legislative session. Please note there are new protocols in place to ensure everyone’s safety. 

Cinder Bed Road Garage Strike

Thank you for continuing to let me know how the ongoing strike at the Cinder Bed Road Garage has affected you and your families. I have stayed in close contact with the Northern Virginia Labor Federation, of which the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) a member, since the strike began, and have been in contact with WMATA on this issue. 

As I have shared, I have repeatedly called on WMATA General Manager Paul Wiedefeld to take a more public role in pushing Transdev to negotiate in good faith a mutually-agreed upon contract with ATU. Finally, after weeks of asking for a meeting with the General Manager, he agreed to have a conference call with me and several colleagues in the House of Delegates. We talked earlier this week about our concerns regarding the ongoing strike.

This week, Transdev brought in more employees to fully restore services to the 17G and 18P bus routes. I have communicated to WMATA that the optimal outcome is to restore services through a collective bargaining contract — not by bringing on individuals who are willing to break the strike. 

The next formal negotiating date between Transdev and ATU is January 14. I hope progress will be made at that meeting.

You can view my most recent update here and previous correspondence on this issue here. 

Upcoming Events

Senator George Barker, Senator Dave Marsden and I will be having a town hall on Saturday, January 25th from 10am-11:30am at Rolling Valley Elementary School. I look forward to providing legislative updates to constituents and hearing about issues that are important to you.