February 14, 2023

Neighbors, 

Happy Valentine’s Day - I hope you had a wonderful day!

Gentle reminder that on Wednesday, February 15, I am hosting my Virtual Crossover Town Hall at 7pm. To join us, register at https://bit.ly/TranCrossoverTownHall.

In this newsletter, I’ve included information about the following:

  • Town Halls

  • Community Meetings

  • Legislative Updates

    • Crossover

    • Budget Update

    • In The News

    • My Legislative Agenda

    • Other Legislative Updates

  • Transportation Updates

    • Virtual Community Meeting on Proposed Improvements at Old Keene Mill Rd and Ainsworth Ave

    • Speed Safety Cameras in Fairfax County

As always, let me know if you have questions or need assistance by calling my office at (804) 698-1042 or emailing me at DelKTran@house.virginia.gov. 


Best, Kathy

Kathy KL Tran

Delegate

Town Halls

I hope you’ll join me for one of my upcoming town halls!

Delegate Kathy Tran’s

Virtual Crossover Town Hall

Wednesday, February 15 at 7:00pm

Register here: https://bit.ly/TranCrossoverTownHall

Delegate Kathy Tran’s 

Veterans and Military Families 

Virtual Town Hall

Saturday, February 18 at 11:00am

Register here: https://bit.ly/TranVeteransTownHall 


Please join my town hall focused on our veterans and military families, which will be held virtually on February 18. I will be joined by Delegate David Reid, Co-Chair of the General Assembly Military and Veterans Caucus, Delegate Kathleen Murphy, Co-Chair for Women’s Veterans, Delegate Jackie Glass, and Chief Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Veterans Services Stephen Combs.

Delegate Kathy Tran’s

Virtual Transportation and Winter Weather Safety Town Hall

Thursday, February 23 at 6:30pm

Register here: https://bit.ly/TranVDOTupdate

The Virginia Department of Transportation’s Northern District office and Fairfax County Department of Transportation will be joining me to give an annual update about major transportation projects in our community and winter weather safety.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to attend last week’s Virginia Asian American and Pacific Islander Caucus’s Crossover Town Hall!

Community Meetings

Many thanks to the West Springfield High School Parent Teacher Student Association for inviting me to the February meeting to give a legislative update! 

I was delighted to join the National Association of Social Workers’ Virginia/Metro DC Chapter for its virtual Legislative Education Advocacy Day. I shared my experience in the legislature as someone who has a Master’s in Social Work with social work students at George Mason University, Longwood University, and Norfolk State University.

My staff and I also met with constituents and advocates from James Madison University’s Student Government Association, Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, and several Fairfax County School Board Members.

Legislative Updates

Crossover

From Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP)

Tuesday, February 7 was the halfway point of the 2023 General Assembly session. “Crossover,” as it is known, marks the date when all bills that are introduced in the House of Delegates must pass our Chamber so that they can be considered by the state Senate and vice versa. 

Crossover is one of the longest days of session; to meet this deadline, we debated and voted on bills for about nine hours that day! When we started the legislative session, there were 1,392 bills introduced in the House of Delegates. After Crossover, we had passed 572 bills out of our Chamber. Now we are debating and voting on the 685 bills that have passed the state Senate. 

Budget Update

As I have mentioned, Virginia has a $4.5 billion budget surplus. In December,  the Governor introduced his budget, proposing how to  allocate this revenue. Last week, House of Delegates released its proposed budget and the state Senate released its budget. 

I have included highlights of the three proposals below. The House of Delegates and state Senate are now negotiating a final compromise budget. A gentle reminder that Virginia’s state constitution requires us to have a balanced budget. 

If  you would like to learn more about the budgets, I recommend that you check out The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis’s breakdown of the proposed budgets.

Tax Cuts

The House’s budget largely preserves the Governor’s nearly $1 billion dollars in tax cuts. This includes a $350 million tax cut for large corporations by lowering the state corporation tax from 6 percent to 5 percent. It also includes  a decrease of the top individual tax rate from 5.75 percent to 5.5 percent. These and other changes would give the average Virginian about $50 in tax cuts.

Education

The House budget includes an additional two percent increase in teacher salaries, on top of the five percent increase we passed in the biennial budget last year. The House budget also provides $300 million in direct aid to schools.

The state Senate’s budget provides $1 billion dollars to schools, including over $270 million for hiring additional nurses, social workers, guidance counselors, and other key staff.

The state Senate’s budget also provides funding to close the $201 million shortfall facing by schools across Virginia because of a Youngkin administration error. As I shared previously, this mistake led to Fairfax County losing $18 million. The House budget would provide funding to partially close this gap. 

Mental Health

The Governor’s budget includes $58.3 million to support crisis receiving centers and stabilization units.

The House’s budget includes the Governor’s proposal as well as an additional $36.5 million for salary increases for community service board staff and $8.4 million for targeted children’s behavioral health services.

The state Senate’s budget proposal builds on the Governor’s budget and includes an  additional $22.2 million to support salary increases at crisis receiving centers and the System Transformation Excellence and Performance (STEP-VA) services. It also has $7.9 million to expand the Virginia Mental Health Access Program to early childhood and perinatal providers.

Medicaid

The House’s budget increases Medicaid reimbursement rates for positions like personal care providers and youth mental health specialists. 

Washington Commanders

The House budget includes $500,000 for the Secretary of Finance to study the impacts of the Washington Commanders moving their stadium to Virginia. This money was included in the Governor’s introduced budget and was not included in the Senate budget.

I have been clear since this idea was first introduced that I do not support public tax dollars being spent on professional sports teams. I do not and will not support our money being spent this way.

In The News

I am so glad to have met with Dr. Bob Kitchen,  my constituent, who joined medical students  for the Clinicians for Climate Action advocacy day. Dr. Kitchen has steadfastly focused on highlighting the effects of climate change on public health. WUSA9 covered Covered for Climate Action’s visit and spoke with me about climate legislation. Check out their story and interview here.

My Legislative Updates

HB2211 passed unanimously from the House of Delegates. This bill helps fill our critical nursing workforce needs while tapping into the skills of immigrants and refugees by clarifying the process by which internationally trained nurses are tested and certified for work in Virginia. Thank you to Church World Services, the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association, Inova, HCA Hospitals, and Virginia Health Care Association for your support.

HB2007 failed on the House floor on a partisan 47-52 vote even though this bill had passed out of the House Communications, Technology and Innovation Committee by a bipartisan 16-6 vote and unanimously passed the House Appropriations Committee. This is the second year that I have tried to address accessibility of technology — Individuals with disabilities deserve to be able to use technology to access government services and engage fully in the classroom. Many thanks to the National Federation of the Blind of Virginia and the Virginia Higher Education Accessibility Partnership for collaborating with me on this bill.

HB2209 also failed on the House floor on a partisan 47-50 vote even though it had passed out of the Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee by a bipartisan vote. The bill lets local governments prohibit the sale and use of toxic pavement sealants with high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), which increase cancer risk, particularly in young children, and are harmful to marine life. I am grateful Fairfax County, the League of Conservation Voters, James River Association, Virginia Conservation Network, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation spoke out in support of this bill during its hearing. This legislation was highlighted as one of this year’s efforts to remove toxic chemicals from our waterways by the Virginia Pilot.

Other Legislative Updates

Below, I have highlighted some bills that have passed the House of Delegates and will now be considered by the state Senate.

  • House Bill 2440 — This bill would create an Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Commission to advise the Board of Education. While my resolution to affirm the importance of teaching AAPI history failed on a party-line vote, this Republican-sponsored bill passed with bipartisan support. My fellow members of the Virginia Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Caucus introduced amendments to the bill, including ensuring that AAPI people and subject experts are on the commission. Our amendments failed on a party-line vote. However, because of the importance of teaching AAPI history, I supported the legislation. You can watch my floor speech on this bill here.

  • House Bill 2432 and House Bill 1387 — These two bills affects treatment of transgender students in our K-12 school system. HB2432 would require school officials to out trans students to their parents even when the situation is not safe for the student. HB1387 creates a complex and contradictory standard for trans student athletes. I opposed both bills in the House, but they passed on a party-line vote.

  • House Bill 1770 — This bill changes how investor-owned utility companies, like Dominion Energy, are regulated including decreasing required rate reviews for these companies, increasing the number of other companies whose rates our investor-owned utility companies are compared with, and having some rate adjustments rolled into base rates. The bill also weakens the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which the General Assembly passed in 2020, by lowering the standards under which energy companies can close fossil fuel plants. I oppose rolling back prudent regulations against utility monopolies, so I voted against this bill. However, the legislation passed the House by a partisan vote, 52-47.

  • House Bill 1916 — This bill directs college threat assessment teams to take specific actions if they discover a threatening person on their campus. They must obtain criminal background information on the person, notify local law enforcement, and disclose any threat to those law enforcement agencies. After seeing the response to the shooting at the University of Virginia last fall, I believe our universities can do more to protect their students and community members. I supported this legislation and it passed unanimously from the House.

  • House Bill 1407, House Bill 1427, House Bill 1871, and House Bill 2449 — These bills would make it substantially easier to obtain and carry a gun in Virginia. HB 1407 allows anyone with a concealed carry permit to bring their firearm into the Virginia Capitol or any state government building. HB 1427 removes the authority of local governments, like Fairfax County, to ban guns in parks or public places. HB 1871 doubles the length of a Virginia concealed permit from five years to ten years. HB 2449 prevents law enforcement from reviewing information submitted in the background check process unless the information is related to a criminal investigation or prosecution. These bills passed on a largely party-line vote, and I opposed them all.

Transportation Updates

Virtual Community Meeting on Proposed Improvements at Old Keene Mill Rd and Ainsworth Ave

I participated in Supervisor James Walkinshaw virtual community meeting on proposed road improvements at Old Keene Mill Road and Ainsworth Avenue.  

Constituents had previously reached out to me with concerns about pedestrian safety at this intersection. I raised these concerns with VDOT and earlier this fall, VDOT completed signage upgrades and tree trimming. I appreciate Supervisor Walkinshaw for including me in this conversation about possible next steps to address safety in this location. 

Speed Safety Cameras in Fairfax County

On February 10, Fairfax County launched it’s  speed safety camera pilot program in school zones around the county. The goal of the program is to slow down traffic around schools and to get a sense if these types of cameras will increase safety for students, teachers, and the schools’ communities. In our community, the program will include cameras at Irving Middle School, West Springfield High School, and South County Middle School. You can find out more about the program here.

I am concerned about the increase of traffic fatalities in Virginia. That’s why I worked with Fairfax County Public Schools to introduce House Bill 2218, which would bring together key stakeholders to recommend solutions to improve pedestrian safety near schools. While my bill did not pass, I am committed to do everything possible to keep our children and schools safe.