Special Session 2020 Convenes with Social Distancing & Can Do Attitude

Sunday, August 23, 2020

Dear Friend,

I hope everyone is safe and adjusting to our new reality. A special session of the General Assembly was gaveled in on Tuesday, August 18. The Governor called lawmakers back to Richmond to adjust the budget because of COVID related impacts, address safety-net issues related to the pandemic, pass police and criminal justice reform, and facilitate voting in the upcoming election.

The Senate convened at the Science Museum to allow adequate social distancing. While only lawmakers could attend in person, committee meetings were live streamed and allowed for virtual public testimony. Visit this page to learn more about upcoming meetings and how to sign up to speak.

2020 Elections: Governor Northam is committed to ensuring that every Virginian can easily vote in the upcoming presidential election. With that goal in mind, I am expecting that language will be included in a budget document to specifically grant registrars the authority to establish “drop boxes” for the collection of absentee ballots. The Governor and General Assembly members are also interested in providing funding to help defray costs associated with the mailing and receipt of absentee ballots. Since sorting machines have been reduced at the USPS and overtime has been halted, we are all nervous about the ability of the USPS to get ballots delivered on time to be counted, please be sure to send your ballot back early if you plan to vote absentee.

Early voting starts on Saturday, September 19, 2020 and goes through Saturday, October 31, 2020. Dates and hours will vary based on where you live. Please check the website of your local registrar.

Criminal Justice Reform and Police Reform - Overview: The Senate Democratic Caucus worked together to submit six reform bills addressing policing reform, restoring leniency, ending racial profiling, prison reform, sentencing reform, and local authority to create civilian review boards and crisis intervention programs. I advocated for and participated in drafting key parts of our legislative package. Some of these bills have already been voted out of committee. I am confident that before session concludes, we will make transformational progress on these important issues.

Crisis Intervention Strategies & Policing: Drawing on my background in human services, I am attempting to establish the necessary funding and infrastructure support to change the culture of policing. At this time, I think meaningful change can best be achieved by incentivizing local governments to implement culturally sensitive crisis intervention (CIT) programs as part of a strategy that re-imagines policing. Under my proposal, the DBHDS, in collaboration with DCJS, would widely disseminate evidence-based CIT models throughout the Commonwealth; and offer funding on a pilot basis to jurisdictions with the commitment to embrace this concept. The CIT models could include “best practices” for implementing co-responding policing models or models that engage a police officer and mental health worker on site, diversion practices as 911 calls are being screened, and effective mobile unit response strategies.

Police Training: Another space where I believe systemic change can be achieved is the area of police training. Consequently, I submitted a bill that changes the composition of the Advisory Committee on Police Training to include representation from civil rights groups, public defenders, mental health professionals, and minority groups who have traditionally suffered grave injustices because of racism and police profiling. This committee is tasked with advising the Criminal Justice Services Board on what training curriculum should be implemented to ensure that the highest standards of fairness and justice become the norm for policing in every corner of the Commonwealth.

Sick Pay for Home Care Workers: I have asked the money committees to consider funding paid sick days for Medicaid reimbursed home care workers during this pandemic. Although there is an acknowledgement that such a proposal should be funded, there will be some concern about placing additional funding demands on the budget. If a new federal stimulus package could ever become a reality, the state safety-net could be reinforced and our most vulnerable Virginians would gain more protection.

Paid Sick Days for Essential Workers & Others: I proposed a bill to require employers with 21 or more employees to offer one-time COVID related sick leave. Essentially, the leave would have to be commensurate with the hours an employee would have normally worked over a two-week period. There were other provisions in the bill to allow a worker to care for a family member or arrange for child care services. My proposal was only in effect during a declared public health emergency.

In fact, the Governor has established a fund called “Rebuild Virginia” to help small employers pay for sick leave and other expenses. My proposal could have been funded within the parameters of this fund. Although many stakeholder groups, including the ACLU, AFL-CIO, CASA Virginia, AFT, the Legal Aid Justice Center, the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, and the SEIU to name a few, supported the bill, the business community registered some opposition, which did not come as a surprise.

Oddly enough, it was the overwhelming conclusion of my colleagues on the Commerce and Labor Committee that such a bill would be better addressed during the 2021 session. I did remind them that a pandemic was going on and we should not wait to implement a reasonable paid sick day bill, but that argument did not carry the day. However, I am still hopeful that language supporting paid sick days will make it into the budget.

Protection from Eviction: The Governor is seeking to extend the moratorium on evictions until April 30, along with a budget amendment that allocates $88M toward rent relief. I support both of these efforts, and I have signed on to Senator Ebbins’ legislation requiring landlords to work with tenants during public health emergencies to establish payment plans in order to avoid evictions. No one should be losing their home when public health officials are telling us that home is the safest place to be.

As we continue to navigate Covid-19, please do not hesitate to reach out to my office with any questions or concerns. We are in this together and we will get through this together.

Sincerely,