The 2023 Session Begins

Sunday, January 15, 2023

Dear Friend, 

The 2023 General Assembly session kicked off on Wednesday, January 11th. Following tradition, Governor Youngkin gave the “State of the Commonwealth” address and we learned about his vision for Virginia and what we could expect in legislative proposals. 

Public Education: Governor Youngkin is continuing his emphasis on charter schools and attempting to create wedges among parents who are sending their children to public schools. Lawmakers will have to dig deeper into Republican proposals to: 

• Create publicly funded education savings accounts that parents could use to send their children to private schools; 

• Policies that would prohibit school officials from changing the names of students on official forms without a change of name order from parents;

• Prohibitions on transgender youth from playing on sports teams that support their gender identification if that identification is different from the gender noted on their birth certificate; and

• Requirements to maintain a catalog of all printed and audiovisual materials in each school’s library for parents and students to review. 

Members of the Republican Women’s Club visited General Assembly members this past Thursday. As they came upon Delegate Simon’s office, they noticed his “Banned Books Library.” This library consists of shelves outside of his office that contain a smattering of books that could likely be banned in certain school libraries because of salacious content. Well, some of these ladies became so outraged that these books were in a public place to be seen and examined by all, they began throwing Delegate Simon’s books against a wall. Needless to say, a picture of this reaction was captured on twitter, and you can only imagine the comments. 

Abortion Care: Governor Youngkin has asked several Republican lawmakers to carry his 15 week abortion ban bill. This bill creates almost a total ban on abortion care with exceptions for rape, incest and when a physician determines that continuing the pregnancy “will result in the death of the woman or substantially and irreversibly impair one or more of the woman’s major bodily functions, not including psychological or emotional conditions.” If this were to pass, physicians who violated the law could be charged with a Class 4 felony—punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. This bill is dead on arrival in the Senate.

Fortunately, the Democrats in the Senate will be able to defeat any bill restricting access to abortion care within the Roe v. Wade framework; and any other bill that interferes with personal health care decisions. Moreover, if the Governor tries to interject such provisions into the budget during the veto session, we have enough of a majority (thanks to the victory of Aaron Rouse) who will vote to keep the government out of these very personal decisions. One Democratic Senator out of our 22 sometimes waffles on abortion care issues, so Aaron Rouse’s election is particularly sweet. A big “thank you” to all who had a part in the Rouse victory!

Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders: This is an area where there will be bi-partisan support for improving community-based services, funding prevention services, expanding crisis intervention services and reducing the wait times for psych beds. I am proudly carrying legislation to ensure that school counselors spend at least 80 percent of their time counseling students and not administering SOL tests or conducting other administrative tasks. This was a recommendation of the Joint Commission on Health Care.

Moreover, I am the patron of legislation that establishes a grant program for hospitals willing to implement a care management program in their Emergency Departments. This effort is intended to reduce future visits to Emergency Departments and link patients to community-based services. Many patients who visit EDs are suffering from mental health issues as well as physical ailments. Hopefully, this bill will garner broad-based support. It carries the endorsement of the Joint Health Care Commission and the enthusiasm of the Virginia Health and Hospital Association.

Governor Youngkin has a stated goal of reducing opioid and substance abuse disorder deaths by 20 percent. Many fatal overdose deaths occur after an individual is released from jail. I have been working with the Sheriffs Association and other stakeholder groups to create a fund that will support local and regional jails in their efforts to implement medically assisted detox programs coupled with on-going counseling and transition plans to keep offenders drug free upon their re-entry to society. This bill passed unanimously out of Rehabilitation and Social Services, a committee which I chair and is on its way to the Finance and Appropriations Committee. With such strong bi-partisan support, I am hopeful that a robust appropriation will accompany the grant program when it is reported out of the money committee. 

Domestic Violence & Gun Safety: At the request of advocates serving survivors of domestic violence, I agreed to sponsor a bill that would ensure that those convicted of assault and battery of a household member or are the subject of a protective order actually forfeit any firearm in their possession, as the law requires. The law permits these offenders to transfer their firearms to another individual (who is legally eligible to possess a firearm) if they do not turn their firearm over to the police. My bill would require that a form be submitted to the court acknowledging that the firearm was transferred and noting the recipient of the firearm on the form. Penalties would apply if this requirement was not met.

I spoke to some women in the Republican Women’s Club about my bill and they seemed very interested in supporting the legislation. The NRA is still reviewing the bill and has not yet indicated opposition to it. (My fingers are crossed.) I am hopeful that this legislation gains bi-partisan support and passes. Moms Demand Action has listed my bill on their priority list.

In summary: I have highlighted a few of my major pieces of legislation and will keep you posted as the session continues on the progress of my legislative agenda. It is an honor and privilege to represent you in Richmond and I proudly fight for our progressive values every day.

Please contact my office if you have thoughts or comments on legislative matters. I must acknowledge, however, that given the volume of emails during session, a response may be delayed for several weeks. But, rest assured, every email or correspondence is read and I am briefed daily on the issues important to the 31st District.

Stay safe. Hopefully we will connect in person, soon.

Sincerely,