Upcoming Session: Hot Issues

Thursday, January 2, 2025

Dear Friend,

A new year has arrived. This milestone always brings me hope and optimism. Fortunately, these traits will be helpful as I work with other Democratic colleagues to push back on Governor Youngkin’s “Trump-like” agenda and to make progress in areas where there might be some common ground with the governor.

I am always interested in your views on legislation and funding priorities. The Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee is hosting a virtual town hall on Friday, January 3rd. If you are interested in participating, you can get information on how to sign up here.

This is the second year of Virginia’s biennium budget. Therefore, budget amendments will revolve around filling gaps resulting from Trump policies to restrict human services spending and the governor’s desire to provide across the board tax cuts. I am expecting a large funding hole in the state Medicaid budget, mainly resulting from unanticipated enrollment increases, but exasperated by an expected roll-back in the federal financial match. We are also anticipating that federal subsidies available to many on the Affordable Care Act Exchange will be reduced, if not completely eliminated. My top priority is ensuring that no Virginian loses health insurance.

Based on the Youngkin Administration’s latest presentation to appropriators, the governor will be insisting on some tax cuts. If there are to be tax cuts, my strategy is to advocate for targeted ones that offer a public benefit as well as a private benefit, such as tax credits for childcare expenses. Some women have still not returned to the workforce because of the cost of childcare.

Themes for 2025:

Protecting the Rights of Virginians: All three statewide offices (Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney General) will be on the ballot in 2025, along with every House of Delegates seat. This backdrop will in many ways shape the issues the Democratic caucuses will elevate. Most important from both a policy and political messaging lens is the first passage of three constitutional amendment bills. Each of these bills protects the basic rights of Virginians: the right to control one’s reproductive functions; the right to marry the person you love; and the right to vote for people formerly convicted of felonies who served their time and paid their debt to society. I am a co-patron on each of these bills and will work aggressively to ensure their passage.

If the House of Delegates remains in Democratic control after the 2025 election, these constitutional amendment bills will very likely pass both chambers again (as required by the state constitution) and be placed before the voters in November 2026. The governor has no role in the process of placing a constitutional amendment before the voters.

Bolstering Public Education Funding: It is critical that the Democratic caucuses prioritize funding for public K-12 education and prevent the flow of dollars to the governor’s private Lab School initiative. As long as public school teachers remain under-compensated and the state-required standards of learning are not fully funded, public school funding must be a top priority. My role on the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee will give me some leverage in this funding space.

Highlights of My 2025 Legislative Agenda Are Noted Below:

My K-12 Initiatives:

SOL Testing: I have legislation to require the state to pay for some SOL tests in other languages. At the moment, I am investigating what other states are doing in this area. It has come to my attention that most states fund math and science tests in one other predominately spoken second language. I am currently discussing this approach with stakeholders. My bill received lots of attention in a recent Richmond Times-Dispatch article.

Special Education Funding: I am going to fight to ensure that public schools get more resources to hire additional staff, train general education teachers on how to better integrate IEP students, and make the IEP process more understandable and accountable. These reform elements were part of a bill that I successfully patroned last year but adequate resources were not allocated to support all of the reforms.

Funding for Accountability Framework: I am working with the Virginia Education Association and other stakeholders to ensure that schools that may be labeled “Off Track” or “Needs Intensive Support” under the governor’s new school rating framework actually receive the dollars they deserve to implement corrective action plans. I have submitted authorizing legislation in this area and a budget amendment for $100M for the academic year 2025-2026. There is also legislation to delay the implementation of this framework but we are expecting Governor Youngkin to veto this legislation.

Mental Health Funding: This is one area where both sides of the aisle will find some agreement. For example, I am hopeful that more funding will be available for co-responder teams. These are teams comprised of law enforcement and counselors and, where appropriate, they arrive together on the scene of an incident. Additional funding will be available to pay for services associated with supportive housing. This strategy is intended to prevent involuntary admissions to hospitals and to help provide the necessary support when patients must be discharged.

My Mental Health Initiatives:

Community-Based Services Upon Discharge: I have a bill that will require health care professionals to consider the appropriateness of ongoing community-based care as part of the discharging process for those involuntarily committed to inpatient mental health treatment.

Juvenile Mental Health Assessments: Before a juvenile is sentenced in criminal cases, my bill would allow a judge to order mental health assessments and learning disability assessments to better understand the needs and behaviors of the juvenile. This practice is already being done in some jurisdictions but I believe such practices, if implemented regularly, would substantially improve the rehabilitative goals of our juvenile justice system.

My Criminal Justice Reform Initiatives:

Criminal Justice Reform: I am working with the Youngkin Administration on a bill that would enable the Department of Corrections and local and regional jails to share personal information with the Medicaid program. This effort would enable offenders to have health insurance upon their release.

Guardianship During Interrogation: I have submitted a bill that requires law enforcement, if it is known that an individual is on the autism spectrum or suffers from another neurocognitive disorder, to contact the individual’s parent or legal guardian before an interrogation begins. This bill attempts to mirror the protections we currently have in place for the interrogation of juveniles.

My Data Protection Bill: 

Menstrual Health Data: I am submitting a bill this session to require data companies that offer menstrual health tracking applications to keep the data safe and not disclose any portion of an individual’s menstrual health data without the consent of the owner. Moreover, if such a disclosure occurs, the company could be subject to legal action initiated by the owner of the data. Last year, Governor Youngkin signed my bill which protected menstrual health data from law enforcement. I am hopeful that the same coalition of libertarians and women’s health advocates can succeed in securing Governor Youngkin’s approval.

Emerging Issues:

Artificial Intelligence Issues: There are a number of emerging issues that will attract the interest of Governor Youngkin and lawmakers. In fact, Senator Surovell has pre-filed a bill that will require creators of campaign advertisements to disclose if any portion of the advertisement was created using artificial intelligence.

Child Internet Protection Issues: I am expecting a number of bills to be filed that attempt to require parental consent for youth to access certain websites. These bills are usually well intentioned but the definitions of what should be off limits are always confusing and subject to interpretation. I serve on the legislatively established Joint Commission on Technology and Science, which is investigating best practices for protecting children on the internet while attempting to balance the issues around free speech.

In Summary:

I hope this newsletter gives you an overview of the types of issues that will dominate our 2025 legislative session. I will be sending weekly updates once session begins on January 8th.

I hope you’ll visit my website at BarbaraFavola.org and subscribe to my regular newsletters. I also have a dynamic social media presence through Facebook and X (formerly Twitter). I hope you’ll follow my work using one or both of those platforms. You may also track legislation through Virginia’s Legislative Information System. The Commonwealth’s General Assembly website is a useful tool as well. You can follow events, find pertinent information, observe sessions, and monitor committee meetings through the site.

Sincerely,