Week 9 of the 2024 General Assembly Session
That’s it! We have officially adjourned sine die. The votes have been cast; the bills have been sent to the Governor’s desk. The ball is now in his court as we await his actions.
I will share my reflections on all of that (and more!) in next week’s newsletter. For now, I would like to focus on updating you on where my bills landed, plus some updates on issues that I was hearing the most about from friends and neighbors in the 8th House district.
Fifteen Bills
I am beyond excited to share that 15 of my bills made it through the General Assembly this year. Many of these were brought to me by concerned constituents, from tackling predatory towing to fighting for improvements to Virginia’s care infrastructure, from improving access to trauma-informed care for victims of campus sexual violence to creating local authority to extend historic district tax credits – and even establishing April 15 as Nepali American Heritage Day.
We still have some issues to work on in the off-season – respite for caregivers, reigning in the use of pesticides in HOAs, transparency in time-shares, fair employment standards for gig economy workers, and more.
In the meantime, here are my 15 bills that made it through the legislature –
HB 906 - Emergency Utilities Protection Act Protecting the most vulnerable Virginians from utility disconnections during extreme weather events or public health crises.
HB 908 - Revising DD Waiver Eligibility Ensuring that inherited SSDI can’t disqualify financial eligibility for disabled adults under the Developmental Disability Waiver program.
HB 909 - Paying Family Caregivers Expanding opportunities for parents to serve as paid caregivers for their eligible children under the Home & Community Based Services Medicaid Waiver program.
HB 912 - Limiting Profiteering in Jails Requiring net profits made from jail commissaries & telecomm services be invested into educational, recreational, & rehabilitative programs.
HB 913 - Parole Board Reform Ensuring that the Parole Board can always work for the people even when there are vacancies on the board.
HB 914 - Establishing Historic Tax Credits Permitting localities to enact a historic district tax credit for the maintenance & repair of historic buildings.
HB 917 - Regulating Predatory Real Estate Practices Placing predatory real estate wholesaling under the oversight of the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation.
HB 925 - Cracking Down on Residential Towing Requiring landlords & towing operators to provide 48 hours’ notice to a resident prior to removing their vehicle for an expired registration or vehicle inspection sticker.
HB 926 - Victims of Nonconsensual Pornography Expanding protections for victims of nonconsensual distribution of personal images.
HB 939 - Expanding Gun-Free Zones Around Polling Places Extending the perimeter around a polling place where firearms are prohibited from 40 feet to 100 feet.
HB 940 - Polling Place Change Notifications Requiring a posted notification when a polling location has changed or been closed.
HB 943 - Protecting Election Workers Permitting elections officials & workers to be eligible for the protected voter list.
HB 1264 - Judicial Discretion in Juvenile Traffic Cases Allowing judges discretion on the imposition of fines & fees on juveniles with traffic violations.
HB 1342 - Access to Rape Kits on College Campuses Ensuring that students have access to a local or on-campus provider trained to administer recovery kits in the event of sexual assault.
HJ 42 - Establishing Nepali American Heritage Day Establishing April 15 as Nepali American Heritage Day!
Final Week
Committees of Conference
This last week of session was a flurry of voting on final bills and hashing out differences in positions between the House and the Senate via “committees of conference.”
A committee of conference is a bicameral and bipartisan committee that is deputized to hash out a deal. Typically, this is made up of six members: two members of the majority party and one member of the minority party from each chamber. Once a majority of the conferees have signed off on the ensuing conference report, the report gets presented back to each chamber for a final vote. Some bills get left in conference, when there is no deal to be struck. Some conference reports die on the floor of one chamber or the other, if there isn’t enough buy-in for the conference position. But, often – as was the case for HB 909 – the conference report gets accepted in both chambers.
I was especially relieved that we were able to reach a consensus on HB 909 because this was my bill instructing the Department of Medical Assistance Services to seek a waiver from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for permission to extend some of the pandemic-era opportunities for parents to serve as paid caregivers to their waiver-eligible children. In conference, we agreed on my language dealing with lifting the 40 hour cap for families in multi-waiver homes, eliminating the requirement that a parent be the caregiver of last resort, and expanding who can serve as the employer of record, and we added language requesting that DMAS study and make recommendations on how we can extend respite care to these families. This is a huge win for families across Fairfax County and across Virginia!
The Budget
We passed a budget! Our House and Senate conferees worked overtime to make sure we had a budget to vote on before we adjourned. I’ll delve into the budget more in my next newsletter, but for now here are some highlights that are particularly meaningful to me:
We have made a historic investment in K-12, from teacher pay to school construction and even expanding support staff, as well as investing in our English language learners and reading specialists.
We have eliminated the priority one waitlist! This is huge news for some of the most vulnerable Virginians and their families, who have been waiting for years for services to help manage complex medical conditions and developmental disabilities.
One area that I have been pleased to see some true bipartisanship in recent years is on mental health and the need for robust investments in our mental health infrastructure. This budget makes significant investments in mobile crisis units and in crisis services.
Of huge importance to our region, the budget that we passed on Saturday includes Virginia’s full share (and more!) for WMATA funding.
The Governor’s First Eight Vetoes of 2024
On Friday, the Governor handed down his first eight vetoes of 2024, from the initial batch of 84 bills that landed on his desk last week. His eight vetoes include:
SB 235 (Hashmi), Sexually explicit content; policies on parental notification of instructional material.
HB 833 (Cousins), Child abuse and neglect; custody and visitation, possession or consumption of authorized substances.
SB 606 (VanValkenburg), Voter registration; list maintenance, data sharing.
SB 143 (Carroll Foy), Railroad safety; requirements for railroad companies.
HB 110 (Sullivan), Surrogacy brokers; repeals statute of prohibition.
HB 46 (Bennett-Parker) & SB 47 (Favola), Firearm; transfers to another person from a prohibited person.
HB 651 (Feggans), Cyber civilian corps; Virginia Information Technologies Agency, shall assess creation of corps.
The Governor has 30 days to act on everything else (including the budget), as we prepare to reconvene on April 17.
Saying Farewell To My Colleagues
With session now behind us, we head home to our districts. My seatmates and I – from left to right: Delegate Marcia Price of Newport News, Delegate Elizabeth Bennett-Parker of Alexandria, me!, Delegate Michelle Maldonado of Manassas, Delegate Briana Sewell of Woodbridge, and Delegate Candi Mundon King of Dumfries – have learned a lot and I am incredibly proud of everything we have accomplished this session together. I am especially proud to serve alongside these incredible women!
It is always wonderful to hear from you! Please call my office at 804-698-1008 or email delishin@house.virginia.gov anytime to schedule a visit or to let me know what’s on your mind. With the 2024 General Assembly Session now adjourned, I will be back in Herndon and across the 8th House District a lot more. Watch this space for town halls and district office hours! My proverbial door is always open. My team and I remain ready to assist you however we can. We are grateful for the honor of serving you and our district. Thank you for trusting me to represent the priorities of our community and Commonwealth.
