Week One: Time to get to work!

The 2026 legislative session began Wednesday; a huge new class of legislators (mostly Democratic!) was sworn in, with a few more to trickle in from special elections. And they got right to work, quickly passing the four constitutional amendment resolutions to send them to the voters.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK,  Senator Mamie Locke says, during debate on final passage of HJ2, enshrining in the Virginia constitution the right to vote, “The question we should be asking ourselves is why are we talking about giving something back that should never have been taken away in the first place.”

Four Constitutional amendment resolutions passed!

The House and Senate this week quickly passed the four constitutional amendment resolutions–for the second time–to advance them to voter referenda this spring or November. At last, it’s our chance to weigh in on these important topics!

  • HJ1 (Herring) and SJ1 (Boysko) putting the provisions of Roe v. Wade in the Virginia constitution and affirming the right to reproductive healthcare.
  • HJ2 (Bennett-Parker) and SJ2 (Locke) affirming that voting is a right and ensuring people who’ve been incarcerated on felony convictions have that right automatically returned upon completion of their sentence.
  • HJ3 (Sickles) and SJ3 (Ebbin) repealing the Marshall-Newman amendment and enshrining the right of any two consenting adults to marry who they choose.
  • HJ4 (Willett) would allow the legislature to redraw Congressional districts before the next decennial redistricting by the Commission, if other states redraw theirs. Since Texas has already done so at the direct command of Trump–diluting the value of our votes–if Virginians approve this, we could have new districts for this November’s elections.

Other bills trickling in slowly

Much much more to come, but so far around 1750 bills and resolutions have been filed between the House and Senate. 

  • Gun violence prevention: closing the “boyfriend loophole” (HB19, McClure); safe storage of handguns in cars (HB110, Laufer); assault weapon ban (HB217, Helmer); ghost gun ban (HB40, Simon).
  • Housing/renter protections: extend eviction grace period for rent nonpayment (HB15, Price; SB48, Rouse); ban on minimum parking requirement for new developments (HB262, Simonds); locality cause of action against slumlords (HB14, Price).
  • Worker protections: minimum wage increase to $15/hr (HB1, Ward; SB1, Lucas); paid family medical leave (HB1207, Sewell; SB2, Boysko); repeal “right to work” (SB32, Carroll Foy); paid sick leave (HB5, Convirs-Fowler).
  • Data centers: restricted to industrial zones (SB94, Roem; HB511, McAuliff); explore opportunities to use waste heat from data centers (HB323, Sullivan); prevents utility monopolies from passing on costs of data centers to consumers (HB503, McAuliff); require data centers engage in clean energy activities to qualify for tax break (HB897, Sullivan).