Week Two: Bright ideas and taking out the trash

Week Two: Bright ideas and taking out the trash

The General Assembly got down to business this week, with lots of committee and subcommittee work and very short floor sessions. Democrats quickly disposed of some of the recycled garbage, killing the same GOP bills we’ve seen fail year after year. But there are also some new bright ideas filed that they’re working to pass. Keep following along!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK, Del. Rae Cousins (D) in Public Safety Committee: “I just want to point out this conflation of criminal justice reform with putting more weapons out on the street is very disingenuous. If my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are concerned with criminal justice reform, I hope they will join us in addressing the mass incarceration of Black and Brown communities in the Commonwealth, ensuring that people have access to economic opportunities by fully funding public education and creating good paying jobs and also supporting efforts to reduce and study the impacts of gun violence in our communities.”

Taking out the recycled trash:

  • Senate and House Courts of Justice again kill GOP attempts to repeal 2020 criminal justice reforms:
    • Return to presumption against bail, guilty until proven innocent apparently (HB427-Arnold and SB38-Peake)
    • Repeal probation reforms just passed by Speaker Scott to keep people from going back to jail for technical (non-criminal) violations (SB67-Peake and HB400-Griffin)
    • Bring back the death penalty (HB394-Griffin)
  • Senate P&E kills GOP attempts to repeal 2020 voting reforms (House subcommittee will meet this Monday on similar bills):
  • Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources again kills GOP attempt to repeal Clean Cars Act (SB3-Stuart, SB53-McDougle, and SB160-McGuire). House versions haven’t been heard yet.

A few bright ideas:

  • Create mental health provider student loan repayment program (HB37-Clark)
  • Require businesses with employee bathrooms to allow access to those with GI-related disorders (HB474-Coyner)
  • Require universities with student health centers to have staff who can provide rape kit (HB1342-Shin)
  • Breathalyzer results obtained without informing stopped driver of right to refuse inadmissible in court (SB95-Stanley)
  • Ban cat declawing (HB1354-Martinez)
  • Require new government buildings to have solar-ready roofs (SB79-Favola and HB1456-Carr)
  • Public-match small-dollar donors campaign fund program (HB1045-Simon)
  • Require Dept of Ed to study and assess physical accessibility challenges at public schools for those with disabilities (HB618-Price)
  • Add menstrual education to family life curriculum grades 4-8 (HB1221-Seibold)
  • Automatic expungement of eviction records (HB73-Hope)
  • Change maximum sentence on misdemeanor from one year to 364 days to limit deportation consequences (SB332-Salim)
  • Prevent HOAs from having policies against managed conservation landscaping (HB528-Krizek)