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This week the halls of the General Assembly building have been filled with constituents and advocates. Many meetings have been held in order for them to share their views and concerns about proposed legislation that has been submitted. Full sessions of the Senate are getting longer, and hundreds of bills are being considered. Things are moving at a very quick pace and so am I.

CHILD SAFETY BILL BLOCKED BY DEMOCRATS

My Republican colleagues and I were both dismayed and puzzled by Democrats killing a bill to protect children from sex offenders.

Senator Danny Diggs offered what seemed to me a commonsense idea. To keep convicted child sex offenders at least 100 feet away from State Parks where children congregate. Children and their families deserve to be able to enjoy Virginia’s parks without worrying that a known sex offender might be lurking in the park or just outside it.

Democrats decided to focus on the concerns of the sex offenders rather than the safety of children. They claimed the bill was overly broad. One supporter of the Democrats’ position even testified that it was “pointlessly cruel” to bar sex offenders from public parks—as if that outweighed the cruelty they caused to the children they assaulted.

Republicans sought to return the focus to where it belonged—the safety of children to play without fear, but the Democrats would have none of it. They decided that the “cruelty” to sex offenders was more important than child safety and killed the bill.
 

DEMOCRATS DRIVE UP INFLATION WITH HIGHER MINIMUM WAGE

In order to keep Virginia a top place for business, the General Assembly needs to pass laws that lowers costs for families, reduce red tape, and encourage entrepreneurs and economic growth. Senate Democrats seem committed to doing the opposite.

One example is the minimum wage. In their first bill of the session, SB 1, they proposed a 25% increase in the minimum wage over just two years. If this becomes law, many struggling small businesses or companies will be forced to come up with money they do not have by raising prices. And we all know that higher prices are another way of saying “inflation.”

Everyone should be able to earn a good living, but if businesses are forced to close there will be fewer jobs. Raising costs results in higher prices for everyone. Virginians cannot afford even more inflation at this point. Wages are rising on their own due to more competition for workers. The government does not need to pile on when the market is already doing the job.

I will update you on this as the legislation moves through the General Assembly.
 
LEGISLATION
 
This week saw several of my bills assigned to subcommittees and committees. SB 475, which is a charter change for the Town of Pulaski passed out of the Senate. Two bills, SB 25 and SB 463, also passed out of committee. SB 25 is the Virginia Brownfield and Coalmine Methane Renewable Energy Grant Fund and SB 463 deals with the Board of Accountancy and some revisions to their duties. Unfortunately, SB 557 and SB 562 did not make it out of committee. They both were carried over until 2025.

The impasse on the State Corporation Commision came to an end when both bodies unanimously elected Kelsey Baggot and Sam Towell as SCC Judges. These vacancies needed to be filled to provide efficient oversight of utility rates for consumers. I voted to approve these new judges and restore the SCC to fill capacity since 2022. 

As always, I want to encourage you to watch the General Assembly session. You are welcome to visit us in person in Richmond and view the proceedings from the gallery. But you can also stream each day’s session here: http://virginia-senate.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=3.

Please let me know where you stand on legislation impacting you. You can reach us at our email [email protected] or call (804) 698-7505.To get up-to-date information, please follow us on our Facebook page, Senator Travis Hackworth. I will be in touch next week with another update from the General Assembly. Have a great week!

Until next week,

Senator Travis Hackworth
Virginia State Senator, District 5