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The General Assembly has now passed the annual milestone known as crossover. This is the date when all bills (except the budget) proposed by members of the Senate must be passed or killed by the Senate. Those bills that pass then “crossover” to the House for that chamber’s consideration.

LOTS OF BAD BILLS MAKE IT TO THE HOUSE
 
With Democrats in control of the Senate, a number of bills were passed and sent to the House in the hours before crossover that I opposed. These bills, if they become law, will limit Virginians’ constitutional freedoms, undermine justice for murderers and rapists, and hurt small, family-owned businesses. Here are some of the bills that I opposed, but still passed on party-line votes due to the Democratic majority.
 

• Democrats pushed through a bill in the Senate to raise the minimum wage by 25%. With inflation still high, this is going to make it even harder to bring rising prices under control. Many small family businesses may not be able to afford such a dramatic increase in payroll costs and the related increased employment taxes.
• Democrats repeatedly attacked the rights and freedoms of law-abiding Virginians, especially the rights to own and bear firearms for personal safety, sporting activities, and hunting. While they passed many bills attacking your constitutional rights, one of the worst was a bill that would have banned so many different guns that it would make most semi-automatic pistols illegal.
• Democrats also are working to reduce penalties for murderers, rapists, and other violent felons. They proposed allowing these “worst of the worst” criminals to apply to have a court review their sentence for early release after serving at least 15 years. Victims (or their families in the case of deceased victims) would have to relive the trauma of their initial crime as they faced the reality that the justice they assumed they received would be undone.

SOME GOOD BILLS GET THROUGH TOO
 
Fortunately, it was not all bad news. Some good bills did get through the Senate and are going over to the House.
 

• The Senate passed a bill to give school boards greater authority to set policies to control student cell phone use. Cell phones in the classroom are a huge distraction from learning. Virginia children need to be paying attention to what is going on in class, not looking at their phones. Now school boards can do more about it.
• The Senate sent a bill to the House that would make it easier for next of kin and other family members to take in a minor who would otherwise be in the foster system. The bill would allow family members who step in to care for the child to receive the payments a foster family would. This will allow a child in crisis to live in more familiar surroundings and remain with family, rather than being housed by strangers.
• Other bills that passed the Senate cracked down on human trafficking, established a task force to find ways to help law enforcement crack down on heroin and fentanyl, and restored an annual sales tax holiday on the first weekend in August for school supplies, clothing, and other items.

MY LEGISLATION THAT SURVIVED CROSSOVER
 
This week I finished presenting my bills to the Senate. SB 564 provides a tax subtraction for income earned by unqualified Virginia counties for residents of double distressed counties.  SB 563 is a study with the Department of Education in collaboration with the Virginia community college system. This is to study the feasibility of and make recommendations to develop a plan for establishing In Planning District 2 a regional career and technical education program. Several of my bills have already crossed over to the House and are beginning the process of being heard before the House Committees.
 
UP NEXT: THE BUDGET
 
The one bill that does not have to be acted on by crossover is the Senate’s version of the proposed budget. Work on the budget is underway in the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee to finalize the chamber’s budget proposal. The Senate version of the budget will be released on Sunday, February 18, and will be voted on later that week. After that, there will be some procedural steps that need to be taken that will allow the House and the Senate to enter negotiations to finalize the budget that will be sent to the Governor.
 
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