Email from Senate of Virginia The 2025 Legislative Session is Here! The 2025 Legislative Session is Here!   Important Update from the General Assembly Today, the General Assembly gaveled in at noon, but due to the citywide water outage and the resulting health and safety concerns, session has recessed until Monday, January 13. The water crisis, caused by a power outage and equipment failure at Richmond’s water reservoir system, has left residents, businesses, and even the Capitol without running water. Critical systems, including fire suppression, remain offline, making it unsafe for regular operations. Our thoughts are with the people of Richmond and everyone impacted by this unprecedented situation. We are grateful to the crews and city officials who are working tirelessly to restore service. As a result of the outage, the Capitol and General Assembly Building will remain closed to the public through Sunday. Staff members have been instructed not to report to campus, and all in-person meetings are canceled for the week. Despite these challenges, our team is fully committed to preparing for the 2025 legislative session. We are working diligently to ensure our bills are ready so we can hit the ground running when session resumes on Monday. While we cannot meet in person, we remain available by phone and email. Please reach out to my office if we can help in any way! Below, we’ve included information and resources to help those affected by the water crisis.   I hope each of you had a wonderful Christmas filled with love and cherished moments with family and friends. I understand how challenging the holidays can be when you're missing loved ones you wish you could celebrate with once more. The season can also be difficult if past traumas or hardships bring back painful memories during a time meant for joy. For all of you, I pray that you always feel God’s love and know He is always with you, guiding and comforting you through both the good and difficult times. May 2025 bring you abundant happiness, good health, and countless blessings. I appreciate your patience as I took a few weeks away from the weekly newsletter to focus on family during the holidays and to put the final touches on my 2025 legislative agenda for the General Assembly session starting this week. Last year, since I won a special election just one day before the 2024 session began and wasn’t sworn in until a week later, I was not allowed to introduce any of my own legislation. I was only allowed to carry legislation that Senator Ruff had started before his resignation or legislation transferred to me from the Governor or the Attorney General. This year has been quite a learning experience for me. The biggest lesson learned is there is no room for procrastination! You have to get started early or play catch-up during Christmas and New Year's to meet all the deadlines. I am very excited about the direction Governor Youngkin has set forth to take our state this year, including eliminating the much-hated car tax. In addition, not paying state income tax on tips, huge investments in education, ending funding to sanctuary cities, boosting maternal health outcomes, improving mental health crisis response, and creating a permanent disaster relief fund. I look forward to working with the Governor to advance his initiatives. I am even more excited to introduce my own legislative package, which I believe will greatly enhance the lives of those I represent and positively impact communities across the Commonwealth. One piece of legislation I am still working out the details on would hopefully help get vapes out of the hands of our young people. As I have spoken to the school superintendents in our district, it is one of the number one, if not the top, issues they have to battle daily. Our children are becoming addicted to the nicotine in some of these products, and there have even been overdoses and trips to the ER during the school day because of what is inside some of these vape products. I am also working on legislation that will give merchants a credit on sales tax payments paid on time to help offset the costs of credit card fees. There was once a time when most customers paid with cash, so credit card fees were minimal. Now, with up to 90% of sales being paid by credit cards, those fees have become quite astronomical for small businesses. Hopefully, this bill will pass and help take some of the financial burden off our small business owners. This is just a glimpse of what I’m working on. I look forward to keeping you informed about my bills and other important developments here in Richmond that may impact you and your family. My team and I are always here to assist with any questions or concerns. Please don’t hesitate to reach out at our Richmond number, 804.698.7509, or via email at [email protected].   Information for those affected by the water crisis   On January 30 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., the Danville Office of Economic Development & Tourism is hosting, "Untapped Talent | Inclusive Hiring Workshop to Fill All Your Open Positions." This is a hands-on workshop, designed to help YOU i.e., business owners, managers, human resource professionals, and more, discover strategies to fill your organization’s open or high turnover positions by tapping into underutilized, overlooked, and underserved workforce and community groups, including veterans, seniors, previously incarcerated, youth, and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Local resources will be set up to assist you with information on their services offered. Lindsay Wrege, keynote speaker, is the founder of 321 Coffee, a nonprofit that currently employs over 50 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Wrege founded 321 Coffee in 2017 with a vision to build a company founded on inclusion. Wrege will lead this half-day workshop as she explores every step of filling a position, including the job application, and hiring process, and helping you create a custom blueprint to fill all your open positions! Thursday, January 30, 2025 8am-1pm The Institute for Advanced Learning & Research, 150 Slayton Avenue, Danville, VA Cost to attend is FREE + Full Breakfast served Register Here gener8tor Skills Accelerator is a free, online training program open to all Southern Virginia residents who want to develop or enhance critical skills for in-demand jobs. More Info Here Grow Your Business with State Contracting Opportunities! Join us on Wednesday, January 15th, from 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM at the SOVA Innovation Hub for a FREE workshop presented by Crater APEX Accelerator Register Here School Resource Officers not only work to protect the next generation and our schools, they are in a pivotal role for building relationships between children and the police. Our SRO team understands what it means to listen to understand, to get the facts, and they bring it everyday. Sometimes it means having to step outside of their comfort zone, but by going the extra mile we can make a child's day go from ordinary to extraordinary. ***MUST BE CERTIFIED TO QUALIFY*** Apply Here Email Us P.O. Box 145, Clarksville, VA 23927 (434) 374 5129 Share This Email Share This Email Share This Email Senator Tammy Mulchi | P.O. Box 145, Clarksville, VA 23927 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected] powered by Try email marketing for free today!