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Greetings from Senator VanValkenburg, your senator representing the 16th District, with the latest news from my fourth week in Session at the General Assembly
For additional updates, please follow me on Facebook [[link removed]] and Twitter. [[link removed]]
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A great day at OCA’s annual Spring Festival to celebrate the Chinese New Year–the Year of the Snake! OCA does an amazing job in our community and with youth programs. Ting Xu summarized their efforts beautifully, talking about the importance of diversity and civic engagement.
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Legislative Updates - My Bills
We are half way through the 2025 General Assembly legislative session, and I have plenty of updates to share. Below you will find a list detailing the progress of each bill, and a brief description of what each bill does.
SB 822 [[link removed]] - This bill would limit the amount of time that public school teachers are required to participate in non-academic trainings, helping our school districts to prioritize and saving teachers precious time for planning and grading.
Status : This bill is still in committee and will hopefully be on the full Senate floor soon.
SB 838 [[link removed]] - This bill will charge uncertified recovery residences with a Class 1 Misdemeanor if they fail to become certified, or register their desire to become certified, by July 1, 2025. It also directs the Secretary of Health & Human Resources to form a workgroup to recommend oversight measures and create credentialing guidelines for recovery residences.
Status : This bill was reported from the Senate Finance & Appropriation with amendments (15-0) and made it through its second reading on the full Senate floor this past Friday.
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SB 854 [[link removed]] - This bill limits the use on social media platforms of addictive feeds for users under 18 unless they get verified parental consent.
Status : This bill was reported from the Senate General Laws & Technology (15-0) and made it through a first reading on the full Senate floor.
SB 855 [[link removed]] - This bill seeks to overhaul the K-12 assessment process, bolstering the quality of both SOL and local alternative assessments while limiting the window that the SOL tests can be given to the last two weeks in the school year.
Status : This bill is still in the Senate Finance & Appropriations Committee.
SB 955 [[link removed]] - This bill seeks to ensure all of our public schools have access to high quality instructional materials.
Status: This bill passed the full Senate and is on its way to the House!
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SB 1040 [[link removed]] - This bill amends certain renewable energy portfolio standard program requirements for Dominion Energy Virginia, including the annual percentage of program requirements to be met with behind-the meter solar, wind, or anaerobic digestion resources of three megawatts or less. It also removes the requirement for a solar-powered or wind-powered generation facility to have a capacity of no less than 50 kilowatts to qualify for a third party power purchase agreement under a pilot program.
Status: After an exciting floor debate [[link removed]] , this bill passed the full Senate and is on its way to the House!
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SB 1119 [[link removed]] - This bill would place all primaries in a Presidential election year on the same date, which would increase voter turnout, save localities money, and make it easier to fully staff those primary elections with qualified officers of election.
Status : This bill passed the full Senate and is on its way to the House!
SB 1223 [[link removed]] - This bill incentivizes historical horse racing corporations to go through a public approval process when seeking to build a historical horse racing facility by capping the retainage of corporations that failed to go through the public process at 3.5%. That percentage will be split between the locality, the Commonwealth, and problem gambling and equine medicine programs.
Status : Unfortunately, this bill failed to pass in Senate Finance & Appropriations earlier this week.
In addition to my newsletter, you can continuously stay updated on my bills through the Legislative Information System (LIS) [[link removed]] . Livestreams and past recordings of Session, as well as committee meetings can all be found at this link [[link removed]] . Legislation, as well as meeting calendars and committee information can be found here [[link removed]] .
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Crossover is Next Week!
We just hit the halfway point for the 2025 legislative session here at the Capitol. With crossover coming up next Tuesday, each chamber only has two days left to complete work on their members’ own legislation before it moves to the opposite chamber.
Hence, starting Wednesday, each body will focus solely on considering the legislation and amendments that passed through the opposite chamber. From there, the legislative process starts from the beginning. The bills that passed the Senate chamber will be assigned to the appropriate House committee or subcommittee where they will be heard in much the same manner, and then will go to the full House floor for consideration. If they pass through the House, they will go to the Governor’s office for a vote. I look forward to continuing to present my bills in the House in the coming weeks, and to consider those from my House colleagues on the dais in my committees in the Senate.
Say Yes to More Housing
Senate Bill 947 [[link removed]] successfully passed through the Senate yesterday, and will be off to the House next week! This bill will make a huge difference in addressing the housing crisis in Virginia, as it will streamline the process of plats approval and speed up residential development projects. Right now, it can take months or years for localities to approve plats development plans, even though developers already received approval for their initial housing development plan. These lengthy delays drastically increase the prices of final housing projects, often pushing out first-time home buyers and renters.
Recently, the Washington Post Editorial Board weighed in on the Virginia housing crisis [[link removed]] . In short, we have major supply issues. As they stated in their article, “this is basic economics: when demand is high and supply is low, prices rise.” The piece highlights legislation filed by my colleagues and me in hopes of adding more affordable housing to the market more quickly. These bills touch on everything from zoning ordinances to housing growth targets, from local approval authority to auxiliary dwelling units. We all share the collective goal of bringing down the cost of housing because we these costs are the biggest drain on families’ budgets.
Although two of my housing bills failed to report out of committee, I will continue working tirelessly to tackle the housing shortage and affordability crisis head on. Members of our community should be able to afford to live where they work, purchase a home, and pay their rent without having to sacrifice healthcare, food & nutrition, transportation, utilities, and other needs.
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My Comments on Recent National Events
As most of you are aware, President Trump recently suspended federal grant funding, effectively cutting off trillions of dollars of already-allocated federal spending, impacting the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the nation, and around the globe. Locally, this suspension shut down Medicaid portals and community clinics, limited medical care, held up infrastructure projects that would boost our economy and create jobs, and hurt Virginians’ pocketbooks. Fortunately, this suspension was partly rescinded, but it certainly sparked an outcry by Democratic leaders within the General Assembly here in Virginia.
As your Senator, one of my goals is to support and provide assistance not just to my constituents in the 16th District, but to all Virginians. This support extends to you, no matter your background, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or gender. My job here in the Virginia Senate is to make sure your voices and needs are heard, no matter who you are or what situation you might be in.
The current Trump administration has put us in a Constitutional and economic crisis, casting shadows of fear among many people within the Commonwealth. In the midst of this, know that I stand for all people in protecting our safety, rights, interests, economic opportunities, education systems, and health and wellbeing. I will continue to advocate for policies that benefit the people of Virginia, and to use the power available to me to prevent this chaos and lawlessness as much as possible from impacting Virginians.
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As a reminder, my office and I do casework when we’re not in session to help constituents navigate state agencies and local issues. On that note, I want to highlight the community resources available to our immigrant families [[link removed]] , provided by Henrico County Public Schools. Otherwise, if you need anything, or to discuss any of my legislative priorities, share an opinion, make a scheduling request, or if you’d like me to come and share a legislative update at a community or organization meeting, please do not hesitate to contact my office at [email protected] [[email protected]] .
Yours in service,
Schuyler VanValkenburg
Senator, District 16, Henrico County
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VanValkenburg for Virginia
PO Box 28782
Richmond, VA 23228
United States
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