Friends,

This week’s newsletter highlights the progress of the bills that I am carrying in the 2021 General Assembly Session, shares updates on the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines, and provides useful links for tracking the legislation that you care about.

Legislative updates
I’m pleased to share updates on the bills for which I am Chief patron. These various legislative actions provide necessary and essential support for Virginians in a variety of ways.

These bills have all passed the Senate Floor and are now headed to the House of Delegates for review and votes:

SB 1187 doubles a patient’s days of direct access to physical therapy services from 30 to 60, and it has passed the Senate on a unanimous vote. This legislation helps patients to receive physical therapy treatments for 60 days without disruption or the need to seek a physician’s prescription.

SB 1188 establishes the Virginia Agriculture Food Assistance Program and Fund. This program is even more vital in the midst of the pandemic, as an increasing number of families face food insecurity. The program supports Virginia farmers and food producers to donate, sell, or otherwise provide agriculture products to charitable food assistance organizations. The bill also creates the Virginia Agriculture Food Assistance Fund to disburse reimbursements to farmers or food producers for any costs associated with harvesting, processing, packaging, or transporting donated agriculture products.

SB 1189 also passed on a unanimous vote. This bill enables Virginia to enter into the Occupational Therapy Interjurisdictional Licensure Compact with other states. The Compact would allow licensed OTs and OTAs to practice in other states within the Compact. Virginia would be the first state to join the compact and thus has the opportunity to shape its structures and policies.

SB 1314 directs the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority to establish an Office of Education and Labor Market Alignment (the Office) to coordinate data analysis on workforce and higher education alignment and translate data to partners. The Office will provide a unified, consistent source of information or analysis to better assist policy development and implementation related to talent development. The Office will partner with the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, institutions of higher education, the Virginia Employment Commission, GO Virginia, and other relevant entities to offer resources and expertise related to education and labor market alignment.

This week, the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee heard and reported out the following two bills; these bills will be heard on the Floor soon:

SB 1396, the Equity in Wastewater Treatment Act, establishes equitable access to wastewater treatment as Commonwealth policy.

SB 1318, the Environmental Justice Act, establishes an interagency working group that is focused on issues of environmental justice in policy-making decisions.

These bills are scheduled to be heard in the Senate Agriculture, Natural Resources and Conservation Committee this morning:

SB 1186 focuses on the need for historic preservation and brings the recently-passed Environmental Justice Act to bear in terms of the siting of landfills. The legislation prohibits the construction of any new municipal solid waste landfill within three miles of any designated historic district, building, structure, object, or site.

SB 1200 enables neighboring localities to work together prior to making decisions or taking actions that impact issues of the environment. It asks for a regional, rather than a local, approach to issues of environmental justice.

SB 1319 calls for a study to evaluate the regulations that govern solid waste management in Virginia. The task force will study available options to divert the following from Virginia’s landfills: food residuals, organic waste, and baseline recyclables generated or originating from outside of the Commonwealth.

Highlights from the COVID 19 Vaccine Town Hall:
On January 28, I hosted a Town Hall on the COVID-19 Vaccination program for the state and for Senate District 10. I was joined by Dr. Danny Avula, Virginia Department of Health COVID-19 Vaccination Coordinator, and Dr. Alex Samuel, Health Director for the Chesterfield District.

Dr. Avula and Dr. Samuel acknowledged the initial challenges with the vaccine administration program and shared the state’s most current deployment plans. Within just a week of this town hall, we have seen a remarkable improvement of Virginia’s vaccine administration numbers: As of February 3, Virginia ranks among the top 12 states.

A statewide portal will soon be available, but in the meantime, you can still add your name to the available interest forms:

• If you live in the Richmond/Henrico Health District, the Phase 1b Interest Form and Age 65+ Interest Form are available; please visit this link and fill out the appropriate form.
• If you live in the Chesterfield Health District (which includes Chesterfield County, Powhatan County, and the city of Colonial Heights), please visit the link and fill out the form.

If you were not able to join the Town Hall, you can find the recording available here.

Information on the legislative process
Lastly, here is some information on the legislative process that might help you as you follow the work of the General Assembly:

Crossover:
Friday, February 7 is crossover — all of the bills that have passed out of the Senate will make their way to the House where they will once again go through committees’ review process and House Floor votes; similarly, House bills that have passed will come to the Senate and follow a similar process.

Tracking Bills:
All bills are part of the public record and available for you to track at home. You can search for legislation two ways: 1) Select “Bills and Resolutions” to search a bill by the specific number or keyword; or 2) Select “General Assembly Members” to track a specific piece of legislation by patron or co-patron.

As always, if you need assistance, or if you want to schedule a Zoom or phone call with our team, please don’t hesitate to reach out to my office. Email is the best way to contact us. We can be reached at [email protected].

— Ghazala Hashmi