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Virginia lawmakers offer preview of 2022 session with split control

Opening day at the Virginia General Assembly, where Republicans control the House and Democrats control the Senate, was more groundwork than fireworks.

RICHMOND, Va. (CN) — Leadership from Virginia’s two lawmaking chambers offered their opposing visions for the state’s future as the 2022 legislative session formally kicked off Wednesday. 

Under the shadow of the largest coronavirus outbreak in the state’s history, the newly elected and maskless GOP leadership in the Virginia House of Delegates said addressing public schools, crime rates and rising inflation are paramount. Democrats, who hold the majority in the state Senate, meanwhile, stuck with "kitchen table" issues they said will positively impact Virginia families.

“We listened to Virginians' concerns. The things we heard most were about their children’s future, the rising cost of doing business, and the safety of our communities,” said new House Speaker Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, before being sworn in during the chamber's first session later that afternoon.

It was those issues, he said, that activated the state’s long-dormant conservative electorate to vote Republicans back into power in the House and governor's mansion after two years of Democrats controlling the executive branch and both chambers of the legislative branch.

“All of that contributed to why we’re standing before you today,” Gilbert said during the first in-person press conference held at the Virginia State Capitol since the pandemic forced most of the last two years of legislative work to be done remotely.

On the education front, Delegate Glenn Davis, R-Virginia Beach, said Republicans would take steps to block the state’s Board of Education, currently dominated by Democratic appointees, from removing advanced placement courses and diplomas. While there’s no evidence such efforts were undertaken by the state agency, it was among the calls to action used to animate the conservative base last fall. 

Campaign promises to ban critical race theory in schools will be addressed via a resurrected bill that failed in the 2020 session which stipulates that no student learn “to believe any sex, race or ethnicity is inferior to another, or responsible for past actions.” 

“This bill was immediately blocked by Democrats,” Davis said. “The House Republicans and the Governor-elect will bring further legislation to push back against those teachings.” 

Rising costs to families, the GOP lawmakers promised, would be addressed with tax rebates. They're proposing $300 rebates for single filers and $600 for couples alongside doubling the state’s standard tax deduction. Other measures would roll back existing taxes on groceries and gas while finding other ways to make up income for localities that currently rely on those funds. 

“We must change the regulatory environment and roll back changes that don’t accomplish anything in Virginia,” said newly elected Republican House Majority Leader Terry Kilgore. 

Kilgore also promised to roll back “industry and Covid employer standards that have failed,” a nod to multiple pro-labor efforts, both virus-linked and otherwise, passed by Democrats in the last two years. 

Delegate Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, who will chair the House Courts of Justice Committee, offered solutions to the state’s rising crime rate, primarily by rolling back the “sea change” caused by recently passed Democratic laws.

“We saw bills pass that made it harder to hold offenders accountable and [harder] keep someone on bond prior to trial,” Bell said, promising to instead buffer law enforcement by blocking attacks on qualified immunity and taking steps to increase cops' pay.

"There will not be any successful attacks or efforts to reduce the penalties for assaulting a law-enforcement officer,” he said. “Not on our watch." 

Senate Democratic leadership, meanwhile, said in a virtual press briefing held Wednesday morning they’d focus on similar issues, albeit in a different way.

“If we’re going to get people back to work, we’re going to have to deal with affordable child care,” said Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw, D-Fairfax, who argued federal dollars would help fund proposed subsidies and tax credits for parents and child care providers. 

On the broader education front, Senator Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, said proposals would include increasing teacher pay and working towards empowering school boards to offer certain health services in school settings.

House Republicans promised to raise educator wages as well, but it wasn't the only area where the two usually conflicting sides saw eye-to-eye.

“We’re not going to defund the police, we’re going to do the opposite,” said Senator John Edwards, D-Roanoke, who chairs the Virginia Senate Judiciary Committee. “You’re not going to get good people unless they’re properly funded.” 

But Edwards promised to focus on criminal justice reform issues in other ways, including an effort to stop the use of mandatory minimum sentences for criminal convictions.

“Judges should make these decisions,” he said, suggesting mandatory minimums remove authority from judges who already have sentencing guidelines to follow.

This sampling of legislative proposals is more of a wish list, as both sides will have to approve bills before they can reach Republican Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin’s desk.

The incoming governor was absent from Wednesday's events, but in a recent interview with local talk radio he said he and the new GOP House majority were sent to Richmond to "get things done."

Youngkin touted his "day-one plan to get taxes down, to reestablish excellence in schools, to make our community safe again, to reinvigorate our job machine and get this economy moving so it lifts up all Virginians," adding that he'd had promising conversations with Democratic leadership on some of those issues.

Though newly empowered Republicans share in Younkin's optimism, some promises might be hard to deliver, according to longtime legislative observers.

"The Democratic-majority Senate will block Republican initiatives, and the Republican-majority House won't see eye-to-eye with the priorities of the Democratic-majority Senate," said University of Mary Washington political science professor Stephen Farnsworth.

Farnsworth said there are some areas where lawmakers might find "peace in the valley," like rolling back the gas and grocery tax, but hot-button topics like Covid-19, education content, climate change and abortion are not likely to be among them.

The 60-day Virginia General Assembly session officially began Wednesday and ends in March.

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