April 9th Newsletter
It is remarkable to me that just over a year ago I was learning for the first time how to make a CDC-recommended face covering as we began wearing masks to prevent the spread of COVID 19. I posted on Facebook a photo of me wearing my homemade mask — it did the job at the time but I am thankful for having better mask options these days.
It was also a year ago when my House colleagues and I convened for the first time during the pandemic as we gathered under a huge tent next to the Capitol for our 2020 reconvene session. We finished our business that day but we were just starting to realize the enormity of the pandemic’s impact on Virginia. We would go on to address many COVID-related issues in the special session that Governor Northam called last summer and then in our just completed regular session - please see below for a recap of the actions that we took earlier this week on the Governor’s amendments to our bills. The fight against the pandemic continues and we anticipate that the Governor will call us back into another special session in the near future so that we can properly allocate new federal relief dollars. So many families and businesses still are struggling to recover and we will be targeting the new aid to those in need per federal guidelines.
Meanwhile, Virginia is making good progress with its vaccination efforts. There are updates below on increased vaccination rates and the expansion of vaccine eligibility in Virginia. Please take advantage of one of the vaccination options if you have not been able to do so previously. Getting us back to a healthy and normal life requires all of us to do our part!
If you have any questions or need assistance with a state agency, please contact my office at delrwillett@house.virginia.gov or phone at 804-698-1073, and a member of my staff will be happy to assist you. I also will continue to keep you informed with relevant, accurate information via Twitter, Facebook, and my website. Please stay well and stay in touch.
Sincerely,
Rodney
New Information
2021 Reconvened Legislative Session
On Wednesday, the General Assembly met to consider Governor Northam’s amendments and substitutions to some of our legislation that passed the House and Senate last month. This marks the end of a very productive regular and special session. House Democrats have passed many of our 2021 session priorities, including repealing the death penalty, raising teacher pay, expanding and protecting voting access, protecting military families from housing and job discrimination, increasing access to broadband internet, supporting small businesses and restaurants, and expanding the capacity of our COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Gov. Northam has signed and amended 550 bills since the General Assembly adjourned on March 1.
The House of Delegates accepted substitutions and amendments from the Governor on 22 pieces of legislation. The majority of the amendments considered were technical changes to clarify or correct ambiguities in the original bill language. The most significant substantive change to a piece of legislation was the Governor’s amendment to HB2312/SB1406, the bills to legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 and over, and to create a regulatory and licensing structure for the eventual retail sale of marijuana.
The legislation that initially passed the House and Senate set a date of legalization of simple possession and retail sale of January 1, 2024. The Governor’s amendments, which passed both the House and Senate, make the following changes to our marijuana laws:
Legalizes simple possession of marijuana one ounce or under beginning on July 1, 2021
Adds fair labor language in licensing requirements
Allows for home cultivation of up to four plants per household beginning on July 1, 2021
Establishes new penalties for possession of greater than one ounce and one pound, prohibits underage possession, and outlaws consumption in public.
In addition to these legislative amendments, we also passed two new budget amendments to ensure our transition to legalized marijuana use is as safe as possible. The first allocates $1 million to the Department of State Police to coordinate and provide training to state and local law enforcement agencies in Drug Recognition Expert techniques in order to provide effective detection and enforcement for driving under the influence of drugs. The second amendment provides funding for the planning and implementation of marijuana prevention programs and public health campaigns.
It may seem counterintuitive to legalize simple possession before the creation of a regulated retail market, however, it is important that we approach marijuana legalization with the perspective of people who have been disproportionately incarcerated for non-violent drug offenses. In November of 2020, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) released a study that found Black individuals in Virginia were more than three times as likely to be arrested for simple possession than white individuals, based on data from 2010 to 2019. The report also found Black individuals were convicted at a much higher rate -- 3.9 times higher than white individuals. The Governor’s amendments are intended to end the disproportional enforcement of marijuana possession while maintaining important public safety measures, such as prohibiting smoking while driving, smoking while driving a school bus, and possession on school grounds, for example.
Establishing a regulated retail market is going to take a significant amount of time. HB2312/SB1406 establishes a new independent regulatory agency, the Cannabis Control Authority, to regulate the marijuana market. The bill also creates:
A Public Health Advisory Council, made up of individuals with public health expertise, to advise the regulatory authority.
A Cannabis Equity Reinvestment Fund, to support persons, families, and communities historically and disproportionately targeted and affected by drug enforcement, including providing scholarship opportunities and grants to support workforce development and apprenticeships, among other purposes.
A Cannabis Equity Business Loan Fund, to provide low and zero-interest loans to social equity licensees to foster business ownership and economic growth in communities most disproportionately impacted by prohibition.
These boards will stand up and go into effect on July 1, 2021. Thus, given that we will be actively planning the retail sale of marijuana beginning this summer, the legislature decided that continuing to arrest and prosecute individuals for possession under one ounce was not inline with the criminal justice goals of the Commonwealth.
See below for a full list of legislation that was amended during our reconvene session. You can click on the bill number to see more information on each item:
HB 1800 (Torian) Budget Bill
HB 1855 (Sullivan) Changes the name of Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy to Department of Energy
HB 1890 (Price) Establishes the Voting Rights Act of Virginia
HB 1936 (Watts) Establishes different degrees of punishment for robbery based on the severity of the offense
HB 1962 (Gooditis) Ensures that relatives or fictive kin are involved in plans for children in foster care, including potential guardianship and placement
HB 1992 (Murphy) Restricts domestic abusers from purchasing guns
HB 1999 (Murphy) Authorizes the tax commissioner to waive interest accrued during a declared state of emergency
HB 2031 (Aird) Prohibits local law-enforcement agencies and college police departments from using facial recognition systems without the General Assembly’s permission
HB 2038 (Scott) Establishes classifications for probation violations and levels of sentencing for courts to use at revocation hearings
HB 2040 (Hudson) Requires the Virginia Employment Commission to waive the obligation to repay overpayment of unemployment benefits in certain cases
HB 2047 (Bourne) Allows admission of evidence of defendant’s mental condition, including development or intellectual disability
HB 2055 (Scott) Revises child support calculation laws so that incarceration for 180+ days is not considered voluntary un- or underemployment
HB 2113 (Herring) Automatic expungement for certain misdemeanors
HB 2133 (Delaney) Expungement for human trafficking survivors
HB 2138 (Guzman) Extends availability of state-issued identification to non-drivers in the undocumented community
HB 2167 (Scott) Adjusts deadlines and authorized methods for the Parole Board to communicate with victims and to provide notification of a grant of parole, and specifies timing of Parole Board’s monthly report
HB 2168 (Scott) Sets civil penalties for operating unregulated gambling devices, and provides for enforcement by localities and the Attorney General
HB 2174 (Torian) Establishes the VirginiaSaves IRA retirement savings program for qualified persons working for companies with 25+ employees that do not have a qualified retirement plan
HB 2207 (Jones) Adds COVID-19 causing death or disability as an occupational disease compensable under the Workers’ Compensation Act for frontline medical and law-enforcement workers.
HB 2295 (Levine) Bars firearms in Capitol Square and state government buildings and offices
HB 2312 (Herring) Marijuana legalization for adult consumption
HB 2327 (Krizek) Includes transportation infrastructure projects within the public works projects required to pay workers the prevailing wage rate
Virginia to Expand Vaccine Eligibility to All Adults by April 18
On April 1st, Governor Northam announced that all individuals in Virginia age 16 and older will be eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine starting on Sunday, April 18, ahead of the May 1 nationwide goal set by President Joe Biden. Everyone who lives or works in Virginia should pre-register so that they can be notified when they are eligible for vaccination and an appointment is available. To pre-register, visit vaccinate.virginia.gov or call 877-VAX-IN-VA (877-829-4682, TTY users call 7-1-1). Assistance is available in English, Spanish, and more than 100 other languages. Videoconferencing in American Sign Language is also available at vaccinate.virginia.gov.
With almost 3 million doses of vaccine administered so far in Virginia, more than one in three adults have received at least one dose and one in five Virginians are fully vaccinated. See the latest data on COVID-19 vaccinations in Virginia online here.
The Governor’s announcement came on the same day that the Richmond and Henrico Health District began vaccinating individuals in the Phase 1c population. While many frontline essential workers were classified in Phase 1b by the Centers for Disease Control and the Virginia Department of Health, Phase 1c includes many additional essential workers who play a key role in the functioning of society and/or interact regularly with the public and, thus, have increased potential for exposure to COVID-19. Phase 1c includes workers from the following sectors:
Energy
Water, Wastewater, and Waste removal (includes recycling removal)
Housing and Construction
Transportation and Logistics
Institutions of Higher Education Faculty/Staff
Finance
Information Technology & Communication
Media
Legal Services
Public Safety (including engineers)
Other Public Health Workers
Barbers, Stylists, Hairdressers
In many places in Virginia, food service workers are also included in Phase 1c but Richmond and Henrico Health Districts already included food service workers in Phase 1b eligibility. All 1a and 1b populations previously eligible for vaccination in Richmond and Henrico will remain eligible as we begin to vaccinate 1c populations.
Anyone who is eligible in Phase 1c who has not pre-registered for the vaccine should go to vaccinate.virginia.gov and pre-register right away. Richmond and Henrico Health Districts will pull pre-registration information from the Vaccinate Virginia website and contact you through email (or phone if you do not have email) with next steps to schedule an appointment at one of our vaccination events or a partnering provider. All Richmond and Henrico residents should take whichever vaccination appointment is offered to them first—whether through the Health District, a primary care provider, or a pharmacy. See more information on Phase 1c in RHHD online here.
Virginia Expands COVID-19 Vaccination Workforce, Creates Additional Pathway to Enlist Volunteer Vaccinators
Last week, Governor Northam announced several efforts aimed at increasing Virginia’s vaccinator workforce to support the continued expansion of COVID-19 vaccinations across the Commonwealth, including a new initiative to recruit eligible individuals interested in administering vaccines.
The Governor recently signed House Bill 2333, sponsored by Delegate Lamont Bagby and Senate Bill 1445, sponsored by Senator Siobhan Dunnavant, which expanded the pool of health care providers eligible to administer the COVID-19 vaccine in Virginia. Last month, the Governor issued Third Amended Executive Order Fifty-Seven to provide additional flexibility to health care providers in supporting the Commonwealth’s vaccination program and ongoing COVID-19 response.
Health care providers who are now authorized to administer the COVID-19 vaccine in Virginia include but are not limited to dentists, dental hygienists, veterinarians, optometrists, and health professions students enrolled in an accredited Virginia program. Eligible providers may serve as vaccinators if they have the appropriate training and meet the supervision requirements. All COVID-19 vaccine providers are responsible for ensuring that individuals who administer shots at their site are authorized by law to do so. Eligible health care providers may register to volunteer as a COVID-19 vaccinator through either the Virginia Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) or the newly-established Virginia Volunteer Vaccinator Registry (VVVR).
Expanding the pool of eligible vaccinators is crucial to ensuring we get shots into the arms of Virginians, especially as our supply increases to match the demand for the vaccines. I had the privilege of touring the Richmond/Henrico vaccination site at the Arthur Ashe Athletic Center. I am so thankful to have met so many volunteers who have dedicated countless hours to help ensure our community has access to these life-saving vaccines. And a special shout out to the staff and volunteers at the Arthur Ashe vaccination site for reaching 50,000 doses administered during my tour. Keep up the great work and thank you all for your service!
Temporary Suspension of Online Filing for New Unemployment Claims
The Virginia Employment Commission has temporarily suspended its online application system for new unemployment benefits claims while the agency is investigating fraud cases. The agency was informed by claimants that their bank information had been changed without their permission, leading the VEC to suspend the online filing system out of an abundance of caution to prevent future fraud cases. Continued weekly claims may still be filed online. If you need to file a new claim, please call the VEC at (866) 832-2363.
Customers can verify their banking information by calling (800) 897-5630. If you believe that you may be a victim of fraud or identity theft related to unemployment insurance, you should report it to the VEC by visiting www.vec.virginia.gov/unemployed/fraud or calling (800) 782-4001.
If you have any questions regarding your unemployment benefits or need assistance with an issue on your claim, please contact my office by emailing delrwillett@house.virginia.gov, and we will be happy to assist you.
Unemployment Job Search Rules to be Reinstated Soon
The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) will be reinstating the weekly search for work requirements for applicants in the near future. In 2020, Governor Ralph Northam suspended those requirements as hundreds of thousands of Virginians sought unemployment benefits due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recipients of unemployment benefits will again be required to show that they have applied for at least two jobs each week to remain eligible for benefits. The agency has not specified a date for when the job search requirements will be reinstated, but they have indicated that the change will not occur until after April.
The VEC holds regular job fairs and connects workers with potential employers through the Virginia Workforce Connection. See more information on employment opportunities online here, and see all upcoming job fairs online here.
Kindergarten Registrations Open for 2021-2022 School Year
Kindergarten registration for Henrico County Public Schools and other systems in the metro Richmond area began April 1st. In order for school divisions to plan for the fall, school divisions are urging parents to register their students as soon as possible.
You can enroll your student in Henrico County Public Schools through an in-person appointment or by registering online at henricoschools.us/registration. If you would like to make an appointment to enroll in person you must call your school to make an appointment with the registrar. If you are unsure which school your child will attend, visit henricoschools.us/school-locator/ and click “Find Your School” and search your address to see school zoning information.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a serious impact on our education system. This year, it is especially important for parents to reach out to their school division early so that they can be connected with all available resources to address any learning loss and to ensure that their child is well-prepared to start kindergarten. Smart Beginnings of Greater Richmond, a regional school readiness program that works with our local school districts, offers a number of resources to ensure that you and your child are ready for the next school year. The kindergarten registration prep list is available online here with links to register for all regional school divisions.
Statewide Sunday with Hala Ayala - April 11th
It is another year in Virginia, which means we have an election this November! In addition to our House of Delegates campaigns, we also have three statewide elections for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General. There are multiple Democratic candidates in all three races, so Delegate Schuyler VanValkenburg and I are teaming up to make sure our constituents have the opportunity to meet different candidates so you can make an informed choice in the primary on June 8th.
Every week we will host a virtual meet and greet to give you the chance to hear more from our candidates and ask any questions you may have about their campaign. Please join us for our first Statewide Sunday next week, April 11th at 7:00 pm for a conversation with Delegate Hala Ayala, candidate for Lieutenant Governor!
Statewide Sunday with Delegate Hala Ayala — Candidate for Lieutenant Governor
Sunday, April 11th at 7:00 pm
Hosted via Zoom, RSVP: bit.ly/3fCuQxk
