February 12th Newsletter
If you are confused about the schedule of this year’s legislative session you aren’t alone! As I describe below, our regular legislative session formally ended on Monday but we are continuing our work in a special session so that we can pass legislation to meet the challenges of COVID-19 and build back a stronger Virginia.
Our committees met briefly on Monday and Tuesday to carryover legislation passed during the regular session to our special session. This process only took a few minutes, so Monday and Tuesday felt like a short "spring break" for our offices to assist constituents, plan our COVID-19 vaccine town hall this Saturday, and prepare for the last 2 weeks of our legislative calendar.
Public input is essential to the law-making processes and I highly value all the feedback on legislation I receive from constituents. As always, I also encourage you to contact me now and throughout the session: please email my office at delrwillett@house.virginia.gov or call us at 804-698-1073. I will continue to keep you informed with relevant, accurate information via Twitter, Facebook, and my website.
Sincerely,
Rodney
New Information
Special Legislative Session
Odd year legislative sessions are considered “short-sessions”, typically lasting 46 days compared to even-year sessions that last 60 days. The Constitution of Virginia only requires odd-year sessions to last 30 days, the legislature has traditionally extended the short session to 46, with a concurrence vote from two-thirds of both chambers.
Our Commonwealth is facing unprecedented challenges of COVID-19, economic hardship stresses on our education and health care systems and so much more. We know that the challenges we face require time and thoughtful deliberation, but unfortunately, we were unable to secure the votes to extend the session past the constitutional 30-day requirement. To help us continue our work, the Governor has called a special session which formally began this Wednesday. The change from a regular to a special session will simply allow the legislature more time to carry out our work and has no substantive change on any legislation. You can read the full text of the Governor’s Special Session Proclamation online here.
I discussed some of the major pieces of legislation that passed the House in last week’s newsletter, you can read more information on these bills and the House “Building a Better Virginia” platform online here. All seven of the bills I introduced have passed the House and are now being considered by committees in the Senate. Below is a bill matrix with the latest updates, you can see more information on all my legislation online here.
COVID-19 Vaccine Town Hall
Join me on Saturday, February 12th at 2:00 PM for a virtual Town Hall to discuss the COVID-19 vaccination effort in Central Virginia. The Richmond delegation to the General Assembly will be joined by expert guests Dr. Danny Avula (Virginia COVID-19 Vaccine Coordinator and Director of Richmond & Henrico Health District), Ruth Morrison (Policy Director and COVID-19 Vaccine Coordinator for Richmond & Henrico Health District), and Amy Popovich (Nurse Manager for Richmond & Henrico). I hope you will join me this Saturday, February 12th at 2:00 PM to receive the latest updates on the COVID-19 vaccine distribution plans and have your questions answered. You can register for the Town Hall here, and the invitation is below.
House Budget Priorities
On Wednesday, House Democrats released our budget proposal for the 2021 session. As our budget operated under a two-year budget cycle, we typically consider even years to be “budget sessions”. However, odd-year sessions provide the opportunity to make amendments to our biennial budget. The House and Senate develop independent budget proposals that must be approved by members on the floor for adoption. There are typically differences between the priorities of each chamber, which leads to a conference committee, where selected members from both chambers meet to resolve any differences between the two proposals and present a final version that is voted on and then sent to the Governor.
The House budget proposal focuses on protecting families, keeping Virginia healthy, rebuilding our economy stronger, and putting our Commonwealth on a path to come back from this pandemic better than before. You can read the full version proposal online here, and I have highlighted a few of my top priorities below:
COVID-19 Public Health and Economic Response
$107.3 million in state and federal dollars over the biennium for mass vaccination efforts.
$190.7 million in funding for the Department of Health and the Department of Emergency Management for vaccination, testing, and PPE.
$20 million in additional funding for Rebuild VA, $14 million for PPE sales tax exemption, and $37.6 million to allow deductibility of tax-free PPP grants
$41.6 million in continued supplements for nursing homes
$16 million for VEC enhanced customer service and systems changes
Early Childhood Education
$62.1 million from federal child care and development grant funds to implement HB2206.
HB2206 is a bill I have Chief Co-Patroned from Speaker Filler-Corn that creates the COVID-19 Child Care Assistance Program to provide financial assistance for child care to families in need during the public health emergency caused by COVID-19.
Restores $5.0 million to support Early Childhood Educator Recruitment/Retention Incentives.
$300,000 to expand Va. Kindergarten Readiness Assessment to Pre-K.
K-12 and Higher Education
$500 million to address learning loss and ensure our schools have the resources they need to hit the ground running when they return to in-person instruction,
$26.6 million to fund more school counselors at a ratio of 1:325.
$23.4 million to provide a long-overdue 5% pay raise for our teachers, effective July 1, 2021.
$8.5 million for Tuition Assistance Grants; Increases average award to $4,000 in FY 2022; Provides a $2,000 grant for online students previously exempted
DoorDash to distribute $450,000 in grants for struggling restaurants
DoorDash is partnering with the Virginia Restaurant Travel and Lodging Association to distribute $450,000 in grants for struggling restaurants. Interested restaurants should review the eligibility requirements below and apply online here.
Grants of $3,500 will be awarded, and recipients will be chosen by judges from the restaurant and tourism industries. The judges will ensure grants are distributed across Virginia and prioritize businesses that have not benefited from other financial assistance. A minimum of 20% of the grants will also be earmarked to minority-owned and/or women-owned businesses. Applications are open through 5:00 pm on March 1, 2021. See more information online here.
Eligibility Requirements:
Your business is independently owned with no more than three locations
Your business currently has at least one location open and operating as a food service establishment in Virginia.
The single Virginia restaurant location you are applying for has an annual gross revenue of $3 million or less.
The single Virginia restaurant location you are applying for has 50 or fewer employees
The single Virginia restaurant location you are applying for occupies a visible, brick and mortar storefront at the street
The business is not home-based, pop up, or food truck
The restaurant has experienced a reduction in revenue, financial stress, or disrupted operations over the period of March 2020 through December 2020 when compared to the same period in 2019 as a result of COVID-19
Please note: your business does not need to be a current DoorDash partner to apply, nor do you need to sign up with DoorDash to apply. Also, you do not need to be a member of the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association to apply.
Governor Northam Announces Second Report on Systemic Bias in Virginia Law
This week, Governor Northam released the second report of the Commission to Examine Racial Inequity in Virginia Law. This Commission was formed in June 2019 to locate racist and discriminatory laws in the Code of Virginia and develop policy recommendations to address laws that were intended to or could have the effect of promoting or enabling racial discrimination or inequity. The Commission’s first report identified explicitly racist laws that were still on the books in Virginia, including laws banning school integration, prohibiting black and white Virginians from living in the same neighborhoods, and prohibiting interracial marriage. I have worked diligently with my colleagues in the General Assembly to repeal these shameful laws, and we have made rapid progress removing racist language from the Code since the first report was published.
This second report explores laws that are not explicitly racist but lead to racially disparate outcomes in housing, education, criminal justice, health, the environment, and agriculture. I am glad that our administration is working to correct injustices in the laws of our Commonwealth. My colleagues and I are committed to addressing and correcting the tragedies of slavery, racism, discrimination, and bias, both in our history and today.
EZ Pass to halt deactivations of inactive accounts
The Virginia Department of Transportation will not deactivate EZ Pass accounts that go unused for the next six months. This decision was made so that those temporarily working from home due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will not lose EZ Pass accounts they will resume using when workers resume commuting to their place of employment.
If prior to January 28th you received a notice from VDOT informing you that your EZ Pass account would be deactivated, there's a pretty simple fix; log in to your online account and let the E-ZPass team know you want to keep your account open. You can also call the E-ZPass customer service at 877-762-7824 or email customerservice@ezpassva.com (English) or servicioalcliente@ezpassva.com (Español).
