March 5th Newsletter

We had some very long days and nights as we completed our 2021 legislative session but I am very pleased with what we were able to accomplish. Please see below for a summary of our most significant legislative actions, and also consider registering for my post-session legislative town hall on March 9th.

Meanwhile, I hope that you have been able to get a COVID vaccine or are registered to do so in the near future. As our vaccination options increase, please follow the recommendation of CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and get the shot(s) as soon as you can, regardless of what vaccine is available to you:

I know that many Americans look forward to rolling up their sleeves with confidence as soon as a COVID-19 vaccine is available to them. Having different types of vaccines available for use, especially ones with different dosing recommendations and storage and handling requirements, can offer more options and flexibility for the public, jurisdictions and vaccine providers. Getting vaccinated with the first vaccine available to you will help protect all of us from COVID-19. (CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky)

As always, I encourage you to contact me with any questions or concerns. Please email my office at delrwillett@house.virginia.gov or call us at 804-698-1073. I also will continue to keep you informed with relevant, accurate information via Twitter, Facebook, and my website. 

Sincerely,
Rodney 

New Information

2021 General Assembly Session

On Monday the General Assembly adjourned sine die from the 2021 legislative session. Our work is not completely over as legislation that has passed both chambers now has been sent to the Governor for his consideration. On April 7th, we will hold a one-day reconvened “veto session” to consider any legislative changes or budget amendments the Governor has introduced.

I am tremendously proud of what we have accomplished this session. We made historic progress by passing legislation to abolish the death penalty, legalize recreational marijuana, restore the political rights of felons, and create the Voting Rights Act of Virginia — which when enacted will make Virginia the first state in the South to take such progressive steps forward.

In addition to the legislation that we have passed, our budget conference report contains five percent pay raises for teachers, state employees, and state-supported local employees. It also maintains $47 million in federal funds and $31 million in general funds for Virginia’s COVID-19 response and recovery efforts, including the purchase of PPE, coordinated relief operations, and support for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management’s health equity workgroup. This budget also invests in criminal justice reform measures by allocating $14.6 million to implement automatic record-sealing for some offenses. It reinvests savings from abolishing the death penalty into indigent and public defense programs. Finally, the budget supports the full implementation of the right to appeal in Virginia, with funding to ensure that the Court of Appeals has enough judges.

While investing in education, public health, and criminal justice, our budget upholds our “AAA” bond rating and promotes fiscal responsibility by saving an additional $250 million, for a total of $900 million deposited into our Revenue Reserve Fund. At the end of the biennium, the Commonwealth will have over $2 billion in reserves. 

As I reported in last week’s newsletter, all 7 of the bills that I introduced have passed the House and Senate and await the Governor’s signature. You can see more information on my legislation here.  I also want to share some of the major accomplishments we made together this session. You can see more information on our House Democratic Caucus priorities and successes online here.

 Improving Education

• Five percent pay raise for teachers and SOQ-recognized support staff – HB 1800 (Torian)

• Full funding for 2020 Session budget Early Childhood Education initiatives restored – HB 1800 (Torian)

• Ensuring cultural competency through evaluations and regular training for teachers and principals – HB 1904 (Jenkins)

• Funding for 1:325 student-counselor ratio in FY 2022 – HB 1800 (Torian)

• Addressing learning loss due to COVID19 through supplemental funding for local programming – HB 1800 (Torian)

• Establish parameters for schools to reopen for the 2021-2022 academic year during the COVID-19 pandemic – SB 1303 House Substitute (Van Valkenburg)

Rebuilding our Economy Stronger

• Implementing the G3 jobs training program – HB 2204 (Filler-Corn)

• Expanding broadband access – HB 2304 (Tyler)

• Providing $25 million for Rebuild VA grant program – HB 1800 (Torian)

• Assessing Virginia’s public transit system needs with a focus on equitable delivery of transportation services and modernization – HJ 542 (McQuinn)

• Including post-secondary educational program enrollment as an activity fulfilling employment and training requirements for TANF and SNAP recipients – HB 1820 (Helmer)

• Initiating a New River Valley Passenger Rail Station Authority – HB 1893 (Hurst)

• Funding for improvements to I-64 between Hampton Roads and Richmond – HB 1800 (Torian)

Protecting Families

• Providing paid sick leave for home health care workers – HB 2137 (Guzman)

• Creating Virginia Overtime Wage Act – HB 2063 (Mullin)

• Protecting paychecks of minimum wage workers – HB 1814 (Krizek)

• Including domestic workers in workplace safety and nondiscrimination laws – HB 1864 (Price) and HB 2032 (Gooditis)

• Expanding the Childcare Voucher Program – HB 2206 (Filler-Corn)

• Implementing the Virginia Agriculture and Food Assistance Program – HB 2203 (Filler-Corn)

• Establishing the VirginiaSaves IRA retirement savings program within Virginia529 – HB 2174 (Torian)

Keeping Virginia Healthy

• Expanding Virginia’s vaccination capacity – HB 2333 (Bagby)

• Expanding access to telehealth – HB 1987 (Adams)

• Authorizing ACA Marketplace health insurance plans to cover abortion services – HB 1896 (Hudson)

• Establishing pharmaceutical drug pricing transparency – HB 2007 (Sickles)

• Recognizing access to clean water as a human right – HJ 538 (Aird)

• Establishing the Commonwealth Health Reinsurance Program – HB 2332 (Sickles)

• Establishing certified midwife licensure in the Commonwealth – HB 1953 (Gooditis)

• Establishing the Maternal Health Data Taskforce – HB 2111 (Herring)

Creating a More Inclusive Virginia

• Requiring all state agencies to create and maintain comprehensive strategic plans for diversity, equity, and inclusion – HB 1993 (Askew)

• Creating the Virginia LGBTQ+ Advisory Board – HB 2130 (Lopez)

• Prohibiting “LGBTQ+ panic” defense – HB 2132 (Roem)

• Protecting military families from discrimination in housing or employment – HB 2161 (Tran)

• Expanding the Virginia Human Rights Act to include those with disabilities – HB 1848 (Sickles)

• Authorizing statue of Barbara Rose Johns to represent Virginia in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the United States Capitol – HJ 525 (Ward)

Reforming the Commonwealth’s Criminal Justice System

• Abolishing the death penalty – HB 2263 (Mullin)

• Marijuana legalization – HB 2312 (Herring)

• Automatic expungement for certain misdemeanors – HB 2113 (Herring)

• Expungement for human trafficking survivors – HB 2133 (Delaney)

• Allowing admission of evidence of defendant’s mental condition, including development or intellectual disability – HB 2047 (Bourne)

Making our Democracy Stronger by Expanding Voting Rights

• The Voting Rights Act of Virginia – HB 1890 (Price)

• Improving availability and accessibility for absentee voting – HB 1888 (Van Valkenburg)

• Restoration of voting rights Constitutional amendment – HJ 555 (Herring)

• Expanding curbside voting – HB 1921 (Price)

• Allowing Sunday early voting – HB 1968 (Bagby)

• Banning guns at polling places – HB 2081 (Levine)

Upcoming Town Hall

To help break down the biggest news from the 2021 session, I am holding a Town Hall next Tuesday, March 9th, at 7:00 pm to answer any questions that you may have and chat with my constituents. The event will be held virtually, via Zoom, and you can register online at bit.ly/willetttownhall.

RSVP HERE
Monday, March 9th, 7:00 pm

COVID-19 Vaccine Updates

Last Saturday the FDA issued emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19. You can see more information on the vaccine and the EUA process online here. The EUA was granted following previous authorization for the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. All three vaccines are safe and virtually eliminate the risk of hospitalization or death from COVID-19. While there are a variety of differences between the three vaccines, the most important is that Johnson & Johnson only requires one dose rather than the two doses required by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech. Virginia expects to receive approximately 69,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson this week. Vaccine brands are assigned to clinics based on logistical needs such as shipping quantities and storage temperatures, and not based on demographics or geography.

 Based on our population, Virginia expects to receive 249,000 new first doses this week from the federal government (including Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, and Pfizer-BioNTech), and 75,000 new first doses will be administered through the federal retail pharmacy program that includes CVS, Food City, Giant, Kroger/Harris Teeter, Safeway, Walgreens, Walmart, and multiple independent community pharmacies. There are still not enough doses available yet for everyone eligible to receive them. Virginia is not likely to meet the demand for Phase 1b until April. Although it may be weeks or longer before vaccination appointments become available for those who have pre-registered, those wait times are improving.

The statewide vaccine pre-registration system at vaccinate.virginia.gov has received more than 3 million views and 670,000 pre-registrations since its launch on February 15. Including individuals who pre-registered through local health districts in the past, the new system now includes more than 1.7 million residents and essential workers. All individuals who have previously filled out a survey or form or signed up for a waitlist to be vaccinated through their local health district have been automatically imported into the new statewide system and do not need to pre-register again. If you have not yet pre-registered for the COVID-19 vaccine you can do so online here, and you can confirm that you are on the pre-registration list online here.

Anyone with questions should call 877-VAX-IN-VA rather than their local health district. A public information toolkit is available to assist local health districts, localities, and community partners with graphics, talking points, frequently asked questions, and other materials.

To protect employee health information and promote equity among employees of many types of businesses and organizations, employees are no longer being pre-registered through employers. Employers are still encouraged to raise awareness among employees of the importance of getting vaccinated and how to pre-register, and to work with local health districts when it would make sense to hold on-site clinics for employees who are already pre-registered and eligible.

Richmond and Henrico Vaccination Events

The Richmond and Henrico health districts, in conjunction with Henrico County, will hold three large-scale vaccination events in the coming days. They will allow as many as 12,000 seniors to receive vaccinations, including the single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot that was just approved by the FDA. The events, which will be held Saturday, Monday, and next Wednesday, will only be open to pre-registered seniors over the age of 65. Those selected will be notified via email.

We have made tremendous progress on vaccine distribution over the past few weeks. Virginia is now administering an average of over 50,000 vaccinations per day, which is likely to increase significantly thanks to the authorization of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. While we must continue to be patient as our public health officials work to meet the demand for immunizations, President Biden announced on Tuesday that we are on track to have enough supply of coronavirus vaccines for every adult in America by the end of May. Our Virginia Vaccine Coordinator, Dr. Danny Avula, has stated that this timeline is realistic, projecting that Virginia should be able to get through everyone in Phase 1b by the end of this month and provide a half-million vaccinations a week in early April.

As vaccination rates increase and we work to meet the demand for pre-registered Virginians, the next step in our distribution efforts will be encouraging members with some vaccine hesitancy to sign up to receive the vaccine.  First and foremost, I encourage everyone to have conversations with their physicians or the trusted medical professionals in their life regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. You can help our community stay safe by talking with your friends and family about vaccinations and assisting individuals who may need help pre-registering online (the call center is also available for help at  877-VAX-IN-VA).

I am thrilled that our large-scale vaccination events will help protect our vulnerable seniors in Henrico County. My parents were fortunate enough to both receive the vaccine and want to encourage all Virginians to do the same when it is available to them. You can see photos by Dave Pearson for the Henrico Citizen from Richmond Raceway vaccination events online here.

My parents have both received the COVID-19 vaccine and encourage you all to register online!

Science Museum of Virginia Hosts Touring Exhibition About Misunderstood Topic of Mental Health

Mental Health: Mind Matters, a touring exhibition that uses immersive experiences and multimedia activities to raise awareness about mental illness, is now open as an exhibit at the Science Museum of Richmond through August 29, 2021. This exhibition is included with Museum admission. Tickets should be purchased online before you arrive at the Museum and are available up to five days in advance.

The exhibit focuses on how mental illness has been treated in the past and allows attendees to use innovative activities to put themselves in the shoes of people living with mental illness, including full-body activities to learn about healthy recognition and expression of emotions.

As the Chairman of the House’s Behavioral Health Subcommittee, increasing mental health awareness and reducing stigma are some of my top priorities. Here in Virginia, the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Virginia estimates that between 1.1 and 1.5 million adults have any mental illness and about 102,000 children and adolescents have a serious emotional disturbance. To learn more about the topics covered in the Mental Health: Mind Matters exhibit online here.