Virginia Democrats celebrate legislation they passed before Crossover Day
Virginia House Democrats celebrated passing nearly 850 bills before Crossover Day, more than a third of which were focused on affordability, during a press conference Thursday.
Democratic delegates took the opportunity to acknowledge bipartisan accomplishments, including the 849 bills they passed before Crossover, where bills that passed must go to the Senate and Senate bills to the House. Of those, 84 percent received bipartisan votes, and 225 were Democrat-sponsored bills based on Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s Affordable Virginia Plan.
House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, emphasized the Democrats’ commitment to their campaign promises.
“Unfortunately for our friends at Fox News, none of what they predicted came true,” Scott said. “The House is going to keep doing what we are doing in partnership with the Senate and in partnership with our governor.”
House Majority Leader Del. Charniele Herring, D-Alexandria, highlighted HB 2, which would improve energy efficiency for low-income residents, and HB 3, which would establish a task force focused on determining and removing barriers to energy access, as some of the first legislation passed in this session.
“These bills do one simple thing,” she said. “They lower our monthly utility bills. But we did not stop there. We also took a critical step to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.”
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is a cross-state effort to cap and reduce carbon emissions in the power sector. Energy producers within RGGI states buy allowances for their emissions. In 2020, Virginia became the first Southern state to join, as well as the only state to donate 50% of proceeds to making low-income areas more energy efficient.
Just one year later in 2021, then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin withdrew Virginia from the program via executive order. Circuit Court Judge Randall Lowe ruled that Younkin had acted “unlawfully.”
Herring said that rejoining RGGI means: “lower energy costs, cleaner air and continued investments in energy efficiency and flood resilience, especially in communities that need it.”
Herring also said the House passed bills to cap out-of-pocket medical costs, increase transparency with health insurance companies, lower the price of insulin and establish a Prescription Drug Affordability Board. This Board, if established as written in HB 483, would review the prices of prescription drugs in Virginia to prevent price hikes.
“Lower bills, common sense solutions,” she added. “That’s been our promise since day one and today we are halfway there.”
House Caucus Chair Del. Kathy Tran, D-Fairfax, said that passing these bills protects the dignity of residents. She said that building an affordable Virginia means supporting families through passing the $15 minimum wage, and giving children “the strong start they deserve,” by making childcare more affordable.
“We’ve passed paid sick leave and paid family and medical leave,” Tran said. “Affordabily is about dignity, security and making Virginia the best place in the country to live and raise a family.”
Scott said that Democrats were committed to gun control, reproductive freedom and marriage equality. He mentioned the redistricting maps and how Virginia is not the only state going through a similar process.
“Republicans started this,” Scott said. “[President] Trump picked up the phone and called Texas and said, ‘redo the maps.’ His policies are so bad that he can’t win without rigging the election.”
