Weekly Column: Major Bills of the 2021 Session

The following is my column that will appear in the Mt. Vernon Gazette, Springfield Connection, The Prince William Times, The Fort Hunt Herald, and Potomac Local in the week of March 24, 2021.

                 Last week, I wrote about the legislation I carried in the 2021 Session.  In this column, I focus on other major bills that were considered.

                Marijuana legalization consumed a huge amount of work this session.  Governor Northam put together a work group that proposed a 13,000-line, 264-page bill that was very comprehensive and carried by Senator Adam Ebbin.  However, it became clear very early in the session that it was going to be very difficult to consider all of the details and much of the bill was carried over.

                We have many issues to work out.  Specifically, there were concerns about how much cross-ownership to allow between growers, manufacturers and retailers or whether to allow licensees in our medical markets to participate in retail markets or whether to allow hemp growers to also grow marijuana.  We need to consider whether or how to allow people to grow marijuana in their homes.  We also need to discuss creating a licensing structure which allows all communities to grow wealth and share in the profits and not just well capitalized companies.

                In the end, we passed legislation to repeal Virginia’s law prohibiting under one once of marijuana effective January 1, 2024 and pushed off the remainder of decisions to next year.  It is possible some of this could be revisited in Governor Northam’s amendments.

                We approved Delegate Lamont Bagby’s bill that gave the Virginia Air Board the authority for us to join California Air Emissions with over a dozen other states.  This will create incentives for Virginia automobile dealers to lower prices to sell more electric vehicles.  While Virginia is 13^th in electric vehicle registrations and 11^th in charging stations, we have a long way to go to electrify our car fleet and this will be a huge step.  Legislation prohibiting Styrofoam passed, but it will not be effective for a few years. 

                Voting rights continued to be a major focus.  We started the process of removing Virginia’s Jim Crow Era prohibition on felon voting and instead replaced it with language creating an affirmative right to vote and automatic voting restoration process.  We passed one of the first voting rights acts in the country which will give the Attorney General authority to sue localities that attempt to restrict voting rights.  We also codified balloting drop boxes, absentee curing processes, eliminated the absentee witness requirement, and required early voting to be open on Sundays.

                We passed legislation making financial aid available to Dreamers, prohibiting the “gay panic defense” in criminal cases, and passing a resolution to start the process of removing Virginia’s gay marriage from our Constitution.

                 Legislation prohibiting guns are polling places passed, and we codified the ban on guns inside the Capitol of Virginia and on Capitol Square.  We were unable to pass a bill prohibiting plastic, gun kits or “ghost guns,” but will take that up again next session.

                We strengthened our health care exchange by creating a reinsurance program that will lower insurance costs for high risk Virginians in the exchange.  Also, legislation requiring Virginia’s healthcare exchange to cover abortion services passed as well.  No taxpayer money will fund these services.

                Many parents reached out about schools remaining closed and legislation requiring schools to be open for in-person classes this fall passed with large bipartisan margins.  We need to get our kids back in the classroom.

                We also extended the temporary regulation allowing restaurants to sell cocktails to-go.  Go out and get a quart of margaritas to take home.

                Finally, last session, I carried legislation to study giving all Virginians an appeal of right in all civil and criminal cases.  We are the only state in America without it.  The Virginia Judicial Council approved my idea, and legislation expanding the Court of Appeals to achieve it passed as well.

                Governor Northam is now considering his amendments or vetoes to bills.  They will be announced on March 31, 2021.  It is also looking very likely that we will need to have a special session to appropriate approximately $8 billion coming from the federal government and pick seven new appellate judges and their replacements.

                It is an honor to serve as your state senator.  Send me any feedback at scott@scottsurovell.org.