WMATA Announces Yellow Line Construction: Service Across the Potomac to Pause for Renovations
Last Week On Tap: House Kills Five Bills
Last week, Week 7 of the 2023 Regular General Assembly Session, brought major action on many bills. This coming week, no committees can meet after Monday and the session is scheduled to end on Saturday, March 12.
The House of Delegates killed seven of my 25 remaining bills. First, SB246 required law enforcement officers to advise a driver why they were stopped before asking for their driver’s license and vehicle registration. I introduced this bill after a constituent from Kingstowne ended up in the local news after she was stopped and charged with driving while intoxicated and after she asked why she was stopped. She blew a 0.00% breath alcohol concentration and her case dismissed, but the entire situation was avoidable. This policy is consistent with Virginia law enforcement accreditation standards, Virginia State Police and Fairfax County Police policies, but the Virginia Sheriffs Association opposed it and a House committee voted the bill down on a party-line vote.
Senate and House Set Up Fight Over $3 Billion Tax Cut
In the sixth week of the General Assembly Session each chamber offered their proposed budgets. Each chamber’s budget is very different.
First, I was able to secure several changes to the budget that are important to our community. The Senate Finance Committee included $10 million in the budget to fund the Phase II improvements at Widewater State Park. Phase II will include a new visitor center, new trails, a loop road, parking areas, and picnic areas. I have been fighting for this for five years and I am working with Delegate Candi King and Delegate Tara Durant to ensure the House of Delegates will agree to fund it.
Juvenile Deception, Facial Recognition and Medical Record Transparency
The sixth week of the General Assembly brought us to “Crossover” – the moment when each chamber must finish work on bills originating in each chamber and we begin work on bills coming from the other side.
Twenty-five of my twenty-seven bills were passed by the Senate and will now be heard in the House of Delegates. On the last day of session, I defended eight bills on the floor of the Senate alone. I will discuss several in this column that I have not covered in prior columns.
Last Week in Richmond: 25 Bills Moving
In the General Assembly, the first week of February is always the week we deal with difficult and controversial legislation and this year was no different.
I have introduced 27 bills and 25 appear headed for passage to the House of Delegates, one was tabled and referred for study at my request and one was killed. That bill was intended to make serving in the General Assembly more realistic for people whose employers would not be supportive of service in a part-time legislature like ours.
Week Four: Bills Moving in Richmond & Retail Marijuana Under Discussion
In the fourth week of the General Assembly’s session, several of my 27 bills advanced.
The Senate passed my resolution to create a two-year study between the House and Senate to evaluate the state’s COVID-19 pandemic response. If adopted by the House of Delegates, this will be a major, two-year evaluation with recommendations about lessons learned.
One of my bills would place our projected $1 billion surplus from the Virginia 529 Plan into an endowment fund to create 2,000 full-ride scholarships for female and minority students who would have been denied admission to Virginia universities before 1900 because of gender and race-based discrimination practices. I asked that the bill be tabled and referred to an ongoing study about the surplus. Various Senate committees have favorably acted on all of my other bills so far.
Named Chairman of Two Subcommittees & Bills Are Moving
In the state legislature’s third week in session, the Senate passed and sent to the House of Delegates five of my bill and many of my other bills advanced.
First, I was named the Chairman of two different subcommittees. The Senate Commerce & Labor Committee Chairman created a Labor & Employment Subcommittee which I will chair and consider 11 bills focused on workforce issues. I was also named the Chairman of the Criminal Law Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee which will consider 19 bills addressing criminal justice issues.
Senator Scott Surovell sent the letter below to the Fairfax County Redistricting Committee which is considering changes to the names of the Mount Vernon Magisterial District and Hollin Hall Precinct.
The Fairfax County Redistricting Committee is meeting on Tuesday, February 1, 2022 from 6-8 pm to consider their recommendations.
Senator Surovell Opposes Mount Vernon Name Change Letter by Scott A. Surovell on Scribd
Week #2: A New Governor, Bills Moving & Budget Amendments For SD36
In the second week of this year’s General Assembly, Governor Youngkin gave his State of the Commonwealth speech to a joint session of the House of Delegates and Senate and we began serious work on over 2,000 bills.
While I was pleased that Governor Youngkin said he wants all Virginians to get vaccinated for COVID-19, supports a Chesapeake Bay cleanup and ending raw sewage discharges into the James River, he also advocated for many policies that many people of the 36th Senate District do not support, policies like charter schools and funding cuts to schools and our transportation.
Senate committees advanced several of my bills recently.
A New Day in Richmond and Many Challenges
As the Virginia General Assembly begins its 2022 session, my 13th, I look forward to working with Governor Glenn Youngkin, the new House of Delegates leadership and other legislators to reach a consensus on the best direction for our state.
While I did not support them, I attended Governor Youngkin’s inauguration and swearing in, along with the swearing in of Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears and Attorney General Jason Miyares.
Budgets Reflect Priorities
No matter what happens with other bills, one thing we are required to accomplish this session is to pass a budget. Thanks to federal pandemic funds, Virginia has significant excess revenues in our two-year budget cycle that ends on June 30, 2022. A little over half of those revenues will be appropriated to the “Rainy Day Fund” and to mandatory water quality improvement.
There is no longer a Winter Weather advisory in effect, however continue to proceed with caution.
School Closures
Fairfax County School buildings will be closed tomorrow with no virtual learning.
Click Here For Fairfax School Closures
Prince William County Schools are closed Code Green.
