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Executive Schedule
8: 00 am: GOVERNOR GLENN YOUNGKIN ATTENDS VDOT & TRANSURBAN CEREMONIAL GROUNDBREAKING FOR 495 NEXT
11:00 am: GOVERNOR GLENN YOUNGKIN AND THE FIRST LADY PARTICIPATE IN A NORTHERN VIRGINIA WOMEN BUSINESS LEADERS ROUNDTABLE
The legislators have adjourned without finishing the budget
The General Assembly adjourned on Saturday with a slate of bills left for consideration and the state budget incomplete. The legislators carried the remaining bills over to a future special session. Governor Glenn Youngkin implied he will figure out when to call the special session this week.
Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert said that his Republican majority would have extended the session to complete the work, but the Senate was not open to that suggestion.
The House and Senate budgets are currently separated by $3 billion in spending.
"Unfortunately, the Democrats who run the Senate decided to put their own partisan angst ahead of Virginia’s common good and not just block many common-sense bills, but also leave Richmond before the work was done," Gilbert said in a statement Saturday."When Governor Youngkin calls us back to Richmond, House Republicans will be ready to get the job done."
Senate Democrats touted being the brick wall against the Republican agenda. “While our spending plan is not yet complete, we are standing firm on our values during budget negotiations making sure every Virginian can thrive and be successful. Our job is not yet finished–let's get back to work and get the budget done,” Senate Democratic Leader Dick Saslaw said in a statement Saturday.
“While budget negotiations remain ongoing, Senate conferees will work to maintain the original Senate budget funding to invest in the futures of Virginia’s students; provide health resources, particularly behavioral care, for everyone in the Commonwealth; and assure economic strength for every family,” said Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee Chair, Senator Janet Howell. “I look forward to continuing this important process to produce a healthy, responsible, and balanced budget.”
The governor said that even though that work is not complete, he is encouraged by the work that the General Assembly completed during his first session as governor.
“I’m encouraged with the recent progress on the budget and I’m grateful to the members on both sides of the aisle for their efforts,” Youngkin said in a statement. “We need to finalize tax relief, lab schools, and other bipartisan priorities including investing in education, funding law enforcement, and addressing our behavioral health crisis, among others. As I said last week, it could take time to get the budget right. I’d ask that the negotiators work quickly. Virginians are ready and together we can deliver for them all.”
11 Republicans are trying to run against Rep. Wexton in VA-10
Two-term Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA10) has a long list of Republicans looking to earn the nomination to run against her in November.
Here are the candidate’s names in no particular order:
Wexton also has a primary challenge from Shadi Ayyas.
Numbers to know about VA-10:
Terry McAuliffe won this district by 1.5 points in 2021. However, Sen. Time Kaine won the district by 19 points in 2018 and Ralph Northam won by 10 points in 2017.
VA-10 is 75% Loudoun and Prince William Counties.
Most of the voters in this district come from the old VA-10 prior to redistricting (416,978).
105,503 voters come from the previous first district
49,589 voters come from the previous fifth district
Rep. Spanberger talks Ukraine
Rep. Abigail Spanberger commented on the ongoing war in Ukraine during a tv appearance this weekend.
“It is incredibly important that we continue to demonstrate a unified strong force among our NATO allies and with our other security partners,” Spanberger, a former CIA operative said. “Certainly since day one when we imposed our initial sanctions we did so from a position of strength rallying our NATO partners, rallying so many security partners and allies throughout the world so that there was a coordinated global response isolating Russia. We continue to pull countries and communities together to demonstrate and up the ante with the economic sanctions and economic crushing reality that we are imposing on Russia. It is incredibly important that Vladimir Putin see that NATO is united, united frankly like it has never been before because it should be very clear and apparent to him: that from the sanctions, from the decisions that we are making, from our choices to ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to defend itself including javelins, stingers, drones comms equipment, intel sharing - that we are doing what is necessary to support the Ukrainians and their fight for democracy.”
Va. Republican congressional hopefuls pull from Youngkin playbook on education - Washington Post
by Megan Flynn
Last year, Brandon Michon was a commercial real estate financier who had recently moved from New York City back to his hometown of Hamilton, Va., with his wife and four children, trying to escape the eeriness of empty Manhattan streets in the early days of the pandemic.
This year, Michon is a Republican candidate for Congress. He’s a regular face on Fox News — a kind of national spokesman for parents who opposed school closures, mask mandates, sexual content in library books — a range of education issues that roused conservatives, and nowhere more than in Virginia’s Loudoun County.
As Virginia nets another $74 million, RGGI uncertainty lingers - Virginia Mercury
by Sarah Vogelsong
Power producers in the northeastern and Mid-Atlantic carbon market known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative paid a record price for carbon allowances in the first auction of 2022, which netted Virginia $74.2 million for flood protection and low-income energy efficiency programs. The clearing price for allowances, which producers must buy for each ton of carbon dioxide they emit, rose to $13.50, exceeding the $13 record set in the December 2021 auction.
Under current state law, $33 million of that money must go to the Community Flood Preparedness Fund, which supports local flood protection efforts, while just over $37 million must go toward low-income energy efficiency programs run by the Department of Housing and Community Development.
Youngkin Announces Thermo Fisher Scientific to Expand Clinical Research Laboratories in Henrico County and the City of Richmond
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. will invest $97 million to expand its bioanalytical laboratory operations into three new locations in the Greater Richmond region and expects to create more than 500 new jobs in the commonwealth. In total, Thermo Fisher will be adding nearly 150,000 square feet to its Richmond area operations. Thermo Fisher acquired the laboratories with the purchase of PPD, Inc. in December 2021.
In response to increased demand for its services, Thermo Fisher’s clinical research business will expand with the establishment of two new bioanalytical labs in Henrico County. The company is renovating the former Toys “R” Us store at 8700 Quioccasin Road and will occupy 2250 Dabney Road next to its existing Henrico County facility. The business also will establish a third bioanalytical lab at the VA Bio+Tech Park in the City of Richmond.
“Thermo Fisher’s expanding footprint and creation of more than 500 new jobs is a major win for the Greater Richmond region and Virginia’s life sciences industry,” Youngkin said. “This sector has gained significant momentum in the Commonwealth due to our research institutions, skilled talent and advanced innovation ecosystem, and we are proud of the company’s developments happening right here in Virginia.”
