Welcome to veto day
Today has the potential to be drama-filled.
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Veto day
The General Assembly is convening today to address Governor Glenn Youngkin’s 26 vetoes and more than 100 amendments to legislation. Additionally, Democrats will be meeting this morning to take a vote on replacing the two women leading their caucus in the House of Delegates: Leader Eileen Filler-Corn and Caucus Chair Charniele Herring.
Filler-Corn’s camp said Tuesday that they feel confident about the vote.
Del. Don Scott, the man who is leading the push to remove Filler-Corn so that he can replace her, is also confident and telling Democrats that he believes he has the votes necessary.
One update from the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Patrick Wilson Tuesday shows Dels. Jeff Bourne and Lamont Bagby somewhat defending Scott’s challenge against Filler-Corn.
While neither said who they are supporting, Bagby told the RTD that the narrative of Clean Virginia supporting Scott is false - and Bourne said Scott was “well within his right” to challenge Filler-Corn.
The vote should take place sometime between 10 am and noon this morning.
Subscribers to this newsletter will find out the results first.
What else is today:
Youngkin’s gas tax legislation is up in the Senate Approps committee this morning. The meeting begins at 9 am.
This bill will limit the amount that the statewide tax on motor fuels can be raised annually to two percent. The bill also eliminates the statewide motor fuel tax from May 1, 2022, to July 31, 2022, and reduces the statewide motor fuel tax by 50 percent from August 1, 2022, to August 31, 2022, and by 25 percent from September 1, 2022, to September 30, 2022. The bill contains an emergency clause.
Governor Glenn Youngkin Announces $631,262 Award to Enhance Crisis Management in Schools
Governor Glenn Youngkin announced Tuesday that the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) has been awarded $631,262 in competitive federal funding from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) School Violence Prevention Program.
Funds will be used to implement a crisis management enhancement project to increase communication and coordination and improve information sharing between law enforcement and school officials in order to increase school safety and sustainability planning efforts.
“I am pleased to see Virginia developing stronger school-law enforcement partnerships,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin. “This funding will have a significant impact on the safety and wellbeing of our school communities in Virginia.”
DCJS will lead the project in collaboration with other state agencies, including the Virginia Department of Education and Virginia State Police. Initiatives will include the:
Development and implementation of a uniformed, statewide crisis management plan training curriculum;
Development of a Virginia-specific mobile crisis planning application;
Automation of the Virginia School Safety Inspection Checklist; and
Development of age-appropriate and role-specific training videos on evidence-based response techniques to crisis events.
Through the standardization of site assessment, crisis planning, and response across Virginia, schools will facilitate an increased ability for an integrated and effective multidisciplinary response to any crisis.
In support of this grant project, the DCJS Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety is releasing new and updated resources to aid in crisis planning and crisis management for schools:
The Division Guide for Crisis Management Planning, developed in collaboration with state and national experts, is a six-step guide to forming and implementing crisis management plans.
The newly developed Virginia Safety Planning Guide for Individuals with Special Needs to help Virginia schools cultivate strategies to meet the diverse safety needs of all stakeholders within the educational community.
The updated Virginia Educator’s Guide for Planning and Conducting School Emergency Drills is designed to give faculty and staff in direct service positions, who interact with students daily, the hands-on information they need to practice the emergency response actions (drills) required by the Code of Virginia.
The DCJS Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety is a resource and training center for information and research about national and statewide safety efforts and initiatives in K–12 schools and institutions of higher education. More information about the DCJS Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety can be found here.
Virginia lawmakers to take up Youngkin vetoes, amendments - Associated Press
by Sarah Rankin
Virginia lawmakers are set to reconvene in Richmond on Wednesday for a one-day session to consider Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s vetoes and proposed amendments to a wide range of legislation.
The divided General Assembly will have a full calendar as members work through the amendments — some technical, some controversial — to over 100 bills, in addition to the governor’s 26 vetoes.
Lawsuit targets skill-game company over lobbying effort invoking deceased senator - Virginia Mercury
by Graham Moomaw
The estate of the late Virginia Sen. Yvonne Miller, the first Black woman to serve in both chambers of the General Assembly, is suing a skill-game company over a flier that featured what the lawsuit says was an unauthorized photo of Miller as part of a 2021 lobbying campaign to keep the slots-like machines legal.
The lawsuit, filed in Portsmouth Circuit Court last week, seeks $1.35 million in damages against business entities affiliated with Queen of Virginia, one of the state’s leading suppliers of the electronic gaming machines that rapidly spread to many Virginia sports bars, convenience stores and truck stops.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin calls first 100 days in office 'encouraging' - WSET
Tuesday marks Gov. Glenn Youngkin's one-hundredth day in office. He appeared on Good Morning America Tuesday morning to reflect on those days and discuss his top priorities.
So far, Youngkin said his first few months have been encouraging.
Youngkin’s new marijuana crimes face skeptical Democratic Senate - VPM News
by Ben Paviour
A Democrat in Virginia’s Senate says his caucus the votes to reject a proposal from Gov. Glenn Youngkin to create two new crimes for marijuana possession when the legislature meets on Wednesday.
Youngkin proposed creating two new misdemeanor crimes for possessing between two ounces and a pound of marijuana. Under a loosened marijuana law passed last year, the current penalty in that range is a $25 civil fine.
Gov. Youngkin ‘most concerned’ about elevated crime rate in Virginia - NBC 12
by Henry Graff
Youngkin says solving the violence problem starts with support for law enforcement. With a state budget still in flux, Youngkin says it’s critical that the lawmakers provide additional funding for pay raises, training and better equipment.
“I need a budget out of the Senate and the House so that we can provide meaningful salary increases for law enforcement, fund equipment budgets, funding training budgets. We can go to work to get violent crime down in Virginia. There’s a big step in front of us, a budget, and I need it now,” Youngkin said.