RICHMOND, VA – Senator Mark Obenshain (R-Rockingham) issued the following statement in response to SB 1228 reporting unanimously from the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee yesterday.
“The tragic death of two officers almost a year ago at Bridgewater College still stings our community. After the death of John Painter and J.J. Jefferson, it came to light that they were not eligible for any death benefits as police officers because private college police departments were not eligible to enroll in the state administered Line of Duty Act (LODA.) I am grateful that Governor Youngkin offered a budget amendment last year which provided both families with the death benefit that would have been available to any other law enforcement office who died in the line of duty. I strongly suspect that this was an inadvertent oversight that escaped notice until the death of two officers. I promised the Governor and private colleges last year that I would introduce legislation this year to make them eligible to enroll in this program. If a private college elects to enroll, they would be required to pay premiums for participation, so they will pay their own way. With the advancement of my bill, we are making progress in our efforts to do right by law enforcement officers and their families,” Obenshain said.
“I am pleased that the bill reported from committee with votes from Democrats and Republicans and I am looking forward to its final passage in the Senate later this week.”
The full text of SB 1228 can be found here. Senator Obenshain’s full list of legislation for the 2023 session can be viewed here.
SB 1228 will now move to the Senate Floor for a full vote later this week and then will move to the House of Delegates.
Senator Obenshain currently represents the twenty-sixth district in the Senate of Virginia. The district includes the city of Harrisonburg and the counties of Warren, Shenandoah, Page Rappahannock and Rockingham (part). He is a member of the Senate Judiciary; Commerce & Labor; Agriculture, Conservation, and Natural Resources; and Transportation Committees.
With the conclusion of the second week of the 2023 General Assembly Session, one thing is becoming increasingly clear – Republicans need to retake control of the Virginia Senate! This week, the Democratic leaders in the Senate showed just how partisan they have become and have demonstrated their unwillingness to put good policy ahead of politics.
Last Monday, the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee, upon which I sit, considered the repeal of 2021 legislation that ceded to California authority to control the timeline for banning the sale of new gas-powered vehicles in Virginia. The liberal elite wants to require working Virginians to spend upwards of $75,000 for an electric vehicle as their next car or truck. Unless repealed 35% of all new vehicles sold in Virginia by 2026 must be electric vehicles and it will impose a complete ban on the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035. In what must have been an accidental moment of candor, one Democrat on the Committee admitted that these goals are aspirational and cannot be met, but on a party line vote (15 Democrats to 3 Republicans) the Committee rejected this commonsense measure.
Last week, the Privileges and Elections Committee heard multiple election integrity bills. Notwithstanding broad bipartisan support, the Committee refused to reinstate the photo ID mandate. The Committee also rejected a bill that would have ended same day voter registration – allowing persons to show up on Election Day, register and vote at the same time. Finally, the Committee killed a bill that would have criminalized intentional efforts to register non-citizens to vote.
As most are aware, I have been working to restore integrity to Virginia’s Parole Board and its operations. The scandal-ridden Northam-appointed Parole Board found itself in the midst of a media firestorm when it was caught releasing convicted murders, rapists and kidnappers without properly notifying victims, their families or law enforcement in the communities where the crimes were committed. On Friday, a Senate committee killed my transparency bill to require Parole Board members to actually show up, and meet in person, require current interviews of inmates and allow victims to offer input via virtual means. Americans are sick and tired of having legislators or government officials not showing up to do their jobs. If a friend or family member of mine were preparing for a parole hearing, I would certainly want parole board members to take it sufficiently seriously that they would actually meet in person, discuss the case and have a current interview of the inmate before making a parole decision. Finally, the bill would have allowed victims to provide input virtually. Nobody testified in opposition to this bill, yet Democrats on the committee killed it on a party line vote. Attorney General Jason Miyares pledged to investigate the misconduct by the Northam parole board and I hope that he will get to the bottom of the scandal-ridden conduct of that panel. For the sake of safe communities across Virginia and for the sake of fairness from the perspective of everybody involved in the process, it is essential that integrity and public confidence be restored in the process.
Finally, on Friday, a Senate subcommittee considered bills protecting innocent human life. First was a bill introduced by Senator Travis Hackworth, limiting abortion from conception with exceptions for medical emergency and rape or incest (before 20 weeks and with a police report). The Governor’s bill, patroned by Steve Newman would limit abortions after 15 weeks of gestational age with exceptions for medical emergency, rape or incest. Senator Siobhan Dunnavant introduced a bill that would limit abortions in the third trimester, with exceptions for medical emergencies and nonviable pregnancies. The Senate Education and Health Committee, controlled by Democrats recommended defeating all of those bills. Surveys show that more than 80% of Americans, across all racial, ethnic and political lines oppose late-term abortions, but not a single Democrat on the Committee was willing to vote even for those very limited restrictions. Innocent human life needs to be protected. It is clear that those Senate Democrats want no restrictions whatsoever on abortion.
You can look here for a full list of the bills I am carrying this session. I will endeavor to provide weekly updates on significant developments during the course of Session. If you have opinions (pro or con), questions or concerns about any legislation before the General Assembly, please do not hesitate to share those with me. I can always be reached by email at [email protected] and my office can be reached at either 804-698-7526 (Richmond Office) or 540-437-1451 (Harrisonburg District Office.) Should you be in Richmond at any point during the General Assembly Session, please stop by my office (Room 502) and say hello and let us know if we can do anything for you during your visit.
I always enjoy visiting with and meeting with groups and constituents from home. This week was very busy with visits from Second Amendment supporters from the VCDL, local Credit Union leaders, Leadership Harrisonburg/Rockingham Chamber Class, Page County advocates for the Federation of the Blind, EMS representatives, Rappahannock Board of Supervisors member, Virginia Interfaith Council and students from Shenandoah County Central High School’s Y Street program.
Last Wednesday, the 2023 Session of the Virginia General Assembly was gaveled to order by the Speaker of the House of Delegates and the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. This year is a “short session.” It is scheduled to last 45 days and to adjourn on February 25th. Hot topics this year include tax relief, public safety, energy and utility rates and regulation.
Virginia is entering the second year of the budget biennium with a projected $3.6 billion budget surplus – even after last year’s $4 billion of tax relief and salary increases for state employees, teachers and law enforcement officers. While this is good news, it is overshadowed by disturbing trends including the fact that residents have been migrating out of Virginia for the past seven years. Last year, Virginia had the 9th highest outward migration rate in the country while our neighbors, North Carolina and Tennessee increased their population. One of the differences is that states like North Carolina are cutting personal income tax rates and are trying to eliminate the corporate income tax. All this under a Democratic Governor. Governor Youngkin wants to reverse this trend and to once again make Virginia a better place to work, live and raise a family. To do this, he has proposed an agenda that includes a cut in individual income tax rates, a 1% reduction in the corporate income tax and to remove the age restriction on the tax exemption on military retirement benefits.
On the energy front, Virginia families and businesses have struggled under the burden of ever increasing energy costs. The reasons are many, including the inflation caused by out of control government spending and unrealistic and punitive green energy initiatives that have increase our reliance on foreign energy sources and suppliers and choked off the supply of safe, clean and plentiful domestic energy sources. There are multiple initiatives this year that will result in lower electric bills. Many members have also introduced or patroned legislation that would repeal the 2021 law that Democrats passed to allow California to outlaw the sale of new gas powered vehicles in Virginia.
Here’s a quick preview of some of the legislation I introduced and will be working on during Session:
INTERSTATE 81
I have introduced a budget amendment that would allocate $235 million in the coming year to jumpstart improvements to Interstate 81. I was the author of legislation in 2019 to create the I-81 Commission. Through the framework established in that legislation, VDOT developed a plan of improvements to improve and address choke points and dangerous sections of I-81. Because of funding limitations, the construction of those projects is projected to be stretched out over more than a decade. Last year, when we had a record budget surplus, the budget negotiators allocated $470 million of general fund dollars for construction on Interstate 64 between Williamsburg and Richmond. They included $0 of additional funding, however, for Interstate 81. This year, since we are continuing to run a budget surplus, it is my hope that budget writers will this year do the same thing for Interstate 81 that they did for Interstate 64. Everyone who lives in or travels the I-81 corridor knows how dangerous that vital highway has become. It is time for us to treat the need for I-81 improvements as a budget priority as opposed to an aspirational long-term goal.
JUDICIAL INTIMIDATION
On June 8, 2022, police apprehended a man outside the home of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanagh. The suspect had flown across the country and when he was apprehended, he was wearing black clothing and had a suitcase containing a pistol, zip ties, a tactical knife, pepper spray, hammer, duct tape and other items. He confessed that it was his intention to break into the home of Justice Kavanagh to kill him and then to commit suicide. This also coincided with weeks of protesting over abortion rights and protestors descended upon the home of targeted Supreme Court justices.
I have introduced legislation that would prohibit this kind of intimidation and protest outside of the homes of judges and justices. It is a shame that such legislation is even necessary but the continued deterioration of basic standards of civility has worked to endanger not only public servants, but members of their family, including children. This doesn’t impact the ability of protesters to picket or protest elsewhere, just not in front of a personal residence.
MARIJUANA ADS TARGETING CHILDREN
In 2021, the Virginia General Assembly legalized the possession of marijuana. At some point a framework will be established for a legal marketplace. Some, however, have jumped the gun and have begun marketing and merchandizing marijuana in ways that have targeted children. I have introduced legislation that makes it a misdemeanor to advertise marijuana that cannot legally be sold in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Further, even if or when a legal marketplace is established, my bill applies to marijuana many of the same limitations on the marketing of alcohol to children, including prohibitions on billboards or signs in close proximity to schools, prohibiting advertising on shows that target children and other restrictions that have long represented the commonsense view as to how alcohol should and should not be marketed.
These are just a few of my legislative initiatives. You can look here for a full list. I will endeavor to provide weekly updates on significant developments during the course of Session. If you have opinions (pro or con), questions or concerns about any legislation before the General Assembly, please do not hesitate to share those with me. I can always be reached by email at [email protected] and my office can be reached at either 804-698-7526 (Richmond Office) or 540-437-1451 (Harrisonburg District Office. Should you be in Richmond at any point during the General Assembly Session, please stop by my office (Room 502) and say hello and let us know if we can do anything for you during your visit. We always enjoy visiting with and meeting with groups from home. This week I had visits from the Seven Bends Republican Women’s Club, the Republican Women of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, local bankers, JMU nursing students, advocates for stronger fentanyl laws, and from leaders in the agribusiness industry.
Obenshain Releases Statement on the 2022 Model Policies on the Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for All Students and Parents
Updated Policy for Virginia’s Public School Systems
HARRISONBURG – Today, Senator Mark Obenshain (R-Rockingham) released the following statement in response to the just-released 2022 Draft Model Policies on the Privacy Dignity, and Respect for All Student and Parents from the Virginia Department of Education:
“I applaud the 2022 Draft Policy released today by Governor Youngkin and the Virginia Department of Education. This policy was crafted in compliance with the 2020 law signed by then-Governor Northam and patroned by Delegate Marcus Simon and Senator Jennifer Boysko.
Last year, when then-Governor Northam released his administration’s draft model policy, it flatly ignored the rights of students and parents. It went so far as to prohibit school staff from notifying a parent or guardian if a student requested affirmation of his or her gender identity. It even suggested that there was an obligation for school officials to report parents to the Department of Social Services if they suspected them to be insufficiently supportive of their child’s gender identity. The Northam model policy was so extreme and out of touch with communities across Virginia that it was adopted by only approximately 10% of the school divisions in Virginia. This notwithstanding the statutory mandate that it be adopted by every school division. The 2020 legislation requiring the adoption of this policy was just a bad idea and it accomplished little beyond making Virginia schools an even bigger cultural battleground than they already were.
Parents must be involved in their children’s education. Period. A child’s development is acutely susceptible to influence and it is the responsibility of parents to play a central role in shaping and molding that development.
To the extent that the law requires adoption of a model policy by school divisions across Virginia, I support this new draft model policy which fully complies with the Code of Virginia. And I strongly suspect that the 90% of school divisions across Virginia that were unwilling to adopt the old policy will find themselves much more comfortable with this policy.
I hope that parents, teachers, administrators, and school board members across Virginia will work together to adopt policies that will respect parents’ rights and ensure our children are treated fairly and equitably in a safe environment.”
The 2022 Draft Model Policy can be viewed by clicking here.
Senator Obenshain represents the twenty-sixth district in the Senate of Virginia. The district includes the city of Harrisonburg and the counties of Warren, Shenandoah, Page Rappahannock and Rockingham (part). He is running to represent the new second district of the Senate of Virginia which includes the city of Harrisonburg and the counties of Rockingam, Augusta (part), Page, Bath and Highland.
With the approach of July, I wanted to provide you with an update on new laws that are taking effect as well as an update on the Commonwealth’s budget.
Every year, the General Assembly passes bills during Session which starts in early January and goes for either 45 days or 60 days depending on if it’s a budget year or not. If bills pass the legislature, they go to the Governor and if he signs them into law, most will go into effect on July 1 of that year.
Additionally, every two years (on even numbered years), the General Assembly passes the Commonwealth’s two year budget which is then amended or signed by the Governor. Governor Youngkin recently sent back a short list of amendments on which the General Assembly then voted and on Wednesday, he signed the budget for the next two years.
Below is a list of some of the most notable and important items that will go into effect as well as items that would have been good for Virginians but were not passed this year.
The budget included $4.2 billion in tax relief in the form of one-time tax rebates, a reduction in the grocery tax, tax relief for veterans and an increase in the standard deduction.
The grocery tax was partially repealed. Despite pledging their support for its full repeal for years, the Democrats balked and would agree only to reduce it from 2.5 cents to 1 cent.
Senate Democrats defeated a number of bills that would have rolled back gun control efforts passed in past years by progressives. I outlined them in my update here.
If you have any questions about laws that are going to be taking effect in July or any bills that did not make it out of the General Assembly this year, don’t hesitate to email me at [email protected].
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s amendments to the state budget include proposals to expand the eligibility for lab-school funding, suspend the state’s gas tax for three months, prevent hundreds of incarcerated people from earning credits to reduce their sentences and more.
The Virginia General Assembly approved the two-year budget plan on June 1, but it was subject to proposed changes and vetoes by the governor. On Wednesday, Youngkin aides laid out the budget amendments put forward for consideration in a call with reporters.
Efforts to pass a gas tax holiday failed in the legislature, but Youngkin revived his push in a budget amendment. An aide said the suspension of the state’s gas tax of 26 cents a gallon would go into effect July 1 until Sept. 30 if approved by lawmakers.
The governor also proposed a restriction on using taxpayer funding in the biennial budget for abortion services unless it is required by federal law, a move criticized by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia Executive Director Jamie Lockhart.Virginia lawmakers pass bipartisan budget deal
“This amendment will disproportionately impact people of color who will be forced to carry pregnancies that will result in a stillbirth or in the birth of a baby incompatible with life,” Lockhart said in a statement. “If this funding is cut, low-income Virginians will be the ones having to go without access to the life-saving health care they need.”
Youngkin did not propose incentives to revive the effort to bring the Washington Commanders new stadium to Northern Virginia, which appears dead after lawmakers decided to pull the legislation from consideration.
One amendment from Youngkin would keep 560 incarcerated individuals from being eligible to take advantage of Virginia’s new earned sentence credit program, one aide said on the call.
“Language amendment will also create a state-level felony for demonstrating outside of a home of justices, including Supreme Court justices with the intent to intimidate,” one aide said on the call, later adding that it includes justices on the U.S. Supreme Court and Virginia Supreme Court.
The deal passed by the General Assembly includes $4 billion in tax cuts over three years. There are one-time tax rebates of $250 for individual filers and $500 for families this year in the budget and public school teachers and state workers will see 10% raises over two years, including a $1,000 bonus in the first year.
Youngkin amended the budget to also give teachers at Governor’s Schools and regional learning specialists the bonuses, with aides saying they were “left out” of the approved plan.
The budget approved by the General Assembly has $100 million for lab school funding for public, four-year universities in Virginia. Youngkin amended the budget to expand access to allow private universities and community colleges to use the funding and run lab schools, the aides said.
Another amendment from Youngkin calls on universities and colleges to sign off on a statement committing to create “a culture of free speech” on campuses.
State lawmakers are expected to return to the Capitol on Friday to take up Youngkin’s amendments.
“I hope that these amendments will be acceptable to Republicans and Democrats, Delegates and Senators, so that the budget can be reenrolled without returning to my desk,” Youngkin continued in his opening statement.
A few weeks ago, Governor Youngkin called a Special Session of the General Assembly to hammer out the details of our two-year budget for the Commonwealth.
Members of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee and the House Appropriations Committee have come to an agreement on a budget which brings me to Richmond today to vote on their proposal.
As I wrote about in a previous email, during the regular General Assembly session, I supported the House version of the budget due to the focus it had on tax relief and important priorities like school funding and resource officers. Coming into this budget cycle, Virginia was blessed with a projected budget surplus of more than $16 billion. This budget we just passed does much that I support and with which I strongly agree; however, it returns to the taxpayers only 25% of the surplus. With the developing fiscal train wreck in Washington, families are contending with financial challenges on all fronts — wages that just can’t keep up with record high gas prices, inflation at 30-year highs, rising interest rates, skyrocketing housing costs, and rising cost of food and electricity. We need to put those challenges of working Virginians first. We could do better, and with targeted amendments from the Governor, I am hopeful that we will.
The compromise budget that the finance committees released this past weekend did contain some of those priorities…
★ Over $4.2 billion in tax relief in the form of one-time tax rebates for Virginians and standard deduction increases
★ $730 million over two years for salary raises for teachers
★ $113 million for law enforcement salary raises
★ $100 million for lab school initiatives (although I would prefer charter schools rather than schools run by the universities responsible for teaching public school teachers)
★ $5 million for Operation Ceasefire funding
★ $45 million over two years in support for the School Resource Officer Incentive Grant Program
I am pleased to see general fund dollars being spent for transportation. For years, Democrats have argued that transportation must be funded exclusively from the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) and that even in times of plenty, the expenditure of general funds for transportation is nothing more than a raid on education dollars. That argument has always been specious. The TTF consists primarily of gas tax revenues. The fact is that between increasing fuel economy and the advent of electric vehicles, our transportation dollars will need to come from somewhere else. I am disappointed, however, that all this general fund transportation money is being spent on widening the stretch of I-64 between New Kent and James City County and none on I-81.
I did not vote for this budget today for a few reasons. First, I believe in limiting the size and scope of government. This state budget is about two times the size of Governor McDonnell’s last budget. As Virginians continue to struggle with rising costs, we need to be diligent to limit government spending to the extent possible. We seem to aspire to a different goal — expanding government spending to the extent possible. A once in a lifetime opportunity to make major structural changes in Virginia tax policy was missed.
This budget also missed important opportunities and included many misguided spending initiatives:
● No gas tax relief was included in this budget
● The grocery tax was not fully repealed
● $210 million was set aside for I-64 but none for I-81
● Tuition Assistance Grants for in-state students attending Virginia’s private colleges and universities was increased to $4,500, but students attending Virginia’s private Historically Black Colleges and Universities will receive an additional $5,000 ($9,000 total)
● We found $100,000 for the Sports Hall of Fame but inexplicably no money included to provide Virginia Line of Duty Act benefits for the families of the two fallen Bridgewater officers
● $5 million for a CASA welcome center in Northern Virginia
● $10 million in financial aid for undocumented students
I examine closely the line items to which we are allocating taxpayer dollars because I believe strongly in our responsibility to stick to conservative and disciplined financial principles. This year we had the biggest surplus in Virginia history but did not take the critical step to reform our tax code to return more hard-earned dollars to Virginians who need it. I am however, confident that the Governor will offer amendments to the budget to address some of the issues I have raised. I look forward to voting for those amendments.
If you have questions about the budget process or about the line items in the budget, you can visit budget.lis.virginia.gov or you can email me at [email protected].
New Report Shows Democrats’ 2021 Bail Law Eroding Public Safety
HARRISONBURG – Today, Senator Mark Obenshain (R-ROCKINGHAM) released the following statement:
“The report out today from the Richmond Times-Dispatch regarding violent criminals being released with little to no bond is deeply disturbing. Senate Democrats in 2021 pursued liberal so-called criminal justice priorities with such fervor that they ignored clear warnings that Virginians would suffer the consequences.
When we warned Democrats, who unanimously supported the measure, that this would be the result, they demurred. Now they say the judges must be wrong. That, however, is of little comfort to victims of rapes, robberies and other violent crimes whose attackers are being released immediately after arrest.
The RTD reports that in Chesterfield County, 48 people charged with assaulting a family member were released without having to post bond in the past 60 days. Additionally, criminals charged with assaulting police officers and malicious wounding have been released within a span of two months in Chesterfield County.
These are a result of the 2021 Democrat law that removed all presumptions against granting bail to criminal defendants, irrespective of the seriousness of their crime. Republicans sounded the alarm then and I opposed this bill when it was before us last year.
I hope that the Democrats in the Senate who pushed for this bill will think twice about opposing efforts to reinstate presumptions against bail for serious offenses after seeing these consequences. We warned against this sweeping approach, but Democrats insisted. Now it’s time to fix this horrible mistake and refocus on protecting the safety of our neighborhoods and Virginia families,” Obenshain said.
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Senator Obenshain represents the twenty-sixth district in the Senate of Virginia. The district includes the city of Harrisonburg and the counties of Warren, Shenandoah, Page, Rappahannock and Rockingham (part).
Virginia student-athletes are pushing back after their school board prohibited them from wearing “Pray for Peace” shirts in support of Ukraine, deeming the shirts too “political” and “religious.”
Blacksburg High School Lacrosse Captain Elise Levison and her mother Clare Levison discussed the backlash from the Montgomery County school board’s decision on “Fox & Friends First” on Tuesday.
“The team was pretty upset,” Elise told co-host Carley Shimkus. “All we were trying to do is just spread a positive message that was really our only intention, and we’ve actually gotten a lot of support from the school.”
A man rides a motorbike past a house damaged by shelling in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
“I’ve had teachers stop me in the hallway and say what we’re doing is the right thing and that they support us, so the community feedback has been really great,” she continued.
Elise said her lacrosse team wanted to support their coach, who volunteered at orphanages in Ukraine, as Putin’s assault continues to send millions fleeing from their homes in fear for their lives.
“I just can’t believe that the interim superintendent actually said that peace is political because peace comes from war and war is about people with different views,” Clare said, adding it “defies all logic.”
The lacrosse team proposed changing the shirt to say “Play for Peace,” but that slogan was also rejected, according to Elise.
“The school has really doubled and even tripled down on their stance, so I hope that this issue continues to get national attention because I think people do need to know what’s taking place in the schools. And this one is just completely beyond the pale,” Clare said.
The wife, center, of 44-year-old soldier Tereshko Volodymyr, second right, prays and mourns his death before his funeral ceremony, after he died in action, at the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul Church in Lviv, western Ukraine, Monday, April 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)
The school board chair, Sue Kass, and Interim Superintendent Whitaker released a joint statement on the matter to CBN News.
“The concerns about the warmups are not related to student speech as the team members did not initiate the discussion or purchase the shirts,” the statement reads. “The role of the School Board is to implement our policies in an unbiased way. Staff-led activism is a topic our Board has been discussing throughout the year, including flags, posters, and clothing that show support for specific groups or issues. It is not permissible for school-issued, staff-sponsored apparel to promote specific causes, groups, or beliefs.”
Bailee Hill is an associate editor with Fox News Digital.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A bill that will require Virginia schools to notify parents if their children are assigned books or other materials with sexually explicit content was among more than 100 measures Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed into law this week, his office said Friday.
Youngkin held up the measure as part of an effort to fulfill a campaign pledge to empower parents’ involvement in their children’s education.
In a statement, he said he was pleased to sign it into law, “along with many other bipartisan bills that will enhance education, improve public safety, provide tax relief, and make government work better for the people of Virginia.”
The bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, was one of Youngkin’s legislative priorities. It tasks the Department of Education with developing model policies for parental notification and making them available to school boards by July 31. Each school board must adopt the policies by Jan. 1, 2023, according to the measure, which uses a definition of sexually explicit content that already exists in state law. It also requires that students be given an alternative assignment at a parent’s request.
Democrats who objected to the bill argued that it smacked of censorship and that valuable pieces of literature would be targeted. Supporters emphasized that no books were being banned or censored and that the bill simply allows parents to be notified of explicit materials.
The measure cleared the Democrat-controlled Senate after two moderate Democrats joined with Republicans to advance it. It passed the GOP-controlled House on a party-line vote.
Youngkin faces an action deadline next week for measures passed during this year’s regular session of the General Assembly. Youngkin can sign or veto bills or send them back to lawmakers with proposed amendments. He has vetoed only one so far, according to the online legislative information system — a local policing oversight measure that involved only Arlington County.
Among the other measures the governor signed into law this week:
— A bill extending for at least two years the ability for dining establishments to sell cocktails to go. That flexibility was initially offered as a way to help businesses struggling with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
— A bill permitting hunting on public land on Sundays, as long as it takes place more than 200 yards (180 meters) from a place of worship.
— A series of animal welfare bills proposed in the wake of violations uncovered at a Cumberland County dog-breeding facility.
