Big First Half, What's Next in the GA?

Today is the mid-way point at the General Assembly, also referred to as “crossover,” which is when the bills passed by the House and Senate move to the other chamber for consideration.  

The biggest story of session thus far has revolved around two major parental rights bills.  The first one is SB 739, carried by Senator Siobhan Dunnavant (R-Henrico), which requires school divisions to provide in-person instruction and eliminates the mask mandates for students in schools – ensuring parental rights about masking are respected!  SB 739 was fast-tracked through both chambers, and signed into law by Governor Youngkin during a signing ceremony today.

Another critical bill is SB 656, also carried by Senator Dunnavant, which requires the Board of Education to establish policies for local school divisions to follow that require each public K-12 school to provide parental notification and review of sexually explicit content and offer alternative instructional materials to any student whose parent objects to the curriculum.  This bill is expected to pass the House since it just passed an identical House version, HB 1009 (R-Durrant), on a 52-47 party-line vote. 

While SB 656 was able to make it past the Senate Education and Health committee gauntlet, this committee has not been particularly friendly to other school choice and parental rights bills, including SB 20, initiated by The Family Foundation to codify in law a Lynchburg circuit court opinion that local school boards are not mandated to adopt the VDOE “Model Policies on the Treatment of Transgender Students.”  This Democrat-led committee has made it incredibly difficult to get any additional parental rights or pro-family legislation through.

Unfortunately, due likely to pragmatic decisions about bills not expected to pass in the Senate, several introduced bills in the House did not get a hearing. One of them would have prohibited abortions after the point at which a baby can feel pain, which is generally agreed to be around 20 weeks gestation.  However, the House also decided not to give bills aimed at commercializing marijuana products a hearing, but will have to decide what they will do with the marijuana bills coming over from the Senate. 

The battle over the commercialization of recreational marijuana continues to be a big item of debate as the Senate yesterday passed SB 391 (D-Ebbin), as well as approving a two-year budget for the Commonwealth, which we will be combing through to check for issues like state funding of abortion.

Here’s where things stand on some of the other bills we’ve been telling you about:

Good bills still alive!

Religious Group Protections - HB 753 (R-Adams, L.)
Passed House 54-45
Tebow Bill (Homeschool access to public school athletics) - HB 511 (R-March)
Passed House 50-49
Prohibit Anonymous Teen Sex Text Lines - HB 156 (R-Byron)
Passed House 52-47 
Ensure Churches Remain Open During State of Emergency - HB 775 (R-Williams)
Passed House 51-46
Public Employee Free Speech - HB 384 (R-Davis)
Passed House (72-Y 27-N 1-A)
Education Savings Accounts for Disadvantaged Students - HB 1024 (R-LaRock)
Passed House 52-48
Right to Informed Consent Before an Abortion - HB 212 (R-Greenhalgh)
Passed House 52-48
Born Alive Human Infant Protection Act - HB 304 (R-Freitas)
Passed House 52-48
Parental Permission for Family Life Education (FLE) - HB 789 (R-LaRock)
Passed House 50-49
Parental Review of Sexually Explicit School Materials - HB 1009 (R-Durant)
Passed House 52-47
Parental Consent to School Counseling Services - HB 1034 (R-Ransone)
Passed House 52-47
Religious Exemption for Vaccines - HB 306 (R-Freitas)
Passed House 52-45
Parental Review of Sexually Explicit School Materials - SB 656 (R-Dunnavant)
Passed Senate 20-18
Prohibit Forced Abortions in Surrogacy Contracts - SB 163 (R-Peake)
Passed Senate 40-0

Bad bills that died

Polygamous Marriage (House version) - HJ 57 and HB 605 (D-Sickles)

Failed to Report in House Privileges and Elections subcommittee

Physician Assisted Suicide Legalization - HB 1095 (D-Kory) and SB 668 (D-Hashmi)

SB 668 Failed in Senate Education & Health; HB 1095 was not heard

Surgeries for Unaccompanied Youth without Parental Consent - HB 353 (D-Willett)

Failed to Report in House Health, Welfare & Institutions subcommittee  

Proliferation of lab-created human embryos - HB 480 (D-Helmer)

Failed in House Commerce and Energy subcommittee

Petersburg Casino Referendum - HB 1134 (R-Taylor) and SB 203 (D-Morrisey)

HB 1134 was left in committee; SB 203 Failed in Senate Finance & Appropriations

Still fighting these dangerous bills

Commercializing Recreational Marijuana Products - SB 391 (D-Ebbin)
Passed Senate 21-18
Polygamous Marriage (Senate version) - SJ 5 and SB 557 (D-Ebbin)

Passed Senate 25-14

Please keep praying for our Policy Team as they continue to promote strong pro-family and parental rights legislation in the General Assembly!