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A remade Virginia General Assembly will convene its 2024 session Wednesday with a Democratic majority newly in cost of each chambers after a consequential election cycle that adopted two years of divided control at the Capitol.
Guns, playing, abortion, public security and different points shall be on the agenda as Democrats search to maintain their razor-thin majorities collectively over the course of the 60-day session. They will want to win Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s assist for many of their priorities, although in a number of areas they are going to be in a position to transfer with out him.
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“I think there are some things we’re going to be able to agree on,” incoming Democratic House Speaker Don Scott mentioned of the governor, ticking off spots of typical bipartisan cooperation, like schooling, psychological well being and workforce improvement.
On different legislative gadgets — like gun control and Youngkin’s push for a brand new sports activities stadium — it stays to be seen the place or whether or not compromise will be discovered, Scott mentioned in an interview.
Scott, a trial lawyer who will make historical past as the first Black particular person to function speaker, will take his seat in an more and more numerous Capitol.
The Virginia General Assembly will convene in 2024 with a slim Democratic majority right here at the Virginia Capitol in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
Last 12 months’s election cycle, when each legislative seat was on the poll, was the first held underneath new maps drawn in the final redistricting course of. The new maps coupled with the requirement that legislators dwell in their district contributed to a wave of retirements that included some of the Assembly’s most senior members. Others have been ousted in an particularly aggressive main season.
About a 3rd of the Assembly’s membership shall be newly elected to their respective chamber. The Capitol will see new historic firsts in illustration and a brand new era of management.
The Assembly will even convene with a record-high proportion of feminine legislators, in accordance to information maintained by the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers. Forty-eight of the 140 members, or 34.3%, are girls, in accordance to the heart, not accounting for the outcomes of two Tuesday particular legislative elections in which three feminine candidates have been competing.
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Wednesday’s session kick-off will successfully mark the midway level of Youngkin’s time period. The governor, who in the end didn’t mount a presidential bid after heaps of hypothesis in 2023 that he would possibly, is prohibited by Virginia regulation from in search of a second consecutive 4 years in workplace.
In the two months since the GOP fell quick of Youngkin’s acknowledged electoral expectations — shedding its House majority and failing to flip the Senate — the governor has begun to roll out his coverage roadmap, together with his proposed funds. Crafting the subsequent two-year state spending plan shall be one of the session’s largest duties, one thing lawmakers in current years have failed to do on time.
The governor has referred to as for reducing the earnings tax whereas elevating the state’s gross sales tax, a proposal that is been greeted by skepticism from members of each events.
Incoming Senate Republican Leader Ryan McDougle mentioned in an interview that many members of his caucus assume reducing the earnings tax would assist make Virginia extra aggressive with competitor states. But the mechanism for doing so and sustaining a balanced funds shall be an ongoing dialogue, he mentioned.
Youngkin unveiled plans for a separate and presumably legacy-making mission in December when he introduced the framework of a proposal to transfer the NBA’s Washington Wizards and NHL’s Washington Capitals throughout the Potomac to Alexandria.
Legislation that may create a authorities entity that might subject round $1.5 billion in bonds to finance the deal shall be amongst the session’s most intently watched.
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The governor has additionally referred to as for lawmakers to proceed working with him to enhance the state’s psychological well being care system, together with by tightening the reins on social media firms and banning TikTok for customers underneath 18.
Later Wednesday, he’ll provide his annual State of the Commonwealth deal with, an opportunity to set the tone for his work with the new Assembly and spotlight extra priorities.
Lawmakers will take up tons of of different payments in the hectic dash that’s the legislative session.
Republicans, who’ve mentioned they plan to maintain Democrats accountable for any rush to the left, need to attempt once more to move a invoice that may enable prosecutors to cost drug sellers with felony murder if a person dies of an overdose. They’re additionally promising a renewed effort to repeal an electrical car mandate Democrats enacted in 2021.
Democrats, who overhauled the state’s gun legal guidelines whereas they managed state authorities in 2020 and 2021, have filed a variety of payments to tighten penalties for gun-related convictions and restrict entry to firearms, together with a measure that may prohibit the sale of sure assault-style weapons.
Those measures will face the prospect of a Youngkin veto, although the governor has been quiet sufficient on the subject that main gun rights advocates have mentioned they’re unsure of how he would possibly act.
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Democrats have or are anticipated to file measures that may put Youngkin on the file on different matters the place he is hedged, together with homosexual marriage and marijuana retail gross sales.
They will even give you the option to elect judges and fill different appointments and have pledged to begin the multi-year course of of amending the state structure to defend abortion rights and take the course of of restoring voting rights for felons who’ve served their phrases out of the governor’s arms.
This 12 months’s session is scheduled to finish in early March.
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