My Vetoed Bills

Last year, the voters of Virginia sent a clear message that they were rejecting the state’s lurch to the right that followed the election of Governor Glenn Youngkin. Their votes returned Democrats to control of the Virginia House after a campaign that emphasized the danger MAGA Republicans posed to our fundamental freedoms. 

After a very successful session when the House and Senate passed bills to protect reproductive health freedom, common sense gun violence preventions measures, and bills to protect our democratic institutions, we had high hopes we’d be able to fulfill our campaign promises to the voters. 

Unfortunately, Governor Youngkin doesn’t seem to have gotten the message.

Instead, he vetoed 153 bills. That’s more than any other Governor has vetoed in their entire four-year term. Quite a bit more, actually. In addition to the unprecedented number of vetoes, he made recommendations to amend 117 other bills, many in ways that would effectively go against the original intent of the bill.  Finally, he proposed 233 line item amendments to our bi-partisan two year budget.  That’s literally 10 times what is typical.  

My Vetoed Bills

Seven of my sixteen bills that went to the Governor were vetoed, more than any other individual legislator. That’s a distinction I’m rather proud of.

The first veto was of my bill to allow people accused of committing a crime to make informed decisions about how they want to exercise their right to a jury trial by allowing them to make the election at any time prior to sentencing (HB 63). The Governor claims this would be burdensome on the judicial system, which is simply not true.

In vetoing my bill that abolished the common law crime of suicide, the Governor failed to articulate any problem with the bill (HB 81). Instead, he noted that we have improved our mental health system and that there is less stigma associated with having a mental illness. He clearly misses the mark here as criminalizing suicide is unnecessarily harmful to the loved ones left behind, and can impact their eligibility for survivor benefits, especially military families.

My bill to prohibit the carrying of assault weapons in public safety, something that has happened in Virginia in an effort to intimidate, was vetoed by the Governor’s because he claimed the definition of “public spaces” was too broad (HB 175).

This is the second time I have carried a bill to require the safe storage of firearms when a minor or prohibited person is present (HB 183). Citing the unfeasibility of getting a firearm from a locked container in situations of self-defense and that low-income individuals can’t afford a storage device, the Governor vetoed the bill. Biometric storage containers are on Amazon for as low as $60 and maintaining proper firearms storage around minors and those that are prohibited from possessing a firearm should be a priority for so-called responsible gun owners.

In response to harassment of duly elected school board members and other elected officials by MAGA extremists, I introduced a bill that would have required that signatures for removal petitions of public officers be collected within 60 days (HB 265). It also would have prevented fraudulent or repetitive removal petitions from being submitted. The Governor vetoed this bill with limited explanation.

One of my consumer protection bills, HB 418, would have paved the way for class action lawsuits in Virginia. The veto explanation for this is a word salad of nothing, talking extensively about the burden on the judicial system, the recent expansion of the Virginia Court of Appeals, and how the Virginia economy needs to continue to “flourish.” It would have been more straightforward to simply say that big companies matter more than people and leave it at that.

My second consumer protection bill would have prohibited extraditions of those who travel to Virginia for reproductive health services (that are legal in Virginia) and it prohibited the sharing of personal reproductive or sexual health information without the consent of the consumer under the VA Consumer Protection Act (HB 1539). It’s not a surprise that the Governor vetoed this bill as it was intended to ensure that abortions remain an option for those that live in other states where it has been restricted or banned since Roe v. Wade was overturned.

And fun fact, I will have a record-setting eighth veto soon.

The Governor made some recommendations to HB 173, which would prohibit the manufacturing, importing, or selling of ghost guns. These recommendations not only substantially weaken the original bill by removing the qualifying classification of what a plastic firearm is, but also increase the mandatory minimum sentence for second offenses. Accordingly, I will be encouraging my colleagues to reject the Governor’s amendments. If this happens, then the original bill will return to the Governor, and he will most likely veto it at that point.

 

How a bill becomes a law

The legislative process in Virginia is almost exactly like what you remember from the Schoolhouse Rock video with the singing scroll of paper known as Bill. You remember him, right? He’s just a lonely old bill, and he’s sitting there on Capitol Hill? He was born as an idea from a constituent who called his congressman, who sat down at a typewriter, and typed him up, then he went to committee, then he’s signed and goes to the other House, then he waits to be signed, but explains that he’s worried about being Vetoed? Yeah, that’s the one.

In Virginia it works almost the same way, except since the legislature only meets part-time, 60 days in this year’s “long session” we can’t just start over if the Governor vetoes a bill. We have to wait until next year to start the process over. So if the Governor likes most of a bill, but not all of it, or wants it to do more, he can make recommendations for amendments, which the General Assembly can vote up or down. If we accept the recommendations, the bill becomes law. If we don’t the Governor can still veto it, or he can sign it as we originally sent it to him.

We are now in the week between the Governor’s deadline to sign, veto or recommend amendments to bills (April 11, 2020) and the Reconvene Session where we decide what to do about them (April 22, 2020). When we do go back, the General Assembly will have just over 100 bills with recommendations (but only one veto) to act on.

Like many things these days, this will be an unprecedented Reconvene Session. We won’t meet indoors in the House Chamber, because it would be impossible to adhere to social distancing and sanitation practices. Instead, the Senate will convene at the Science Museum of Virginia and the House will gather outdoors on the Capitol Grounds.

The setting won’t be the only thing this session will be remembered for. It’s unprecedented in more substantive ways as well, as this is likely the first time since Reconstruction, we’ve had what you can call a progressive or liberal majority in both legislative chambers with a like-minded Governor.

I'm proud to report that 14 of my bills passed this session, nearly doubling my production from my first 6 years in one session.

The Governor signed the Virginia Values Act, making Virginia the first Southern state to provide sweeping anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people - a bill I was proud to help craft as it came through one of the three subcommittees I chair.

Governor Northam also signed new laws to strike discriminatory language from Virginia’s Acts of Assembly, deleting 98 instances of overtly discriminatory language still on the Commonwealth’s books. This includes laws that banned interracial marriage, blocked school integration, and prohibited black and white Virginians from living in the same neighborhoods. While many of these Acts of Assembly have been overturned by court decisions or subsequent legislation, they had remained enshrined in law.

The Governor also signed a criminal justice reform agenda that includes measures raising the felony larceny threshold; permanently eliminating driver’s license suspensions for unpaid fines, fees, and court costs; raising the age of juvenile transfer to adult court; and reforming parole, while decriminalizing simple possession of marijuana and sealing the records of prior convictions.

He also signed bills to make voting easier, to encourage the use of clean energy, and to enact common sense gun safety reforms. Any of these would be screaming headlines in any other year, but this year they barely made it into my column for lack of column inches!

Among the recommendations we will have to consider are amendments delaying the implementation of incremental increases to the minimum wage on a path toward $15 an hour, allowing local government employees to collectively bargain, and encouraging the use of project labor agreements and prevailing wage clauses in local government contracts. Although these progressive items may be put off a few months, they will become law, something unthinkable given the political landscape in Virginia a year ago at this time.

The 2020 General Assembly Session will go down in history, regardless of what we do, or where or how we do it at our Reconvene Session, and I couldn’t be more honored to be a part of it. Thank you for your trust and confidence during these trying times.

The Importance of the Veto

The 2017 General Assembly Session was Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe’s final as Governor. In Virginia the Governor is not allowed to run for reelection. As the deadline for final action on all bills passed earlier this month, he set a record for the most Vetoes ever, acting as a brick wall against bills that would have threatened Virginia’s reputation as a great place to live, work, and raise a family.

Women’s Health

The Governor vetoed a bill that would have prohibited the Virginia Department of Health from entering contracts or providing funds to any entity that performs non-federally qualified abortions. Aimed solely at Planned Parenthood, this legislation would have hurt tens of thousands of Virginians who rely on the health care services and programs they provide, denying accessible, affordable care to those who need it most. Virginians, and particularly low-income Virginians, need more access to health care, not less.

Keeping Virginian’s Safe

The Republican majority in the House of Delegates is working on two tracks to allow any Virginian to carry a concealed handgun anywhere they may go. One track is with a bill that says exactly that. The second, more subtle approach, is to systematically and incrementally limit the places where weapons may be prohibited.

This year the Governor vetoed bills that would have prevented the State Police or National Guard from stopping people from carrying their personal firearms into emergency shelters during natural disasters, would have allowed 18, 19 and 20 year olds to obtain concealed carry permits, and would have allowed anyone with a military ID to carry concealed with no permit at all. He also vetoed bills that would have allowed people to conceal and carry switchblade knives and to allow them to furnish such knives to children.

Protecting the Vote

Voting rights and the ability to participate in election process seem to be under constant siege in the General Assembly. Members of the majority party frequently introduce bills aimed at alleged voter fraud prevention, which have the real-life impact of creating unnecessary obstacles to voting.

The Governor vetoed bill that would have made it easier to remove voters from the roles improperly, and forcing people to submit copies of photo identification when seeking to vote absentee by mail, burdening voters who don’t have ready access to a photo-copiers or scanners and printers. This seems particularly unhelpful and unnecessary since the person receiving the ID copy would have nothing with which to compare it.

Equality for All Virginians

I spoke out against on the floor of the House several times this session in opposition to legislation that would have provided a shield from civil liability to those who actively discriminate against same-sex couples.

Although couched as a "religious freedom" bill, the bill was nothing more than an attempt to stigmatize. The Governor, in his veto statement, mentioned something I pointed out in my remarks and in the press: any legitimate protections afforded by the bill would be duplicative of the first Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; Article I, Section 11 of the Constitution of Virginia; and the Virginia Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The additional so-called protections were styled in a manner that prefers one religious viewpoint—that marriage can only validly exist between a man and a woman—over all other viewpoints.

Businesses won’t do business in states that pass laws demonizing same-sex couples. This bill would have damaged Virginia's reputation and severely hindered our efforts to create the new Virginia economy. We don’t have to look far to see the damage these types of laws are doing in other states to understand the harm this bill would have done to the Commonwealth.

What It All Means

What the last four years – and this session in particular demonstrate is that it’s essential we continue to have a Governor who is willing to stand up to a legislature that seems more than comfortable interfering in decisions that ought to be between a woman and her doctor, that believes more guns in more places held by more people is a good thing, and that is willing to deprive people of the right to vote to protect their own seats.

I’ll continue to stand up for our values in the General Assembly, but it helps an awful lot to know I have a Governor who has my back.