2024 Session | January 19th Update

The 2024 legislative session kicked off on January 10th with the House of Delegates unanimously electing Don Scott of Portsmouth the first African American Speaker in the 405-year history of the body.  

Scott’s ascension to the Speaker’s dais was the result of Democrats winning 51 of the 100 seats up for grabs in November’s election, putting the party back in the majority in the House by the slimmest of margins. 

Along with the ability to elect the Speaker, majority status means Democrats will be in charge of the Committees and Subcommittees in the House where the real work of legislating happens.  

As the 26th most senior member of the House and one of the most senior members of the Democratic Caucus, I’ll have a lot of leadership responsibilities this session.  

I’m honored to have been appointed Chairman of the House Public Safety Committee by Speaker Scott, as well as Vice Chair of the Courts of Justice Committee. I’m looking forward to once again serving on the General Laws and Rules Committees as well. For subcommittees, I’m chairing the Civil Law Subcommittee of Courts of Justice and the Housing and Consumer Protection Subcommittee of General Laws this session. 

As Chairman of Public Safety, I’ll be charged with shepherding through a number of caucus priorities in the area of gun violence prevention, including HB2 our assault weapons ban, my bill to ban unserialized, untraceable, ghost guns, and a number of bills to required safe storage of firearms.  

The Courts of Justice Committee is among the busiest in the General Assembly, hearing hundreds of bills in the short 60-day session.  As Vice Chair of the full committee and Chair of Civil subcommittee, I’ll be working on legislation to improve access to justice by making Virgnia the 49th of the 50 states to allow class actions. I’ll be working on leveling the playing field between landlords and tenants when they find themselves in court and working on fine tuning of family law and civil procedures. 

On the General Laws Committee, I’ll reprise my role as the Chairman of the Housing and Consumer Protection Subcommittee where bills regulating real estate transactions, landlord tenant law, fair housing and other important subjects are addressed.  

If those assignments weren’t enough to keep me occupied, I’m also patroning roughly 20 bill myself, including my perennial effort to make it illegal for candidates to convert the funds in their campaign accounts to personal use. I also have a bill to establish a public financing option for candidates that choose to rely on small donations to fund their campaigns.  

On behalf of the City of Falls Church, I’ve reintroduced legislation to allow the city to change their charter to allow residents who aren't citizens to participate in local boards and commissions. 

My bill, HB 81, will finally abolish the common- law crime of suicide. An outdated provision that needs to be removed from the Code of Virginia. 

As I mentioned previously, I’ve reintroduced my bill to prohibit the manufacturing, importing, or selling of ghost guns.  

To further my gun violence prevention agenda, HB 175 prohibits individuals from carrying assault weapons in public areas and HB 183 requires firearms to be properly stored in a locked container when minors are present.  

Related to the election process, HB 185 requires that challenges to a candidate’s ballot qualifications be made at least 60 days before the election date. This will hopefully prevent deceptive challenges from being submitted for political purposes.  

I’ve also got a bill that will enhance consumer protection in Virginia, which allows for class action lawsuits in Virginia's circuit courts. 

Working with the Legal Aid Justice Center and Justice Forward, I’ve got two bills that will further improve the criminal justice process by allowing defendants to have more flexibility in jury sentencing as well as protect them from being charged with “failure to appear” when the circumstances are beyond their control.  

I’ve got a full legislative agenda, to say the least, and I’m looking forward to working on the issues that my constituents care about the most. In that vein, you can contact my office in Richmond any time, sharing your concerns about a bill or if you have questions about what’s happening - (804) 698-1013 or delmsimon@house.virginia.gov. 

2024 Session | January 15th Update

The 2024 General Assembly Session began on January 10th and we've hit the ground running!

During the first floor session, all the House members were sworn in and we officially elected Delegate Don Scott as the first black Speaker of the House. Since then, committees have started meeting and the General Assembly Building has been full of advocacy groups, lobbyists, and constituents - all eager to meet with legislators and to tour the new building. We've also had several legislative deadlines already for submitting budget amendments and introducing bills. No rest for those in the General Assembly!

 

Keep reading for more information on my 2024 Legislative Agenda, committee assignments, and more!

 

My 2024 Legislative Agenda

I'm looking forward to working on some big issues this session, including bills on gun violence prevention, criminal justice, campaign finance, and the election process. To highlight a few: HB 40 | Prohibits the use of campaign funds for personal use. HB 54 | Allows the City of Falls Church to change their charter to allow residents who aren't citizens to participate in local boards and commissions. HB 81 | Abolishes the common- law crime of suicide. HB 173 | Prohibits the manufacturing, importing, or selling of ghost guns. HB 175 | Prohibits individuals from carrying assault weapons in public areas. HB 183 | Requires firearms to be properly stored in a locked container when minors are present. HB 185 | Requires that challenges to a candidates ballot qualifications be made at least 60 days before the election date. HB 418 | Allows for class action lawsuits in Virginia's circuit courts. You can view my full legislative agenda here.

2024 Committee Assignments

Now that the Democrats have once again taken over the House, I'm happy to report that my committee assignments have expanded and I have the opportunity to take on a larger leadership role in this area. Subcommittee chair assignments will be announced later this week.

Courts of Justice | I have been on this committee since 2020 and have been appointed Vice Chair.

Public Safety | I'm honored to be the Chair of this committee and look forward to working with my colleagues to enhance gun violence prevention initiatives, strengthen the relationship with law enforcement agencies, improve transparency, and hold our Department of Corrections to a higher standard.

General Laws | As I work a lot on these issues, I'm thrilled to be back on this committee.

Rules | Chaired by the Speaker, this committee reviews a variety of legislation and resolutions.

 

Please welcome new members to Team Simon!

We're rounding out Team Simon this year with some additional staff for session. Many of you already know Andrea, my Chief of Staff, and may have also spoken with Becky, our Administrative Assistant.

However, I'd like to introduce Spogmai Anwar, a recent UVA graduate, who is our Session Aide. She's interested in criminal justice, government transparency, ethics reform, and plans to attend law school.

Justin Sheppard is joining the team as our session intern. A junior at VCU, Justin also has an interest in criminal justice and would love to work at one of our federal law enforcement agencies one day.

Best of 2023

 My December column comes so late in the year I decided to make it a “Best of 2023 Edition.”

Here are my favorite lines from my 11 monthly Richmond Reports here in the Falls Church New Press.

In January, I wrote about having to participate in the opening days of the new legislative session remotely because I’d finally contracted COVID-19. My favorite line:

While I was out, I missed the kerfuffle that occurred outside my office in the Pocahontas Building over my Little Banned Book Library. 

Fortunately, it was just a kerfuffle and the library will return in 2024.

In February, I was already writing about the waning days of our short session. My favorite line described the developing budget impasse:

Unfortunately, the House budget, crafted by Republicans, falls short in meeting the needs of hardworking Virginians. At the heart of the budget are over $350 million in corporate tax breaks, which disproportionately benefit big businesses rather than the average Virginian.

By March the short session was over, and I dedicated this column to shouting out retiring legislators while predicting November’s election would focus a on a very small number of seats:

By packing us all into nice, geometrically pretty districts, we’ve created 46 or 47 safely Democratic districts where you can win without a single Republican or independent vote, and about 42 or 43 on the Republican side. This leaves maybe 10 -12 competitive seats up for grabs in November. 

In April, I reported on the retirement announcement of Kaye Kory, with whom I’d been drawn together in redistricting, and the results of our reconvened session, which ended without a budget deal. We’d also learned that Governor Youngkin had stopped restoring the voting rights of former felons who had completed their jail sentences, and I wrote:

I urge the Governor to return to the automatic restoration of voting rights, as it's a crucial step in promoting a more inclusive and just society.

In May, I took the gloves off with the Governor and his administration over another issue involving voting rights:

As the parent of two very young adults who are coming of age at a time when social media is often their primary source of news about current events, I’ve had to spend a lot of effort teaching my kids how to be smart and discerning consumers of quality information. How to tell facts from fiction and identify intentional disinformation campaigns.

Unfortunately, that skill set doesn’t seem to be a prerequisite for employment in Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin's Administration.

In June of 2023, Donald Trump was indicted and our Governor tweeted in support of the former President. I took him to task for it:

Youngkin couldn’t be more wrong about the nature of the charges against the former President. I wonder if he regrets his decision to tweet before the indictments were unsealed.

In July, we still didn’t have a state budget and I wrote about what that would mean to our local school systems here in Falls Church City and Fairfax:

Unfortunately, when the kids do go back to school in just a few short weeks, public school students here in Falls Church and Fairfax will be in classrooms staffed by teachers who are once again being asked to do more with less.

Why? 

Because Governor Glenn Younkin’s Department of Education flunked math last semester and miscalculated the state’s share of education funding by about $201 million.

August’s column was written after Ohio proponents of abortion rights won the day passing a referendum to enshrine abortion access in their state constitution. I made this promise:

With control of both the House and Senate, we can pass a resolution to put a Constitutional Amendment on the ballot that would make access to abortion a constitutionally protected right in Virginia, just as it was at the federal level before the Dobb’s decision.  

By September we finally had a state budget:

The Governor’s agenda of giving big tax breaks to corporations at the expense of public education funding was soundly defeated as the conferees’ budget largely resembled the draft put forth by Senate Democrats at the end of February.

In October, I made some dire predictions about what would happen if Republicans gained majorities in both houses of the General Assembly giving the Governor’s party total control of state government:

Frankly, I’d rather not find out if these predictions come true.

Fortunately, last month I was able to report back that Virginians had given Democrats a majority in both houses. The takeaway:

This was a major rebuke to Governor Glenn Younkin and a setback for his presidential ambitions. Hopefully he’ll be humbled by the result and step back from some of the incendiary actions he took during his early years, with executive orders establishing a teacher snitch line, and attempting to limit teaching of history under the guise of a ban on divisive concepts in the class room.

 

2023 Election Results

Last week’s election brought a wave of change to the General Assembly. There are 34 new delegates-elect – 20 new Democrats and 14 new Republicans. With a new ruling Democratic majority of 51 to 49 in the House and 21 to 19 in the Senate.  

So, let me take this opportunity to thank those who helped make this happen – my constituents and supporters. With all the 13th District ballots counted, I earned 82% of the vote in Falls Church. It’s clear I wouldn’t be where I am without you and I can’t express how honored I am to continue representing the Little City and the new 13th District.  

With City Councilmember retirements, including my good friend Phil Duncan, this paved the way for some new members of the Falls Church City Council. Letty Hardi handily won re-election and will now be working with the newest councilmembers, Justine Underhill and Erin Flynn.  

On the School Board, Jerrod Anderson won reelection and we can welcome Bethany Henderson and Amie Murphy as the newest members. 

I also want to congratulate our new state senator, Saddam Salim. He and his campaign team worked diligently to earn the votes and support of our mutual constituents this past year. I look forward to working with him in the General Assembly for many years to come. 

And the winning doesn’t stop there. Congratulations to Andres Jiminez for winning the Mason District Supervisor race, Jimmy Bierman for the Dranesville District Supervisor race, and to Dalia Palchik for winning reelection as Providence District Supervisor.  

However, the biggest headline is that Democrats took control of the House of Delegates again with a slim majority of 51 to 49. And we maintained control of the state Senate.  

Overall, this year’s election proved the most expensive yet in Virginia. In the final stretch to ForElection Day, Democrats outraised Republicans, particularly in the House races - $14.2 million compared to $8.4 million.  

In this kind of divided government, where the election stakes were high and the resulting majority is narrow, we have to look for opportunities to be non-partisan. Because while Democratic control of the General Assembly means that we can stand against the most egregious right-wing legislation, it also means that getting the Governor to sign legislation that does reach his desk will be a challenge.  

So, in that vein, I’m focusing on the roots of my campaign promises – campaign finance reform. Every year that I have been in office, I have introduced a form of campaign finance legislation, whether it’s to require independent audits, banning personal use of campaign funds, or strengthening our campaign ethics laws. The only thing different in 2024 is that this issue is one that can work within the confines of the new makeup of the General Assembly and with our current Governor.