Greetings from your state capitol. It’s been a true joy to have so many local visitors this past week. I always welcome your visits and the opportunity to discuss the bills before us as well as the legislative process. This is your capitol and I encourage you to visit this beautiful and historic site.

The past two weeks have had all measures considered that will be voted on. Unfortunately, I have seen more bills than ever not heard in committee, they have just been killed without any explanation or public comment. This action has been on a totally partisan basis. For this week’s update, I’ll focus on the status of my introduced legislation.

• HB1783 – To clarify that non-career and technical students may participate in the affiliated student organization consistent with organizational criteria. This measure has been amended and should pass the chamber on Tuesday.

• HB1784 – Increase the penalty for car owners who allow their vehicle registration to expire for more than a year. This bill was never taken up.

• HB1785 – Exempt church-run child day care programs for 3-year-olds from state oversight the same as are currently exempt for 4-year-old and older programs. HB1786 – Make inspections of church-run day care programs to be complaint driven. Evidence has proven that the incidence of problems in these facilities is extremely low. This would allow our Dept. of Education inspectors to have more time to inspect those facilities with a history of problems. These two bills were heard briefly and had significant testimony in support but were killed on a party line vote.

• Hb1787 – Require the Sec. of Health ensure the adequacy of surgical consent documents to ensure patient understanding and patient safety. This bill was heard briefly and then passed by for the day without a recorded vote. I found this to be especially ironic given the many remarks about reproductive freedom we have heard, and that this bill would try to ensure that a woman could not have here ability to conceive taken from her while undergoing an unrelated surgical procedure.

• HB1788 – Require the Dept. of Education to modify the absentee reporting requirement to accurately address the issue of chronic student absenteeism. This bill was incorporated into HB1769 and should pass the chamber on Tuesday.

• HB1789 – Allow local government a means to ensure that public work contracts are more in line with construction costs for the private sector. The intent of this bill was to make government project costs have to closely align with costs in the private sector. This bill was heard and then passed by without any recorded vote.

• HB1790 – Allow local government a means to modify existing zoning statutes to facilitate more affordable housing. This bill was heard and then referred to the Affordable Housing Commission, which has heard it before.

• HB1792 – Allow local government a more efficient means of disposing of tax delinquent property. This bill passed the house on Monday, 1/27/25.

• HB1825 – Include our State Park police officers in the same retirement program as other State police officers. This bill was never taken up and I was never allowed to explain. This is the same measure that I carried last session that had a re-enactment clause on it. Given that funding for this is in the Governor’s budget, I’m at a loss as to why it wasn’t taken up.

• HB2031 – Remove the $1 fee for the filing of certification of a working alternative sewage system. This fee is costing the Department of Health more money to collect it than it generates, thereby it’s removal will save the State and taxpayers money. It was heard with testimony of support, no comments in opposition and then killed on a party line vote.

• HB2181 – Place a bond issue on the 2025 election ballot authorizing $80 million for our state park system to address a lengthy list of current major maintenance needs. At the request of the leadership of the state park system, I had this bill stricken.

• HJ442 – Require a study by our state tax department on the effect of local government tax policies on making affordable housing more difficult. This measure was also never taken up in any committee.

During my tenure, this has been the most partisan session I’ve ever observed. While partisanship has always been a factor, this session there have been many Republican sponsored bills that are good public policy and shouldn’t have been controversial, killed without negative comment strictly on party lines.

I welcome your inquiries on these or any other issues before us this session. Given that all house bills will have to be acted on by next Tuesday, I will update you on some of the more significant actions next week. All legislative work may be watched live on-line at virginiageneralassembly.gov and going to the proper link. All committee and floor sessions are also archived and accessible. Further, I welcome your phone calls to (804)698-1066 and your emails to delborrock@house.virginia.gov to share your views, answer questions, or schedule a visit.

Thank you again for the opportunity to represent you and I’ll continue to keep you updated.