2023 SESSION WEEK 6
OVERVIEW
Dear Friends,
Things are finally beginning to slow down now that crossover is behind us. Crossover is when the bills that passed the House come to the Senate and vice versa.
Up until crossover we are literally working around the clock either preparing talking points and lining up subject matter experts to speak on bills, or doing regular press interviews to convey those bill ideas to the public.
Now we are simply listening to House bills that mostly have unanimous consent and sending bills to conference committee where conferees from both the House and the Senate work together to finalize the bill language. On average now, we vote up or down on about 40 uncontested bills and 10 contested bills each day. Next week, we will hear those conference reports and vote up or down on any remaining bills.
To give you an idea, almost 600 bills in the House and over 500 in the Senate advanced, and only one bill passed both chambers by Feb. 7. Few good bills passed and those that did aren't exciting.
With only a handful of exceptions, meaningful bills died and only more technical or clerical in nature survived. Bills important to constituents all failed, like election integrity, pushing back against Covid mask and vaccine mandates, restoring 2A rights taken in 2020, parental rights in education and decoupling ourselves with a law passed by Democrats in 2020 to tie Virginia's vehicle emissions standard to California all failed.
The only good news of the week is that we agreed to pass legislation that prohibits countries who are hostile to the United States from purchasing land in Virginia thanks to Republicans and 3 Democrat Senators Joe Morrisey, John Bell and David Marsden who understand the importance of national security. Next week is our final week and we finish up on Saturday.
The session is slated to adjourn on Feb. 25 and reconvene for unfinished business will be on April 12. After that, election season begins in earnest. All 140 General Assembly seats will be up for grabs in November.
We're all up for re-election. That's 140 seats. 100 in the House and 40 in the Senate. All seats are in newly drawn districts in which many incumbent senators will actually face off against fellow incumbents or face retirement.
While I'm thankful that I'm the only incumbent with an address in Senate District 12, both of my opponents Tina Ramirez and Glenn Sturtevant are not explaining to voters that they are running against one of the most conservative Republicans in the Virginia Senate. While I believe the seat belongs to the people, not politicians; it is important that we spend our resources against Democrats, not incumbent Republicans who have not only a proven voting record but a history of securing not just Republican primaries, but winning re-election in a general election, not just once but twice.
Did the lines change? Yes. And now more of Northern Chesterfield is in the district, which helps. My husband and I both grew up on Bon Air just blocks away from each other and still have family in this area to this day. Although my husband and I are 4 years apart in age, we both attended Bon Air Elementary, Robious Middle School and graduated from Monacan High School. We both worked at the Chick-Fil-A at Cloverleaf Mall in the 80s as teenagers, which is where we met.
My husband and I were married at Bon Air United Methodist Church over 30 years ago, which is the same church in which my husband's parents were married in 1963 and his grandparents were married in prior to that. We have deep roots in Bon Air. It was also my father who helped with the engineering of the new edition to the church decades later.
This week we were honored to have Pastor Mike Mayton of Bon Air United Methodist Church pray over the Senate. It was great talking with him and reminiscing about our shared connections at BAUMC. I'm really looking forward to representing Bon Air, my home where I spend most of my childhood and met my husband.
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