Faced with a persistent pandemic and continued calls for police reform, Virginia lawmakers will convene Wednesday — mostly virtually, but with some in Richmond — to begin considering proposed legislation.
This will be the second consecutive year the General Assembly is under the control of Democrats, who, as recently as three months ago, already passed sweeping measures to overhaul the state’s criminal justice system.
They’re expected to continue those efforts while finding more ways to grapple with a pandemic that has devastated the economy, sent unemployment rates soaring and upended the lives of many Virginians.
More bills will be introduced, and many lawmakers haven’t announced what measures they’ll back this year. But already, some areas that will be debated are clear.
Civil rights activists, fueled by last year’s protest movement for Black lives and outrage over last week’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, will push for legislation aimed at making government better serve marginalized communities, including people of color, immigrants and women.
The Virginia State Conference NAACP, for instance, has called for declaring systemic racism as a public health crisis in the state, boosting COVID-19 protections for staff and inmates in correctional facilities and funding doula services for expecting mothers enrolled in Medicaid.
From Portsmouth, Del. Steve Heretick, a Democrat who also represents parts of Norfolk and Chesapeake, on Wednesday once again introduced legislation to legalize the cultivation, sale and consumption of marijuana in Virginia.
Heretick’s proposal has failed in years past, but this time Gov. Ralph Northam and top lawmakers have expressed support for marijuana legalization. And a study released late last year by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission gives lawmakers a roadmap on the public impact of legalizing the substance.
Northam, meanwhile, has proposed boosting funding for education, COVID-19 relief and criminal justice reform thanks to a revenue forecast that last month predicted an extra $1.2 billion beyond the previous forecast, released in August.
In a special session that went from August to mid-December and was held largely virtually, Democrats passed bills to ban police chokeholds and no-knock warrants in most situations, make it easier to decertify police officers involved in wrongdoing, and establish minimum training standards for law enforcement agencies across the state. That’s on top of measures passed in the 2020 regular session,which included legislation that lets undocumented immigrants drive legally, makes undocumented students eligible for in-state tuition and decriminalizes the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
On Wednesday, the House of Delegates will convene virtually, while senators will meet, with social distancing in place, in a large room at the Virginia Museum of Science in Richmond.
The governor usually delivers his State of the Commonwealth address on the first day of the legislative session. A spokeswoman for Northam said it will be live-streamed remotely.
Ana Ley, 757-446-2478, ana.ley@pilotonline.com
