Category: General Assembly
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University Board Politics Got Even Nastier Yesterday
by James A. Bacon Blaming the toxic politics in Washington, D.C., the state Senate Privileges & Elections Subcommittee just made Virginia politics more toxic by voting down eight university Board of Visitors members nominated by Governor Glenn Youngkin in an 8-to-4 party line vote. “What we see in our political climate today, especially coming out…
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Governor Northam Raises Your Fuel Tax Again
By Steve Haner For the record, since the dying traditional media do not cover this, a brief note that Virginia’s motor fuel taxes will rise once again July 1. The increase will be automatic, based on consumer price inflation, because of legislation passed in 2020 and signed by Governor Ralph Northam. Another example of the…
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Warned Again of Energy Shortfalls, Democrats Again Pretend to Care
By Steve Haner Here we go again. As the 2025 election year heats up and warnings rise about electricity shortfalls this summer, the legislators behind Virginia’s coming ban on hydrocarbon electricity are pretending they see the problem. A May 22 headline out of a recent legislative meeting on energy claimed that “Democratic leadership signals willingness…
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Bacon Bits: Partial Return-to-Sanity Edition
Hurricane Reid downgraded to tropical storm. The tempest over Glenn Youngkin and John Reid is still gusting and squalling but seems to petering out. We see headlines today like CNN proclaiming, “Virginia Republicans reel from party infighting over nominee for lieutenant governor,” and a WTOP article highlighting the fact that Governor Youngkin did not consult…
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Youngkin Vetoes More Energy Bills, Again Criticizes Clean Economy Act
By Steve Haner, With one exception, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) has now vetoed the contested energy bills that he sought to amend at the 2025 General Assembly’s reconvened session last month. The rejection of his amendments or substitutes gave him a final opportunity for a full veto of the legislation. Friday night was his deadline…
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Youngkin Veto of AI Bill Praised by Louisiana Group
Reprinted from the Pelican Tech & Innovation Center Artificial intelligence (AI) is progressing rapidly and powering solutions previously unimaginable. At the same time, AI legislation is on the rise and a patchwork of state restrictions looms over the momentum of innovators and US leadership. This Monday, HB 2094, the High-Risk Artificial Intelligence Developer and Deployer Act, was…
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One Last Effort to Let Some Escape from School Failure
By Derrick Max, To say that there is a crisis in Virginia’s education system would be a gross understatement. As the Thomas Jefferson Institute’s Hannah Schmid recently wrote: This terrible performance is despite the extra $7 billion in direct aid to public education that Governor Glenn Youngkin has approved since the pandemic — a 50%…
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Taking a Knife to the Democrats’ Green Energy Dream
By Steve Haner Wielding irony like a razor-sharp butcher’s knife, Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) has proposed a series of amendments on bills intended to mandate renewable energy that basically reverse the impact and do just the opposite. One amendment would even repeal the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), which is central to Virginia Democratic…
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Oh, All Those Drug Ads
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Tom Garrett, who was formerly a state senator, then a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and is now a member of the House of Delegates from Goochland County, has called on President Trump to rein in drug prices. One of his suggestions is to prohibit drug companies from advertising. Saying…
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Unless Targeted, Extra Math Funds Will Be Wasted
by Chris Braunlich, Writing in the blog Bacon’s Rebellion, Arlington parent and self-described “Obama Democrat” Todd Truitt has come out swinging against a Virginia budget amendment to spend $12 million extra “to improve student performance in mathematics.” His argument? Without Governor’s amendments, these extra funds won’t help math outcomes and will probably hurt. Mr. Truitt’s…
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The Social Cost of Free Lunch
By Derrick Max After failing to pass legislation last year that would have made breakfast and lunch free for all public school students regardless of income (at a staggering cost of $201.5 million), state Senator Danika Roem, D-Manassas,) pared down that bill to focus solely on funding a universal free school breakfast program this session. Fortunately, the…
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General Assembly Upends Bill to Hold Virginia Nursing Homes Accountable
by James C. Sherlock Fish gotta swim. The General Assembly gotta do the bidding of the nursing home lobby. Patients be damned – literally. Consider the fate of House Bill 2253 in the 2025 General Assembly. As introduced, it would have empowered the Health Commissioner to impose serious sanctions on our worst nursing homes; but…
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Medicaid Expansion Costs in Virginia – Who Should Pay?
by James C. Sherlock Update Feb 26 at 13:02: See here for article on potential Medicaid cuts. Ronald Reagan was wrong, yet somewhere he is smiling. “No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on…
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Data Centers Escape Assembly Session Unscathed
By Steve Haner Despite great public angst and political theater, the data center industry has emerged from the 2025 General Assembly unscathed. Virginians will continue to compete with Internet and cloud customers from all over the country and the world for electricity, as the data centers continue to proliferate here. One bill dealing with the…
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Key Energy Issues of Customer Cost, Reliability Often Ignored
By Steve Haner The Virginia General Assembly has approved a long list of bills to reinforce its previous commitment to ending the use of hydrocarbon fuel in Virginia. It ignored warnings that natural gas is essential for energy security from the regional electricity marketplace, the Virginian who now chairs the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and…