The American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) is historically progressive, bold legislation designed for sustained economic recovery, recognizing that it will not be possible without advancing racial equity. Even though not one Republican in the U.S. House or Senate voted for this $1.9 trillion stimulus package, including the four Republican U.S. Representatives from Virginia, it was successfully passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joseph R. Biden on March 11, 2021.

It is not just individuals and businesses that will receive stimulus funds—the Commonwealth of Virginia’s government will control a significant portion of the over $4 billion in ARP funds directed toward Virginia. To ensure these ARP funds are spent in an effective, equitable, and racially just manner, as intended in the legislation, it is critically important that Democrats continue to control Virginia’s legislature and the executive branch.

Read our report for complete details at this link:

Issue Report: Democrats Deliver the American Rescue Plan to Virginia  -  July 4, 2021

Talking Points: ARP  -   July 5, 2021

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The brutal murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Daunte Wright and the persistence of police violence across the country have led to efforts in more than 20 major cities to reform the role of police by redistributing some funding to other agencies and institutions.

Advocates for systemic police reform propose a new model of policing, variously called “reimagine the police,” “abolish the police,” and “defund the police.” However, not all proponents of police reform are in favor of abolishing the police. Many local communities are working to redefine what the police do, advocating for better training, increasing funding for crisis first responders such as mental health providers and social workers as well as focusing on the root causes of crime: poverty and racism and pushing to maintain law and order through education, jobs, and mental health services.

Advocates of reallocating police funding to alternative services differ from police reformers, who argue that police departments need more funding for anti-bias training and other programs. This paper will discuss both approaches to re-imagining policing in America.

Read our report for complete details at this link:

Issue Report: The Emerging Movement for Police Reform  - July 22, 2021

Thanks to Democratic control of the Virginia state legislature, Virginia has leapt into an environmental leadership position in the south and in the nation. Democrats in Virginia made significant progress on protecting the environment, reducing greenhouse gasses, and preparing for the devastating effects of climate change. They passed the Virginia Clean Economy Act which jumpstarts a clean energy transition and breaks open energy markets to new participants and could add 13,000 new clean energy jobs. Virginia officially joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the cap-and-trade program that reduces emissions in the electric power production sector. Virginia passed the Clean Car Standard which will encourage more EV car adoption. Read our report for details on these ground-breaking bills as well as more than a dozen other environmental bills in the transportation, fossil fuel regulation, clean energy, energy efficiency, and clean air initiatives.

Read our report for complete details at this link:

Issue Report:Virginia  Takes Bold Steps on Environment - July 19, 2021

The new Virginia minimum wage law does not cover tipped employees. A tipped employee will still earn only $2.13 per hour plus tips with their minimum wage as little as $7.25 per hour, while most non-tipped workers must now be paid a minimum of $9.50 per hour, increasing to $15 per hour by 2026 (if the Legislature remains in Democratic hands). Tipped workers are also subject to racial discrimination and sexual harassment as most of their income is reliant on customers for tips.

Read our report for complete details at this link:

Issue Report: The Virginia Minimum Wage Should Apply to Tipped Employees - July 12, 2021

In 2018, Green Ridge Recycling and Disposal Facility, LLC (“Green Ridge”) proposed a new and very large—54,000,000 cubic yards—municipal solid waste sanitary landfill in Cumberland County, near the western border of Powhatan County. The Cumberland County Board of Supervisors approved the plan. Green Ridge filed the permit application and associated documents with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in January, 2020. The review process has begun, with supplemental studies and plans provided as requested by the DEQ. No permit has been issued yet.

The Cumberland County Board of Supervisors approved the plan based on the need for a landfill in their area and the anticipated income it will generate. Nearby residents in Cumberland and Powhatan Counties are concerned about associated traffic, noise, visual disturbance, and pollution. Opponents of the landfill see the issue as a classic case of jobs versus the environment, and jobs versus social injustice.

Read our report for complete details at this link:

Issue Report: Potential Mega-Landfill -  June 8, 2021

Qualified immunity is a defense available to government officials, including police officers, to a claim of liability asserted against the government official for violating the constitutional rights of the person making the claim. Importantly, this defense is available only in civil cases seeking money damages. It is not available in criminal cases. Also, it is a federal law concept, created and embellished by the Supreme Court and other federal courts. The defense can be asserted in cases brought under a federal statute passed following the Civil War which provides a cause of action for persons alleging a violation of their constitutional or other legal rights by “state actors”.  Unfortunately, qualified immunity as refined by court decisions has become a barrier to relief for victims and to accountability for police officers whose actions harm people and violate their rights.

Read our report for complete details at this link:

Issue Report: Qualified Immunity -  June 3, 2021

The minimum wage in Virginia is finally going up, thanks to the 2019 elections, when Democrats attained the majority in the Virginia legislature. In 2020, the General Assembly enacted legislation to raise the minimum wage over time to $15 per hour, and also eliminated many minimum wage exemptions. Effective May 1, 2021, Virginia’s minimum wage rose from $7.25 to $9.50 an hour. It will rise to $15 an hour by 2026. Virginia has now joined the 29 other states and Washington, D.C. that have a minimum wage above the $7.25 federal minimum and will be one of the very few states (9 only) (and D.C.) that now have or will have a $15 minimum wage. However, maintaining Democratic control of the legislature is essential to protect and expand this long-overdue minimum wage increase for Virginia’s lowest-paid and most vulnerable workers.

Read our report for complete details of the new legislative progress made by Democrats at this link:

Issue Report: Democrats  Raise the Minimum Wage -  May 31, 2021

Talking Points: Democrats Raise the Minimum Wage - June 9, 2021

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One of the main pillars of our democracy is the constitutional right to vote. When Republicans controlled the state legislature, they passed restrictive voting laws that prevented eligible voters from exercising that sacred right. Those laws disproportionately affected people of color, low-income citizens, and young voters. After taking control of the legislature in 2019, Democrats have acted to restore democracy to Virginia. Ensuring the right to vote for all eligible citizens has been one of their top priorities for the past two years.

Read our report and summary talking points for complete details of the new legislative progress made by Democrats at these links:

Issue Report: Democrats Protect the Right to Vote -  May 25, 2021

Workers in the U.S. are taken advantage of by being inaccurately labeled as independent contractors instead of as employees. The default classification for workers is to be employees; only if specific criteria are met can a worker be an independent contractor. Misclassified workers are generally paid less and lose many worker protections. Worker misclassification is a widespread problem in Virginia that harms workers, compliant businesses and the revenue streams of government. Thanks to the more worker-friendly Democratic-controlled general Assembly, Virginia workers now have more protections against unscrupulous employers.

Read our report for complete details at this link:

Issue Report: Worker Misclassification -  May 10, 2021

Talking Points: Worker Misclassifications - June 5, 2021

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Since the Democrats gained control of Virginia’s General Assembly in 2019, they have undertaken major criminal justice reforms. During the legislative sessions of 2020 and 2021, the General Assembly, with both the House and Senate under Democratic control for the first time since 1993, passed more than 20 criminal-justice reform bills.

Read our reports for complete details at these links:

Talking Points: Criminal Justice Reform - April 21, 2021

Issue Report: Criminal Justice Reform -  April 14, 2021

In 2020, Democrats in the House of Delegates and Senate passed a number of progressive-oriented measures to expand voting rights, provide some sensible regulation on gun ownership, guarantee a minimum wage increase, and expand and protect rights of the LGTBQ community. But in the area of labor unions, Democratic progress was tentative, limited to permitting (but not requiring) local authorities to engage in collective bargaining with unions representing public employees. Right-to-work remains the law of the state and public employees continue to be banned from striking even if represented by a union.

Read our reports for more details:

Labor Unions in VA - An Update  -  April 13, 2021

Labor Unions and Right to Work Laws   -   Aug. 5, 2019

In 2017, the Trump Administration, along with Republicans in the U.S. Congress, pushed to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the 2010 federal law that expanded access to affordable health insurance. Following repeated attempts to gut ACA protections, Republicans in the Virginia House of Delegates introduced HB 2411, a bill that would have rolled back health insurance regulations to the pre-ACA status quo.

Read our paper for more detail:

Gutting the Affordable Care Act  -  June 24, 2019

Dealing with climate change is difficult. But as a state particularly vulnerable to climate impacts, Virginia can lead the way. Solving climate change means creating clean energy jobs, investing in rural economies, and prioritizing people’s health, homes, and livelihoods. A multifaceted approach is needed to make the state more resilient. To show climate leadership, Virginia can promote innovation in five ways:

• Increase targets for requiring renewable energy
• Kickstart energy-efficiency investment
• Invest in clean cars and transit systems
• Control short-lived climate pollutants
• Ensure that all people – from fishing economies to historically marginalized communities – have the tools to adapt to climate change.

Read our paper for more details:

Climate Change  -  Sep 21, 2019

Energy efficiency is the cheapest and most achievable way to meet Virginia’s energy needs and address the threat of climate change. Yet historically Virginia has lagged below the national average in energy efficiency spending and energy savings. That poor performance can be directly attributed to resistance from Virginia’s predominant utility, Dominion Energy.

Virginia has lost many coal industry jobs due to the 45% decline in Appalachian production in recent years. There are larger labor needs in the solar industry than in coal’s current use of large scale automation and shrinking employment opportunities, i.e. solar requires more labor input, thus creating more jobs.

Solar Jobs -  Aug. 29, 2019

Conversion therapy is a practice or treatment seeking to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including eliminating sexual attractions toward individuals of the same sex. The American Psychiatric Association in 1973 removed homosexuality from the second edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, declared that no reliable evidence exists that conversion therapy works and opposed conversion therapy as unethical. Yet the Republicans continue to push for this harmful therapy.

LGBTQ+ Conversion Therapy-  Aug. 29, 2019

The most recent data from Gov. Northam’s “Commonwealth Connect” report indicates 660,000 homes and businesses lack access to broadband, with the highest concentrations in Southern Virginia and the Appalachians. Read our report to understand what the Virginia Legislature is doing to bring high speed internet to rural communities.

Rural Broadband Talking Points -  Aug. 18, 2019 

The minimum wage for most workers in Virginia is $7.25 per hour. This puts full-time minimum wage workers below the federal poverty level. When their paychecks fail to cover basic living expenses, workers must use public assistance. Thus, the public is subsidizing businesses that do not pay their employees a living wage. Virginia Democrats have been leading the fight for an increased minimum wage.

The Economic Policy Institute reports that wage theft, “the practice of employers failing to pay workers the full wages to which they are legally entitled, is a widespread and deep-rooted problem that directly harms millions of U.S. workers each year.”[1] Wage theft harms all Virginians. Read our report to learn what the Democrats in the state legislature are doing to solve the problem.

Workers’ compensation insurance provides monetary benefits to employees who suffer work-related injuries and illnesses. This no-fault system, however, is in critical need of reform, as a considerable percentage of eligible workers are either denied the cash and medical payments they deserve or don’t apply for benefits at all.

Worker misclassification is the practice of falsely labeling employees as independent contractors. It is a flagrant violation of workers’ rights and protections in Virginia and across the country and robs the state and federal government of much-needed revenue. In some industries, up to 40% of employers misclassify their employees. Read more about how this practice affects workers and Virginia.

With thousands of bills proposed every session, much of the legislating occurs behind closed doors, within committees. This is our topic-by-topic summary of almost every awful bill proposed and every great bill killed in the past legislative session.

New: Updated with 2019 session bills

Virginia is experiencing the highest rate of sea-level rise on the East Coast and one of the highest rates in the U.S. overall. Flooding from sea-level rise is projected to cause billions of dollars in damage and displace hundreds of thousands of people.

In 2013, drug overdoses surpassed car crashes as the leading cause of unnatural deaths. Evidence of the growing crisis is the rise in emergency room visits for heroin overdoses, which rose 89 percent in the first nine months of 2016 compared to the same period in the previous year.

There are more Democratic voters in Virginia than Republican, as shown in presidential, gubernatorial, and senatorial races in the commonwealth, yet Republicans hold a majority in both the state House and the state Senate. This is due to gerrymandering, when politicians choose their voters.

Virginia youth have turned out in increased proportions in the most recent midterm election in 2018. This follows and exceeds the national trend of increased youth voter turnout.

A collaboration of corporations, lobbyists, and legislators, ALEC works to block progressive legislation in every state, and Virginia is no exception.

Starting in the 1990s, Virginia has overemphasized the punitive aspects of justice without a concomitant effort towards rehabilitation. Republicans have shown little inclination to help former inmates who have served their sentences and completed post-release obligations take up productive lives. This is particularly true of the Republicans on the House of Delegates’ Courts of Justice Committee.

Since 2014, Rep. Steve Landes (R-HD25) has been the chair of the House Education Committee in the Virginia General Assembly. He has been unwilling to let progressive bills created by Democrats come to a vote, mirroring the approach of the Appropriations and Finance Committees. All three have reviewed bills that could have greatly improved the educational system of the Commonwealth–and then let them die.

Protections on hold even as the culture changes. The Courts of Justice Committee in the House of Delegates (chaired by Rob Bell, R–HD58) killed every pro-LGBTQ+ bill in the 2018 session.

Dominion Energy and three other major energy companies are pushing to continue building a project laying a major gas pipeline across the state of Virginia with the potential for severe environmental, renewable energy, and social impacts.