ROANOKE, Va. – As legislators prepare to head to Richmond, the newly-elected Republican majority has proposed several sweeping legislative changes across the Commonwealth. Virginia’s House of Delegates flipped to Republican leadership during the 2021 election.
One piece of legislation proposed by Delegate Wendell Walker of Lynchburg would create a fundamental right to be free from medical mandates.
“The Republicans have a fairly narrow margin in the House of Delegates 52 to 48, but I think they’ll stick together,” 10 News Political Analyst Dr. Ed Lynch said.
Over in the Senate, Senator Travis Hackworth, of the New River Valley, proposed legislation. It would eliminate the requirement that each school board adopts policies that are consistent with the model policies developed by the Department of Education concerning the treatment of transgender students in public schools.
“With the Democrats still technically in control of the state Senate, they control the committee chairs, the committee chairs in Richmond can keep things bottled up very, very easily, very effectively, and very anonymously,” Lynch said.
And with just over two weeks until Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin’s Inauguration Day, Lynch says one of his top tasks is uniting lawmakers in Richmond.
“Governor Youngkin is going to have to put forth most of his effort to try to get moderate Democrat senators on board with at least those things that were proposed in the Northam budget, like the child credit and the end of the grocery tax,” Lynch said.
The session is set to begin on Jan. 12.