From the desk of Del. Danny Marshall:
Jan. 10, 2024
The Virginia General Assembly gavels into session on Wednesday, January 10 at Noon. This year’s session begins with a bit of uncertainty.
Between last year’s redistricting and several retirements of senior members, this year will feature the highest year-to-year turnover in General Assembly membership since the Civil War. When I was sworn in, I was one of 22 new members in the House and Senate. That was the old post-Civil War record. This year, there are more than twice that many incoming freshmen in the lower and upper chambers.
I return to Richmond this year as Delegate from the newly-drawn 49th House District. It covers all of the city of Danville and the southeast quadrant of Pittsylvania County. It also encompasses most of Halifax County, including all of the town of South Boston. More than half of the district’s residents were in the old 14th House District, which I represented. The old district included southwestern Pittsylvania County and the southern portion of Henry County. Those sections are now in the 48th House District, which was to have been represented by my colleague Les Adams. Adams retired last month, and his replacement will be chosen in a special election this week.
There will also be new leadership this year in the House of Delegates. After the November elections, Democrats came away with a narrow 51-to-49 House majority. That means Democrats will elect the Speaker of the House, a position that carries lots of power as the House conducts its business.
The first thing the new Speaker will do is make committee assignments. With the Democratic majority, that means all Committee Chairman positions will be held by Democrats, and Democrats will have a majority of members in each committee and subcommittee.
I have requested to keep my current committee assignments. Those include Appropriations, Labor and Commerce, and Agriculture Chesapeake and Natural Resources. The new committee assignments will likely be made on the first or second day of the session.
Like the House, Democrats will also have a narrow working majority in the Senate at 21-19. This means that Democrats control both houses of the Virginia General Assembly. Democrats had similar control in 2020 and 2021, along with a Democratic Governor at the time. With a Republican (Glenn Youngkin) now in the Governor’s Mansion, it will be difficult for Democrats to get all of their legislation signed into law. The Governor’s veto pen might need to be refilled several times following this session.
Since this is an even-numbered year, we will be in session for 60 days. That’s because this is a year where lawmakers draw up the state’s biennial budget. Gov. Youngkin presented his budget proposal to House and Senate money committees in December. It would give Virginians an additional $1 billion in tax relief over the biennium, mostly coming from 12% cuts in income tax rates. Some of this would be made up with a one-percent increase in the state’s sales tax.
I plan to introduce a few budget amendments that will target projects in Southside Virginia. Those will include funding to help the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research expand one of their buildings, money to help develop a whitewater canal next to the Dan River Falls (White Mill) development and funds to study the future of the Social Services building in Danville. I will have more information on those line items as we continue in the 2024 General Assembly session.
I will also be carrying several pieces of legislation to address local and regional issues. Stay tuned for more details.
If you are interested in tracking legislation this year, the General Assembly has an plenty of tools for you to follow a bill’s progress. Go to https://virginiageneralassembly.gov/. You can view committee hearings and floor sessions live. You can also view them in the website’s archive.
If you have any questions or need more information, please contact me at
