From the desk of Del. Danny Marshall:
The 2024 session of the Virginia General Assembly is now in high gear. All committees in the House and Senate have held their initial meetings as our 140 lawmakers begin poring through the 2400 bills and resolutions that have been introduced.
The first full week of the 2024 session also included a very humbling moment for me. The Virginia Economic Developers Association awarded me their 2023 Michael W. Woods “Legislator of the Year” Award. VEDA held their annual Legislative Reception in Richmond last week.
In giving me this award, VEDA referred to me as, “a leader who is willing to work hard to support the funding needed to sustain economic development initiatives that transform the success of our state, inclusive of critical funding for prospects who make significant economic contributions to communities across Virginia.”
I cannot begin to tell you how appreciative I am to be recognized by VEDA. I have had the pleasure of working with wonderful people throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia who recognize that government’s role is not to create jobs, but rather to foster the conditions under which jobs can best be created by the private sector. I have been fortunate to work with other lawmakers and high-ranking state officials who share this view and there have been many success stories in recent years. And there are many more to come.
As a member of the House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee, I had a chance last week to get an update from Virginia Agriculture Secretary, Matt Lohr. I used the opportunity to ask that Secretary Lohr and his staff prioritize the recruitment of companies that are finding new uses for industrial hemp.
I was proud to sponsor legislation in 2018 that legalized industrial hemp in Virginia. Since then, it has become a profitable venture for several farmers in our area who can no longer generate the revenues they used to by growing tobacco. Lots of the equipment used in tobacco production also works well in producing industrial hemp.
There are companies in Europe that are looking at making fully recyclable cars. A big part of that includes dashboards and other major components that are produced entirely of hemp and hemp derivatives. I believe that attracting innovative firms like these to Virginia would boost demand for industrial hemp and incentivize many more area farmers to explore making the transition.
According to the Virginia Department of Agriculture, there were 1,183 industrial hemp growers in Virginia in 2019 who planted 2,200 acres of hemp.
The second full week of work at the General Assembly will see initial committee appearances for a few of the bills I have introduced. We are also beginning work on the biennial budget.
If you want to track legislation, the General Assembly has several ways you can do it. Go to https://virginiageneralassembly.gov/. You can view committee hearings and floor sessions live. You can also view them in the website’s archive.
As always, if you have any questions or need more information, please contact me at
