Gov. Ralph Northam vetoed a bill Tuesday from Del. Charles Poindexter, R-Franklin, that would require local law enforcement officials to notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of the release date of any noncitizen as soon as it is known. Northam wrote in a veto message that “local and regional correctional facilities have, and should retain, discretion to determine how they choose to engage with federal immigration agencies.” He said HB 2270 would eliminate that discretion.
Gov. Ralph Northam on Thursday vetoed two measures that he said would hamstring the state’s plans for curbing carbon emissions from power plants and vehicles. The proposals, both introduced by Del. Charles Poindexter, R-Franklin County, would have barred the state from entering two regional programs aimed at reducing carbon dioxide air pollution.
Virginia Delegate Charles Poindexter said on Tuesday that he expects insurance premiums to increase for local residents. Speaking at the Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce’s Post-Legislative Luncheon, Poindexter said he believes hospitals affected by a new tax will pass those costs on to consumers. The planned hospital tax was put in place to help fund Virginia’s portion of the costs for Medicaid expansion.
Christiansburg Del. Nick Rush isn’t much of a decorator. The lone ornament adorning the walls of his General Assembly office is a framed brown leather whip — a symbol of his new status in Republican leadership in Virginia’s House of Delegates.
Mostly rural Republican legislators from outside Hampton Roads quickly dispatched a bill early Wednesday morning that would’ve created a regional authority in Hampton Roads to deal with sea level rise, land subsidence and coastal flooding.
The stage is set for a showdown between the House of Delegates and Senate over expansion of Virginia’s Medicaid program, but the old roles have reversed in the five-year political battle. The House Appropriations Committee reversed course on its longstanding opposition to Medicaid expansion on Sunday by adopting a proposed budget that would accept more than $3 billion in federal funding to extend health coverage for more than 300,000 uninsured Virginians.
The version of the school facilities ballot measure Richmond voters approved in November that would allow the mayor to raise taxes has died in committee. House Bill 1409 from Del. Jeff Bourne, D-Richmond, was killed in a House of Delegates subcommittee early Wednesday in a 5-3 vote. Like its Senate counterpart, the bill would have required Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney to present a fully funded school facilities modernization plan to the City Council by Jan. 1, or say it can’t be done.
Recycled talking points from Republican Ed Gillespie’s gubernatorial campaign weren’t enough to save legislation to make it easier for Virginia localities to decide the fate of their Confederate statues. On Wednesday, a House of Delegates subcommittee overwhelmingly voted down a series of bills to facilitate the removal or relocation of Confederate monuments.
A Republican-controlled committee in the House of Delegates has endorsed a new set of rules for “incentivizing community engagement and employment” among current Medicaid recipients who are able to work, setting the stage for a possible compromise with Democrats on a budget plan to expand health coverage to hundreds of thousands of uninsured Virginians.
“People in Patrick County deserve the opportunity to try to reopen their hospital. I presented the bill in that way,” Virginia Del. Charles Poindexter said in interview Wednesday. He was referring to House Bill 175, which would extend the hospital’s certificate of public need until Dec. 31, 2018. It also would retroactively extend the hospital’s acute care hospital license until Dec. 31, 2018. The acute care hospital license expired Dec. 31, 2017.