From the desk of Del. Danny Marshall:
We are a few weeks into the 2024 session of the Virginia General Assembly. More than 2000 bills have been assigned to committees in the House and Senate. It is in those committees that the bulk of the work of state lawmakers takes place.
As bills come forward and we report results, an important fact to remember is the voting majority. If bills are in any way controversial, the votes usually fall along party lines. The Democrats hold a 51-to-49 edge in the House of Delegates and have a 21-19 majority in the Senate. These are both very narrow majorities, but in both cases Democrats determine committee membership. All committees this year contain Democratic majorities.
Issues are often decided by just one or two votes. But if the votes are along party lines, Democrats determine which legislation advances to the floor.
Farmers from our 49th House District visited our office in Richmond during the past week and I continually stay up to speed on bills that affect them through the Farm Bureau. I am also fortunate enough to have a seat on the House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee. That committee considers all agriculture-related bills that are introduced in the House.
I am deeply concerned about legislation passed by the House this week that makes major changes to the way our family farms will have to conduct business. Instead of trusting farmers and their employees to work out the terms of their employment, this bill would put politicians squarely in the middle of that process. I oppose any efforts to insert government bureaucrats into the middle of fair and honest business transactions.
It is noteworthy that this bill was introduced by a delegate from Northern Virginia, a part of Virginia that does not have a vibrant agricultural sector. Agriculture remains the number one industry in Virginia and in our region. I will continue to work with my colleagues to protect the farms and farmers who put food on our tables.
Along those same lines, it was gratifying to hear ideas and excitement for farming when students from the Tunstall chapter of Future Farmers of America visited our office last week. The FFA was founded in 1928 at Virginia Tech and has been a pivotal part of the education of untold thousands of students in Southside Virginia over the years.
There have also been a significant number of bills filed this year that target our Second Amendment rights. This topic has generated the most emails and calls from local citizens to our office during this legislative session. I have always supported the rights outlined in the Second Amendment and will continue to do so.
Republicans will be hard-pressed to stop many of these bills from making it to the House and Senate floor, given the Democratic majorities in the committees that are considering these bills. Any gun control legislation that passes the House and the Senate will have to be signed into law by Governor Glenn Youngkin. I have been encouraged by the Governor’s past support of Second Amendment issues and I believe he will do the right thing with regard to measures that would infringe on our Second Amendment rights.
If you want to track legislation during the session, 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
