To the Constituents of the 37th House District:
The third full week of the 2025 General Assembly Session has concluded, and the halfway point is almost here. With more than 1,200 bills introduced in the House, this has meant long days in committee and on the House floor as hundreds of bills are heard before Crossover, the point at which each chamber can only consider the other chamber’s bills. This past Sunday, the House Appropriations Committee presented its budget, amending the budget introduced by Governor Youngkin at the beginning of Session. The current makeup of the House means that many of the Governor’s priorities, including car tax relief and no tax on tips, were not included in the House document. However, the budget does include a tax rebate check of $200 for single filers and $400 for joint filers, and the current standard deduction is made permanent. The budget is a working document, and over the next few weeks the House budget will be merged with the Senate’s. As Ranking Republican on Appropriations, I will continue to urge my colleagues to consider Republican priorities where possible. As for my bills, I am happy to report that they are progressing out of committee, to the House floor, and on to the Senate.
HB2720 seeks to address the school bus driver shortage and provide flexibility to students when it comes transportation options. Virginia school divisions collectively utilize 16,000 80-passenger yellow school buses to transport students to and from school each day. But school bus driver employment continues to remain below pre-pandemic levels. Interrupted bus route services and instability created by driver shortages disrupt learning time and contribute to absenteeism. Additionally, since 1980, the average cost per student transported has increased by over 75 percent, attributable in part to a steady decline in ridership. My bill will allow school systems that choose to participate the ability to utilize smaller vehicles to transport students to school and extracurricular activities. HB2720 is the same as the bill I patroned last year, with a few changes: it is limited to a two-year pilot program for school divisions with total fall membership enrollment of fewer than 4,500 students.
HB2642 regulates and prohibits the sale of unsafe and counterfeit lighters in the Commonwealth, by creating definitions for lighters, unsafe lighters, and counterfeit lighters to protect children from these hazardous products. In 2017 alone, more than 300 million lighters were imported from China and other countries, and 70% of them failed to meet safety standards requiring child resistant mechanisms. HB2642 regulates the sale of lighters by defining unsafe lighters as those that fail to meet the American Society for Testing & Materials (ASTM) International Standard F400-20, which specifies consumer safety standards, and defining a counterfeit lighter as any device that infringes upon the intellectual property of any United States citizen or entity protected under federal or state intellectual property.
HB2080, which modernizes the DMV registration process by eliminating registration stickers, passed out of the House 96-1 and awaits hearing in Senate Transportation. As mentioned previously, this will save the DMV approximately $2.3 million annually and greatly reduce the need for the currently more than 560,000 residents that spend thirty minutes a year waiting in line at DMV’s customer service centers to obtain them. After discussion with Treasurers and Commissioners of Revenue across the Commonwealth, it was determined that while the idea is sound, there are a few practical issues that need to be ironed out before this bill becomes law. As a result, I have placed an amendment that will delay enactment by one year and require the DMV to work with the Commissioners and Treasurers to ensure a workable path forward.
HB2097 expands coverage for prostate cancer screening in the Commonwealth and passed out of the House 97-0. HB2092 updates the Town of Buchanan’s Charter to reflect the shift to November municipal elections and the town manager’s requirements and responsibilities, while HB2644 allows the City of Lexington the flexibility to appoint 5-7 members onto its EDA, rather than the currently required seven. Both bills came at the request of the respective localities, and each passed out of the House 96-0.
This week we welcomed to the Capitol the region’s home builders, constituents representing the Virginia Health Care Association, representatives of our district’s electric cooperatives, BARC and CBEC, and our Treasurers and Commissioners of Revenue. As I always say, these visits are more than just friendly social calls, they are an opportunity for the office to learn of each group’s priorities and issues with legislation. It was through conversation with the Treasurers and Commissioners that I decided to amend my registration decal elimination bill so that they could work through their concerns with the DMV.
It is an honor to serve you in the Virginia House of Delegates. If I can be of assistance to you, or you would like to share your position on any of my legislative priorities, please do not hesitate to contact me at DelTAustin@House.Virginia.gov or 804-698-1037.
Sincerely,
Delegate Terry L. Austin
37th House District
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