RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed 20 bills that the Democratic-controlled Virginia General Assembly sent him mostly on party-line votes, his administration announced Thursday.
The bills include measures identical to ones the governor axed already and other legislation Democrats prioritized and pursued after winning control of the state legislature last year.
Among them were bills that would have cut deeply into the governor’s power to oversee a state agency with a wide reach, allowed class-action lawsuits on the state level and enacted more restrictions on Virginia’s use of solitary confinement.
With just a few more seats in the General Assembly than Republicans, Democrats don’t have the numbers for two-thirds votes to override any of Youngkin’s vetoes.
Youngkin also signed 30 new bills, his office shared, most of which were uncontroversial and passed on unanimous votes.
“Today I’m pleased to sign 30 bipartisan bills into law, and veto 20 bills which would undermine the progress we have made over the past two years to make Virginia the best place to live, work and raise a family,” the governor said in a statement.
Democrats were reacting to the vetoes before they were formally announced by Youngkin’s office, some going to social media to break the news and voice their disappointment.
“Badge of Honor: SB584 vetoed! Basic to government operations, it would have restored balance, among the coequal branches, control of General Services,” state Sen. Creigh Deeds (D-Charlottesville) posted on X about his bill to set up a nine-member board to oversee the Virginia Department of General Services (DGS) and appoint a chief administrator for the agency.
The Department of General Services — made up of multiple business units — provides a wide range of services, including to other agencies, universities, local governments, businesses and more.
Sen. Deeds’ bill would have stripped the governor’s authority to appoint the agency’s director and give oversight powers to the new board, whose members would have been picked by state lawmakers and the governor.
Youngkin wrote in his veto statement that the bill would potentially hamper the department’s “efficiency and effectiveness” and lacked clarity and foresight on its “likely negative” effect.
“The lack of clarity is particularly evident in the oversight of delegations of authority to the DGS Director, creating uncertainty about the extent of the Director’s powers and potentially impeding effective agency management,” Youngkin wrote.
Youngkin vetoed legislation that would have allowed Virginians to collectively pursue civil lawsuits at the state level, an option in 48 other states. Under current law, Virginians can only bring forward class-action lawsuits in federal court but not in circuit courts across the state.
“Disappointed the @GovernorVA is once again siding with big corporations & against every day hard working Virginians by vetoing our bill to allow class action remedies, depriving Va consumers of a tool people in 48 other states have: to collectively sue when they’ve been harmed,” Del. Marcus Simon (D-Fairfax), one of the two Democrats who carried the legislation this year, wrote on X.
“The proposed changes have far-reaching implications by broadening the scope of statutory damages available under the Virginia Consumer Protection Act,” Youngkin wrote in his veto memo. “The possible statutory damages resulting from these consumer class actions will coerce defendants into settlements to avoid potentially ruinous financial consequences.”
Youngkin vetoed a bill requiring the vacancies on the Virginia Council on Environmental Justice — created to make recommendations to agencies to ensure environmental issues for communities disproportionally harmed by them are addressed — to be filled by August.
It also would have allowed council members to travel throughout Virginia to look into human health and environmental conditions within and close to environmental justice communities, and banned the state’s natural and historic resources secretary “from delegating any requested staff support for the Council to any agency, regardless of whether such agency is an agency for which the Secretary is responsible to the Governor.”
“The proposed top-down approach would perpetuate past disparities, preventing the construction of infrastructure in underserved communities, hindering permits necessary for the advancement of clean energy, and imposing regressive costs that disproportionately affect Virginia’s poorest citizens,” Youngkin wrote in his veto statement. “Consequently, this approach reinforces historical barriers to achieving overdue objectives.”
The move was criticized by Del. Mike Jones (D-Richmond), the bill’s sponsor, who said Youngkin was “turning his back on impacted communities experiencing adverse health effects and environmental hazards that put their safety at risk.”
The council has been unable to issue recommendations and do other work due to a lack of a quorum. After the veto, Del. Jones urged Youngkin’s administration to fill the empty seats after the governor’s veto.
The governor also axed bills to ban employers from asking job applicants about their past wages or salaries and measures to change state law to ensure employer lockouts aren’t considered a “labor dispute” and employees can still get their benefits during a lockout except for certain exceptions.
Youngkin vetoed a bill that would have required employers with 10 or more employees to let workers who file complaints alleging sexual assault, harassment or discrimination know about federal and state statute of limitations on reporting them.
Youngkin also killed bills identical to three of the first eight he vetoed, including legislation to re-enter Virginia into a multi-state vote data-sharing partnership and require two-person crews on trains in the state.
The governor vetoed House Bill 571, a measure to add language in state code to ensure Virginia’s parental notification law for learning materials with “sexually explicit content” can’t be cited in local school board’s decisions to remove books from schools.
The bill from Del. Karrie Delaney (D-Fairfax) was identical to one from state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D-Richmond) that Youngkin already vetoed.
“All parents are entitled to make informed educational decisions for their own child,” Del. Delaney said in a statement. “However, the decision to veto by Governor Youngkin will allow school divisions and some parents to make blanket decisions for everyone, instead of allowing individual parents to make choices for their child.”
Thousands of bills are still on Youngkin’s desk, including major Democratic priorities to raise the state’s minimum wage and open a retail cannabis market in Virginia. Youngkin has until the end of the day on April 8 to take action on bills before lawmakers return for the General Assembly’s reconvened session on April 17.
