2022 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES

Download our one-page VICPP Legislative Priorities for 2022 summary here (or here in Spanish) and sign up to advocate with us!
You can also follow our Bill Tracker to see where our priority bills are in the legislative process!

Economic Justice/Worker Justice

• Paid Sick Days. These bills failed. Extend Paid Sick Days to key groups of essential workers.
  • SB 352 and HB 1160 (healthcare workers and grocery store workers) – Surrovell and King
  • SB 624 and HB 997 (agency directed home healthcare workers) – Favola and Guzman
  • Click here to read our Paid Sick Day Fact Sheet
  • Click here to Learn More
• Protecting Children in the Workplace. This bill failed. Require parental permission for children to work on tobacco farms
  • HB876 – Lopez
  • Click here to read our Youth Farmworkers Protections Fact Sheet
  • Click here to Learn More

Criminal Justice Reform

• Limiting Use of Solitary Confinement. This bill turned into a study and passed. Extensive solitary confinement is torture, and Virginia should limit time in solitary to 15 days
  • SB 108 and HB1291 – Morrisey & Vogel and Hayes
  • Click here to read our Solitary Confinement Fact Sheet
  • Click here to read the Solitary Confinement Faith Statements
  • Click here to Learn More
• Counsel at First Appearance. This bill failed. Ensure that poor people do not end up in jail before their trials simply because they are poor and don’t have access to bail funds or attorneys
  • SB 475 – McClellan
  • Click here to read our Counsel at First Appearance Fact Sheet
• Voting Rights. This amendment failed. Constitutional amendment to allow automatic restoration of voting rights for people who had completed their sentence after a felony conviction
  • HB 130 and SB21 – Cherry and Locke

Human Needs and Racial Equity

• Affordable Housing. Virginia’s budget should include funding for more affordable housing. VICPP is supporting three budget proposals, which would amend the budget bills HB30 and SB30.
  • Expand funding for the Virginia Housing Trust Fund to build new affordable housing units and prevent homelessness
    • Amendments 114#13h and 114#5s – Lopez and Ebbin
    • In the final budget, VHTF funding was increased to $140 million over the biennium
  • Provide rental assistance vouchers for those needing but not receiving federal assistance
    • Amendments 114#5h and 114#4s – Coyner and McClellan
    • The language for this amendment passed (creating the scaffolding for the rental assistance program), but not the funding
  • Create a Restorative Housing Pilot Program (designed by Virginia Poverty Law Center) to increase home ownership among those who have been historically excluded from opportunities through discrimination
    • Amendments 114#1h and 114#2s – Bourne and Hashmi
    • Click here to read the VPLC Overview (October 2021)
    • This amendment failed
  • Click here to read our updated Affordable Housing Fact Sheet
  • Click here to see our Faith Leaders Letter calling to fund more affordable housing in the budget

Health Equity

• Unconscious (Implicit) Bias Training Licensing Criterion. The committee recommended studying this bill and returning to it in 2023. Require unconscious (implicit) bias training become an eligibility criterion for all health care professionals licensed by the Virginia Board of Medicine
  • HB 1105 and SB 456 – McQuinn, Head & Rasoul / Locke and Hashmi
  • Click here to read our Implicit Bias Fact Sheet
  • Click here to review Support & Evidence-Based Resource List
  • Click here to Learn More

Other

• Stopping Guns in Worship (Opposing HB23) – Fact Sheet

Defending Past Gains – VICPP is prepared to defend, if necessary, previous issues, such as:

• Minimum wage increase
• Removal of the 40-quarter rule (regulating immigrant access to healthcare)
• Death penalty abolition
• Wage theft reforms