2024 Session Accomplishments

We are proud of many things we accomplished this session, but I’d like to highlight a few. As a first-term delegate in the minority, I was able to get two bills passed into law as the Chief Patron:

• HB 1215 – This bill will keep Virginia workers safe from asbestos by allowing the Department of Labor and Industry to use existing, unused funds to test the air quality to ensure that the asbestos remediation is actually successful. Currently, the Department cannot use these funds to test the air quality and must rely solely on the visual inspection that the remediation was done correctly.
• HB 1231 – This bill ensures that home school students can participate in JROTC pursuant to federal law by requiring the Department of Education to instruct local school boards to follow the federal law. Currently, many home school students in our District and across the Commonwealth are being prevented from participating in JROTC by their local school boards, despite Federal Law mandating that otherwise eligible home school students are eligible to participate in JROTC at their local public school. This bill is a big win for both the home school community and the military community as it will lead to greater participation in JROTC, and I am very excited to deliver on this.

I also teamed up with colleagues from across the aisle to pass three more important bills that I had introduced. These bills had widespread bipartisan support and all passed unanimously.

• HB 74 – This bill will improve and help to maintain our gravel roads by clarifying that existing VDOT Rural and Rustic Road funds can be used for maintenance and improvements other than paving for gravel roads. Our district has more gravel roads than any other district in the Commonwealth and this will bring important improvements to our unpaved roads. I worked on Loudoun’s gravel roads for eight years as the Catoctin District Supervisor on the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors and created a process to determine which roads should or should not be paved. So I was proud to work with Delegate David Reid and Senator Russet Perry on this important Loudoun County issue.
• HB 441– This bill allows individuals with developmental disabilities to curbside vote. I was proud to work with Delegate Elizabeth Bennett-Parker to make this much-needed change, as no one should be discouraged or prohibited from voting due to their disability status. Curbside voting is safe and secure and this bill brings the state into compliance with federal law.
• HB 1504– This bill ensures that parents are notified of suspected drug overdoses connected to their children’s school. This is an incredibly important measure in combating the opioid crisis as parents can only help their students address the problem if they know it exists. Hopefully, the notification will prompt parents to talk to their children about the dangers of opioids and other harmful drugs. I was pleased to work with Delegates Batten and Seibold as well as Senator Carroll-Foy on this life-saving legislation.

I was proud to support a number of bills this session that advanced the conservation of our natural spaces and the preservation of our historical sites.

• HB 914 – Allows a locality that establishes a historic district to provide tax incentives for the conservation and renovation of historic structures in such district
• HB 960– Increases from $5 million to $10 million the maximum amount of the historic rehabilitation credit that may be claimed by a taxpayer in a taxable year
• HB 1395– Requires a permit holder to wait until 30 days after a decision is made by the locality regarding the demolition of a historic structure (in an existing historic district already established by the locality) in order to protect historic structures from unreasonable or unnecessary demolition

Conservation and preservation are incredibly important to me, as well as to many of you, and because of that, I was not afraid to break with my party when necessary. I intend to bring some of my colleagues out to visit our historic sites like Waterford, the Balls Bluff Battlefield, and the John Lewis Bridge among others over the offseason to hopefully shed some light on the importance of preserving what we have, because as you all well know, once it’s gone, it’s gone.

I was also proud to work with Delegates Tata and Srinivasan as well as Senator Perry to secure $750,000 in the Budget for a recovery school in Loudoun County. This recovery school will help students recovering from opioid addiction receive help in a place where they are removed from addiction triggers and still in a place where they can learn and grow as students.

This school would be completely voluntary, require parental consent and involvement throughout, and require that the students are in recovery and no longer using any substances. We currently have a recovery school in Chesterfield, VA that has been a tremendous success and I am excited to help establish this school in Loudoun to help end the opioid crisis and protect our students.

Overall, I had a very successful first session and accomplished a lot to improve lives in the 30th District. Despite our successes on key local issues, there were also a lot of bad bills that were passed by the Democrat Majority that I opposed and am working with the Governor to ensure get vetoed.

Resolutions Passed

Memorializing Firefighter Trevor Brown
I was honored to join the Loudoun Delegation in passing a Memorial Resolution for Firefighter Trevor Brown, who courageously gave his life in service to our County last month. I also had the privilege of attending his incredibly moving Celebration of Life at Cornerstone Chapel alongside Governor Youngkin, Senator Perry, and our Countywide Electeds. We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Firefighter Brown for his ultimate sacrifice and I ask you to join me in continuing to pray for his beautiful family. Read the Resolution here. If you’d like to contribute, do so here.

Commending Woodgrove High School Wrestling Team
As a former wrestler, I was very excited to pass a Resolution with the support of the entire delegation to commend the Woodgrove High School Wrestling Team, who won the State Championship a few weeks ago and became the first-ever Loudoun team to win States for wrestling. The Woodgrove Wolverines won in a dominating fashion, receiving an impressive 177 points and finishing an astounding 44 points in front of the runner-up. Read the Resolution here.

Commending Eugene M. Scheel
I was proud to pass a Commending Resolution to honor my good friend Eugene M. Scheel, a pillar of our District who has dedicated much of his life to preserving, protecting, and chronicling the history of greater Loudoun and Fauquier Counties through his books and hand-drawn cartography. Eugene has written nine books on Virginia History as well as drawn more than 50 detailed historical maps of Virginia as well as other states and countries. Read the resolution here.

Commending Loudoun Therapeutic Riding
I was excited to pass a Commending Resolution to recognize Loudoun Therapeutic Riding’s 50 years of service to Loudoun County and all of Northern Virginia. For half a century, the Loudoun Therapeutic Riding Center has been a fixture of our community, focused mainly on helping children with disabilities and more recently veterans, but truly helping anyone who could benefit from the holistic healing that horses can provide. You can read the resolution here.

Commending Lew Parker
I was honored to introduce and pass a resolution to commend Lew Parker on his 40 year anniversary of bringing wine to Loudoun County as well as his years of economic development and philanthropy, you can read the resolution here. As a result of Lew Parker’s vision, Loudoun boasts the number one county for the agritourism industry in the Commonwealth, and our district would look significantly different without his contributions.