Virginia House Democrats

Our Impact

Expanding Voting Rights

  • HB 108: Designates Election Day as a state holiday.
  • HB 207: Enables no “excuse” absentee voting.
  • HB 238: Ensures that mail-in ballots postmarked on Election Day be counted.
  • HB 235: Implements automatic voter registration.

Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.

Restoring Reproductive Rights

  • HB 980: Repeals medically unnecessary restriction on women’s reproductive health.

Strengthening Our Workforce

  • HB 582: Opens access to collective bargaining for public employees. 
  • HB 395: On track to raise the minimum wage to $15 over the next few years.

Safeguarding Our Most Vulnerable Communities

  • HB 276: Expands the definition of hate crimes.
  • HB 581: Mandates cultural competency training.
  • Repealed racially discriminatory language in the Acts of Assembly, including school segregation, housing discrimination, public transportation, medical care, and public documents.
  • HB 789: Combats predatory short-term loan practices.
  • HB 1049: Prohibits various forms of discrimination in housing, employment, education, and more based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Protecting the Environment

  • Established an Environmental Justice Council to help ensure vulnerable communities of color have a place to voice environment issues in their communities.
  • HB 1526: Puts Virginia on the path toward 100% renewable energy by 2050.

Promoting Criminal Justice Reform

  • HB 5043: Creates a statewide mental health awareness response and community understanding services (Marcus) alert system.
  • HB 5055: Strengthens laws related to citizen review boards and panels.
  • HB 5069 and HB5099: Ban neck restraints and prohibit no-knock search warrants.
  • HB 972: Removes the criminal penalty for simple marijuana possession.

Enacting Common-Sense Gun Safety Reform

  • HB 2: Implements universal background checks. 
  • HB 9: Requires reporting of lost and stolen firearms.
  • HB 1083: Prevents child access to loaded firearms.
  • HB 421: Grants local authority for firearm regulation.
  • HB 674: Establishes substantial risk protective orders.

Delivering COVID-19 Relief

  • HB 5047: Prohibits price gouging during a declared state of emergency.
  • HB 5064: Creates rent payment plan opportunities for tenants negatively impacted by COVID.
  • HB 5046: Enables advancements in telehealth.
  • HB 5106: Protects prospective tenants whose credit scores are negatively impacted by COVID.
  • HB 5115: Provides housing security for Virginians.