Virginia Update from Capitol Square

Legislation We’re Tracking (so far)

Healthy School Meals for All: Unfortunately, due to budgetary concerns, the School Breakfast for All bills (SB4 & HB96) are dead.

@Emily Moore our Sr. Region Lead on HSMFA has been leading the charge to get budgetary solutions included in the budget. Here is her update!

The Senate Budget included $17.58 million over the biennium ($8.61 mil FY27/$8.97 mil FY28) to increase the school breakfast reimbursement amount that divisions receive from lottery proceeds by $0.22. We refer to this as the “Warner money” and currently the budget includes $10.9 mil the first year and $11.4 mil the second year to provide a breakfast reimbursement of $0.28 per breakfast.

This means the Senate will increase the school breakfast incentive payment to $0.50 per school breakfast served. This is good news and not so good news.

Why good news? More money to school nutrition departments = better quality school meals, more locally procured, scratch-cooked meals, better wages for school nutrition professionals, and more funding for necessary equipment upgrades.

Why not so good? The short answer is this could make achieving universal school breakfast more complicated because of existing funding structures.

We still have a ways to go in the process — now House and Senate members will need to appoint budget conferees to work out the differences in their two budgets. We will be putting the pressure on those members to include funding for school meals in the final budget.

-Emily

Paid Family and Medical Leave: (SB2, HB1270) – Requires the Virginia Employment Commission to establish and administer a paid family and medical leave insurance program with benefits beginning January 1, 2029.

Both bills have passed their respective chamber, now they have crossed over (more on that below!) and will be heard in the other chamber for deliberation and voting.

Tobacco:

• Health Insurance Tobacco Surcharge (HB220, SB630) – Eliminates the authority of a health carrier to vary its premium rates based on tobacco use.
  • Both bills have passed their respective chambers and have crossed over.
• Permitting of retail tobacco product retailers (HB308, SB620) – Transitions and provides a more comprehensive structure for the current licensing and enforcement responsibilities related to liquid nicotine and retail tobacco products.
  • Both bills have passed their respective chambers and have crossed over. We have been working very closely with the patrons and like-minded public health organizations to get this bill into a better posture. We are anticipating big changes to the bill language this week.

Crossover? What is that?

“Crossover” is the General Assembly’s deadline for bills to pass out of their chamber of origin to be considered by the other chamber. From this point forward, the House may only consider bills passed by the Senate and the Senate can only consider bills passed by the House.

Virginia on track to establish paid family medical leave program for workers

Virginia lawmakers are a step closer to setting up paid family medical leave for up to 12 weeks — ensuring people are supported while they take time off to care for a family member, recover from surgery or have a child. House and Senate proposals cleared their chambers this week and could head to Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s desk by the end of the legislative session. Read More