LEGISLATIVE
ADVOCACY
Virginia’s 2025 General Assembly session was Wednesday, January 8 to Saturday, February 22. CLICK HERE to find your current legislators and scroll to learn more about VPLC’s legislative advocacy agenda and ways to get involved.
LEARN ABOUT THE ISSUES
VPLC’s 2025 Legislative Agenda
- Increase funding for eviction prevention and tenant legal support
- Extend the "pay or quit" notice for late rent to 14 days
- Prohibit housing discrimination based on expunged eviction records
- Require landlords to accept all forms of rental payments
- Simplify eviction appeals for public housing tenants
- Ban extra fees for repairs in public housing
- Mandate clear fee disclosures and floodplain status for manufactured home parks
- Fund first-time homebuyers in Community Land Trusts
- Expand health coverage to all kids and ensure seamless insurance for children from birth to age six
- Simplify access to prenatal care and reduce barriers to healthcare, including cancer treatment under Emergency Medicaid
- Guarantee free school meals for all children
- Increase minimum SNAP benefits for seniors
- Expand child-focused tax credits and improve services for non-English-speaking families
- Ensure families can appeal unfair decisions in public benefit cases
- Streamline protective orders for domestic violence survivors and restrict abusers' use of cell phones for stalking
- Modernize divorce laws to reduce delay in cruelty cases
- Provide legal support to families involved with child protective services to reduce family separation and need for foster care
- Ensure youth are informed of their rights while in care
- Increase weekly benefits and allow part-time workers to keep more of their earnings
- Provide additional support for caregivers and their families
- Expand access to energy assistance programs like LIHEAP for low-income households
- Stop evasions of Virginia's 2020 Fairness in Lending Act
- Require transparency of mandatory fees
- Protect wages and bank accounts from unreasonable debt collectors to ensure basic living needs are met
- Simplify the return of unclaimed property to families without unnecessary delays
To view and download the above information as a PDF, CLICK HERE.
Fact Sheets:
- Virginia Child Tax Credit
- Pre-Petition Legal Representation: A Cost-Saving Solution for Families and Virginia
ACTION CENTER
Upcoming Events:
VPLC Issues in the News:
- The Virginian-Pilot: Virginia lawmakers aim to protect debtors from further impoverishment
- VPM: Senior hunger a ‘hidden crisis in the commonwealth’
- VPM: Lawmakers aim to protect Medicaid expansion for thousands of Virginians
- Virginia Mercury: Free school breakfasts move closer to reality in Virginia
- WVTF: Youngkin amends “junk fees” bill, but the legislature is already saying no
- VPM: Midwives push for prenatal, postpartum care for incarcerated individuals
- WTVR: Group advocates for healthy school meals for all Virginia public school students
- Cardinal News: Bills extending foster children’s rights came from Virginia Western Community College students who have been in the system
Legislation Alerts:
- There are no active General Assembly action alerts. See the VPLC Action Center for more information about other action alerts!
HOW TO FOLLOW THE LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Finding Legislation:
You can find legislation at Virginia’s Legislative Information System’s (LIS) database. You can search this legislation by entering the bill number (e.g., 5051) or by searching a keyword (e.g., eviction). Once you find the legislation, you will find the bill’s sponsor(s) and a summary of the bill’s language. You will also find which committee the bill has been referred to (e.g., referred to Committee on General Laws and Technology). You can track the progress of each bill as it moves through the legislative process.
CLICK HERE to access the 2025 LIS database now.
Finding a Committee:
Once you find where legislation has been referred, you can find when that committee is meeting on the Session Meeting List. Once you know when your committee is convening, be prepared to stream the meeting at the “Virginia Senate Live Stream Video” page or the “Virginia House of Delegates Video Streaming” page. Once the time of your committee is scheduled to start, it will be viewable under the heading entitled “upcoming events.” To stream the event, click “view event.”
CLICK HERE to access the Senate streaming page.
CLICK HERE to access the House streaming page.
STAY UPDATED ON LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY DURING SESSION
CLICK HERE to join VPLC’s email list and receive weekly updates throughout session, invitations to legislative advocacy trainings, and more.
VPLC’S ADVOCATES
CLICK HERE to view the VPLC 2025 Legislative Advocates list.