2010 Legislative Agenda

Initiatives the Virginia Poverty Law Center will be working on during the upcoming General Assembly Session

The 2010 legislative agenda is also available in PDF format.

Health Law
There are huge revenue shortfalls expected in Virginia's state budget for the current fiscal year as well as the next biennium. VPLC will work to avoid/minimize cuts to Medicaid and other health programs for low income people and the uninsured. It will also support possible revenue enhancements to avoid cuts to human services programs. Working with the new Healthcare For All Virginians (HAV) Coalition, VPLC will continue to promote needed improvements in Medicaid and FAMIS. Legislation is expected that will help expand coverage and streamline application procedures for children, improve legal immigrants' access health programs, and assist low income people obtain/keep private health insurance. Finally, if National Health Reform becomes law, we will work on implementation issues.

Predatory Lending
VPLC and several other groups will be focused on closing the open-end credit loophole that has allowed car title and payday lenders to plague Virginia with 300% loans.

Military Consumer Rights
VPLC will work with the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association and military civil legal aid groups to give members of the military in Virginia a method to enforce their rights under the federal Service Members Civil Relief Act.

Foreclosure Relief
VPLC will work with Housing Opportunities Made Equal and other groups to alter the foreclosure process in Virginia in order to help homeowners modify their mortgages and stay in their homes.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
VPLC will support any bill that provides larger access to TANF benefits for Virginia's most needy families and will oppose any bill that would negatively impact individuals on TANF.

Unemployment
VPLC will support any bills that make positive changes to the unemployment compensation program and oppose any bills that will make it harder for low-wage workers to access unemployment benefits.

Elder Law
With a coalition of partners, VPLC will support bills which improve guardianship, power of attorney and advance medical directive protections for those with diminished capacity, bills which seek to protect seniors from financial exploitation, and bills which improve long term care, and VPLC will oppose bills which negatively impact residents of long term care facilities or seniors living in their homes. VPLC will oppose detrimental budget cuts which impact the elderly, especially in Medicaid coverage and long term care.

Domestic and Sexual Violence
VPLC and a coalition of partners are exploring adding strangulation to the Code of Virginia. Strangulation is a serious crime with which many domestic and sexual violence victims are all too familiar. There is, however, no specific mention of it in the Code of Virginia. An abuser may have almost killed a victim by strangulation, but the crime is charged as a misdemeanor instead of as a felony. Victims often suffer for months afterward from injuries to their throats, hoarse voices, bruises behind ears and blood-red eyes (due to blood being forced into the whites of their eyes).

VPLC is also committed to adding possession to §18.2-308.1:4: Currently there is a major difference between federal and Virginia law as regards protective order firearms prohibitions. Under Virginia law, a person who is subject to a protective order (the respondent, the abusive party) is prohibited from purchasing or transporting a firearm. Under federal law, however, a person subject to a protective order may not purchase, transport or possess a firearm or ammunition. For years, bills have been introduced to try to prohibit respondents in protective orders from possessing firearms. This bill was not introduced during the 2009 General Assembly. It is unlikely that, under the current climate of budget cuts, the 2010 General Assembly will pass bills to add strangulation to the Code or possession to firearms prohibitions, but VPLC believes these are important issues to raise.

Housing Law
VPLC will support bills that protect and enhance tenants' ability to assert their rights under the Virginia Landlord Tenant Act and other laws. VPLC will support legislation to require courts to grant brief continuances to tenants who submit promises to pay from governmental or non-profit agencies, in order to allow payment in time for tenants to avoid being evicted and becoming homeless. VPLC will oppose any effort to limit the right of indigent people to access circuit court, including bills to require indigent people to post appeal bonds in all unlawful detainer cases.

Family Law
VPLC will support bills that enhance access to the court system for pro se litigants with divorce and other family law matters and oppose any bills that limit this access. In particular, VPLC will support legislation to clarify that a plaintiff need not formally serve notices on defendants in divorce cases if those defendants have failed to answer, plead or appear after being initially served by personal or substitute service. This legislation will help prevent pro se litigants from having their divorce cases dismissed.

Child Welfare
VPLC will support all bills that further the statewide Child Welfare Transformation efforts, support kinship care and improve outcomes for older youth in foster care. VPLC will support legislation that increases services to youth 18 and older who have been receiving foster care services. This legislation will extend the time during which youth can "opt back in" to services from 60 days to six months; allow ALL youth in Virginia to remain in care until age 21; and require that any youth who leaves care before age 21 receive written notice of his right to have services restored.

Protection of Assets and Exempt Funds of Low-Income Virginians
VPLC will support bills that enhance the ability of low-income people to protect their right to retain their income and their modest homes. VPLC will support legislation that will insure creditors who freeze people's bank accounts in attempts to collect judgments provide these people with clear notice of which funds are exempt from collection and instructions on how to claim their exemptions. VPLC will also support legislation to protect low-income homeowners from losing their modest homes by setting reasonable limits on a creditor's ability to force a sale of the homes.