The Virginia Senate again failed to vote on legislation to undo changes to a popular military family tuition program, but the Finance Committee advanced a mostly clean repeal bill from state Sen. Louise Lucas.
Lucas’ new bill, Senate Bill 6011, would repeal most changes to the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program but does add one stipulation: It requires program participants to maintain academic progress during their time as students. The bill also adds $45 million to the program from the state’s general fund and directs the Joint Legislative and Audit Review Commission to review the program and recommend changes by Sept. 1.
The Senate voted along party lines, with Republicans against a 48-hour waiting period to hear Lucas’ bill.
Lucas, a Portsmouth Democrat, said during a Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee hearing that Gov. Glenn Youngkin approached her Monday morning about the issue. After making what she believed was reasonable progress with him, she chose to draft the new repeal bill.
“And it’s my hope that the governor and the House will join me in announcing that we have an agreement,” Lucas said.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Mount Vernon, later said during the session that he also participated in the meeting with Youngkin and that the governor had rejected several compromise proposals from Senate Democrats.
The Finance Committee rejected a bill passed unanimously by the Virginia House on Friday that would have fully repealed the changes to the program.
In a statement, Youngkin criticized Senate Democrats for not taking up the House bill. He also said members of both chambers should agree to come back on the same day next week.
“If they can’t agree on coming back together to fix this, I will call them back to do exactly that,” Youngkin said.
On the Senate floor, Republicans again excoriated Democrats for not taking up the House bill and instead moving Lucas’ proposal forward. State Sen. Glen Sturtevant, R-Midlothian, said the academic progress requirement would encourage colleges to gut the program.
Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, a Richmond Democrat and former academic administrator, countered, saying the language is standard in state and federal financial aid programs.
“It baffles me that we have Senators on this floor who are positioning the idea that a university or a college would actually want to see students fail,” Hashmi said.
The Virginia budget, which went into effect Monday, imposed several new restrictions on the tuition waiver program in an attempt to curb rising costs. It requires applicants to be Virginia residents and limits the program waivers to undergraduate degrees. The budget also requires applicants to apply for and use other sources of state and federal financial aid first.
The changes have been widely criticized by military families, many of whom live in Hampton Roads.
Lucas declined to hear several pieces of legislation fully repealing the changes during a finance committee meeting June 18, a decision that was met with protests from Virginia Republicans and Youngkin.
Previously, the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program provided tuition waivers and an annual stipend to spouses and children of veterans who are killed, missing in action, taken prisoner or at least 90% permanently disabled as a result of service.
The Senate again took no action on legalizing skill games, the slot machine-like gaming devices once active in many Virginia gas stations. The General Assembly initially banned skill games in 2020, but then-Gov. Ralph Northam delayed implementation to help the state raise money for a COVID-19 relief fund. A court case challenged the law, but proponents of the skill games lost and the ban took effect at the end of last year.
Lawmakers sent a legalization bill to Youngkin this year, but his amendments effectively banned the machines in most of the state, including Hampton Roads. He vetoed the legislation after the amendments were rejected.
Trevor Metcalfe, 757-222-5345, trevor.metcalfe@pilotonline.com
