Funding for Medicaid in Virginia and affordable housing on church-owned property were among Arlington residents’ priorities for state lawmakers at a meeting last week.
The pre-legislative meeting with Sens. Barbara Favola and Adam Ebbin, and Dels. Patrick Hope, Alfonso Lopez and Adele McClure, came ahead of the Virginia General Assembly session scheduled to begin on Jan. 14. Other topics of discussion ranged from expanding ranked-choice voting to an age verification law for pornography sites.
The first three speakers of the night urged the Democratic lawmakers to raise developmental disability waiver reimbursement rates under Medicaid.
“Rates are well below the levels needed to deliver adequate services,” one speaker said. “Staff are underpaid. Capacity is short, and some service providers may have to close their doors if relief is not forthcoming soon.”
Another speaker encouraged the lawmakers to volunteer at one of Virginia’s many remote health care clinics.
“Find a time to join us as a volunteer,” she said. “You can come as an elected official, you can get a tour. Spend a day, talk to the patients, talk to the people who provide care.”
Those who did not focus on health care issues floated numerous other issues, including the potential repeal of S.B. 1515 — a bill enacted in 2023 that requires pornography websites to verify the age of those attempting to access the site.
“I think it’s a massive privacy risk for everyone in general,” one attendee said. “I don’t think you can reliably trust those sites, or, for that matter, any site to store someone’s ID like that, and I don’t think it’s the government’s business to be regulating that to begin with.”
Two speakers advocated for passage of the “faith and housing bill,” which was introduced last legislative session and would allow religious and tax-exempt organizations to construct affordable housing on their owned property.
“We have so many churches and nonprofits [that are] land-ready right now,” one speaker said. “They want to build housing, but they cannot do it, and we need your help to unlock it.”
Another attendee, who was speaking on behalf of the Unitarian Universalist Church, urged lawmakers to continue proposing policy that is inclusionary and protective of the LGBTQ+ community.
“Virginia voters have provided you with a mandate for decency and humanity,” he said. “We ask that you use that mandate to turn down the hateful rhetoric by any means within your authority and to restore decency to civil discourse.”
Additional topics mentioned include the restoration of voting rights for convicted felons, an expansion of ranked choice voting, restrictions on the use of public lands for transportation-related projects and much more.
The Virginia’s General Assembly session will run for 60 days before adjourning sine die on March 15.
