By Virginia Senator Saddam Azlan Salim

As the dust clears on Governor Youngkin’s record number of vetoes, Virginia still does not have a budget. Two weeks ago, the General Assembly went back to Richmond for the annual reconvened session. During the session, we reviewed the Governor’s vetoes and amendments to bills. One bill that has drawn much attention is Sen. Hashmi’s Right to Contraception Act. As originally written, the bill would have prohibited Virginia from restricting access to contraceptives; however, Governor Youngkin sent back an amended version of the bill that significantly weakened its provisions. I am a strong supporter of protecting access to contraceptives, and I opposed the Governor’s amendments. During the reconvened session, the Senate decided to return the original bill to the Governor’s desk, and he will now need to decide whether to sign or veto the original bill.

Regarding the budget, due to Youngkin’s record number of amendments and vetoes, leadership in the House and the Senate decided that it would be better to start over on the budget. Therefore, we have been called to a special session on May 13th where we will review and approve a new budget.

One budget issue that I have taken particular concern with is funding for WMATA. In the budget that passed the Senate and House earlier this year, it was agreed that the Commonwealth would fund an additional $150 million for Metro over the next 2 years and lift the 3 percent cap on additional Metro funding. This is to keep up with rising costs due to inflation, post-pandemic ridership changes, and the loss of pandemic-era funding. However, in the budget that Governor Youngkin returned to the General Assembly, he replaced the additional dedicated funding with a ~$130 million dollar transfer from the NVTC. This would take away money from other projects around the region and delay them, while shifting more of the funding onto Northern Virginia localities. I oppose shifting even more of the funding onto localities and believe that the Commonwealth should fully fund Metro. Metro is crucial to Northern Virginia’s economy, and we cannot regress on the recent improvements in service that we have seen. To continue my support for Metro and transportation, I have been appointed to one of the open seats on the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission.

On a different note, last weekend, I held my first annual Eid celebration in the City of Fairfax. It was a wonderful event where people of all faiths and backgrounds came together to learn more about Ramadan and Eid while sharing a delicious dinner. I hope to continue this tradition in the years to come, and I want to thank everyone from Falls Church who attended.

I will be back with another update after our special session to provide an update on the budget.