Richmond, VA-–When Governor Glenn Youngkin issued an eleventh-hour veto of the Contraceptive Equity Act last month, he entered into what has become an increasingly fraught national debate around the right to access and use contraception. The bills, sponsored by Senator Ghazala Hashmi and Delegate Marcia Price, would have guaranteed that medical professionals would be legally allowed to prescribe contraception and […]
Press Releases
Press Release
Virginia’s Largest Police Force Will Operate Without Body-Worn Cameras For Another Year
Richmond, VA-–An amendment that would have required officers of the Virginia State Police to wear body cameras was quietly stripped from this year’s state budget, which was finalized on Monday. The amendment, sponosred by Delegate Lashrecse Aird, would have purchased body cameras for all VSP officers and would have staffed a program to collect and review the […]
Press Release
ICYMI: Glenn Youngkin Is Required To Appoint a DEI Director. Why Hasn’t He?
Richmond, VA-–On Monday, Governor Glenn Youngkin, whose office once declared that “DEI is dead,” found himself signing a state spending bill that apportioned $3.6 million to the Office of Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion. The bill also mandated that Governor Youngkin must return the word “equity” to the office title after attempting to change the office’s name to […]
Press Release
Progress Virginia Condemns Violent Crackdown on Peaceful Campus Protests
Richmond, Virginia—Progress Virginia stands in solidarity with the protesters at Virginia Tech, University of Mary Washington, and Virginia Commonwealth University who were arrested, tear-gassed and threatened by armed law enforcement officers for engaging in their Constitutional rights of free speech and free assembly. Virginia student protesters are part of a greater national movement calling for an […]
Press Release
Virginia Coalition for Progressive Values To Host a Press Conference Ahead of Veto Session on the Status of Progressive Legislation
Richmond, Virginia—Progress Virginia and the Virginia Coalition for Progressive Values will host a press conference to discuss the status of several vetoed pieces of legislation. The press conference will feature remarks from legislators, as well as stories from people whose lives were personally impacted by the legislation. Focus areas will include minimum wage, paid family […]
Press Release
Youngkin Vetoes Bills That Protect Patients Seeking Abortion Care
Richmond, Virginia—As states across the country ramp up their efforts to criminalize patients for exercising reproductive choice after the Dobbs decision, Virginia has become a sanctuary for people escaping draconian laws passed in their own states. By vetoing several bills that protected patients and their care teams, Governor Glenn Youngkin has failed Virginians by refusing […]
Press Release
In A Late-Night Veto Session, Governor Kills Paid Family and Medical Leave
Richmond, Virginia—Paid family and medical leave is critical for working families, and consistently one of the most popular issues for voters: recent polling suggests that 85% of voters support paid leave policies. In February, the House of Delegates passed a historic bill to extend eight weeks of paid family and medical leave to workers in our community, […]
Press Release
Multimillionaire Governor Says Working Families Don’t Deserve $15 An Hour
Richmond, Virginia—Virginia is slowly becoming a better state for workers, and Governor Glenn Youngkin is not going to stand for that. On Thursday, the Governor, who divides his time between his state-funded lodgings at the Governor’s Mansion and his 30-acre ranch in the wealthy DC suburb of Great Falls, vetoed life-changing legislation that would have raised the minimum wage […]
Press Release
Democrats Pass Lifesaving Gun Violence Prevention Bills, Governor Strikes Them Down
Richmond, Virginia—In a blow to communities still reeling from the impact of gun violence, Governor Glenn Youngkin has vetoed dozens of bills that would have helped stem the tide of mass shootings and preventable gun deaths. In a veto session on Tuesday, the Governor vetoed thirty gun violence prevention bills passed by the General Assembly; […]
Press Release
Governor Vetos Critical Tool to Combat Election Fraud
Richmond, Virginia—Glenn Youngkin, who has flirted with Donald Trump’s election denial claims and who campaigned for several prominent election deniers, has vetoed a bill that would have helped Virginia maintain up-to-date voter rolls and prevent election fraud. The Election Registration Information Center (ERIC) database is a bipartisan interstate initiative that allows states to share voter registration records: this, […]