The 2019 Legislative Session officially adjourned on Sunday.  In just a little over a month and a half, the General Assembly passed a lot of important legislation to move Virginia forward. 

After four years of working with patient rights groups and citizens from across the Commonwealth, my legislation to add transparency and reasonableness to the step therapy process, a process by which an insurance company can override your doctor's prescribed treatment, passed both the House and Sena te by overwhelming margins and is heading to the Governor's desk. 

The General Assembly also passed my legislation to give school districts the ability to be granted waivers to the 180-day requirement if needed when the Governor declares an evacuation.  As I said in my previous communication on this issue, I hope that future circumstances will not require this legislation to be invoked, but if the need arises, our schools will now have the flexibility to adapt.

Several bills which I wrote and was chief co-patron are also heading to the Governor's desk.  This includes legislation to save small business owners the time and hassle of accounting for low-value office items by excluding all business property with a value under $25 from local business property taxes, as well as legislation to prevent businesses from abusing small and minority owned business contracts by ensuring contract awardees are not affiliated with non-qualifying entities that are subcontracted to perform the work.

Until now, health insurance companies phased out coverage of many important services for those on the autistic spectrum at 10 years of age.   I was proud to chief co-patron legislation to end this phase out of coverage for those with autism and, after a couple years of failing to pass both chambers, this year it passed both chambers of the General Assembly with strong bipartisan support.

My colleagues and I also worked together to pass a balanced budget with nearly $1 billion in tax relief and will provide Virginia public school teachers a much-needed and well-deserved 5% pay raise. 

I am excited to be back home in Virginia Beach with Chelle and Spartacus, and look forward to continuing to talk with my constituents on how we can make sure Virginia stays the best place to live, work, start a business, and raise a family.