Week of 03/15/2026
Dear Virginian,
Welcome to our final Legislative Rundown of this year’s General Assembly session! This past Saturday was High Noon, the final legislative Showdown at the OK Corral. It was the last day for legislation to go forward or be stopped, or in formal terms, the General Assembly rose Sine Die.
Bills have fallen. Others have passed. Some improved significantly after Conference (when the House and Senate disagreed); and others got even worse. The good news is, we now know where all the legislation has fallen, and Virginia’s attention has now shifted to the Governor’s office. Governor Spanberger has 30 days to sign, veto, or amend bills that could shape the future of our Commonwealth for good or for ill, and we intend to make our voices heard for the side of good!
In 2025, we had an 86.2% success rate with our Power of the Pen recommendations to the Governor. Though we aren’t sure how Governor Spanberger will respond to our recommendations, we hope the “Power of the Pen” will help her make the right decisions to preserve liberty, natural rights, and justice in the Commonwealth.
Together with our colleagues in the Virginia Conservative Leaders Network, we masterfully and tastefully assembled an 80-page book of recommendations to the Governor on what bills to sign, veto, and amend. That was hand-delivered to her office yesterday morning, and we’ve sent it to most every media organization in Virginia. Now, our job is to call as much attention to the bad legislation passed by extremist, radical representatives in the Virginia House and Senate.
For example, some of the societally harmful legislation recently passed and sent to the Governor’s desk would add 22% to the cost of hiring a worker, which would put astronomical numbers of Virginians out of work and destroy countless businesses (including minority and women-owned businesses) throughout the state. The overall cost to businesses in the Commonwealth has been estimated at over $2 billion per year.
Other destructive bills would affect Virginian homeowners, who would face a 20% hike in their energy bills over the next two to three years.
Virginians could also suffer a significant spike in health insurance premiums and healthcare shortages affecting over 1 million urban and rural Virginians in “medical deserts” throughout the state.
We now call upon Governor Spanberger to heed our counsel and make responsible decisions in her final signatures. As our Institute’s President, Lynn Taylor, said: “If the Governor is truly the moderate she considers herself to be, we stand ready to work with her to find a path forward to ensure genuine affordability, support business and improve every part of Virginia’s education. This is more important than Left or Right, it’s about Virginia’s future.”
You can see the press release and download Power of the Pen for yourself here and see what’s at stake.
https://virginiainstitute.org/blog/virginia-coalition-calls-on-governor-spanberger-to-act-for-virginias-affordability-business-and-freedom
