January is always a time of change with the beginning of a new year and that trend stays true to what’s happening in Richmond. Lots of changes have occurred over the last few days including our Governor, Secretary of Education, and many committee leaders in the General Assembly. Governor Terry McAuliffe’s Inauguration was held on Saturday, Secretary of Education Anne Holton was sworn in yesterday and late last week many committee chairmanships and members of committees in both the House and Senate saw changes. I’ll give you a brief rundown of those changes.
The new chairman of House Education Committee is Delegate Steve Landes from Augusta County. Additionally, he reorganized the subcommittee structure to include three subcommittees: Elementary and Secondary Education chaired by Delegate Dickie Bell, Higher Education chaired by Delegate Jimmie Massie and Education Reform chaired by Delegate Tag Greason. In December, Speaker Howell named Delegate Chris Jones of Suffolk the new chairman of House Appropriations. On Friday, subcommittee chairman were named and that include Delegate Jimmie Massie of Henrico as the new chairman of the Elementary and Secondary Education subcommittee.
In the Senate, Senator Walter Stosch remains the chairman of Senate Finance and Senator Steve Martin as Senate Education and Health chairman. Senator Bill Carrico of Grayson has again been named chair of the Public Education subcommittee of Senate Education and Health, and Senator Tommy Norment remains Senate Finance Education subcommittee chair. Lt. Governor Ralph Northam was sworn-in on Saturday and will take the helm of the Senate today as President. In this role, he will preside over the Senate and can cast tie-breaking votes on legislation.
Continue to check the blog for more updates from Richmond and the General Assembly.
