State Senate Majority Leader Sen. Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax) gestures during a news conference at the State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024. The Virginia General Assembly’s 2024 session opens today. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — The political finger-pointing game is intensifying after the Virginia Senate was unable to reach an agreement on how to reverse recent changes to the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP).
“We’re living a political nightmare. It’s Groundhog Day,” Kayla Owen, founder of the advocacy group Friends of VMSDEP, told 8News.
Senate Democrats have said they had a solution they could vote on Monday if Republicans were willing to go along with it, but Republicans said they couldn’t support it because it wasn’t a complete repeal.
“If I asked anyone in this room if we were at war right now, I’m sure they would say yes,” Sen. Bryce Reeves (R-Orange) said on the Senate floor.
In May, lawmakers took steps to make it harder for families to take advantage of the program, which provides college tuition relief for the children and spouses of eligible disabled veterans.
On Monday, Senate Democrats introduced a plan to roll back the changes while still requiring students to show satisfactory academic progress, but the bill stalled on the Senate floor after Republicans decided not to waive Senate rules to give the bill final passage.
“We have a bill that solves everybody’s problems and answers all of the questions,” said Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax. “This bill would repeal all of the changes, but we’re not taking a vote today because of procedural challenges that could have been easily ignored.”
Why did Republicans oppose it? They wanted to vote for a bill that passed the House unanimously that completely reversed the changes and didn’t add language requiring students to demonstrate academic progress.
“invoice [which] “Mr. Chairman, what’s been proposed is not a complete repeal, it’s not the complete solution that’s been sought and advocated for. It’s not the complete solution that the majority of the state Legislature supports,” said Sen. Glenn Sturtevant (R-Colonial Heights).
There’s also been some debate about how the problem started in the first place, with Gov. Glenn Youngkin saying on Good Morning Richmond Tuesday that changes to the program were “built into the budget.”
Rep. Luke Torian (D-Prince William), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, told 8News that this is not the case, saying, “It is the responsibility of the governor and his staff to read the entire budget proposal and understand what is in it.”
