Terry Austin

This bill requires social media platforms to verify whether users are under 16, limit their daily usage to one hour without parental consent, and allow parents to adjust these limits. The bill takes effect on January 1, 2026. CPAC supported this bill. The House passed this bill on 2025-02-20 by a vote of 97-0. The bill later became law.

This bill bans the import, sale, manufacture, purchase, or transfer of assault firearms and large-capacity ammunition feeding devices, creating new restrictions on firearm ownership and criminal penalties for violations. It imposes age-based restrictions and limits Second Amendment protections for law-abiding citizens. CPAC opposed this bill. The House passed this bill on 2025-04-02 by a vote of 50-46. The Governor vetoed this bill.

This bill lengthens from five days to 14 days the mandatory waiting period after a landlord notifies a tenant of nonpayment of rent before the landlord can move to terminate the rental agreement. It tilts the scales further against property owners by delaying remedies, increasing unpaid rent exposure, and undermining basic contract enforcement. CPAC supports strong property rights for landlords and opposed this bill. The House passed this bill on 2025-02-03 by a vote of 50-48. The Governor vetoed this bill.

This bill forces every local school board to send annual emails and text messages to parents emphasizing the importance of locking up prescription drugs and reiterating parents' legal responsibilities for firearm storage, and to post these notices in multiple languages online. It further normalizes schools as vehicles for government messaging that subtly stigmatizes lawful gun ownership in the home. CPAC opposes using school communication channels to pressure lawful gun owners and opposed this bill. The House passed this bill on 2025-02-12 by a vote of 54-42. The Governor vetoed this bill.

This bill makes it a prohibited practice under the Virginia Consumer Protection Act to obtain, disclose, sell, or disseminate personally identifiable reproductive or sexual health information without a consumer's consent, insulating abortion-related activity from outside scrutiny under the guise of data privacy. CPAC believes that abortion is always a human tragedy. CPAC opposed this bill. The House passed this bill on 2025-02-14 by a vote of 52-43. The bill later became law.

This bill broadens the definition of a prohibited 'trigger activator,' explicitly including bump stocks, trigger cranks, and similar devices that alter a semi-automatic firearm's rate of fire, while carving out only a narrow exception for certain competitive triggers. It further entrenches accessory bans that punish law-abiding gun owners without addressing criminal misuse. CPAC opposes expanding bans on firearms accessories and opposed this bill. The House passed this bill on 2025-02-20 by a vote of 51-47. The Governor vetoed this bill.

This bill ratchets up Virginia's minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2027 and authorizes further automatic increases, hiking labor costs on small businesses and making it harder for young and low-skill workers to get a foothold in the job market. Government wage mandates like this fuel inflation, destroy entry-level jobs, and substitute political grandstanding for economic reality. CPAC opposes job-killing wage mandates and opposed this bill. The House passed this bill on 2025-04-02 by a vote of 50-46. The Governor vetoed this bill.

This bill requires the Board of Education, during each revision of the Standards of Learning, to consider inserting government-crafted 'media literacy' and 'digital citizenship' standards at every grade level, opening the door to politicized guidance on what information is acceptable. This bill risks turning classrooms into training grounds for state-approved narratives rather than independent critical thinking. CPAC opposes bureaucratic attempts to police information consumption and opposed this bill. The House passed this bill on 2025-02-04 by a vote of 98-0. The bill later became law.

This bill repeals Virginia's long-standing ban on public employee collective bargaining, creates a powerful Public Employee Relations Board, and mandates good-faith negotiations over wages and working conditions while stripping away explicit protection for secret-ballot elections. It hands unions new leverage over taxpayers and local governments, threatening higher costs, more strikes, and entrenched union power inside government itself. CPAC opposes public sector unionization that drives up taxes and weakens accountability and opposed this bill. The House passed this bill on 2025-02-22 by a vote of 51-45. The Governor vetoed this bill.

This bill forbids life and health insurers from adjusting coverage or pricing solely because an applicant uses pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV, overriding actuarial judgment in favor of a mandated coverage rule. It substitutes political directives for risk-based underwriting, potentially raising costs for other policyholders. CPAC opposes government micromanagement of insurance markets and opposed this bill. The House passed this bill on 2025-02-04 by a vote of 53-44. The Governor vetoed this bill.

This bill updates the child support guidelines to reflect higher income levels and directs a state panel to examine ways to help parents pay down arrearages, including reviewing whether license suspensions and similar penalties hinder repayment. It attempts to balance children's financial needs with removing barriers that keep obligors from working and paying what they owe. CPAC supports strengthening families while reducing counterproductive government barriers to work and supported this bill. The House passed this bill on 2025-02-13 by a vote of 77-19. The bill later became law.

This bill ties the hands of local registrars by barring them from cancelling voter registrations based on data from sources other than the state Department of Elections or approved state agencies, while carving out special protection for certain categories of voters. It makes it harder to promptly remove ineligible voters and keep voter rolls accurate. CPAC supports robust election integrity and opposed this bill. The House passed this bill on 2025-04-02 by a vote of 50-46. The Governor vetoed this bill.

This bill gives localities new power to bring injunctions and damages lawsuits against landlords over alleged habitability violations, adding another layer of legal risk and leverage for government against property owners. It encourages litigation and government interference rather than cooperative, market-based solutions to housing issues. CPAC defends landlord property rights against expanding municipal overreach and opposed this bill. The House passed this bill on 2025-01-20 by a vote of 53-43. The Governor vetoed this bill.

This bill forces public college and university governing boards to add nonvoting faculty and staff representatives chosen by campus constituencies, further entrenching the influence of entrenched academic bureaucracies. It risks amplifying left-leaning campus politics in institutional governance at taxpayer-funded schools. CPAC is wary of expanding politicized voices in higher-ed governance and opposed this bill. The House passed this bill on 2025-01-30 by a vote of 51-45. The Governor vetoed this bill.

This bill imposes complex regulatory requirements and civil penalties on the development and use of broadly defined 'high-risk' artificial intelligence systems, enforced by the Attorney General. It invites bureaucratic overreach that will stifle innovation, drive businesses out of Virginia, and empower regulators over entrepreneurs. CPAC opposes vague, innovation-killing tech regulations and opposed this bill. The House passed this bill on 2025-02-20 by a vote of 52-46. The Governor vetoed this bill.

This bill kills the Virginia Free File partnership and replaces it with a new state-operated income tax filing system modeled on the IRS Direct File program, expanding government control over tax preparation instead of simplifying and cutting taxes. It moves Virginia toward a tax bureaucracy that prepares, calculates, and adjudicates your tax bill all at once. CPAC favors lower, simpler taxes over expanding IRS-style systems and opposed this bill. The House passed this bill on 2025-02-04 by a vote of 63-36. The Governor vetoed this bill.

This bill forces physicians to undergo government-mandated 'unconscious bias' and 'cultural competency' training as a condition of renewing their medical licenses, embedding DEI ideology into medical continuing education. It diverts time and resources away from clinical excellence and toward politicized trainings. CPAC opposes DEI mandates that politicize professional licensing and opposed this bill. The House passed this bill on 2025-04-02 by a vote of 47-46. The Governor vetoed this bill.

This bill proposes a constitutional amendment creating a sweeping 'fundamental right to reproductive freedom' that would block most pro-life protections, deregulate abortion, and shield abortion providers and facilitators from accountability. CPAC believes that abortion is always a human tragedy. CPAC opposed this bill. The House passed this bill on 2025-01-14 by a vote of 51-48. The bill later became law.

This bill eliminates the exemption from Virginia's minimum wage for farm laborers, farm employees, and certain temporary foreign workers, subjecting agricultural employers to the state's wage mandates. It will raise costs on farmers, threaten rural jobs, and interfere with the flexibility needed in seasonal and entry-level farm work. CPAC opposes minimum wage expansions that harm small farms and reduce job opportunities and opposed this bill. The House passed this bill on 2025-01-30 by a vote of 50-46. The Governor vetoed this bill.

This bill repeals Virginia's longstanding prohibition on collective bargaining by public employees, creates a powerful Public Employee Relations Board, and forces state and local governments into union negotiations over wages, hours, and working conditions while weakening secret-ballot protections. It would supercharge government-union power, drive up taxpayer costs, and erode accountability to voters instead of union bosses. CPAC opposes forced public sector unionization that inflates government and undermines taxpayer interests and opposed this bill. The House passed this bill on 2025-04-02 by a vote of 50-46. The Governor vetoed this bill.