Oppose off shore wind. I’m ground zero in Virginia Beach . I live 500 ft away from offshore/onshore construction at SMR. ITS A NIGHTMARE. Property damage, noisy and diesel dirty. Def not clean energy 18 months of hell and counting.

Please let me know about anything to do with ANY SOLAR or wind. Also why aren't you working on lowering this socialism health obamare that is failing! We pay double our house payment for healthcare. They do a certain percentage of what u make a year. I have to take money out of my 401k for healthcare that counts as income. It shouldn't count as income when you are taxing the heck out of us. We can't travel,most our prescriptions we use to take won't be covered and could go on and on about this robbery of people s hard earned money!

The labor force is essential for continued growth and success within The Commonwealth. Worker's should be appropriately compensated with fair wages, accessible/affordable health care, safe work spaces, and financial security for their retirement. Please vote for legislation to help support hard working Virginians.

The labor force is essential for continued growth and success within The Commonwealth. Worker's should be appropriately compensated with fair wages, accessible/affordable health care, safe work spaces, and financial security for their retirement. Please vote for legislation to help support hard working Virginians.

The Virginia Association for Home Care and Hospice Opposes this legislation as introduced. Current reimbursement rates for agency directed personal care are so low that it is imposable to provide a sick leave benefit. We would support this legislation if it required DMAS to reimburse agency directed personal care for providing a sick leave benefit.

I urge the subcommittee to support HB1921. No one should have to work when sick and home health care workers working when sick puts themselves and the people they care for at risk. Please support sick leave for home health care workers and all workers to safeguard the health of all Virginians. Thank you.

Good afternoon Committee members, My name is Mel Borja and I am speaking on behalf of The Latin American Law Organization (“LALO”) at the UVA School of Law to express our support for House Bill 1980, which will help protect migrant farmworkers in the Commonwealth from heat illness. Members of our organization regularly participate in legal outreach efforts to farmworkers in Central Virginia during late summer. We are acutely aware of how heat illness is an increasingly pressing issue faced by migrant farmworkers in the Commonwealth. It is crucial that HB1980 supports regulatory development to protect these essential workers and provides a civil right of action to hold employers accountable. We respectfully ask that you vote in favor of the bill. Thank you.

Dear Memgers of the House Lavor and Commerce Committee. I support HB 2o97. Early PSA screening enabled me to have my GLEASON 10 to be discovered early and prevent early spread of the disease. It is imperative that PSA testing be availabie to high risk men. Michael Brannon, CAPTAIN, USN (Retired)

Comments Document

The American Lung Association strongly supports this bill, given its importance for preventing delays to air pollution regulations. Zero-emission vehicles are a critical tool for reducing harmful air pollution. The “Driving to Clean Air” report by the Lung Association found that the transition to zero-emission vehicles powered by clean energy would provide the Virginia with $25.4 billion in health benefits, prevent more than 2,320 premature deaths and 60,600 asthma attacks, and avoid 299,000 lost workdays. HB 2087 would prevent delays to air pollution solutions by requiring that utilities plan to accommodate the electricity needs for future transportation electrification growth. Ensuring that electrical capacity is delivered to all customers in a timely manner when it is needed will not only provide benefits to all ratepayers, but also secure significant public health savings and avoid many lost workdays. I respectfully ask for your support on this legislation to secure important air pollution reductions to improve lung health in Virginia.

Comments Document

Drive Electric RVA supports the portions of HB 2087 that requires Virginia’s largest utilities to provide more information on how they intend to have sufficient grid capacity for future transportation electrification. The private sector has invested in charging infrastructure throughout the state, but the perceived lack of certainty over grid capacity is holding them back. It has also alarmed potential EV owners who may not go electric because they don’t want to crash the grid. Utilities are the only ones who can assuage these fears by filling the vacuum of information.

Please let me know about anything to do with ANY SOLAR or wind. Also why aren't you working on lowering this socialism health obamare that is failing! We pay double our house payment for healthcare. They do a certain percentage of what u make a year. I have to take money out of my 401k for healthcare that counts as income. It shouldn't count as income when you are taxing the heck out of us. We can't travel,most our prescriptions we use to take won't be covered and could go on and on about this robbery of people s hard earned money!

January 23, 2025 Members of the Labor and Commerce, Subcommittee #2 Honorable Delegates, I am David E Balducchi, retired from the U.S. Department of Labor, and currently on the Advisory Board of Social Action Linking Together. HB 2135 provides additional weekly benefits to eligible claimants in the amount of an allowance of $25 for each of up to three dependents. The bill requires any claimant declaring one or more dependents to provide proof of such dependents in a form and manner prescribed by the Virginia Employment Commission. This bill strengthens Virginia's prop-family policies. It is not based upon need, but the status of the individual relative to supporting essential expenses with raising dependent family members. Please support this bill that enhances traditional family life and structure. Thank you.

I support HB2346. This bill provides an opportunity to gain electrical capacity without having to build it. Customers can actually benefit financially for helping supply this capacity.

Paid family leave, across the board, would be incredibly beneficial to all families. In my case, I was not offered formal maternity leave of any kind and was unable to utilize FMLA because the company I work for is too small to be eligible. This meant that in order to have time off to recover from childbirth and bond with my newborn, I had to use my own PTO. I was fortunate enough to not need to take much sick time during my pregnancy so I was able to save those hours for my postpartum period, but many others are not that fortunate. And with all of the doctors appointments healthy newborns have, if someone has a baby that needs extra, they may not have any sick time left to take to care for their baby. In addition, I unfortunately suffered from mild postpartum depression. With needing to take my own sick time for my maternity leave, and needing to use that time to physically heal and learn to care for this new human, taking extra time to make sure that stayed under control was impossible. It is only that much harder for parents with more severe PPD or PPA. For a country that has been putting so much emphasis on a child's life and potential in recent years, the fact that we make it so hard for parents to care for that life is outrageous. Only 8 countries do not have paid family leave, and the U.S. is the largest country of those 8. Research shows that paid family leave has a positive impact on adult and child mental, physical, and financial health and yet, the United States is the only industrialized country without a national paid family leave policy. Our families deserve better. Our children deserve better.

There is evidence to support how important they paid leave is for birthing persons and their families. Please support the mother's needs and allow every single one to have paid medical leave. I have given birth to 2 children and I cannot comprehend making a mother choose to either (1) care for herself and baby without pay or (2) return to the workforce before she is healed and ready to do her job successfully. Please hear our concerns.

Comments Document

We are a family of 8. In August of 2024 we lost our 12 day old son after a two week stay in the NICU where he never woke up. Paid Family Medical Leave allowed my Husband and our family to stay together with him over the course of his short life. If we did not have access to Paid Family Medical Leave my husband would have had to return to work almost immediately and would have missed the most important time we were allowed to spend with our son. Prior to our loss in August of 2024, Paid Family Medical Leave also let us enjoy the birth and postpartum period after our daughters were born. Paid Family Medical Leave also allowed us to care for our children and our parents when they need us the most, whether it was during sickness, a heart bypass surgery, and cancer. Needless to say we actively support Paid Family Medical Leave and believe all people will benefit from this at some point in their lives. Please Support and Expand Paid Family Medical Leave!

Paid family leave is absolutely essential for not only the employer but also the employer. It allows employees to take time off work with pay to bond with a new child, care for a sick family member, or manage their own serious health condition, while still maintaining their job. It helps individuals balance work and family responsibilities without having to choose between their career and personal needs, which not only improves employee morale but also retention rates. Please do the right thing. Thank you for your consideration.

To Whom It May Concern: Paid family leave is important for many reasons including -better health outcomes for mothers and infants postpartum. Research shows lower rates of postpartum depression and improved breastfeeding rates. -stronger child-parent bonds. Allowing parents to take time to bond can have positive impacts on child development and family dynamics. -increased work production and economic benefit. For women, paid family leave will allow them to maintain their employment and return to work after having a child. This can will increase workforce participation that can contribute to economic growth. On a greater scale, having a society that supports women , babies, and families leads to a more healthy, less violent, stable society.

I am writing to urge the members of this committee to support HB 2531 - Del. Sewell. I’ve experienced new parenthood both with and without paid leave, and I can attest to the incredible burden that was lifted when I didn’t have to worry about maintaining a job while navigating all of the overwhelming concerns that come with caring for a new baby and recovering from giving birth. I never felt like I was able to properly mourn my stillborn daughter, partially due to the need to forgo paid work in the days and weeks after losing her. When my now 12 year-old daughter was born, I had no option but to quit my job, making me completely economically dependent on her father (thank goodness he is a kind person; not everyone is so lucky). My third pregnancy was the first time I had the benefit of paid leave. I was able to visit my youngest daughter every day during the excruciatingly long two weeks of her NICU stay, coming home every evening to care for her older sister after the school day. I have no idea how our family would have survived without paid leave; I needed to be in that NICU and we also needed to keep a roof over our heads, and we could not have provided both without my paid leave. Right now, during emergencies and other major life events, parents and caregivers are at the whims of their employers. We cannot ensure that we will be able to provide the essential needs our families rely on, unless we have the assurance of paid family leave in the Commonwealth.

Comments Document

TechNet's written remarks for the full committee are attached.

Comments Document

ATU Local 689 strongly supports this proposal. If enacted, it would finally ensure that transit workers are no longer able to be contracted out and treated as a permanent underclass of workers. For too long, private contractors have abused transportation services either by underbidding contracts or pocketing funds for themselves and not paying their workers living wages. Especially in jurisdictions with collective bargaining, it is time to make sure that frontline transportation workers are not treated as a "cost savings" in a race to the bottom for contractors. Please see our full written testimony for more.

Our members provide valuable transportation services to Virginia citizens and visitors, including persons with disabilities. This includes providing complementary services by contract with public transportation systems for persons with disabilities or in some cases for overflow or after-hours service. Ours are small businesses that typically operate with independent contractor drivers, and if the proposed statute were to apply to these services we would be unable to meet such requirements, depriving us of the opportunity to provide such services and those communities of the ability to utilize those services to meet critical transportation needs. If the bill is to proceed, we urge its amendment to clarify that it exempts such complementary or supplementary services. We believe that this is consistent with the definition of public transportation systems and the intent of the legislation.

Comments Document

TechNet's written remarks on HB 2619 are attached.

Comments Document

ATU Local 689 highly supports HB2619. The bill would finally ensure that transit contractors are providing quality services to the riding public, honestly bidding on contracts, and treating their employees with the respect they have earned. If passed, the bill would further guarantee that in jurisdictions with collective bargaining, contracted transit workers would no longer be treated as a permanent underclass of labor.