Delegates press Appropriations Committee with hundreds of local budget requests, from school repairs to workforce and water projects

After the committee acted on the three bills, the director of the House Appropriations Committee invited members to present three-minute budget amendment priorities. Delegates used the opportunity to press for a mix of statewide and locally targeted funding.

Several large requests stood out. Delegate Cousins asked the committee to allocate $500 million statewide to address immediate school maintenance needs, citing independent assessments showing substantial deferred repairs. Delegate McAuliffe described a non‑general-fund request of $18 million to replenish Department of Conservation and Recreation state park acquisition funds. Delegate Glass and others urged increased support for planning districts and environmental education programs, and multiple delegates sought investments in water and wastewater infrastructure—most notably a request tied to the Rapidan Service Authority to meet a Virginia Department of Health consent order, described as a roughly $31 million Phase 2 infrastructure package to meet treatment and storage requirements.

Health and human-services priorities were prominent. Delegates Delaney and Henson requested restoration of funding for victims services and children’s advocacy centers after federal funding cuts, proposing multi‑million-dollar appropriations. Multiple speakers pressed for targeted workforce and behavioral‑health investments, including a proposal to expand PACE (Program of All‑Inclusive Care for the Elderly) in the Central Shenandoah Valley and funding for workforce development training centers and hospital reimbursement changes to retain neonatologists.

Delegates also sought funding for local projects large and small: visitor centers and historical building preservation, community-based nonprofit grants (for example, support for Mobile Hope and the Arc of Loudoun), public-safety building retrofits, and targeted grants for rural housing infrastructure. Several speakers noted prior vetoes of similar requests and urged the committee to restore them.

The sequence of presentations did not include committee votes on the members’ proposals; they were entered into the record for consideration during the budget reconciliation process.

The committee adjourned after hearing the presenters and noted two subcommittee meetings to follow (Transportation and Public Safety; Commerce, Agriculture and Natural Resources).