The Jefferson Journal
Commentary
Summary – Virginia’s HB 355 replaces academic education with clinical surveillance by mandating annual mental health screenings for students in grades 6–12. By using a passive “opt-out” system, the bill erodes parental rights, pathologizes normal adolescent stress through a secular lens, and creates a pipeline toward student over-medication. Governor Spanberger...
The 2026 Virginia General Assembly has passed at least nine separate new laws that will increase the cost of your electricity. Not one of the bills creates a single megawatt of additional energy for our use. Most of the bills create new ways for the utilities to take money from...
Unless Virginia voters reject the constitutional amendment on the ballot April 21, gerrymandering will return to Virginia. Five years ago, 66% of Virginia voters — 2.8 million Virginians — approved a bipartisan redistricting constitutional amendment ending gerrymandering. The result was a map that is widely regarded as one of the fairest in the...
Cardinal News ran my guest column this morning warning that collective bargaining at Virginia’s public universities will only further depen the political divides that are undermining Virginia’s once esteemed system of higher education. The push to unionize university workers in Virginia is not about increased pay, better working conditions, or...
The Richmond Times-Dispatch ran my guest column this morning that warns of the significant learning loss that will likely occur from the Paid Family and Medical Leave bill (SB2) that is quickly winding its way to the Governror’s desk for her promised signature. As I have written previously, the Virginia General Assembly is...
Building Virginia into the leader of the data center industry for the United States and the world has been a bipartisan goal of several recent governors and General Assemblies. The golden egg laying goose they nurtured is now in danger of being butchered. What is happening to this one industry...
By Ali Ahmad, Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment Over the last four years, I served as a senior aide to former Governor Glenn Youngkin, including as Policy Director and Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategy. One of my main roles was in support of the Governor’s weighty responsibility...
As the Virginia General Assembly enters the final weeks of its 2026 session, a wave of new labor mandates is about to reach the Governor’s desk, two of which she has promised to sign, and one she seems inclined to support as well. House Bill 5 (Paid Sick Leave), Senate Bill 2 (Paid...
The Senate and House of Delegates’ financial committees met on Sunday to approve competing sets of amendments to the next Virginia budget, neither proposing any general tax increases. The Senate version included modest tax reform: a small taxpayer rebate for this year and an increase in the income tax standard...
The Supreme Court’s decision in Learning Resources v. Trump is a landmark reaffirmation of one of the Constitution’s most fundamental principles: the power to tax belongs to Congress alone. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution explicitly vests in the legislative branch the authority “to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.” Tariffs...