{"id":31305,"date":"2024-07-02T20:14:05","date_gmt":"2024-07-02T20:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2024\/07\/02\/virginia-senate-fails-to-pass-bill-on-military-tuition-program\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:29:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:29:26","slug":"virginia-senate-fails-to-pass-bill-on-military-tuition-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/fedlife\/2024\/07\/02\/virginia-senate-fails-to-pass-bill-on-military-tuition-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Senate fails to pass bill on military tuition program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the second time this summer, the Virginia Senate returned to Richmond and failed to pass a bill most General Assembly members and many military families want to see advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another five hours at the Capitol Monday produced no breakthroughs in the slow-burning controversy over the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP), which provides tuition-free college to spouses and children of military members killed or disabled as a result of their service.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/education-transition\/2024\/06\/11\/virginia-education-program-cuts-for-military-families-spark-backlash\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_6850-2048x1536.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Virginia education program cuts for military families spark backlash<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Virginia lawmakers plan to reconvene to address controversial cuts to a tuition waiver program for military families.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For weeks, military families and advocates for veterans have been calling for the immediate reversal of cost-cutting measures aimed at VMSDEP that the legislature and Gov. Glenn Youngkin approved earlier this year. On Friday, the House of Delegates <a href=\"https:\/\/virginiamercury.com\/2024\/06\/28\/virginia-house-votes-to-reverse-changes-to-tuition-program-serving-military-families\/#:~:text=By%3A%20Graham%20Moomaw%20%2D%20June%2028%2C%202024%202%3A32%20pm&#038;text=The%20Virginia%20House%20of%20Delegates%20voted%2092%2D0%20Friday%20to,to%20college%20without%20paying%20tuition.\" target=\"_blank\">unanimously approved<\/a> the full repeal bill the families support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After watching Monday\u2019s Senate session devolve into multi-directional bickering that produced nothing, military families described Virginia\u2019s halls of power as a place where rampant egos have gotten in the way of listening to regular people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are living a political nightmare,\u201d said Kayla Owen, a Fredericksburg-area military spouse leading Friends of VMSDEP, the main advocacy group pushing for the program\u2019s restoration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The lack of action means the recently approved changes to the VMSDEP program won\u2019t be rolled back under the deadline policymakers have been working toward for weeks. Monday was the official beginning of the state\u2019s fiscal year, which meant the new budget containing the VMSDEP reforms went into effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new changes, which don\u2019t apply to current VMSDEP recipients but will apply to anyone attempting to begin using the program in the future, impose a stricter Virginia residency requirement, prevent the waivers from being used for advanced degrees or a second undergraduate degree and require participants to first pursue other forms of financial aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Monday, the Senate\u2019s Democratic leaders battled Youngkin\u2019s administration, the Democratic-led House and Senate Republicans. At the end of the day, Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, portrayed his caucus as the only group in the mix making a serious effort to preserve VMSDEP while reining in its ballooning costs. He accused others of playing politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Friends of VMSDEP group said that, as far as it\u2019s concerned, the blame for the current situation lies squarely with Surovell and Senate Finance and Appropriations Chair Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2436\" height=\"1370\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/f7a38b94-1c82-4f4a-a723-d2556360b062.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-108304\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/f7a38b94-1c82-4f4a-a723-d2556360b062.jpg.jpg 2436w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/f7a38b94-1c82-4f4a-a723-d2556360b062.jpg.jpg?resize=300,169 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/f7a38b94-1c82-4f4a-a723-d2556360b062.jpg.jpg?resize=768,432 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/f7a38b94-1c82-4f4a-a723-d2556360b062.jpg.jpg?resize=1024,576 1024w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/f7a38b94-1c82-4f4a-a723-d2556360b062.jpg.jpg?resize=1536,864 1536w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/f7a38b94-1c82-4f4a-a723-d2556360b062.jpg.jpg?resize=2048,1152 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2436px) 100vw, 2436px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin hinted he might force both chambers to return if they do not come up with a VMSDEP solution. (Andrew Harnik\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lucas and Surovell haven\u2019t gotten on board with proposals to fully repeal the VMSDEP changes. Instead, they\u2019ve offered a series of alternate proposals, none of which have passed their own chamber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The latest proposal Senate Democrats unveiled Monday would have provided $45 million in new funding to offset VMSDEP\u2019s growing financial impact on the state\u2019s public colleges and universities, which legislative analysts say have grown from about $19 million in 2019 to more than $65 million in 2023. Their offer came close to fully repealing the stricter eligibility rules imposed earlier this year, but preserved one modest reform that would\u2019ve required VMSDEP participants to make \u201csatisfactory academic progress\u201d toward earning a degree. The academic progress rule wouldn\u2019t take effect until 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That proposal, Surovell said on the Senate floor, gave VMSDEP supporters \u201cpretty much everything they asked for,\u201d plus tens of millions in new funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cUnfortunately we are unable to get some good work done that we had hoped to get done,\u201d Surovell said after it became clear that Senate Republicans were not going to lend their votes to help the body fast-track the bill and allow it to pass on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because the Senate is in a special summertime session, the body needed to take a two-thirds vote to waive a rule requiring the VMSDEP bill to be published for at least 48 hours prior to Monday\u2019s vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Senate Republicans, who repeatedly asked their Democratic counterparts to pass a clean repeal bill as the House had done, noted that the General Assembly\u2019s rules also required the House to agree to waive the 48-hour rule. Because of that, they said, the Senate technically couldn\u2019t even execute the plan Democratic leaders had come up with for Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If the Senate had passed a clean repeal bill, the Republicans argued, the VMSDEP controversy could have been over on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe want to get it done today. This is not politics,\u201d said Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle, R-Hanover. \u201cThis is a disagreement about how we get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At a meeting of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee Monday afternoon, Surovell said the House\u2019s clean repeal bill was \u201cconstitutionally defective\u201d because of a technical formatting issue that had nothing to do with the underlying policy. Therefore, he said, the Senate could not pass that bill and could instead only pass the slightly different repeal bill Lucas had introduced on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sen. Bryce Reeves, R-Spotsylvania, offered to draft a new bill addressing the technical issue Surovell flagged. Lucas said that, according to Senate customs, she is the only senator allowed to introduce budget-related legislation as the chair of the committee that handled the budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt is my hope that the governor and the House will join me in announcing that we have an agreement,\u201d Lucas said as she introduced her latest proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lucas and Surovell said they spent several hours meeting with Youngkin Monday morning attempting to come to an agreement on the VMSDEP issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a statement Monday evening, Youngkin criticized the Senate for failing to pass a VMSDEP bill after a similarly fruitless outcome when the Senate <a href=\"https:\/\/virginiamercury.com\/2024\/06\/18\/virginia-senate-returns-to-richmond-but-fails-to-pass-any-bills\/\" target=\"_blank\">took up the issue on June 18<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Senate Democrat leadership is hurting our military heroes, first responders and their families every time they show up and do nothing, as well as wasting time and taxpayer money,\u201d Youngkin said. \u201cA full, clean repeal, which passed out of the House unanimously, and was supported by a bipartisan majority in the Senate, could have been signed today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Del. Mark Sickles, D-Fairfax, a high-ranking House member who works on budget issues, briefly appeared before his Senate counterparts during their committee hearing. Sickles too said that if the Senate could go just a little further toward agreeing with the position of the House and the governor, the issue would be \u201cover today.\u201d If the Senate insisted on trying to pass a bill that didn\u2019t quite match, he said, the way forward would remain unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cReally, there\u2019s not that much difference between the two bills now,\u201d Sickles said in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the end of the day, the Senate left town without announcing any plans to return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If the legislature can\u2019t pass a bill, Youngkin hinted he might force both chambers to return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Senate and House need to agree to return next week, on the same day, so we can settle this issue once and for all, with the clean, and full, repeal bill,\u201d the governor said. \u201cIf they can\u2019t agree on coming back together to fix this, I will call them back to do exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/virginiamercury.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Virginia Mercury<\/i><\/a><i> is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: <\/i><a href=\"mailto:info@virginiamercury.com\" target=\"_blank\"><i>info@virginiamercury.com<\/i><\/a><i>. Follow Virginia Mercury on <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/thevirginiamercury\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Facebook<\/i><\/a><i> and <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MercuryVirginia\" target=\"_blank\"><i>X<\/i><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Military families are urging lawmakers to reverse changes to a state tuition waiver program for spouses and children of fallen or disabled service members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":108301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":11,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[54,11,31],"tags":[],"coauthors":[6936],"class_list":["post-31305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-benefits","category-fedlife","category-home"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"RBNZBL244FBE5KAR6Z6YC3WFCU","arc_canonical_url":"\/education-transition\/2024\/07\/02\/virginia-senate-fails-to-pass-bill-on-military-tuition-program\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Virginia Senate fails to pass bill on military tuition program - Federal Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Military families are urging lawmakers to reverse changes to a state tuition waiver program for spouses and children of fallen or disabled service members.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Virginia Senate fails to pass bill on military tuition program\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Military families are urging lawmakers to reverse changes to a state tuition waiver program for spouses and children of fallen or disabled service members.\" 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