Be On The Record
BlogSign inSubscribe
HearingsBillsAlerts
← Hearings

Transportation Infrastructure and Funding Subcommittee

Tuesday, January 27, 2026·1h 53m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Transportation Infrastructure and Funding Subcommittee advanced nine bills — including measures on WMATA advertising revenue, Virginia Passenger Rail Authority eminent domain authority, campus police toll exemptions, and VDOT's NEPA lead-agency role — while tabling a disabled veterans toll exemption over a structural drafting flaw and a school sidewalk snow removal bill over fiscal and policy concerns.

Key Actions

·HB 330 – WMATA Advertising Signs on Highway-Adjacent PropertyPassed

+ 7 more actions

Controversies

HB 731 – Structural drafting flaw in disabled veterans toll exemption

Delegate Watts argued the bill's new language on line 68 struck a standalone provision qualifying vehicles specially equipped for individuals with disabilities and made it conditional on VA certification, thereby eliminating currently eligible drivers: 'you have eliminated all of those that are currently able to use the facility because they are driving a vehicle specially equipped to permit its operations by a disability.' Delegate Leftwich disagreed, arguing 'the statute says or so you qualify for the exemption if one or the other. So all those that have a physical upper extremity disability still would be eligible for the exemption.' The bill was tabled 7-3.

+ 3 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“Starting with your new language on line 68, currently under number one, if the vehicle is specially equipped to permit its operation by an individual with a disability, that vehicle qualifies. But instead, in your rewording, you have stricken that as a separate provision and made it conditional that that vehicle has to have a driver who has been certified by the Department of Veterans affairs, et cetera. So you have eliminated all of those that are currently able to use the facility because they are driving a vehicle specially equipped to permit its operations by a disability.”

Delegate Watts — Delegate Watts identified a structural drafting problem in HB 731, the disabled veterans toll exemption bill, that would have inadvertently eliminated toll exemptions for drivers of specially equipped vehicles who are not 100% VA-certified disabled veterans.

+ 3 more quotes

Votes

Table HB 731 (disabled veterans toll exemption)Failed
Report HB 649 with amendments (sign removal by volunteers)Passed
Report HB 330 as substituted (WMATA advertising signs)Passed
Report HB 943 (campus police toll exemption)Passed
Report HB 141 with amendment (VPRA exemptions cleanup)Passed
Report HB 411 and refer to Appropriations (VDOT as NEPA lead agency)Passed
Unlock the full summary

Subscribe to see all key actions, controversies, quotes, and what's next.

Sign in to subscribe
TranscriptPreview
Thank you. We have a quorum. This is the first time this subcommittee has met. I'd like to have a few new members like to introduce. Make sure everybody knows everyone. If we can start around on that bottom row there. And you can start meta. Good morning. I'm Leslie Mehta and I represent District 73, Western Chesterfield. Thank you. Morning. Delegate Josh Thomas, District 21, Western Prince William County. All right. Good morning. I'm Delegate Bonita Anthony. I represent House District 92, which covers portions of Norfolk and Chesapeake. Good morning, everyone. I'm Delegate David Reed representing House District 28, which is part of eastern Loudoun County. And we'll go back to Delegate Glass. Good morning. Delegate Jackie hope glass, representing 93rd district, parts of Norfolk. Good morning. I'm Delegate Watts. I represent House District 14, which is in Northern Virginia, straddles the Beltway and is in between I66 and I95. Thank you. And our council, Nikhil Edward, Legislative Services. Thank you. And our clerk, Dave Clough, committee Clerk. Thank you. Madam Chair. Delegate Austin, House District 37. Good morning. I'm Scott Wyatt, House District 60, representing part of Hanover and part of New King County. Good to be…
Continue reading

Subscribe to unlock the full transcript, summary, and search across all Virginia committee hearings.

Sign in to subscribe