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Health and Human Services

Thursday, January 29, 2026·24m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Health and Human Services Committee advanced four bills and struck one, with the most contested outcome being a fee increase for the Department of Vital Records that passed narrowly 9 to 6 while all other items passed unanimously.

Key Actions

·HB 450 – Department of Vital Records Fee IncreasePassed

+ 2 more actions

Controversies

Fee level set at $17 rather than $20 for HB 450

Delegate Henson challenged Delegate Willett on why the Vital Records fee was set at $17 rather than $20, stating 'my millennial math is saying this is 20.' Willett responded that there was definitely a lot of analysis and scenarios the department went through and that they felt $17 was a modest and appropriate increase, adding that Virginia is nowhere close to being the most expensive state.

Notable Quotes

“House Bill 450 from our Uber Chair Willett. Great. Madam Chair, thank you very much. This is a bill basically to put a fee increase or allow a fee increase with the Department of Vital Records. I did a tour of their facility here in Richmond earlier, actually last year and was amazed to find out that they have not had a fee increase since 2004. And that was a long time ago. And I think this is something that's certainly needed to fund what they do. Chandler did remind we do have one amendment to this. I should bring that”

Delegate Willett — Delegate Willett, patron of HB 450, explaining to the committee why the Department of Vital Records needs the fee increase from $12 to no more than $17, the first such increase since 2004.

+ 4 more quotes

Votes

Move to report HB 450 as amendedPassed
Motion to strike HB 822Passed
Motion to report HB 1052Passed
Move to amend HB 529 (amendment from Health Subcommittee)No Vote
Move to report HB 529 with amendments and refer to AppropriationsPassed
Move to report HB 606Passed
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TranscriptPreview
Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the full Health and Human Services committee meeting on health Morning. We have quite a few meetings this morning already. One subcommittee, Behavioral Health will have the full committee and then immediately after this we'll have Health Professions. So a lot of health related discussion this morning. I believe we have folks with us now. We are waiting for. So let's go ahead and do the roll. Please respond. You have 14. I'm going to close the roll. Excellent. We do have a quorum. I'm going to kick us off, but I first wanted. We got some special guests with us today from UVA Health, some of my favorite people in the world, a group of nurses and I just want to give them a shout out and thank you for being here in Richmond. Excellent. So we're going to jump into. We've got a couple of bills before the full committee, including one of mine. So I have to do what I've done before and have say that three times. I'll have you take everything. I'll just stay here. All right. Before us we have House Bill 450 from our Uber Chair Willett.…
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