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Agriculture, Chesapeake And Natural Resources

Wednesday, February 25, 2026·1h 35m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Virginia Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee advanced a sweeping PFAS-in-biosolids compromise bill unanimously, narrowly passed a contested foreign adversary agricultural land bill 10-9, prohibited devocalization of dogs 17-3, and tabled an electrofishing bill after no public opposition appeared — while routing several environmental and agricultural bills to Appropriations.

Key Actions

·SB386 – PFAS/Biosolids Application ThresholdsNo Vote

+ 10 more actions

Controversies

SB464 – Impact on Asian American communities and scope of foreign adversary land bill

Delegate Tran argued there is 'a really long history of using land policy in Virginia to alienate Asian communities,' cited 2023 data showing Chinese investors held only about 1.7% of the roughly 274,000 acres of foreign-owned ag land in Virginia while Canada, Germany, and the UK held the majority, and stated she would vote no to avoid expanding Virginia's alien land laws and continuing discrimination against Asian American communities. Senator Stuart responded the bill is not directed at Asian communities and that most Asians from China who came to the United States came to flee the Chinese Communist Party, and that he did not file the bill to antagonize any Asians in the United States.

+ 3 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“The risk that a minority shareholder would infiltrate the interests of the entire company. And this impacts more than just Smithfield. This impacts any publicly traded company that. That owns agricultural lands. And then there's. There's some other concerns with the bill dealing with. No. Not knowing exactly what substantially funded means and the new definition of foreign adversary. So with deep respect”

Delegate Tran — Delegate Tran explained her opposition to SB464, which tightens restrictions on foreign adversary ownership of agricultural land, arguing the bill expands a discriminatory legal tradition targeting Asian American communities.

+ 2 more quotes

Votes

Report SB553 with substitute HB496 from Delegate Guzman and delayed enactment to January 1, 2029Passed
Report SB802 (clean energy/market-based trading program)Passed
Report SB464 (foreign adversary agricultural land ownership)Passed
Report SB707 (devocalization of dogs prohibition)Passed
Lay SB461 (electrofishing) on the table (moved by Delegate Glass)Passed
Report SB645 with substitute and refer to Appropriations (waste-to-energy/biomass)Passed
Report SB186 (misbranded food/manufactured-protein products)Passed
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TranscriptPreview
Morning, everybody. It's nine o', clock, our special time. We have three different blocks. We're going to have a bunch of cognates that we're dealing with. Then we're going to talk about the two bills that came out of Natural Resources sub. And then we actually, because of some patron issues where they had to be someplace else because of the family emergency, we're going to deal with five bills in full committee as if they were being dealt with in subcommittee. And so with that, we have several cognates that we want to get through on the right away. So with that we'll begin. Oh, yeah, let's do attendance first. Sorry. Thank you. All right, we definitely have a quorum. Okay. The first bill is SB89 from Senator Saleem regarding the powers of service districts control of invasive plant species. It was similar to the Senate bill or the House bill, HB388 from Delegate Colson, which reported from CCT by a vote of 20 to 1 and passed the House 90 to 8. The Senate bill reported 15 to nothing and was unanimous in the full Senate. We have a motion to move the move this bill. All right,…
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