Welcome! I proudly represent the current 85th District in the Virginia House of Delegates (parts of Newport News). I am honored to serve the residents and help make the Peninsula an even better place to live, learn, work, play, and raise a family. Sign up today and together, we can continue to get the changes we need and deserve!
The 2024 General Assembly Legislative Session began on Wednesday, January 10, 2024. We have met during the Special Session this summer and completed our work on the budget. You can watch committee meetings and floor sessions from Session at bit.ly/VAHouseVideo. Can't remember how a bill becomes a law, no problem! Get your refresher here to follow along the process. And if you ever need help following along in the process, please feel free to reach out to my team and me.
House Subcommittee Meetings are usually the best entry points for public input on a bill. Did you know you can offer testimony during the hearing and you can also offer written testimony for the committee to read? Click here to see the details for the HOD Speak site and to read public comment on bills from Session.
Here are links from our work:
- Remarks from the floor and video updates
- Watch floor sessions and committee meetings
- Click the 2024 Session tab on the sidebar for more updates!
Check back often for updates! In the meantime, be sure to sign up for our email newsletter to receive important updates. And be sure to check our social media posts for news and updates from the District. Take a look around the site and be sure to like, follow, share, and comment on my social media pages.
Thank you for visiting!
Sincerely,
Marcia "Cia" Price
Member, Virginia House of Delegates
85th District: Parts of Newport News
"Be the change. Do the work."
Redistricting Update: The 95th District was impacted by the 2022 Redistricting process and with the November 2023 election became the new 85th District. For more information, please visit VPAP Redistricting Info on House Districts
A note about our Constituent Services: There have been some frustrations expressed with our requirement that you let us know if you are a resident of the 85th District when you communicate with my office. While I understand that concerns and issues often do not have the same borders as districts, my primary commitment is to the people I serve and then I will do as much as I can for others. Feel free to reach out to your own Delegate if you do not live in the 85th District. Here's a link to find out which Delegate has the honor of serving you: Who's My Legislator
updated 9/1/24
News
Virginia Democratic Women Leaders Warn Of Cao’s Dangerous Anti-Choice Agenda
- Delegate Cia Price: “We know that Tim Kaine is the only candidate for United States Senator on the Virginia ballot who will stand up for reproductive freedom. His opponent is a threat to reproductive freedom all across the Commonwealth. Hung Cao, like many Republicans, has pledged their support to the most extreme and dangerous agendas, including support for a national abortion ban and ambiguity on his stance on IVF and contraception, and he continues to say dangerously and inflammatory statements like comparing abortion to the Holocaust. But instead of incendiary rhetoric, people need leaders who will protect their access to reproductive health care.”
(Click for full release and video)
Gun reform bills up for debate in Virginia General Assembly
RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - Virginia’s Democratically-controlled legislature hopes to pass dozens of gun reform bills to Governor Glenn Youngkin’s desk, but they’re facing pushback. Democratic State Senator Adam Ebbin and other members of the General Assembly’s Gun Violence Prevention Caucus met early Thursday to highlight what they feel is most important. “We’re here today because Virginia is facing an epidemic of gun violence,” Ebbin said. “And unconscionably, in Virginia, guns are the leading cause of death among children and teens.”
“Enforcement has its place, but we must invest heavily in prevention and intervention to save lives,” Delegate Cia Price (D-95th District) said. “March For Our Lives” founder and Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg was also there, urging Virginia’s parents to raise their voices. “Show up today so that your kids are alive tomorrow,” Hogg said. “These bills are one step in the right direction, but they’re just that. They are one step. The first of many to come. We’re going to have to deal with this issue for a long time, unfortunately, but we cannot stop until no child, no matter what community they’re in, has to fear gun violence.”
Bills on the table include those that require guns to be stored securely in homes where children are present, having school districts send out reminders about safe gun storage, enhanced background checks and a ban on assault rifles.
Commentary: To help communities heal, lift ‘barrier crimes’ laws (Price & Pillion)
For decades, Virginia has taken an overly punitive approach against people who find themselves affected by substance use disorders. A person caught with a small amount of drugs could face a decade in prison. But it does not end after they have served their time. That individual is then branded a criminal for life and may struggle to find suitable employment, affordable housing and access to critical services. Despite having done their time, they often continue to pay a high personal price.
It does not just impact them. An often-overlooked consequence is that someone with this kind of conviction who has completed their sentence cannot then put that experience to work serving others. Because of their record, Virginia laws have made it increasingly difficult for individuals with drug-related convictions to draw on their lived experiences to work as peer recovery specialists.
Virginia's outdated "barrier crimes" laws prohibit anyone convicted of one of 176 different crimes from working with communities and individuals, even if that work could have a lasting, positive impact. Further, these barrier crimes laws are doing little to help Virginia fight the opioid epidemic and may be actively contributing to it by reducing the number of people qualified to serve as substance use counselors, which would give them a purpose and a job.
In Southwest Virginia, we know that a significant impediment to expanding substance use treatment is the severe and continuing workforce shortage. The fact that many of these potential peer recovery specialists have prior convictions for drug possession does not make them any less qualified to do the job.
In Hampton Roads, we see the discriminatory impact of these “barrier crimes” laws playing out in real-time, disproportionately applied, and impacting people of color, especially young Black men. We may represent different constituencies, but the commonality is that these laws have negatively impacted the communities we serve. That is why we are working together on legislation that would help remove these barriers to employment and open up access to services for those who need them.
We can hold people accountable for their actions, but we also must allow them to move on with their lives and, if they wish, to help others find their way to safety and sobriety.
We are called to forgive. "For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you," the Book of Matthew teaches us. We would do well to remember that.
The General Assembly created these barriers. Our next step is to take them down.
House Democrats Thwart GOP Effort to Create More Barriers to Voting in the Commonwealth
RICHMOND, VA – Yesterday, the House Privileges and Elections Election Administration Subcommittee stopped a number of harmful Republican bills – designed to make it harder for Virginians to cast their ballot – from moving forward. Under Democratic Majorities in 2020-2021, Virginia went from the 49th hardest state to vote in to the 11th easiest. Despite spending the summer claiming to embrace early voting, Republicans are already up to their old tricks, introducing legislation that would limit the practice in the Commonwealth...
Delegate Marcia Price, Chair of the House Privileges and Elections Committee, said, “Voters across the Commonwealth have benefited from increased access to democracy with the changes we made to our elections in the last few years. With important elections coming up, now is not the time to turn back to the obstacles previous lawmakers placed trying to box out certain voters from the voting process. It’s not hard. Make it easy to vote, and more people will.”
“The work we did in committee preserved access and maximized voter participation while ensuring the integrity of the democratic process,” said Delegate Jackie Glass, Chair of the Election Administration Subcommittee.
Efforts to shrink Virginia's early voting period are dead for this session
Delegate Mark Sickles is a Democrat from Fairfax who says the 45-day window makes sense. "The reason we have 45 days is that's what the federal government requires us to have a ballot ready to send to people that are serving overseas," Sickles says.
Delegate Cia Price of Newport News says early voting is not a pandemic-inspired change. "2020 happened to be the year that Democrats had the majority and also happened to be the year that we had COVID," Price says. "These were bills that we had been carrying for years prior to COVID, so these were not COVID measures."
So far, all the bills to roll back Virginia's 45 days of early voting have all been defeated, and Democrats say they have no intention of making voting less available.
