No deals were reached on either, so they will be carried over to the special session along with the budget and dozens of other bills.The session was the first under Youngkin, a political newcomer who took office three days after legislators gaveled in. The former Carlyle Group executive spent his first two months in office navigating a steep learning curve.
But Senate Democrats killed other measures he supported, including those to ease the creation of charter schools and ban the teaching of critical race theory and other “divisive concepts.” In a rare snub, they also rejected Youngkin’s choice of former Trump administration official Andrew Wheeler for a Cabinet post.
In the waning days of the session, as House and Senate negotiators tried to hash out compromises in impromptu huddles, more sausage-making went on in the marble hallway between the chambers than inside them. Swarms of lobbyists hovered for 11th-hour arm twisting, along with a pair of Richmond insiders on the new governor’s team, counselor Richard Cullen and policy chief Matthew Moran.