PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Governor Glenn Youngkin is responding to changes made to a Virginia military tuition program, repeatedly slamming Democrat state lawmakers for what he repeatedly called a “poison pill,” in a reaction to what happened to the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP) on Monday.
The program gives tuition assistance to families of military service members and first responders who were killed or disabled in the line of duty. A budget bill passed in May placed many restrictions on the program.
The House of Delegates unanimously passed a full repeal of those restrictions last Friday. This sent the bill to state senators on Monday. The Senate supported repealing the controversial changes, but added an academic performance requirement to the bill.
Ultimately, the Senate did not vote on the repeal at all. Some state Democrats are blaming the other side for playing politics — while Republicans, including Gov. Youngkin, believe Democrats in the senate messed this up.
10 On Your Side heard directly from Gov. Youngkin on Tuesday. We asked him why he signed the budget bill back in May, which included these new restrictions in the first place.
“So, at the last minute, this language was stuffed into the budget,” Gov. Youngkin replied. “I had marked it out and amended it out the first time through. They stuffed in this language. I signed the entirety of the budget and then we all agreed that this had been a bad mistake and we were going to go fix it.”
“I put $45 million on the table yesterday and a small group of Senate Democrat leadership is blocking it, standing in the way,” he added. “They keep wanting to put a poison pill in it. They keep wanting to not move forward on something that is good for our vets.”
Democrat State Senator Louise Lucas posted to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. She said, “The Governor does not understand that my bill actually protected him from signing a defective solution that would make him an even weaker Governor than he already is.”
Sen. Lucas said it is the only way to add $45 million to the bill. We asked Youngkin about her statement.
“They came up with some gimmick yesterday in order to make themselves feel like they couldn’t pass the bipartisan unanimous bill that had passed the House,” Youngkin said. “It is absolutely untrue.”
When asked if he would consider the academic performance requirement, Governor Youngkin said he would only sign a full repeal of the restrictions. He wants members of both chambers to reconvene next week to address this bill.
The interview can be watched in full below:
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