The 2026 Virginia General Assembly session, which concluded March 14, saw several changes in membership occur in Richmond’s higher education state legislative committees. New faces joined five committees and subcommittees with sway over higher education issues.
Among them is the committee which blocked four of former Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) appointees to the Board of Visitors and a subcommittee which called on University President Scott Beardsley and former Rector Rachel Sheridan to testify days before Sheridan resigned. Here is a closer look at the changes in membership that occurred and some major higher education bills these committees considered throughout the course of the 2026 session.
Health and Education Committees
Each chamber of the General Assembly has an Education and Health Committee and respective Higher Education Subcommittee.
At the start of the session, the House of Delegates’ Education Committee’s composition changed from 12 Democrats and 10 Republicans to 15 Democrats and seven Republicans. Its Higher Education Subcommittee has eight Democrats and three Republicans. The subcommittee’s two new members are Del. Gretchen Bulova (D-11) and Del. Lindsey Dougherty (D-75).
An example of the recent legislation the subcommittee advanced is House Bill 1069 introduced by Del. Amy Laufer (D-55), which would have amended the Code of Virginia, mandating that the governing board of every public higher education institution have a faculty member elected by the majority of a school’s faculty — or faculty senate — and a staff member elected by the majority of a school’s staff as voting members of the board.
The subcommittee then incorporated this bill into House Bill 1385, by Del. Lily Franklin (D-41) which passed the General Assembly, and a conference report has been agreed upon by both the House and the Senate. HB 1385 proposes broader reforms to the Board appointment process. This bill clarifies that a rejection of board members by the Privileges and Elections Committee bars a candidate from taking office. It also clarifies that all board members hold office until their successors are confirmed by the legislature.
House Bill 131, introduced by Del. Marcus Simon (D-13), passed the Higher Education Subcommittee Jan. 27, passed the General Assembly March 6 and is also awaiting action from Spanberger. HB 131 mandates that every public university in Virginia provide “reasonable accommodations” in admissions, class attendance and exam policies for students who exercise religious practices. House Bill 502, introduced by Del. John Chilton McAuliff (D-30) Feb. 11, would have mandated that the State Council of Higher Education write a report on a possible policy of fixed in-state tuition rates for students entering public universities in Virginia. HB 502 passed the Higher Education Subcommittee and House of Delegates, but it was passed indefinitely by the Senate’s Education and Health Committee, meaning the committee decided not to advance the bill.
The subcommittee also voted to table House Bill 1068 Feb. 2, proposed by Del. Keith Hodges (R-68), which would have required open-session board meetings to be live-streamed. The Committee also voted to delay consideration of House Bill 1473, introduced by Del. Charlie Schmidt (D-77), until 2027. Schmidt’s bill would have clarified the conditions under which universities can restrict the speech of students.
The Senate Committee on Education and Health, which was previously chaired by Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi (D), is now presided over by Sen. Barbara Favola (D-40). Favola, however, is not a member of the Committee’s Higher Education subcommittee, which has not undergone any post-election shifts in membership.
Among recent bills that the Senate Higher Education subcommittee has advanced is Senate Bill 494 by Sen. Creigh Deeds (D-11) and Sen. Scott Surovell (D-34), which would amend various provisions of Chapter 22 in the Code of Virginia and shorten the maximum time Board members can serve from two consecutive four year terms to one six year term. Board members could serve multiple six-year terms with two-year breaks between terms.
Among other provisions, SB 494 would also mandate that both House and Senate Privileges and Elections committees meet “as soon as practicable” to vote on board nominees, and give board members the ability to take office immediately after being confirmed by these committees. SB 494 passed both chambers.
One bill the committee continued to the 2027 session is Senate Bill 456, introduced by Sen. Richard Stuart (R-25), which would make students from federally-recognized tribes eligible to receive in-state tuition in undergraduate and graduate programs.
The General Assembly also has numerous other committees that consider matters at the intersection of monetary policy, gubernatorial appointments and higher education.
Privileges and Elections Committees
The Senate Privileges and Elections Committee is responsible for considering state constitutional amendments, gubernatorial appointments to governing boards and agencies across the Commonwealth and legislation pertaining to elections.
In August, the committee voted to block the appointment of four of Youngkin’s Board nominees — James Donovan, John Harris, H. Eugene Lockhart and Calvert Saunders Moore — due to what Committee Chairman, Sen. Aaron Rouse (D-22), called “political interference” in the buildup to former University President Jim Ryan’s resignation. The committee also blocked former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s (R) appointment to the Board in early June.
At the start of the 2026 session, two Senators — one Democrat and one Republican — joined this Committee. Sen. Emily Jordan (R-17) replaced Sen. Glen Sturtevant (R-12), a vocal critic of Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s (D) reshaping of the Board. Sen. Mike Jones (D-15) replaced Sen. Schuyler VanVulkenberg (D-16) on the committee after winning a special election Jan. 6.
Several minor committee reassignments also took place in the Senate Feb. 20. Former Sen. Adam Ebbin (D) resigned from the Privileges and Elections Committee upon joining Spanberger’s administration. Sen. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (D-39) joined the committee after winning a special election Feb. 10 to replace Ebbin. Also as part of the reassignments, Sen. Kannan Srinivasan (D-32) left the committee Feb. 20, and Sen. Angelia Williams Graves (D-21) replaced him.
The House Privileges and Elections Committee — which serves the same purpose as its counterpart in the Senate — has undergone greater changes after resounding Democratic victories in November’s House elections. The committee previously had 12 Democratic members and 10 Republican members. It now has 15 Democratic and seven Republican members.
Both committees were responsible for considering Spanberger’s nominees for university governing boards as part of the confirmation process — all were confirmed by the General Assembly Feb. 11.
The Senate Privileges and Elections Committee unanimously voted Jan. 27 to advance the nominations to a full vote in the Senate chamber. The Senate then voted to confirm the nominees Feb. 3 in a 21-0 vote, sending the nominations to the House. All 19 Republican Senators declined to participate in the full Senate vote.
The House Privileges and Elections Committee then overwhelmingly voted to send the nominees to a full vote in the House chamber, advancing them by a vote of 21-1 before the nominees were confirmed Feb. 11 by a vote of 64-0 in the House.
The Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee
Rouse, another critic of alleged federal government interference, also replaced Lt. Governor Ghazala Hashmi (D) on the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee’s Education Subcommittee — a group of Senators on the Finance Committee that oversee the budgets of educational institutions across the Commonwealth.
Jeff Schapiro, scholar at the University’s Center for Politics and a former Richmond Times Dispatch reporter on Virginia politics, noted that the Finance Committee’s relevance goes far beyond its control over the budget. Schapiro said the Finance Committee can serve as a “forum” for important public debates on relevant issues.
One example of the Education Subcommittee spotlighting higher education issues is the series of public testimonies from University leaders on controversy surrounding University governance. The first was a Dec. 1 testimony from former Interim University President Paul Mahoney regarding the University’s Oct. 22 agreement with the Justice Department — which suspended five investigations into its admissions practices in exchange for demonstrated compliance with the Department’s interpretation of Civil Rights law.
The second was a Jan. 12 testimony from Beardsley and Sheridan regarding alleged improprieties in the University’s 10th presidential search — which critics, including members of the subcommittee, argue was rushed and unduly interfered with by former Youngkin.
“There’s … theater in politics,” Schapiro said. “[Featuring] the disputed President of the University of Virginia [for a hearing] qualifies as … significant and important political theater.”
Schapiro also noted that the Finance Committee is an entity that regularly stays in contact with higher education institutions to voice areas of concern privately. Rouse, the subcommittee’s only new member, is now among a select group of Senators that has previously leveraged control over the University’s funds to put public and private pressure on its leadership.
Sen. Lashrecse Aird (D-13) and Sen. Lamont Bagby (D-14) also joined the larger Finance and Appropriations Committee Feb. 20 after minor committee reassignments. They replaced Ebbin and Sen. Dave Marsden (D-35) on the committee, but did not join the Higher Education Subcommittee.
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