After VMSDEP repeal, military families call on lawmakers to end the practice of ‘legislating through the budget’

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — After months of intense debate, Governor Glenn Youngkin has signed a bill repealing recently made changes to the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP). Although they are happy with the repeal, military families now have their sights set on a new goal.

“This should not happen for benefits that people are financially dependent on, that disappear overnight. It simply should not happen,” Friends of VMSDEP Founder Kayla Owen told 8News.

Owen referred to a process often used in the General Assembly known as “legislating through the budget.”

“We are hopeful that sometime in the next legislative session maybe we can find a couple of people to help us sponsor a bill that would prohibit that from happening in the future,” Owen said.

Every two years, lawmakers are tasked with coming up with a state budget that allocates state funds to various state agencies. However, often it is used to enact policy changes with little public input. That’s what military families say happened back in May when changes were made to VMSDEP in the state budget.

“The process should have been that we had hearings and the folks who had an interest in it had an opportunity and be a part of their decisions,” Senator Richard Stuart (R-King George) told 8News.

Stuart says legislating through the budget is “generally a bad idea,” but he adds sometimes it is necessary.

“I have had bills myself that I have carried that were important bills and we realized after the fact, ‘the bill has already passed, it’s going to the governor’s desk, we need to do something to fix that,’ then we can come back next year and fix it legislatively,” Stuart said.

Democrats like Senator Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) told 8News that in this case, changes to VMSDEP were not “snuck into the budget.” Rather, she says the idea originally came from Republicans months earlier.

It’s unclear at this time how lawmakers could rein in the practice of legislating through the budget. 8News Political Analyst Rich Meagher says making changes to the process could be done through legislation, but he added it would be very difficult.

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