Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Legislative Committee, Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Date: Tuesday, October 7, 2025
Place: Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 1h 21m (video)
Official meeting video (Fairfax County): https://video.fairfaxcounty.gov/player/clip/3917
Official Board of Supervisors page (Fairfax County): https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/boardofsupervisors/

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-29. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:07] All right. Good morning, everyone. We are about to start the Legislative Committee. Some of our colleagues are trickling in, but we are at 9.31. I like to be prompt and move things along. We have a busy day.

[00:00:24] We have lots on the agenda, so I'm going to gavel us in. Good morning, everyone. Today we begin this committee's work with a more focused legislative packet, one that reflects both the realities we face in Northern Virginia and the priorities of the residents we represent. Our role here is clear. Through this committee, we do not only serve Fairfax County, but the entire Northern Virginia region. Much of what we do is influenced by the decisions of the federal government. Fairfax County is home to hundreds of thousands of

[00:01:03] residents whose lives, jobs, and opportunities are directly tied to federal action. We must remain focused on how these impacts ripple across our communities, shaping everything from housing and transportation to workforce and economic stability. This committee exists to ensure that we are not only reactive, but proactive, delivering legislative priorities that strengthen the quality of life for our residents. By sharpening our focus and streamlining the way things were done in the

[00:01:37] past, we ensure that our efforts are strategic, deliberate, and impactful. To succeed, we must maintain open and meaningful conversations with our colleagues in Richmond, across Northern Virginia, and here on the board. Communication and coordination will be key. Together, we can present a united front, elevate Northern Virginia's voice, and make sure our residents' needs are not only heard but prioritized. A reminder that this is not a voting body so no votes will be taken

[00:02:14] today. With that I will now turn things over to our staff for a presentation and I do want to quickly say Jennifer thank you and your staff you've been in this short time you've been amazing to work with and I'm looking forward to working with you and your staff moving forward. There is lots to be done and so again looking forward to making sure that we are one united front moving forward together thank you thank you chairman jennifer vanney legislative director um well thank you this morning i wanted to first um introduce some new faces up here on the podium so

[00:02:49] um we'll introduce christine prentice she's coming to us to um now take over with transportation and so we're excited to have her noel will continue to be involved um but we are excited to have her we also have a new staff member um behind me his name is joe garcia he's our associate And he's been an excellent member of our team this summer, and we're excited to have Arielle back from her maternity leave this summer.

[00:03:12] So an exciting day and a lot of work that has been done. We want to thank the county staff who have also helped us prepare this as we really work to redo the program, rethink of how we do this work. So without further ado, we'll go into the state program.

[00:03:29] The first thing I want to mention is that in redoing it, we did what the chairman said is we really were looking to streamline this and make this a priority for this year. Note that this document is a living document that will change year to year and really scoped it down to things that we know are moving and our conversations at the state as well as the biggest priorities of our county.

[00:03:52] And so kind of combining those things that we have a package that we can make some great progress on during the session this year. The second thing I wanted wanted to mention about this is that all the visuals in here are drafts we're going to continue working on those this fall to really make sure they're sharp and portray what we want them to portray. So if you turn with me the biggest one of the new changes and additions is it's opening with a visual representation of the county. Many of our delegation members only represent a small portion of our county and so we want to make sure that they remember

[00:04:30] what the county looks like as a whole and across sectors of employment, education, and diversity to make sure that they understand that whether it's northern or southern, Fairfax is one community. The second additions we've made are the guiding principles and the Fairfax County priorities this year.

[00:04:54] So page four and five of your pages. The guiding principles are big, broad statements that are always true, things that we always support or we always oppose such as we always support local authority and we always oppose rolling that back and so that's what's in the orange in the blue box boxes. The third box are our initiatives for this year so one of them we are working with duplicate boulevard on it's the urban public-private partnership fund and this fund an easy way to remember it is it's trying to provide a go site in urban areas so there is a program at the

[00:05:33] state that's helping localities make sure that they have land and sites appropriate for larger manufacturing properties ready so that when companies come with economic ideas to Virginia that there's a place for them to go. What we'd like to see that happen is through this fund that we can do those sites in more urban areas so smaller and really help revitalize the empty office space we have in the county. The second one is expanding the parks authority to be able to ban sex offenders. We are one of the only localities that has a park authority and because

[00:06:11] of that there are sometimes little quirks that people don't remember we don't have authority to do because normally that is an authority the local government has and so we want to make sure that that's clearly laid out and that was based on a bill that we worked on last year. And then the third one is our initiative from last year on exhaust noise. Delegate Sullivan is excited to bring that one back, and so we're seeking that pilot program again this year.

[00:06:40] The next page is the priorities section. I'm not going to read these word for word, but these are basically the priorities of the county, so K-12, WMATA, and connector funding, and then additional things that are having large conversations here at the state.

[00:06:59] So the first one you'll see in red is housing, which, again, is a huge priority to the county. The reason it is in red is because the task force is continuing to meet, and so we're going to be working on that language this fall as we go along. So that is our placeholder for our efforts to really engage with the state on really making sure that we have affordable housing and housing that's affordable.

[00:07:22] The next one is about the federal impacts, specifically around SNAP and Medicaid. And then the next one is around federal workforce and the economic impacts of the federal government. You'll see that one is in red as well. Several weeks ago, I shared with you a study that just came out of the General Assembly House where they put forward several ideas that they could take action on in this coming assembly.

[00:07:45] So staff will continue to look at those proposed ideas and we'll talk with delegation members and come back to you with if there's anything more specific we want to add in there. The next one is on data centers and then tax reform, then traffic safety tools such as speed cameras, license plate readers.

[00:08:06] And then the last one is around the marijuana retail market. That's been a big conversation in the state. So I can pause for questions, or we can continue with the rest of the package. Does anyone have any questions at this time?

[00:08:23] Can we move on? We are moving on. Perfect. So the rest of the program, we were going to just walk through the pieces that are in red and the pieces that are yellow. So the yellow is new. This is either a position we've taken in the past, or it's a brand-new position staff has brought forward as a priority.

[00:08:43] If it's a brand new concept, there are one-pagers at the back of your packet for more background information. So there's also in the back of your packet a list of proposals we received from the BACs that we considered while working with staff to create the program this year.

[00:09:00] So the first yellow you'll see is transportation. I'll turn it over to Noel. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, Noel Dominguez, Department of Transportation. I'm just going to go ahead and summarize the item at the bottom of page six.

[00:09:15] What this is essentially, we've talked about VRE in the past, but we haven't in a while. But with the Long Bridge under construction and the continued collaboration and the need to collaborate with our partners on the other side of the river, this just talks about us working with the Commonwealth District of Columbia and Maryland working collaboratively, expanding cross-jurisdictional rail connections, such as linking VRE and MARC as the new Long Bridge becomes completed, just to create a more seamless system for VRE.

[00:09:46] Our region I'm available for any questions. Let's begin at the end Supervisor Behrman and then supervisor Alcorn Actually, I'll defer to supervisor. All right. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. So on this one. This is great. I love the bullet I'm wondering we might want to add another small thought to that Where it says to work more collaboratively? We might want to include the thought and efficiently across the systems because

[00:10:21] You know, we've seen through the DMV moves process, the WMATA organization do a lot of work to reduce their costs and to become more efficient, much of it under the leadership and direction of our county executive and the committee that he chairs in DMV moves.

[00:10:41] There hasn't really been a similar activity on our other transit systems, so I think that thought might be good to include that one of the reasons we want to look at this is to get more efficiency in our transit systems that are not WMATA but are very important to our region.

[00:11:05] Supervisor Alcorn, thank you. That's a great point. We are actually starting to work with the state of Maryland to understand how Mark and VRE can go from Baltimore all the way to Braddock Road or wherever we can into Prince William County.

[00:11:23] Because that was a way of thinking about the expansion efforts that were happening with Metro, which we can't afford at this juncture. But we have another option, and the option is to be a little bit more collaborative, not only with D.C., but also with the state of Maryland.

[00:11:38] So once DMV moves, wraps up, I'm hopeful that we get another charge to deal with that specific item. As you know, there's going to be some work needs to be done on Longbridge, but that would be a game changer for the two and the three regions, if you ask me.

[00:11:55] Yes, thank you. Supervisor Herdy? You know, on the what's missing kind of piece to this maybe, and we talked a lot about it at our last committee meeting. Is that where you were going to go? I was going to say, where's the American Legion Bridge and where's our other transit system known as the Beltway?

[00:12:13] And can we have some conversation about collaborating with respect to Maryland and the Beltway, both at the American Legion Bridge and on the south side? And was that where you were going to go? That's not, but I'll second that thought.

[00:12:29] I mean, that should be in here. Yeah. It absolutely, those two bridges have to be a priority for us because that's where people are stuck in congestion. I was more going with the other one that you would have mentioned once I mentioned it, which was working better with VDOT.

[00:12:46] Yes. To include processes and reduce duplication of effort. So that's, I mean, I think those two thoughts, if we can get there, we heard frustration. I went and met with VDOT a week ago, but I think there's some work that can get done there, as got done back in 2009.

[00:13:06] Mr. Chairman, we're ahead of ourselves here because that's in our legislative package. If you actually read forward under transportation funding, there is the very last bullet addresses the American Legion Bridge specifically in here.

[00:13:23] And so we can strengthen the language, but let's make sure we're commenting on things after we get through those entire sections. because Noel, I know, was not finished talking about transportation funding, but that has always been in our legislative package. The American Legion Bridge has always been a priority of this board.

[00:13:40] The Southside Express Lanes is a priority of mine, and I know a number of members of this board as well. I do think that the issue of VDOT does need to be in here somewhere because I'm not sure our General Assembly members realize, and I know we've talked about this, Noel, So did you have, is there a specific section on it in this part?

[00:14:02] Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, it's not in the transportation funding part, but it's on page 16. There is a section about transportation safety and coordination, and we do talk about the need for between localities and VDOT approval processes.

[00:14:18] So that is, there is language in here. We are happy to work on it if you all would like any. No, I appreciate that because that language was added in part because the conversation is happening at the Chairman's Roundtable as well with builders and the difficulties they are having.

[00:14:33] The number one problem I hear from home builders in Fairfax County, contrary to what other people say, is how difficult it is to get through VDOT and get VDOT approvals because there aren't nearly enough people in Northern Virginia working at VDOT and there's almost no flexibility. And frankly, the VDOT Northern Virginia office treats Fairfax County applicants different than applicants in other parts of Northern Virginia and the state.

[00:14:57] Unfortunately, it seems to be something that happens a lot at the state level these days. And so let's make sure when we're commenting on these that, you know, we're doing it at the right time because there's been a lot of work put into making sure the things we work on all year are in our legislative package.

[00:15:13] and these are not new concepts. Support of the bridge has been this Board's position for a long time. Thank you Mr. Chairman. We're going to go to Supervisor Palachuk and then we're going to continue on with this. I'll be very brief because I know there's a larger section. My only ask about this is first it says first-in-class regional transit service and then really focuses on only commuter rail connections. I just saw the 698 with its brand new RAP going down the express lanes here and so I just as we think about both bridges in the beltway thinking about rail bus dedicated you know the thinking about commuting times for

[00:15:52] people who maybe aren't on any of those rail connections so that was my only ask is to focus on all of it knowing that funds are limited for any big expansion at this time thank you supervisor and let's continue on please thank you mr.

[00:16:08] chairman that just to make the board aware the bullet immediately above does talk about sufficient funding for all our transit systems it's just not highlighted because that's been a continuation of our program so we do specifically mention the connector and Metro on that but continuing on to page seven there is a red section under transportation funding and this section is more about statewide the previous was more regional funding this is a statewide component this is red it is about simplifying the application and and scoring processes for the programs provided by the state for funding.

[00:16:43] I know we talked, myself and FCDOT Director Steverson talked about SmartScale earlier this year with you all. This kind of focuses on that. However, the state is also undergoing its triennial review of the merit system, which is how the state allocates state transit funding.

[00:17:02] In fact, they had a meeting yesterday where they got new proposals on how to modify those prioritization processes. So because that is still ongoing, and that meeting was literally yesterday afternoon, this is still red. We're going to have to update that to align with what the proposals are. I will note the public comment period on the proposals that were shared yesterday officially opens today, so I will likely be talking with you all about sending some sort of comments. It's a 45-day comment period, so we'll probably come back to you in the next couple of weeks with some input on that.

[00:17:35] If there's no more comments on the transportation funding section, we'll move on to the budget section. So the budget section remains largely the same as last year.

[00:17:51] The first in yellow is just the updated ask we have around K-12 funding this year. As you know, the JLARC report came out in 2023. And so one of the recommendations it made is to replace the linear weighted average that they use to find the base rate to give teachers across the state through the formula.

[00:18:15] The weighted average obviously kicks off the high and the low, and so it really drags down what that average should be. And so replacing that with a measure that better reflects the actual cost of education. The second effort is around what we call the COCA, the cost to compete adjustment that we get in this area.

[00:18:37] The recommendation coming out of the report was to change it to a regional cost, a regional labor cost. This would be really helpful for us, obviously, as it would be tied to actual wages. But it would also help larger portions of the state. And so those are the two places that we've really been talking with delegation members and state members about trying to implement this year.

[00:19:01] The second one in yellow is around car tax. And so we've had positions around car tax in years past, and we've really talked about needing to up the amount that is in the state fund to compensate people as over the years the values of cars have gone up and that total has not gone up.

[00:19:22] Given that both gubernatorial candidates have no car tax in their platform, we wanted to really emphasize that this is a local revenue source and that any changes that they make to car tax, we need to leave counties whole and without any gaps in the budget and that that needs to be an ongoing support that the counties continue to get that adjusts over time.

[00:19:46] I believe Mr. Bierman has a question. We're going to take your question, Mr. Bierman, but moving forward, we're just going to hold off all of our questions until this part is done so that we can move along. So, Supervisor Bierman. In that case, why don't we just hold off until this part's done and you can call me at the end.

[00:20:03] Sounds great. Okay. Thank you. So, the next section is tax. This largely reflects our positions in the past about needing to redo the tax system and give local localities additional ways to raise revenue.

[00:20:21] The one section we added in here is around property tax exemptions that the state is granting, and just noting that, again, that's our budget that they're affecting when they give a property tax, and so that we need to be made whole if they're going to be doing that. So the next section is on early childhood.

[00:20:41] This is just a streamlined version of what we've had in years past. What I will say going into the position statements is that when we worked with staff, we asked them to identify the top three priorities. And so what you'll see here is a streamlined and prioritized sections from what we've had in years past.

[00:21:01] So there's some new language, as you can see with the early child care. This is all language we've had before. It's just been streamlined and rearranged. And so that's the difference between what we're saying is new with the yellow and what is just plain text. So the next section is environment.

[00:21:20] And we've added a new section here around solid waste management. And the two bullets that we have under this really addresses our dependency on landfills. And so the first one is about the waste to energy facilities in the South County that we use with some of our landfill or trash production.

[00:21:42] There is a regulation in the Virginia Clean Economy Act that sets this year as the deadline to meet certain carbon capture requirements. And these facilities are looking for an exemption or either short term or long term around being able to continue their work while they figure out how to do this better.

[00:22:05] And so we would be supportive of that idea given that we have a lot of our waste that goes to those facilities. The second new position is around gaining local authority around source separation and food waste.

[00:22:20] And so this would allow our group, our county to be on the edge of cutting edge of trying to manage with all the different recyclables and food waste. And so just being supportive of more local authority to be able to control those matters. The next section is economic and workforce.

[00:22:42] We really tried to make this clearer. We broke economic development and workforce into two sections and really tried to emphasize in here the effects that we're feeling from the federal changes. And so you'll see in the top section around economic development, just, again, the emphasis of the uncertainty some of these federal reductions have caused.

[00:23:04] The second is around workforce development, and we really tried to continue our long-stated positions around supporting critical pipelines for critical workers, such as child care, nurses, teachers, things like that. But then we added in a bullet here around a specific proposal that is out there to basically take our Talent Up program and run it for federal workers and federally connected contractors who are out of work.

[00:23:32] And so that's the bullet that's all in yellow. There is a proposal out there that one of our partners is putting forward and taking the lead on, and we want to be supportive of their efforts in that. And then the other, on the third bullet, the highlighted section is really to emphasize our, the emerging technology of AI and our efforts to help businesses, workers, all of them transition into that AI so Fairfax can continue to be known as a leader in technology.

[00:24:05] The next one is the general laws. FOIA has always been something we talk a lot about during session, and whether we want to or not. And so we wanted to add in a position here around just our support of open government, but having to balance that with the administrative burden, which is what the new bullet and the new title says. The new bolded language in that bullet is just, we've got to balance these obligations to the public.

[00:24:36] And the next section on libraries, the added language is really just to emphasize, as the federal government has cut some of their support to libraries, we wanted just to emphasize that libraries are more than buildings with books and all the great resources it provides to our county.

[00:24:54] And so that's just an updated blurb at the beginning of that section. I'll turn, as we enter Human Services, I'll turn it over to Arielle McAloon. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, Arielle McAloon, Human Services Legislative Liaison.

[00:25:11] The first position that's new under Health and Human Services is related to the Children's Services Act, CSA. And this new language really just reflects a position that the board took during this last session related to the cap for state reimbursements on private day special education services.

[00:25:34] Because that language was enacted in the state budget, That really starts to shift the cost to localities if the providers don't actually lower or keep their rates under that cap.

[00:25:51] So we wanted to emphasize the importance of not shifting more of the burden to localities in that area. The next position is child welfare, and this language is in red. We, there have been some conversations at the state in terms of trends that they've seen in child welfare and the Office of the Children's Ombudsman recently released a report and McKinsey also has been doing a study on child welfare that's supposed to be released yesterday.

[00:26:24] So, we're still working with staff to review those reports, but we wanted to include some basic principles around maintaining local autonomy and also the state-local partnership in child welfare. Some of the recommendations have been around increasing state oversight and also state ability to intervene.

[00:26:47] And so, we just want to make sure that we're recognizing that localities do, in many cases, have strong processes in place. And so, we want to make sure that that's part of any legislation or state action in this area is recognizing that.

[00:27:05] And then the next new language is under people with disabilities and older adults. And this language is really, we added this to recognize the importance of preventing scams and financial exploitation, particularly of vulnerable populations.

[00:27:24] We had received a proposal from the Commission on Aging, which had made a specific recommendation in this area around financial institutions. We, in looking at that proposal, we did include a background memo in your packets.

[00:27:40] So that has more information, but we thought that this language was helpful in just broadly stating the county's position in this area. All right. The next section is housing, and we know this is a big priority of the county. You'll see that most of this language is in red.

[00:27:59] We've added a section in that we're currently calling Local Authorities Zoning and Development. That's a working title. But this is where we're really going to talk about the difference between state and local control in these areas, how we can better partner together. And so that section will be worked on this fall as the task force meets.

[00:28:15] The next section is supported. We've renamed supporting vulnerable populations. This is what was previously our affordable housing section. We just wanted to make it clear. difference between as affordable housing is being kind of thrown around in different realms to mean different things we wanted to be clear here about what we are talking about and so that the virginia house housing trust fund is something we have supported a long time it's in red just because we're still working with partners to know the amount we're going to ask for this year

[00:28:48] so this section will be worked on by the task force this fall the next section is public safety And there's a couple new bullets under here. The first one is under courts. And you may remember last year during the General Assembly, we talked a lot about the 2021 initiative on sealing marijuana records.

[00:29:13] And that was supposed to go into effect July 1. They extended that. And we talked about some of the different ways they realized in trying to implement it that there were some barriers. And what our conversation was during that time was that the efforts that they were doing was helpful, but we also wanted to continue to emphasize that localities needed support in order to implement this as well.

[00:29:38] And so we just added this language in that was our position last year. The other red in the section is we've taken the dangerous weapon section and we titled it Safe Communities to talk about all the ways our public safety create our safe communities as well as the tools that they need to do that better and more efficiently.

[00:30:01] So the first bullet under that is around drones. Currently, we can use drones in very specific circumstances without warrants. The other times, we have to get a warrant. These are for non-search deployments, So we can currently do it for, say, amber alerts or blue alerts without a search warrant.

[00:30:24] But there's a lot of other circumstances. Our 911 and our first responders feel like it would be helpful to be able to use drones for on-the-time real footage to help with response. And so we want to be supportive of efforts to try to make some more exceptions about where they can use drones without having to get that search warrant.

[00:30:43] The second one is about 911 services. The funding model for 9-1-1 around the state was done in the early 2000s and is both out of date in the funding model, but also in the way that they support 9-1-1 around the state.

[00:31:02] This was especially clear last year with the flooding in southwest Virginia. When our folks went to help, they had to physically send people because their IT systems weren't up to a level where we could attach our IT into them.

[00:31:18] And so we had to physically send people. And so we just want to be supportive of efforts around the state to really look at how we fund 9-1-1, our staff in 9-1-1, and the technology. So having a look at that. And then the last section is transportation.

[00:31:38] And there's no new language there, but that is where the language around VDOT coordination is located.

[00:31:55] Well, thank you so much, Jennifer and team. This is an excellent presentation. know how much time and effort went into preparing this and it really shows. I especially want to note the improvements to the format of our packet. This scaled down, more concise approach makes it far more digestible, not just for us, but for our county delegation and the public as well.

[00:32:19] Opening with the county profile is a strong way to ground the conversation in who we are and convey the influence and weight we carry in the Commonwealth. The graphics strategically woven throughout are helpful in providing context and the section outlining our guiding principles where we will and won't play ball is a significant step forward. Again, presenting our work in this way, I believe, will lead to a stronger and clear dialogue with one another, the public, and with our partners in Richmond. As we all recognize, the federal landscape remains unpredictable. The role

[00:32:54] of the state on this, like so many other issues, is going to be more significant than ever in shaping the outcome of our priorities. That's something we'll need to keep in front of our minds as we prepare for our legislative session. At this time, we're now going to open it up to questions. I'm going to turn it to our chairman to start. Thank you, Supervisor Jimenez. And I want to just echo your comments on the new format here, especially the graphics and other things that have been added in here. It's much more readable. And I know I've heard from a lot of years members of the

[00:33:31] GA about synthesizing down, prioritizing things too, and making sure that we have some priorities in here. This is not meant to be an exhaustive description of every single thing that's in our package. And I know you're working on separate handout fact sheets on some of these issues that can be circulated when we have GA members or members of the public that want more detailed information than what's in here. But it is really important to make sure that this remains a readable document. Before I ask a question, can you just, for folks who might be watching this and not know the process, can you just remind us again, this is the first time we're discussing a draft,

[00:34:10] the board will adopt, have a public hearing, and a draft, adopt this, what will be our final package on what date? So the public hearing is on November 18th, that the draft will be posted November 13th, and then the public hearing the 18th.

[00:34:26] We'll have another legislative committee on December 2, which will lead to adoption on December 9, and then our work session with our delegation on December 16th. Perfect. Thank you. And obviously, we don't need to go through every element of this document here today, but this is an ongoing process.

[00:34:45] So as you think of other things or look at this more critically, be sending those ideas into staff, into the chairman of the legislative committee so they can be considered, and we can potentially update some of those things as we move along. I think the objective we all should have in this document is not just growing it, but if there are things in here that are outdated or need to be tweaked, we can look at those as well.

[00:35:10] But I think growing it is something we want to try to avoid, given the amount of work that's gone into the new format. Lastly, I do want to thank staff for adding the housing section. this is brand new we know that every year there's bills that come in and some of them are designed to promote and improve affordable housing we also know that there are jurisdictions in virginia that are quite hostile to affordable housing and so what we want to be careful here is making sure that the general assembly doesn't just have a one-size-fix-all because we want

[00:35:46] affordable housing in fairfax county and by you know doing things that remove some requirements might actually have a negative effect on affordable housing, because affordable housing doesn't mean you cut out some of the quality elements like open space and stormwater management and parking and some of the things that we would do in any other community.

[00:36:06] Just because it's an affordable community doesn't mean all of a sudden you just drop those things. What we really need to be thinking about, though, is are there specific things in addition to what's in this housing section that we want to ask the state for? And, you know, I know in talking with some members of our delegation, they're trying to think through some ideas for bills or other things that would help us create more affordable housing without necessarily just instinctively going to the drop regulation component of it.

[00:36:36] And so if there are some things that, you know, board members have heard, I know I'm going to be meeting with some folks in this realm again. We know that the board matter that I passed has our staff working very hard on accommodating the things that are in that board matter to make affordable housing easier to build in this county.

[00:36:57] And that doesn't necessarily just mean removing regulations. And so I appreciate the way this language is written. I appreciate that we're putting this into our package for the first time. But I think it will probably evolve between now and when we adopt this because there may be some very specific things we want to ask the General Assembly to do to facilitate affordable housing in addition to kind of the broad language that is in this package.

[00:37:22] Lastly, and I'm saying this for folks who may be new to the process, in addition to the adoption of this legislative program, we, of course, will start meeting here Fridays to discuss individual bills. And so I know there's some things out there that will be being worked on in the category of individual bills that aren't in our legislative package.

[00:37:44] And that is on purpose, because that doesn't mean we won't opine on those. It just means, A, we haven't even seen the language of those, or B, we might want to just take a position, but doesn't necessarily become something that's inherent in our package. And so we do need to be careful.

[00:38:00] This is broad. This is not specifically talking about individual bills. this is our legislative package. When it gets to individual bills, we will discuss those in the Friday sessions that we have, and the board, of course, can take positions on any bill that comes up in the General Assembly. And so I just want to put that out there as a reminder broadly, but very good job. This is Jennifer's first alone, well, with a lot of help on staff, but as legislative director, production of this legislative package, and it is excellent. So thank you.

[00:38:34] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just had one quick question. And again, this is the way we're doing this, the way the new way we're doing this streamlined version, I think is going to be extremely helpful as we move forward. And I do want to thank all of our all of my colleagues for sending over notes or questions or being communicative in my new role here. So thank you for that. On page 13, I have a quick question. When we're talking about the remedy of financial scams, obviously, that is a big part of what we're looking at.

[00:39:06] at here in Fairfax County is especially our senior residents being scammed. Have we noticed over the years are the tactics that are happening or the laws that we're trying to enforce from Richmond and that we're backing are they working or are we finding that you know it just we stopped one scam and another scam unfortunately just pops back up. Chairman members of the board I don't know that we can tell you that right now but we'll get with staff and get back to on that thank you very much and i will just say this quickly i'm very uh time management oriented

[00:39:45] and we are we need to stick on schedule so we will do one round and then we're going to move on to the next presentation we're going to start all the way then with supervisor beerman and supervisor lusky or actor two quick questions or maybe they're not quite quick two questions page eight um we talk about uh replacing the linear weighted average for teacher salaries with the formula that better aligns with the actual teacher pay. I lied. There are three questions.

[00:40:17] Two questions here. Do we know what that ballpark would mean for Fairfax County? That's question one. And question two, would that change hold other counties that right now are doing much better under our current system, would it roughly hold them harmless? And have we done that analysis?

[00:40:39] So what I can say is that JLARC reported numbers are several years old. And so the numbers we could give you would be old. So we can talk with schools and see if they have any more estimates. I can tell you that staff feels like the COCA might be the better approach this year with the funding levels we're seeing at the General Assembly.

[00:41:05] But we'll get with staff and get back to you. Okay, I think it's, I think that it's actually in part the second component of that, figuring out the degree which it holds other parts of the state harmless is going to be, or how our approach holds those parts of the state, of the Commonwealth harmless is going to be crucial to getting progress on this issue.

[00:41:25] On page 16, with respect to drones, I know that there was a, in the items for consideration, there's a short backgrounder on page four, no, not page four, sorry, page six of the items for consideration that talks about including an exception that allows drone deployment during active calls for service when no search warrant would ordinarily be required, if not for the use of a drone. I think it's going to be necessary if we want to pursue this

[00:42:00] for a more beefed-up version of that background that gives real-world examples of when a drone would have been allowed but for the current 19.2-60.1, when the amendment would now allow it, when a search warrant would still be necessary.

[00:42:23] It also may be worth considering, given that we've had issues in the past with the General Assembly over issues like this, the degree to which any sort of drone infrastructure with respect to first responder programs is actually housed with our fire department rather than our police department.

[00:42:43] The fire department doesn't go get warrants before it responds, so the question is whether or not that creates more of an opportunity for us to use drones in first responder programs. Supervisor Behrman, to interject on that comment, Deputy County Executive Arnold and myself are working with PD and FRD to bolster exactly what you're stating.

[00:43:08] At some point in the near future, we're going to come back with a complete overview of what we're trying to do and how we're trying to get there, and hopefully the board will support that effort as well as the legislature. - Sure, that was more a request for additional information than a position one way or the other, and it's also commenting on what we've seen with the rest of the GA and our overall strategy, thanks.

[00:43:35] - Supervisor Lusk and then Supervisor Palchuk. - Okay, thank you, Mr. Chairman, I'll go quickly. I have four, but I'm only gonna do two. So the first one is on economic development and diversification, so I just wanna note that I really appreciate this section The second bullet with its focus on early stage investment, which is focused more on technology as it relates to startups and other technology growth sectors.

[00:44:03] I wanted to see if there might be an opportunity for us to maybe add some language that supports early stage funding for non-tech, traditional small businesses that come from marginalized, vulnerable communities here in Fairfax County.

[00:44:22] So I'm thinking that we've done a great job here as it relates to the technology-focused enterprises, but just not as clear, at least from my read here, on those that are lower non-tech.

[00:44:39] So just wanted to see if that could be considered. And then second, really appreciate the supporting vulnerable populations on page 14 as it talks about some of the support in the manufactured housing communities.

[00:44:57] I wanted to ask here if there could be a slight clarification in that first sentence as it reads, I won't read the whole thing, but when it gets to the second line of that third bullet, communities, including more, and after more, add the word financial assistance with relocations, comma, unit replacement, and then N, rehabilitation efforts. So seeing if we can maybe add a little

[00:45:30] more specificity there to address what I think are some of the needs in those specific communities. So with that, I'll go ahead and conclude. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Supervisor Lusk, Supervisor Palchek, Supervisor Alcorn, for now.

[00:45:52] Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Excellent first meeting. Thank you, Jennifer. Excellent first meeting, I believe. I wanted to speak on housing, but before I do, I appreciate that Jimmy brought up the education funding. I just want, because I remember first reading the report and wanting to make sure there wasn't a loss in any way and pushing that forward.

[00:46:14] So I was looking back at the research, I think you all helped us put together when the J-LOG strategy came out, and I believe every, if not every, almost every jurisdiction, right, we are below the 50-state average, right? State funding is below every other state, and that's for large jurisdictions, that's for small jurisdictions, and the part of the issue is that when the state says they're raising teacher salaries, it's to the SOQ, which their standards of equality, I'd call them inequality because they really, really, very grossly underfund, underestimate the actual costs, right, of teacher pay and running our schools.

[00:46:51] And so I just want to make sure, you know, yes, I want that information. I'd be very surprised if any jurisdiction would actually not just be held harmless, but not have an improvement, right, with these. I haven't looked at the chart of every school district in a while, but I would be really shocked.

[00:47:09] And so I think as we continue, if I heard you correctly, as we continue to push for what we know would be more equitable funding, which is approximately last time it came out was $1,900 per pupil underfunded, $1,900 per pupil across the state, that we are looking at what you think will make most headway this year could be the COCA funding, right?

[00:47:31] But that we continue to push forward a more equitable plan for state funding. And Supervisor, if I may, I would say there's another recommendation out there that has been discussed in conjunction with the COCA change that's called the economy of size.

[00:47:50] If you're looking in the report, it's 13. It's 12 and 13 back to back. But it essentially says a locality under a certain size is going to get a minimum of state funding so that as their population decreases, they'll still have enough baseline function for the general administration of education.

[00:48:07] That's a good point. everywhere you brought that up I it's been a while since that research so yes it's looking at the ends right where smaller jurisdictions but also looking at the large ones where we're funding the great needs um mr. chairman just quickly because I want to support what supervisor Palchak is saying I would just say that the first bullet point that's not so we were looking at the highlighted areas because they're they're new the first bullet point you know it talks about the overarching need period to make significant progress on jlark report and i know that there will be individual bills there may be budgets other

[00:48:44] things that come up that will specifically address the intricate components of the jlark recommendations and we did have triage for us the ones that were most beneficial to the county um and as those individual things get get brought up uh we're going to be playing a heavy hand and and taking positions you know in our friday sessions as individual bills and other things come up and so i just want to make sure people watching know that the very first bullet that is in here under the better accounting for its obligations the general assembly should and is the most important issue to us which is address the underfunding period uh that is in the jlark

[00:49:24] report and then you know the ways in which we do that we'll be having those continued grand granular conversations but just don't want to lose sight on on the fact that there's so much work to be done here as was acknowledged that you know there there's hopefully a lot of opportunity here but when we get down to that granular level we're going to be needing and wanting a very specific idea of what the financial stakes are to the county and then also what the legislative prognosis is for supporting the things that actually have the potential of being approved and agree with that and I want to tie that back to my next point which is about the

[00:50:03] housing personally and the way I read this and and feel we're supporting affordable housing is only a part of it right we know enough housing has not been built in our region has not been built nationally for over a decade now other states side before we did but as we try to improve and that's why I think it's very critical where we're placing that category number one so I appreciate that housing is separate from just the it's not just affordable not just vulnerable right but it's also tied to economic development it's also tied right to the

[00:50:42] the state we're at now of the lack of housing and a lack of first-time home options the lack of financing options the lack of the ability to keep up with the needs of our workforce are causing ripple down effects in so many of our areas so I think the more we continue to elevate that knowing that the housing task force is bringing together I believe a whole variety of groups that we do that what I want to make sure we while we continue to focus on state authority for that I also want us to maybe think about since it's all housing

[00:51:20] and not just affordable housing that we need is how we look at right the state role in the incentives right we're saying what we don't want the state to do but I want us to make sure we focus on what are the focus areas we do want the state to do just looking at education funding Governor Morin and Maryland just passed an executive order but they do have their state blueprint on education funding right so to me those two are tied together is especially if there are things like the car tax being reduced unless the state really makes its infrastructure investments in our highest cost areas like education and transportation

[00:51:58] it's going to continue to create an unfunded mandate right so I think as we look at the housing looking at areas to make it easier to build more but also to support right the localities and those needs for educating the students for supporting the road safety and infrastructure issue. So as you guys go through that, I just hope we keep that broad open mind, but all of the impacts and making sure that they're not, again, pushed down just to the locality. So thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Palachuk. Supervisor Alcone. Thank you. Just one

[00:52:36] item. On page 10, the municipal solid waste bullets, the first new bullet relating to carbon capture requirements. You know, I feel like we've had several shoes dropping relating to our solid waste program the last few months, and this is probably the latest one.

[00:52:58] That facility, I believe, accounts for about 12% of all of our greenhouse gas emissions in Fairfax County. It's by far the largest point source of greenhouse gas emissions in the county. And I realize we don't own it anymore, but, you know, obviously work very closely with the operator there.

[00:53:19] I'd like to get a little more information on this. This may be fine, but what I'd like to get is more information on, frankly, what are the costs that we're looking at in terms of carbon capture and how much greenhouse gas emissions would we be avoiding to implement that, whether there's a state requirement for it or not.

[00:53:41] This is really important. realize this could also be very expensive and i'd like to get a little bit more information about that as it does also relate to some of the other discussions we're having about solid waste so thank you thank you supervisor alcorn we are now going to be moving forward to the next presentation so jennifer please absolutely um so in the packet there is a draft of the federal program you'll see the large portions of it are in red as we know there's a lot of change ever going on at

[00:54:21] the federal level and so instead of walking through the program today what we're going to what we've done is invited our federal lobbyists the ferguson group to give you a quick overview of some of the current actions and then we can talk a little bit about that so i'd like to bring up our the ferguson group? Yep. And while they're getting up there, it's Jennifer Emo and Zach Israel. And so thank you for being here. And I'll turn it over to them. It's always hot. Thank you. All right. Good to know.

[00:55:03] Mr. Chairman and the Board of Supervisors, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Chairman and the Board of Supervisors, thank you so much for having us here. And thank you, Jennifer. And I will just say, You guys have an extraordinary staff, and we very much appreciate the opportunity to work with them on your behalf.

[00:55:23] As Jennifer mentioned, we do, again, Jennifer Emo, Zach Israel, we do have a draft federal program that's in your packet. My understanding, we're not going to go through that. this is kind of an opportunity for you guys to ask us any questions about sort of the state of affairs and state of play at the federal level. I've got my computer here for reference if I need it. But, you know, we obviously are in the middle of a federal government shutdown.

[00:55:58] The I will I will say this sort of on a sort of a higher level, a federal government shutdown impacts the impacts that trickle down to the local level really depend on the length of the shutdown.

[00:56:21] Where it really impacts are your federal employees that are furloughed, which I know is something of great importance to you all since those are residents of Fairfax County. And so we're, you know, again, we don't know that I don't think that they're any closer to a any sort of agreement.

[00:56:47] The Senate, I think, has shut down the CR, is it five or six times? Five times so far. As you all know, really the Democrats are trying to get subsidies for the Affordable Care Act to continue past October 1 when they expired.

[00:57:11] So there are going to be impacts to some federal programs that you all are interested in and take advantage of. However, there are some programs that have advanced appropriations or are not tied to the annual appropriations process that may not have an impact.

[00:57:38] So, you know, it depends really on the agency and the federal program. So, without knowing exactly which ones you all want to talk about. I don't know if you want to add anything, but we're really just here to answer any questions you may have.

[00:57:54] Jennifer, is there anything else that you'd like for us to address or? If the chairman has any, I was going to say if you could maybe address some of the changes in the OBBA, I always forget the last B, act that will trickle down to the states.

[00:58:10] And then do you talk about the, okay, sure. And the, go ahead. Yeah, so the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, budget reconciliation bill that was signed on July 4th, has a lot of changes. Won't cover every single one, but some of the big ones, you know, changes to SNAP and Medicaid, that obviously have real life impacts here in Fairfax.

[00:58:30] A lot of those don't fully go into effect until the end of 2026 or even later than that. There are a lot of changes to some of the tax programs from going back to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

[00:58:47] So just last week, the $7,500 tax credit to buy new electric vehicles went away effective September 30th. If you're a homeowner in Fairfax, you want to put rooftop solar on the top of your house, that goes away December 31st of this year. For those in the private sector and public entities doing wind and solar projects, construction needs to start by July 4th of next year and need to be fully done and online by, I think, the end of 2027.

[00:59:17] So that's much earlier than what the Inflation Reduction Act had outlined. There are the continuation of the 2017 tax cuts, so basically just a continuation of those on a permanent basis. That's very significant.

[00:59:34] And there are some new tax programs. There's a program called Trump Accounts, which are for, I think, any child born in the United States between 2025 and 2028. You can get a $1,000 sort of pilot program money put in there.

[00:59:50] That's something new. are a lot of different tax changes in that bill and so that's there are some tie-ins to the government shutdown in terms of the Democratic continuing resolution proposal attempts to undo some of the Medicaid changes and other things in the alternative CR we can get into that later but that's sort of the highlights I would say and and also just for your awareness to TFG we did a special report that highlights the, you know, all the programs and, well, all the tax extensions

[01:00:30] and the changes included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, as well as a report on the local impact of the federal government shutdown. So, those are reports that your staff has, if anyone is interested in getting, you know, more detail.

[01:00:54] Well, thank you so much to our federal team. Obviously, a lot of uncertainty moving, going on and moving forward. How does what's happening currently impact the federal grants that we receive here in Fairfax County? So what our grants division has said is, you know, our, the, the, let's say, for example, CDBG, right, is a formula grant that comes down through HUD.

[01:01:23] Those are advanced appropriations, so that money is still there and you can continue with the regular operations of CDBG unless you don't have an approved plan. And so what the issue is, is you've got furloughed staff at the agency level that are not available to approve a consolidated plan.

[01:01:48] So that's the issue. But if, you know, if you can continue to draw down the funds for existing grant programs, the issue, again, is going to be which grant programs are we talking about?

[01:02:06] Are they ones that have advanced appropriations or are they ones that are tied to the annual appropriations process? So the Federal Highway Administration, for example, is funded through a separate mechanism, the Highway Trust Fund, and that also is funded the salaries and expenses for employees.

[01:02:31] So those folks from the Federal Highway Administration are not furloughed and they are working with pay. We, for example, just for a client yesterday, the DOT build grant just had a debrief with staff on an unsuccessful build grant application.

[01:02:55] So there still is some work being done. It really is very much agency and program specific. Yeah, it also seems like it's kind of case by case, right? Absolutely. That's right. And really, at this point, who's furloughed and who's actually an essential worker that's there?

[01:03:12] Correct. Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to pass it on to you. Yeah, I appreciate the presentation. And, you know, to underscore the chaos, I think there's much more that we don't know than we do know at this point. But I do want to ask a question, and I'm not taking a position on this one way or another.

[01:03:31] But the current government shutdown is a fundamental question about whether or not to continue Obamacare subsidies for health care. And I have heard that if that doesn't happen, the average family in Virginia's health care costs will go from around $800 a month to upwards of $2,000, which not only affects every family in Virginia, but affects all of us who have other insurance as well, including private insurance, because at some point these costs have to get paid.

[01:04:03] So my question is, is there a substantive number that we know of that's been confirmed that can help explain to people what the current debate is in terms of what health care costs are? I don't know the exact answer to that, but I will say this.

[01:04:21] There is an appetite to address this issue with both Republicans and Democrats. The sticking point is adding it to the continuing resolution. So but the problem is, is that Democrats don't trust that that will be taken care of through a separate legislative effort based on, you know, just general distrust.

[01:04:48] Right. So I don't know about the specific number, but I will say that just because if they're not going to attach the. extending subsidies to the continuing resolution. That doesn't mean that's the end of the conversation.

[01:05:05] There is an appetite. The issue is where to attach that. Right. And my question isn't about the strategy. My question is, what is the cost of the cost? And that is not addressed. And that I would like to get some substantiated number if we can. So, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, I don't know offhand, but you know, the Kaiser Family Foundation has done some really deep analysis on this in the last week since the government shutdown. So we can look more at that. I will say writ large nationwide.

[01:05:29] there's about 22 million Americans who are on, who have the ACA premium tax credits out of a pool of 24 million Americans who are on the ACA exchange. So that's overwhelming majority of those who get their health insurance from the ACA have these tax credits. And there are a lot of, you know, let's just, for lack of a better term, red-leaning states that have many, many people on these exchanges and their premiums would be projected to increase significantly. And then the other detail, even though they end December 31st, and these were created by the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021.

[01:06:01] The Inflation Reduction Act extended that by two years, and that gets us to the end of this year. Even though it ends at the end of the calendar year, the notices start going out to people on them starting, I think, in early November, which is why it's tied in to the government shutdown fight. It's really a conversation for now. If we wait till December, a lot of people will probably not stay on the exchange because they simply can't afford it. That's the big debate.

[01:06:26] I appreciate that, and I appreciate that simple explanation. I wish that was more readily known, but that's not for you. The question I have about the package specifically, and this has been an issue that we've tried to work on for a long time, and this is on page eight, where we talk about education for federally connected students. I'll just draw attention to, You have a very specific number in there about aid funding for military-connected students with disabilities requiring IEPs to address the gap between the federal contribution.

[01:07:00] I'm reading these numbers. You won't believe these, but I'm going to read them. The federal contribution of $745 per pupil and the average $33,275 cost per pupil borne by FCPS for students with IEPs.

[01:07:17] That's right. We pay $33,275. We get some state assistance for that, but the feds kick in $745. I don't see a similar number in terms of cost for the education for federally connected students in general education, which includes the number of up to $17,000.

[01:07:38] We know, because of the other bullet point, which is making the eligibility process automatic, We know that that 17,000 number of students in FCPS that have a federal connection is likely much higher just because of the onerous process that they have to go through to certify that, which is absurd to me, especially when the federal government has the tax records of the people that we're talking about.

[01:08:02] But my question is, do we know what the monetary contribution is now for the nearly 17,000 enrolled? And if we do, we need to include that number in here and specifically how much federal assistance we get for pupil in that $17,000 range.

[01:08:19] We don't have that number at this time. Chairman, we'll work with FCPS to get that. Yeah, we need that because this has been a chronic issue. I know for members of the school board, we have been battling this for so long. And what we're talking about here is the federal assistance for military-connected personnel, of which we have among the highest percentages in the country.

[01:08:42] And we know that military-connected personnel, in many cases, are exempt from a lot of other taxation that the county uses to collect revenues to pay for public education. And this becomes really important, especially with our challenges with school budget.

[01:08:58] And so this, to me, should be one thing we really prioritize and try to move the needle on. It's been in here too long. We've made no progress on it. And we need to be really direct in what the real costs are in this section, in my opinion. And so if we can rework that to put out the real magnitude, I think that would be helpful.

[01:09:17] Mr. Chairman, on that point. Go ahead. One of the other things that was fascinating to me in my journey over the last 25 years on this issue is I was at a meeting at Fort Belvoir probably five or six years ago. And one of the generals who's involved, who's in charge of this whole area, was talking about how he was surprised at how low our number was because he was in Texas and South Carolina and other states where the amount of funding that they got for this from the federal government was substantially higher per pupil.

[01:09:53] I'm talking about thousands of dollars per pupil versus $700 in change per pupil. And I think that's an equity issue for us. I mean, part of the argument that I think we get is the same argument we get from the state as well. You know, you're rich in Northern Virginia.

[01:10:09] You can afford to pay this. Well, frankly, it's an unfairness that we not only get in terms of the numbers and the dollar amount we get, but the cost of the education we provide to those students is much higher because the percentage of students that have IEPs or that are special education kinds of systems and supports is much higher because we are a natural place for military and military-connected families to come and have their kids educated.

[01:10:37] So it's more than just that amount of money. It's that others get far more than that on a per-pupil basis. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Stork. Mr. Chairman, I'm going to look at you real quick. Do you have any other comments or questions? Thank you, sir. We are going to go with Supervisor Alcorn, Supervisor Palchuk for now.

[01:10:58] Thank you. All right. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And thank you for this format, and this is really helpful for you all to be here. Three quick things. First of all, on pages 12 and 13 about affordable housing, you know, I'm hearing a lot of talk about possible changes in federal funding coming through HUD.

[01:11:19] You know, changes, cuts in permanent supportive housing support, massive changes in the voucher programs. Are you helping us just on the Hill or are you helping us in departments like HUD as well? We right now just on the Hill.

[01:11:34] OK. But I will say this. There is a bipartisan bill called the Road to Housing Act that has been passed out of its committee in the Senate. There's an effort to actually attach it to the NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act.

[01:11:53] There are some real, there are some significant strides that are included, really moves the needle on housing policy and changes some of these programs for the better. Of course, the administration did recommend in its budget zeroing out or significantly lowering funding for a lot of the programs that you're probably referring to.

[01:12:23] Those programs, however, have significant bipartisan bicameral support. So we expect that they will continue to get funded even, you know, under this administration who proposed to zero them out. And then I think there are some real good, real positive policy changes, including in that, included in that Road to Housing Act, that would benefit Fairfax County.

[01:12:51] Okay, thank you. That's helpful. And hopefully administration will follow the law and actually spin what's been appropriated. But, you know, that's another question. Very quickly, thank you on page 13, the scam, anti-scam language. That's very helpful building upon the comments, you know, in terms of the state-level position that we take.

[01:13:14] Because a lot of these scams are, you know, they're not just local. They're not even federal. A lot of them are international. So, I mean, really, it's going to be the federal government that's going to have to step up at some point. So thank you for including that in there.

[01:13:30] And then lastly, on page six in the energy section, and I don't know, maybe this should go into AI or data center section on page 12. But, you know, we're going to soon need help from the federal government on electricity supply as basically our grid is becoming really burdened beyond its ability to provide electricity service to everybody.

[01:13:58] So, you know, there are improvements to the grid that are going to need to be made that are beyond just the state level activity. There are going to be probably improvements in the operation and policies of the grid in terms of getting new generation sources attached to the grid. There are probably a whole host of things.

[01:14:15] So keep an eye out for that as well, because we're about to be in a new era of energy scarcity that I don't think any of us in our lifetimes have ever experienced. So thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Alcorn, and completely agree on that.

[01:14:33] I mean, we're going to be looking at both what's going on with energy usage at the federal level. But right now, some of the biggest changes are going to happen at the state front. So we really want to make sure that we're not just following, but leading and trying to figure out ways in which we can really look at just the big wave of energy issues that's coming.

[01:14:55] Supervisor Palachuk. Thank you again, Mr. Chairman. And first of all, so happy to hear my colleague bring up, I think it's on 8 and 9, the affordable housing piece. I was trying to find it. And so, and I believe the bill you're referring to is Senator Warner's bipartisan bill.

[01:15:11] Is that the one, the road to housing, or is there another one? It's part of this larger package. This larger bin. That's correct. So it looks like it's likely to move forward? It does. I mean, it's got significant support, yes. Okay. It's just a matter of when we have some floor time. Excellent.

[01:15:29] No, it's all right. I was trying to find it. And no, I appreciate that. Again, this is an issue at every level, right? It's good to see the federal government doing their part as well. And hopefully it continues to bring the infrastructure and other supports to not create mandates. So that's one thing to watch out for.

[01:15:45] haven't read the full updated I don't know if anyone has bill and then I also wanted to just point out and appreciate while these are maybe less sexy but on pages 12 and well on page 12 and then 16 so on 12 census data and data accuracy while it's listed as a continuing principle to me I know that the over a year and now it's gotten worse with a shutdown the access to the information to census all the survey data including housing surveys so I don't know if that's coming up at all but but it seems to me the lack of you

[01:16:22] know we've always been a country where you could go and get accurate information and census were very accurate and so that to me is a huge concern that may be under the radar a little bit as we look at ensuring continued support and it's It's sort of listed in here for all of the survey data and accurate data to continue to be up there.

[01:16:45] So I don't know if you're seeing any conversation on that. Well, it's interesting you note that because I think it was about a month or two ago. I think the president sent out some message about redoing a new census before the regular decennial census, which I think is unprecedented.

[01:17:05] It's called the American Community Survey. Yes, and I don't know, I haven't really seen anything since then, but I think if you read between the lines in terms of how they would go about doing that, if they're serious about that, in terms of potentially not counting people, depending on their immigration status, as an example, as an attempt to do that over the next three years.

[01:17:27] So, I haven't seen more on that, but it's something to definitely keep an eye on and be tracking. And that's what we'll... Yeah, okay. I appreciate that. Because, as you know, that would not just inflict us morally, but the counting of our community and making sure that our very vulnerable, now very scared community are still counted legally in those surveys.

[01:17:47] And the funding is appropriated appropriately. And thank you for flagging. I mean that's not something access to data from the census during the government shutdown is not something that I have you know anybody has flagged but that's I'm glad that you did and so we'll sort of keep our eye out for that too thank you and then I also just want to thank you on page 16 the other thing people don't flies a little bit on the radar is the library services and Technology Act I again don't know the monetary impact on that but as someone who grew up on the summer reading program.

[01:18:22] And I know many of our kids do. Critical to keep supporting the work that's done, as Jennifer mentioned, in our libraries and in all of our public facilities. So thank you for your work. Thank you. Looking down the row, is there anyone else who would like to ask a question of our federal team?

[01:18:42] Well, thank you again. We really appreciate it. We're looking forward to obviously continuing to have these conversations as things move, or unfortunately do not move. And so great to chat. Thank you very much. Appreciate your time. I'm going to pass it back to Jennifer.

[01:18:58] Is there anything else you'd like to highlight, anything you'd like to go over as we look at this packet? Chairman, members of the board, I think I'm set unless there's additional questions. Again, we will be reworking this federal program and continue to work on the state program before the December 2 meeting where we can chat about specifically the federal program in more depth since we didn't walk through it today.

[01:19:25] And if there are other comments that come up after this meeting, feel free to shoot them my way, and we'll work to get you answers. Thank you, Jennifer. And I do want to remind people that we do have legislative items for consideration that we will be going over, as mentioned by the chairman during our Friday meetings.

[01:19:48] So if between now and our next meeting, which will be held on November 13th, I believe, Jennifer? November 13th is when we'll post November 18th as public hearing. That's right. Thank you. Thank you for that timeline.

[01:20:04] Before then, please do make sure to look through those consideration items. Make sure that you're reaching out to us, to me, to Chairman, and to Jennifer. We definitely want to make sure that this is an open communication. It's going to take all of us to really show the state and work at the federal level and really show that we are the largest county in Virginia.

[01:20:27] And we do have a lot of priorities that are important to us that trickle down not just to Fairfax County but to Northern Virginia. We have a new way of doing this legislative committee. I do appreciate the way Jennifer and her team have been working. I think the graphics and the streamlining of the process is going to make things for a much easier and quicker way of doing things.

[01:20:50] The most important thing, though, is communication dialogue. And I really ask all of my colleagues to continue to do so. You know, we want to work together, and we're not always going to agree, but it is important for all of us to have those proper lines of communication.

[01:21:06] And so I want to say thank you again to Jennifer and her team, and to the chairman, to all of my colleagues. And with that, we are going to wrap up, and we will see each other again very soon. Thank you.

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