Policy Agenda

Access to health services and treatments during childhood are critical to a healthy life and development. However, not all children have access to these important resources: about 13,000 (including ~2,500 Asian American) uninsured kids in Virginia are eligible but cannot access vital health coverage through FAMIS / Medicaid- just because they’re undocumented.

Virginia has an opportunity to join 10 other states and D.C. to remove this immigration status-based restriction to #CoverAllKids and give them a healthy start to life.

A 2021 language access audit conducted by the Virginia Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion found that none of Virginia’s state agencies were providing proper language access or support for vital services and resources to linguistically-marginalized communities* (including disabled, non-English speaking, or multilingual Virginians). 7 of the top 10 languages spoken in Virginia are Asian (Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Hindi, Arabic, Farsi, Filipino).
Additionally, over 36,000 Asian American Virginians are disabled (including hearing- and visual-impaired).

With defined standards for language access, state agencies can use resources more efficiently and properly support the millions of Virginians impacted by language barriers.

* linguistically marginalized communities: groups and individuals who “use any dominant spoken or sign language, and are not fully proficient in the dominant language” which in the United States is English

Virginia has nearly 95,000 Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) students, who should be empowered by their education & supported at school- especially during this time of increased anti-Asian discrimination and harassment against AAPI students since the COVID-19 pandemic began. We support legislation that uplifts and protects the well-being of our youth in school.

We oppose proposals that roll back diversity and equity in Governor’s schools by limiting hard-fought efforts to increase racial and socioeconomic diversity in the student body, preventing data collection, and taking away local control from school divisions. Governor’s schools and local school divisions have created effective policies that maintain visibly-open pathways to opportunity for qualified students from a range of backgrounds.

The voting age population of Asian Americans in Virginia grew by 30% from 2010 to 2020. Recent voter access laws in Virginia have greatly increased voter turnout, early voting, and absentee voting- especially for Asian American voters in 2020!

However, legislation aimed at repealing initiatives (such as extended early voting and no photo ID) that have made and continue to make participating in democracy more easy and accessible is an attempt to limit the working-class, disabled people, and those who don’t follow Western naming conventions from making their voices heard.

Investing in our communities is critical for generational change. We have an opportunity through the state budget, by proposing budget amendments and protecting line items that would fund the priorities our communities care about the most.

This investment also includes mandatory combined reporting – a proposal that would increase state revenue by nearly $100 million annually. Large corporations and businesses should pay their fair share to take the burden off of small businesses and individual taxpayers.