Welcome to Notes from the Square, a roundup of state politics and policy news. Each week, we bring you updates on the movers and shakers in Virginia politics as well as the legislation and initiatives they’re supporting or opposing — with a Southwest and Southside Virginia focus.
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AG Jones forms a legal unit to challenge federal overreach
Attorney General Jay Jones announced Thursday that his office has formed the Federal Accountability Unit to challenge what he called federal overreach.
The new unit will investigate Trump administration actions that exceed federal authority and threaten Virginia’s interests, Jones’ office said.
The unit will be composed of four new attorneys who will be charged with working across the Office of the Solicitor General and Civil Litigation Division. The unit will be led by Deputy Solicitor General Megan Keenan.
Jones’ office said this unit is the “first cross-functional team of its kind” within the attorney general’s office. Its goal is to identify emerging threats, respond quickly and take legal action.
“I have a fundamental responsibility as Attorney General to defend the Commonwealth and protect Virginians when the federal government exceeds its authority,” Jones said in a statement. “I promised to put Virginia first, and the Federal Accountability Unit will take on Trump administration actions that hurt Virginians, from tariffs that exacerbate the cost crisis, to the damage left behind by DOGE.”
He added that the team will be “ready to act when [President Donald] Trump holds critical funding hostage, when federal policies threaten Virginia workers and families, or when the President attacks our democracy.”
Among the issues that the unit will handle are federal funding, elections, healthcare, immigration, environmental protections, consumer issues, constitutional rights, tariffs and the continuing fallout from federal workforce cuts. It also aims to coordinate multistate litigation and work alongside other states’ attorneys general on cases involving Trump administration policies and actions.
“We understand the weight of this work and the stakes for Virginians,” Keenan said in a statement. “We will move quickly, defend the Commonwealth, and meet unlawful action with the full force of the law. Our charge is to anticipate and counter emerging threats, build the strongest cases possible, and ensure the state is prepared when its interests or its people are put at risk.”
Virginia to receive $364 million through Meta settlements
Also this week, Jones’ office announced that Virginia is slated to receive $364 million from recent billion-dollar multistate settlements with Meta over social media addiction claims and data sharing.
Jones said that a portion of Virginia’s settlement funds will go toward remediating harm caused by social media platforms and supporting social media literacy for parents.
“We are really excited to put this money into efforts that are going to continue to help protect our kids,” Jones told reporters on Wednesday. “We’re going to make sure that they’re going to be used for a variety of purposes, like unplugged programs and activities for kids that are going to help combat this loneliness and social isolation that we’ve seen from this online existence.”
Virginia is scheduled to receive its first payment, an undisclosed portion of the full amount, within 30 days of approval of the settlement by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Meta is required to implement sweeping child-safety reforms on Instagram and Facebook. The settlement was reached after attorneys general from 52 states and U.S. territories, including Virginia, claimed that the company deceived the public regarding mental health harms its social media products can have on teens.
The court battle with the tech giant began through an investigation that was launched in 2021.
The safety features that Meta is required to implement on Instagram and Facebook as a part of the settlement include:
- Daily time limits and mandatory pauses for young users. Children also will be blocked from the platforms from midnight to 6 a.m.
- Limited school-time access for children, with no push notifications on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. during the school year.
- Robust age assurance measures to more effectively verify the age of young users.
- Safer, age-appropriate content controls, including stronger safeguards against bullying, content promoting eating disorders, and content related to suicide and self-harm.
- Stronger, more user-friendly parental controls.
- Limits on social comparison features, including beauty filters and visible “like” counts.
Both the implementation and efficacy of the features will be regularly assessed by an independent auditor and the settling states.
The settlement also resolves Virginia’s claims against Meta for sharing private information about Facebook users with third parties leading up to the 2016 election. The commonwealth will receive an additional $11 million through that settlement, Jones’ office said.
Griffith announces nearly $1.7 million federal grants for Tech
And more money news:
Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, announced this week that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded Virginia Tech three research grants totaling nearly $1.7 million to research allergies, infectious diseases and aging.
“Scientific discoveries contribute to new treatments and better health outcomes,” Griffith said in a statement.
He added that the grants will “help Virginia Tech use research to better inform American scientists, doctors and patients.”
The grants are as follows:
- $199,059 to research how bacteria interact with each other and evolve during infections that involve biofilms;
- $733,233 to research whether the old antibiotic nitroxoline can be used for treating drug-resistant gonorrhea and chlamydia; and
- $762,861 to study how the protein TDP-43 spreads and affects brain cells, which is necessary for studying and treating limbic-predominant age-related TDP‑43 encephalopathy (LATE), a form of dementia.
