The signature of Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) is the lone step remaining before Northern Virginia localities receive a new tool to combat excessive vehicle noise.
“There was some drama with this bill,” acknowledged its patron, Del. Rip Sullivan (D-6), in a March 16 newsletter to constituents.
Like a similar measure sponsored by Sullivan in 2025, the 2026 legislation passed the House of Delegates but seemed to have died in the Virginia Senate — only to be resuscitated.
In this year’s session, the bill was rejected by the Senate, 22-18, on March 3, prompting Sullivan and other legislators to take some action behind the scenes.
“I was able to work with the Fairfax senators and persuade a couple of Republican senators who originally opposed the bill to bring the legislation back,” Sullivan said in the constituent newsletter.
After accepting a couple of amendments offered by state Sen. Stella Pekarsky (D-36) and the chamber’s transportation committee — most notably, an option for localities utilizing noise monitoring equipment to exempt agricultural vehicles — the state Senate passed House Bill 55 on March 9 on a 21-19 vote, with several Republicans in support and a handful of Democrats opposed.
Instead of insisting on a conference committee to address the Senate amendments, the House of Delegates on March 11 accepted them on a 65-34 vote that split along party lines.
This is the second consecutive year a bill targeting vehicle exhaust noise has landed on a governor’s desk. Last year, after the bill was brought back to life on the last day of the legislative session, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) eventually vetoed it.
Sullivan’s measure will put in place a two-year pilot program allowing localities in three state planning districts — including Northern Virginia — to enforce limits on vehicle exhaust noise levels with electronic noise-monitoring equipment.
If signed by Spanberger, it would take effect July 1 of this year and expire on that date in 2028.
Winning passage of the measure has been one of the Fairfax County government’s key legislative priorities over the past two years.
“We compromised, we found a way to get it done,” said Dranesville District Supervisor Jimmy Bierman, speaking at the Board of Supervisors’ meeting this morning (Tuesday).
Bierman thanked the county’s legislative affairs director, Jennifer Van Ee, and her team for working with state legislators, adding that they “did an excellent job on that bill.”
At the meeting, McKay said he would be in communication with the governor on this issue and other priorities.
Both McKay and Mason District Supervisor Andres Jimenez, who chairs the Board’s legislative committee, said Fairfax had a strong winning streak in the 2026 session that concluded over the weekend.
“There were a lot of things that happened in this session that we are all proud of,” McKay said.
Owners of vehicles found to be exceeding 95 decibels would be liable for civil penalties of no more than $100 per occurrence. The violations will not become part of a driver’s operating record or reported to insurance agencies.
The bill contains the same data privacy and storage requirements as are in current law for speed-monitoring devices.
It also requires any locality that operates a monitoring system to report each year on the number of traffic violations prosecuted, the number of successful prosecutions and the dollar amount of civil penalties collected.
For Sullivan, the legislative victory proved satisfying.
“This bill followed a rather unconventional path, but I am glad we persisted — it will become an effective tool to help to rid our community of those annoying and dangerous loud mufflers in Fairfax County,” he said.
