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RICHMOND, Va. – Lawmakers crossed the midpoint of the General Assembly session earlier this week.
Almost 600 bills in the House and over 500 in the Senate advanced, and only one bill passed both chambers by Feb. 7.
Stephen Farnsworth, director of the University of Mary Washington Center for Leadership and Media Studies, said there will be a delay in the passage of controversial measures.
"Even things that passed in one house that are contentious will face problems in the other house, given divided government," Farnsworth said.
"Hot-button issues" are unlikely to reach the governor's desk, Farnsworth said, due to the Democratic-majority Senate and Republican-majority House.
"The Senate won't accept abortion restrictions and the House won't accept gun control," Farnsworth said. "Key issues are going to be delayed until one party ends up controlling both chambers and the governor's office."
The Senate passed a higher percentage of bills than the House. Almost 52% of proposed House bills advanced, and the Senate had an almost 66% success rate. The statistics don't reflect resolutions, or bills carried over from last session.
Gianni Snidle, communications director for the Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus, said he thinks a lot less legislation will advance this session.
"If they're [House of Delegates] sending bills over that's ripping freedoms away from LGBTQ people, from women, from Virginians, we're going to kill those bills here," Snidle said.
Lawmakers are debating key issues such as reproductive freedoms, gun control, rate regulation and more, Snidle said.
"It's just a flurry of common sense gun control legislation that has gotten out of the Senate and other bills helping Virginia families be able to craft and achieve their American Dream," Snidle said.
Jeff Ryer, press secretary for the Senate Republican Caucus, said top issues in the second half of the session include crime—courts and penalties—as well as consolidation of workforce development programs. A high profile crime bill addresses organized retail theft, with versions in the House and Senate, Ryer said.
"There's been a lot of agency bills that have passed out of both chambers, meaning things that that individual government agencies have requested to have passed," Ryer said.
Lawmakers amend the state budget in odd numbered years. The budget is a top priority, including tax cuts and spending initiatives, according to Ryer.
The two chambers will have more time to work on the budget now, as there are fewer bills to pick up after crossover day, Farnsworth said.
"That may involve tax cuts, it may involve additional resources devoted to schools," Farnsworth said. "We'll have to see where there's going to be areas of agreement."
General Assembly 2023 stats
The legislative scorecard of bills passed is not the only measure of a lawmaker's effectiveness, according to Farnsworth.
"The contents of the legislation usually matter more than the won-loss ranking," he stated. "A bill that has a tangible, direct benefit to the district or is strongly desired by a key segment of the electorate in the district is the gold standard of legislative effectiveness."
In the House, 31 legislators introduced 15 bills—the most allowed.
Del. Robert Bloxom Jr., R-Accomack, advanced the most bills in the House—with 14 of his 15 bills moving to the Senate.
Del. Les Adams, R-Pittsylvania, had all of his 13 measures move to the other chamber.
Nine delegates were unable to advance any measures, including Dels. Marie March, R-Floyd, and Sally Hudson, D-Charlottesville, who each introduced 15 bills and saw none advance.
Sen. Jeremy McPike, D-Prince William, introduced 32 bills, with an 84% pass rate. Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, had the most bills pass out of the Senate; he advanced 28 of his 30 bills.
The newly-elected Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, was the only senator with a 100% passage rate. He advanced all six bills to the House. Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, passed 18 of her 19 bills.
Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, was the only senator who advanced no bills. She introduced 17 bills.
The session is slated to adjourn on Feb. 25 and reconvene for unfinished business on April 12. After that, election season begins in earnest. All 140 General Assembly seats will be up for grabs in November.
RICHMOND, Va. – Elected officials serving in the Virginia General Assembly have a short amount of time to potentially discuss thousands of proposed measures that are either defeated or signed into law.
Over 1,900 bills were introduced this session, in addition to joint resolutions and legislation carried over from last year. So far, over 100 bills have failed to advance in the House and over 300 in the Senate. There are over 1,000 bills pending in the House and over 500 in the Senate, with the session midpoint approaching.
Here are a few of the bills that failed to advance this session.
Senate Bill 1288: Petition for defendant to pay child support due to wrongful death of child's guardian resulting from driving under the influence
The measure introduced by Sen. Bill DeSteph, R-Virginia Beach, would allow the court to consider child support payment in an instance of wrongful death of a child's parent or legal guardian that was caused by driving under the influence.
The legislation was passed by indefinitely with a 14-0 vote in the Senate Judiciary committee and is likely dead for the session.
Committee members felt the bill did not add additional value to the current scenarios in wrongful death civil cases.
Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, questioned the legislation because it is not "a policy solution to a specific problem."
"It's not clear to me why we would say 'you pay child support if somebody dies by drunk driving instead of murder,'" Surovell said during the committee.
Senate Bill 880: In-person absentee voting period shortened to week prior to any elections
The measure, introduced by Sen. Ryan McDougle, R-Hanover, would shorten the in-person absentee voting period to seven days prior to the election. Currently, absentee voting in person begins 45 days before the election.
The bill would create a burden at high-volume localities, Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, said during the committee hearing.
"They would need hundreds of people [staff] to get those people not having to wait for hours and hours in line," Ebbin said
The legislation was passed by indefinitely with a 10-4 vote in the Senate Privileges and Elections committee.
House Bill 1720: Eliminates one-year divorce waiting period due to cruelty, bodily hurt
Del. Nadarius Clark, D-Portsmouth, introduced a measure to eliminate the one-year period spouses wait to be pronounced divorced and legally separated. A separation or divorce would be granted before the one-year period in cases of spousal abuse such as cruelty, reasonable apprehension of bodily harm, abandonment or desertion and more by either party. The bill would have applied to divorce filings on or after July 1.
A divorce is currently permitted if the parties lived apart without interruption for one year, or entered into a separation agreement and have no minor-aged children born or adopted, and lived apart without interruption for six months.
An anti-human trafficking advocate and victim of spousal abuse offered testimony on behalf of the bill.
"Right now, this does not solve the problem that Del. Clarke wants to solve," said Richard Garriott, with the Virginia Family Law Coalition, in opposition to the bill. "We have a solution for that, it is called an emergency and permanent protective order."
The House of Delegates Courts of Justice subcommittee defeated the bill with a 5-3 vote.
House Bill 2003: Enforcement of sexual harassment and workplace discrimination training and education
Del. Paul Krizek, D-Fairfax, introduced a bill to require employers with 50 or more employees to provide annual interactive sexual harassment and workplace discrimination training and education. Employees in a supervisory role would be required to complete at least two hours of training. Other employees would be required to complete one hour.
A provision in the bill called for migrant and seasonal agricultural workers to have the one-hour training, to start Jan. 1, 2024.
Employees would receive a certificate of completion.
A House Commerce and Energy subcommittee recommended the bill not advance, with a 5-3 vote. Still to come
There will be plenty of other failed bills this session. In fact, gridlock is to be expected when "voters put one party in charge of one chamber and the other party in charge of the other," according to Stephen Farnsworth, director of the University of Mary Washington Center for Leadership and Media Studies and a political science professor.
"From guns to abortion to taxes to schools, Republicans and Democrats in Richmond demonstrate over and over again that there is little interest in compromise in these polarized times," Farnsworth stated in an email.
The session is approaching the midpoint with "crossover day" on Feb. 7, which is when a bill must have passed its respective chamber in order to advance, or it will be left behind.
