JANUARY 8TH UPDATE
While every session is a little different, the 2025 General Assembly session is off to a more complicated start than usual. The City of Richmond has been dealing with water issues since the beginning of the week when they experienced a power outage from the winter storm that hit Sunday and Monday. Subsequently, various pieces of the city water system failed, leaving most everyone across the City without water and/or under a boil water advisory until at least Friday. Most of the traditional pre-Session receptions and Caucus events on Monday and Tuesday were canceled.
The lack of water throughout the City has meant a shutdown of all state office buildings, including the Capitol and the General Assembly Building. The GAB also experienced a failure of its fire suppression system on Tuesday. As a result, the 2025 General Assembly Session gaveled in at noon today, as constitutionally required, and then recessed until Monday morning.
Bill filing deadlines and budget amendment deadlines are being pushed until early next week, although we still expect to see a large number of bills filed today and on the system in the near future. We will be sending weekly reports/bill tracking reports as normal on Friday, even though we may not see some bills on the system until next week. As of this morning, there are 959 pieces of legislation that have been introduced for the 2025 Session. However, that number will quickly grow as bills continue to hit the system.
The Governor’s State of the Commonwealth address will occur at 10:00 a.m. in the House of Delegates Chamber on Monday. After that, we expect the business of the 2025 Session to begin in earnest with subcommittee and full committee meetings throughout the week. With the delay of the first week, there is a real possibility that the General Assembly will have to meet on weekends as we get closer to crossover.
Special elections were held to fill two Senate seats and one House seat in the Virginia General Assembly. Waiting for certification by the Virginia Department of Elections at this time, results show Republican Luther Cifers receiving 58.73% of the votes for Senate District 10 and Democrat Kannan Srinivasan receiving 61.25% of the votes for Senate District 32. Democrat JJ Singh received 61.59% of the votes for the House of Delegates 26th District. This will maintain the status quo in both houses.
jANUARY 17TH uPDATE
The 2025 General Assembly Session began the serious work of the state government Monday morning, working hard to make up for time lost last week due to the water issues in Richmond. The bill filing deadline is this afternoon so after today we will know the full universe of legislation to be acted on by the General Assembly this Session.
The House of Delegates passed legislation to begin the process of constitutional amendments for abortion rights, same sex marriage and the automatic restoration of voting rights for felons. The Senate is moving through similar legislation. The resolutions do not require the Governor’s signature but must pass both chambers this year and again next year, so they can then be placed on statewide ballots in November 2026.
Several bills addressing the impact of data centers throughout the state were introduced by a bipartisan coalition of Virginia lawmakers. (HB2035, HB1601, HB2027, HB2578) These bills resulted from a report presented by The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) earlier this year, JLARC Data Center Report. The goal is to balance the importance of data centers to the economy while addressing environmental impact, equitable cost distribution, and energy needs of these centers through rate regulation, permitting, tax incentives and data disclosure.
A proposed casino in Tysons Corner is a controversial issue between legislators in the Senate. SB982, patroned by Senator Scott Surovell, has brought strong emotions on both sides of the issue. While some support the money, they believe a casino could bring in to relieve pressure on local real estate taxes, opponents feel it would adversely affect the quality of life in Tysons Corner.
Governor Glenn Youngkin delivered the State of the Commonwealth to both Chambers Monday morning, sharing his desire to “allow hard-working Virginians to keep more of their hard-earned money”. Included in this plan is extending the standard deduction, removing taxes on tips, and offering a car tax credit for working class families. He also spoke of opportunity scholarships for low-income families. Youngkin emphasized his opposition to legislation establishing a retail marijuana market but seemed hopeful to be able to work with bipartisan legislators on creation of a new gaming commission.
Delegate Delaney introduced legislation into the House that would create a Prescription Drug Affordability Board and to help protect citizens from high prices charged by pharmaceutical companies for prescription drugs (HB1724). Governor Youngkin vetoed the bill in 2024, also introduced by Delegate Delaney, but she has introduced the legislation again this year in the wake of increasing bipartisan support for the issue.
jANUARY 24TH uPDATE
While Washington focused on the Presidential Inauguration this week, the Virginia General Assembly worked through hundreds of the bills filed for the 2025 Session. This week, legislators worked hard to make up for time lost at the outset of session. Committees are prioritizing bills with fiscal impacts to allow time for consideration by money committees ahead of “Budget Sunday” on February 2nd.
At that time, the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee and the House Appropriations Committee will report out their committee budgets. To begin the budget review process, this week money committees received presentations on member budget amendments for consideration.
Numerous bills were considered before the General Assembly including several bills addressing the hot button issues of gaming and data centers. Other hot topics this week included constitutional amendments on abortion and right to work, and legislation from Senator Scott Surovell authorizing a new casino in Fairfax County.
The increasing presence of drones across the Commonwealth is causing concerns with the Virginia State Police as well as members of the General Assembly. The VSP has asked people to report sightings of drones and state lawmakers have introduced legislation to address the concerns. Senator Locke’s SB757 addresses concerns of drones flying over defense industry sites. Senator Emily Jordan (SB1272) and Delegate Amanda Batten (HB2592) have identical bills to address concerns of drones flying over public utilities and areas defined by federal law as “critical infrastructure”.
Senator VanValkenburg’s SB1223 is trying to stop a potential new Rosie’s gaming venue in Henrico County. The bill would penalize groups that have wagering on historical horse racing terminals and have not gone through the referendum process allowing pari-mutuel wagering on or after July 1, 2018 or were not authorized by the Virginia Racing Commission on or before January 1, 2024. This bill would limit to 3.5% the total portion of wagering pools on any historical horse racing facility in the state that hadn’t met the above criteria could keep.
Senator Hashmi (SB979) and Delegate Keys-Gamarra (HB2118) propose delaying the implementation of the School Performance and Support Framework, the new school accountability system, by one year. Virginia’s amendments to the plan were approved by the U.S. Department of Education, allowing the full implementation next year. Some educators and lawmakers have expressed concern the framework was adopted without sufficient input from stakeholders.
The Senate Privileges and Elections Committee voted against a proposed right-to-work amendment to the state Constitution by Senator Mark Obenshain on a party-line vote, while proposed constitutional amendments on abortion, marriage equality and restoration of rights were approved by the House and Senate and could go before the voters in 2026 if the General Assembly approves again next year.
fEBRUARY 14TH uPDATE
The General Assembly Building is festooned with balloons, sweet treats, and red hearts everywhere. While love may not be universally in the air of the General Assembly Building, the finish line for the 2025 Session is rapidly approaching and legislation has been moving quickly through committees and the Senate and House of Delegates’ chambers.
Wednesday was the last day for each house to complete work on the Budget Bill and all revenue bills of the other house and to appoint budget conferees. Monday is the deadline for any bills to be heard in committee. Legislation that has a similar but not identical bill in the other house will have the opportunity for a committee of conference with members from each chamber to work out the differences. Next Thursday is the last day for bills to be put in conference.
A few bills that have been advancing this week are:
HB2724 (Delegate Herring) seeking to regulate automated license plate readers passed the House and is now in the Senate Courts of Justice Committee. The intent of the bill is to determine how law enforcement can use the data it collects and how long that data can be stored. Another concern was whether they should be expanded to allow usage along state roads. Law enforcement is in favor of the equipment and shared how it has helped them solve cases that might not otherwise have been solved or at least not as quickly. Organizations that work to protect immigrants and people of color oppose the legislation concerned it violates civil rights of privacy and could be abused. Senator Aird supported the bill’s intent but felt expanding their locations was premature until the results of current laws were seen. The bill initially failed in the Senate Courts of Justice Committee. Senator McDougle, who opposed the legislation, asked for it to be reconsidered so conversations could continue on the legislation.
SB917 (Senator Surovell) and HB2764 (Delegate Tran) would repeal the existing prohibition on collective bargaining by public employees and create the Public Employee Relations Board, which shall determine appropriate bargaining units and provide for certification and decertification elections for exclusive bargaining representatives of state employees and local government employees. Both bills have passed in their respective chambers and are now in the other chamber to be heard.
Legislation to limit the use of cell phones by students in public elementary schools and secondary schools with the intent to restrict student cell phone possession and use during regular school hours has passed in each chamber. A committee of conference has been requested for SB738 (Senator Pekarsky) to work out the differences between the two chambers after the House added a substitute the Senate rejected. HB1961 (Delegate Rasoul) has passed the House and is in committee in the Senate.
Budget conferees are also hard at work hammering out the differences between the House and Senate budgets. A budget conference report is expected by next Thursday so it can be posted for the required 48-hours before a final vote on Saturday, February 22 when the General Assembly Session is expected to e
