Capitol Brief: Countdown to crossover, where bills live or die

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Welcome back to Capitol Brief! We’re just about halfway done with this year’s session.

Sunday the House of Delegates held a pro forma session where they moved all of the bills being heard for the first time to the second reading. That’s so they can get everything through before Wednesday’s crossover, after which both the House and the Senate can only take up legislation that’s already been passed by the opposite chamber. Bills in both bodies are read three times on three separate calendar days, unless the readings are waived by a four-fifths vote. The House debates bills on their second reading, and the Senate debates them on their third reading. Expect long days early this week, because everything that hasn’t passed out of at least one chamber after Tuesday night is dead.

This week is also Budget Sunday, where the House and Senate money committees will each report their respective budget proposals. The legislature will also have to sort out any differences in those proposals to come up with one budget bill for the governor to sign (though she can also line-item amend and veto). Frustratingly, most of the budget hashing out happens behind closed doors. But this is an important look at where the Democrat-controlled legislature’s priorities lie!

Previously on Redistricting, Virginia’s never-ending political drama, the Tazewell County Circuit Court found that the General Assembly had improperly passed a constitutional amendment that would allow the legislature to redraw congressional maps mid-decade. But on last week’s episode, the Supreme Court of Virginia ruled that the public referendum where you, the voters, will decide whether to approve a redistricting constitutional amendment can proceed as scheduled for April 21. Next time: Will Gov. Abigail Spanberger sign, amend or veto the legislation describing new congressional maps? And will the state’s Supreme Court ultimately uphold the referendum? Stay tuned!

Last week, the General Assembly passed a bunch of amendments to the Virginia Residential Landlord Tenant Act. Those include renter protections like making air conditioning an essential service and making it so that military personnel have to give less notice to landlords if they have to move out suddenly due to deployment or other changes. Hampton Roads legislators have brought a number of housing and rent-related bills this session. I’ll be following where those bills and others wind up as the House and Senate begin the process of hashing out any differences between bills. See you next time!

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