One week is all that remains between now and adjournment sine die of the 2020 Session. We are scheduled to adjourn on Saturday, March 7 by midnight. We have accomplished a lot this session, and I guess history will judge the effectiveness of our work. [Read more…]
Budget
The 2020 Session of the General Assembly is now past crossover. The Senate and House of Delegates both acted on the budget this week beginning with the release of subcommittee reports on Sunday by the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee and the House Appropriations Committee. The final two weeks of the session will be spent trying to reconcile the differences between bills that passed, including the budget. [Read more…]
Crossover
We are now past the midpoint of the 2020 General Assembly Session. Crossover — the day when the Senate must complete work on all Senate Bills and the House on all House Bills — occurred this past Tuesday. The bills then cross over to the other chamber for consideration. The Senate will spend the remainder of the session considering legislation passed by the House of Delegates.
Crossover day in the Senate was extraordinary. [Read more…]
Tough Votes
The 2020 Session of the Virginia General Assembly is flying by. Committee meetings start early in the morning, and afternoon meetings run late into the evening. We all knew that coming into this session there would be a lot of hard choices. Among Democratic voters there was a lot of pent-up energy and a demand for change. The question of the session has been the extent of that change. [Read more…]
Session Update — January 31, 2020
The session grinds on with early mornings and late evenings. Meetings of committees and subcommittees go just about around the clock. Trying to find a balance of what is right for over eight million Virginians who are from areas as diverse as Fairfax and Arlington Counties and Wise and Bland Counties requires a lot of work.
Many times bills are changed and compromises reached by people who in the end can’t vote for them. [Read more…]