Rob Pegoraro<p>The <a href="https://virginiageneralassembly.gov" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Virginia General Assembly</a> is now past the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/02/13/virginia-general-assembly-crossover-arena-abortion-guns-taxes/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">halfway mark</a> of its first session <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/11/08/virginia-senate-house-election-results-2023/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">under Democratic control</a> since the <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/2021_Virginia_legislative_session" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2021 session</a>, and I have to admit that I expected a little more out of my state’s legislature now that Republicans can’t quietly sink decent bills in committees as they did in the House of Delegates in the previous two-year session.</p><p>It’s not that the Western Hemisphere’s oldest continuous law-making body–I can’t write that without noting that for the first time in its 405-year history, the House is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/01/10/virginia-general-assembly-youngkin-convene/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">led by a Black man</a>, Speaker Don Scott (D.-Portsmouth)–has been spinning its wheels in <a href="https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?ses=241&typ=lnk&val=02" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">this session</a>. As of Tuesday’s <a href="https://sgr.virginia.edu/frequently-used-terms" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“crossover day,”</a> the deadline for each chamber to pass any non-budget bill that the other may consider, <a href="https://www.wdbj7.com/2024/02/15/with-crossover-behind-them-state-lawmakers-weigh-whats-ahead/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">more than a thousand bills</a> have survived that deadline in our state’s <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/resources/details/legislative-session-length" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">unusually short legislative session</a>. </p> <a href="https://robpegoraro.files.wordpress.com/2024/02/virginia-capitol-rotunda.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <p>They include a raft of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/02/08/gun-control-bills-sailing-through-virginia-general-assembly/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">gun-control measures</a>, some of which attracted Republican votes and may escape a veto from Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), as well as various bills to <a href="https://virginiamercury.com/2024/02/14/crossover-roundup-whats-alive-and-whats-on-shaky-ground-in-virginias-general-assembly/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">protect Virginians from the enforcement of abortion bans</a> (you can also think of them as forced-birth laws) in other states.</p><p>Other accomplishments by either house, in some cases by both, haven’t landed in as many headlines but deserve some recognition: <a href="https://cardinalnews.org/2024/02/13/bills-to-speed-broadband-deployment-clear-house-senate/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">streamlining rural broadband buildout</a>, <a href="https://virginiamercury.com/blog-va/bills-banning-legacy-admissions-clear-both-virginia-chambers/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ending legacy admissions to public colleges and universities</a>, <a href="https://vadogwood.com/2024/02/09/bill-to-eliminate-hidden-fees-passes-virginia-senate/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">banning unadvertised junk fees</a>, <a href="https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?ses=241&typ=bil&val=sb231" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">extending health care to undocumented immigrant children</a>, and <a href="https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?ses=241&typ=bil&val=hb1077" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">legalizing the customary cyclist practice of treating stop signs without crossing traffic as yield signs</a>. </p><p>I also appreciate how the General Assembly hasn’t rubber-stamped Youngkin’s ploy to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/01/14/virginia-youngkin-wizards-arena-general-assembly/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">help the Washington Capitals and Wizards move</a> to Alexandria’s Potomac Yards neighborhood. That arena belongs in downtown D.C. on top of multiple Metro lines.</p><p>And yet the General Assembly has still missed major opportunities–even setting aside Dems postponing votes for constitutional amendments to end felony disenfranchisement and protect same-sex marriage and abortion rights <a href="https://www.wvtf.org/news/2024-01-17/virginia-democrats-delay-proposals-to-amend-states-constitution-to-2025" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">until next year’s session</a>. </p><p>(Constituional amendments must pass in separate General Assembly sessions before <a href="https://robpegoraro.com/2016/11/04/virginia-voting-tip-distrust-constitutional-amendments/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">going to a popular vote</a>, so I can understand how timing them for the same year as legislative elections makes them more obvious campaign issues.)</p><p>In particular, it’s disgraceful how often Democrats have quietly <a href="https://virginiamercury.com/2024/02/13/in-virginias-democratic-legislature-campaign-finance-reform-bills-languish-without-votes/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">sunk decent bills in committees</a> that would have put some limits on the ability of people and even companies to <a href="https://www.vpap.org/money/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">throw money at politicians</a>. Virginia’s lax campaign-finance laws amount to <a href="https://virginiamercury.com/2022/03/07/by-allowing-political-cash-for-personal-use-virginia-remains-a-campaign-finance-backwater/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">legalized bribery</a> of candidates and elected officials, and Dems in Richmond should be embarrassed to have done so little to fix that. <a href="https://virginiamercury.com/2021/02/23/virginia-senate-punts-on-campaign-finance-bill-but-lawmakers-agree-to-study-future-reform/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Again</a>. </p><p>On a lesser and more local level, I’m also annoyed that a measure to allow municipalities to ban noisy and polluting gas-powered leaf blowers <a href="https://www.wvtf.org/news/2024-02-08/legislation-cracking-down-on-noisy-leaf-blowers-is-dead-for-this-session" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">got punted to next year’s session</a>. Related: It’s still dumb how often cities and counties <a href="https://www.law.virginia.edu/news/202003/it-time-home-rule-virginia" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">have to get a permission slip from Richmond</a> to do things that would have little to no effect on their neighbors.</p><p>And then there are the cases where legislators didn’t even introduce bills that should have had a chance of passing. For example, four years after we <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2020/03/10/bad-news-virginia-legislature-cant-sort-out-anti-slapp-law-expect-more-slapp-suits/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">couldn’t finish an anti-SLAPP bill</a> to <a href="https://robpegoraro.com/2019/11/09/my-request-of-my-state-legislators-a-strong-anti-slapp-statute/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">close Virginia to libel tourists</a>, nobody tried to introduce one this year. And a year after <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20230316143146/https://www.kathyfordelegate.com/legislative-agenda" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a bill to restore direct online filing of state taxes</a> got <a href="https://twitter.com/KathyKLTran/status/1620077745379368962" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">quashed in a House committee</a>, nobody tried to fix that either.</p><p>I’ll be thinking about that last failure when I once again <a href="https://robpegoraro.com/2023/04/27/why-im-back-to-filing-our-virginia-taxes-on-paper/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">file our state taxes on paper</a>. And when I vote this fall–as I will and as I always do, because I’ve already seen <a href="https://robpegoraro.com/2018/11/10/this-changing-commonwealth-of-virginia/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">how much my state has changed, one election at a time</a>. And because however grumpy I might get about one season’s legislative results, I’m not going to practice childlike citizenship by holding my voting breath until other people do the work.</p><p><a href="https://robpegoraro.com/2024/02/16/progress-in-virginia-still-demands-some-patience/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://robpegoraro.com/2024/02/16/progress-in-virginia-still-demands-some-patience/</a></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/anti-slapp/" target="_blank">#antiSLAPP</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/campaign-finance/" target="_blank">#campaignFinance</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/crossover-day/" target="_blank">#crossoverDay</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/direct-tax-prep/" target="_blank">#directTaxPrep</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/glenn-youngkin/" target="_blank">#GlennYoungkin</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/house-of-delegates/" target="_blank">#HouseOfDelegates</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/leaf-blowers/" target="_blank">#leafBlowers</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/richmond/" target="_blank">#Richmond</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/virginia-democrats/" target="_blank">#VirginiaDemocrats</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/virginia-general-assembly/" target="_blank">#VirginiaGeneralAssembly</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/virginia-ifile/" target="_blank">#VirginiaIFile</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/virginia-senate/" target="_blank">#VirginiaSenate</a></p>