Legislation abounds during Virginia General Assembly crossover day sessions
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The House and Senate each pushed to pass legislation during Tuesday’s crossover day deadline that marked the halfway point in this year’s 30-day General Assembly session.
Crossover Day is when bills that passed in one chamber “cross over” to the other for consideration before the assembly ends on Feb. 22. Bills that did not pass where they were introduced are killed for the year.
In Tuesday’s actions, the Senate voted 24-16 to approve SB982, which would make Fairfax County eligible to have a casino. It also voted 33-6 to pass SB746, which states that if a person dealing fentanyl is involved in the death of a minor, they will be charged with a felony.
The rush to meet the Crossover deadline resulted in minimal debate in the House. Throughout the session so far, the House passed more than 300 bills and doubled that number over the course of the day.
Among the legislation passed Tuesday was HB2485, a bill to establish a framework for a marijuana market. The measure, which passed 53-46, allows the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority to issue marijuana licenses beginning Sept. 1, and retail sales would start on May 1.
Another contentious bill was HB2724, which would restrict the use of license plate readers to ongoing criminal investigations, human trafficking, an outstanding warrant and missing persons cases. The bill passed by a 59-39 margin.
The House unanimously passed HB2060, which grants increased worker’s compensation benefits to firefighters and law-enforcement officers for treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder, or depressive disorder.
HB2466 introduced the Hampton Roads Interstate Highway Corridor Improvement Program, which will make safety and infrastructure improvements to new and existing highways in Eastern Virginia. It passed 58-40.
The 30-day session was stalled by the water outage in Richmond at the beginning of January. It is also Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s final session before next year’s gubernatorial election.
Despite the water crisis delay, the non-profit Virginia Public Access project said this year’s session has been efficient. According to its website: “The number of identical, or nearly identical, bills filed by different legislators has declined drastically from the previous three sessions. Only 19 bills with at least one duplicate were filed this session, the fewest on record since at least 2017 and less than a tenth of the average from 2022 through 2024.”
