Week in Review: Virginia House of Delegates

The Virginia General Assembly convened this week for the special session that Gov. Ralph Northam requested in order to make changes to the budget amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to COVID-19-related issues, the General Assembly also is taking up criminal justice reform issues on the heels of the social justice movement that has swept the country.

The House of Delegates started off the session in-person at VCU’s Siegel Center to provide for adequate social distancing measures for the 100 delegates. Speaker of the House Filler-Corn (D-Springfield) gaveled in the House on Tuesday and began to move towards allowing the House to meet and vote virtually with a motion to suspend Rule 81, which would allow delegates to vote virtually in committees.

The Republicans blocked the first attempts for the Democratic Caucus to move the session to virtual. Democrats presented multiple motions on Tuesday to suspend the rule. In order to suspend the rule immediately, the motion required a two-thirds majority vote. The Democrats do not have a 66-seat majority, meaning several Republicans had to vote with the Democrats to suspend the rule.

But since the rule states that only a simple majority is needed to pass the motion five days and five readings after it initially fails to pass on the floor, Democrats will have enough votes Sunday to suspend it.

In the meantime, House committees have been unable to vote virtually on legislation. Filler-Corn told the House chamber on Tuesday that if the Republicans would have voted with the Democrats to suspend the rule, then committee meetings and voting on pieces of legislation could have begun as early as Thursday.

But Republicans pushed back on the premise that their vote delayed the session, noting that they believe it will not be possible to hold a session virtually.

“We’ve seen over the past few days that virtual sessions barely work for taking roll,” Del. Todd Gilbert (R) told the Citizen Thursday. “It will be all but impossible to properly debate bills in this format. Republicans came to Richmond ready to work in a safe, socially distanced environment. As Senate Democrats have shown us, we could already be working on legislation. Sadly, the House majority decided otherwise.”

The House eventually passed a motion Tuesday with a simple majority that gave the Speaker the power to convene the full chamber of the House of Delegates virtually. “

With a single vote, they declared that they have no need to meet in public, they have no desire to receive public input, and they have no intention of changing that practice anytime soon,” Gilbert wrote in a press release Tuesday.

The House met virtually on Wednesday and Thursday in order to hear the readings of the motion to suspend Rule 81, experiencing minor technical delays along the way during roll call.

The Senate adjourned Thursday until next week in order to wait for the House to catch up. Senators on the floor this week repeatedly made comments about the confusion in the House and expressed frustration about the delay.

“The House and Senate had many conversations about the procedural resolution, initiated by the House, over the past month. While Senate Democrats and Republicans didn’t support the resolution, the House looks forward to working with them to tackle the important issues in front of us this Special Session,” said Jake Rubenstein, spokesperson for Filler-Corn.

READ Act
The House is expected to begin discussing legislation on Monday. In the meantime, House Republicans seemed poised to make an effort to provide parents in Virginia with help in hiring private help for public schools.

Del. Kirk Cox (R-Colonial Heights), a former teacher, is pushing the READ Act, which is a budget amendment that would use CARES Act funding to give parents an option private education resources.

“I think we should be working to get our children back in the classroom full time, but until that happens we need to do everything we can to make sure parents and students have the resources they need,” said Cox.

Del. Schuyler VanValkenurg (D-Henrico) a public school teacher, spoke in front of the House chamber on Thursday about the public schools situation. VanValkenburg said that all teachers, himself include, want to be able to teach their students in the classroom – but he noted that it will not work until COVID-19 cases drop.

“If we truly want to get kids in school, we need to bring COVID cases down – otherwise we are just fooling ourselves,” VanValkenburg said.

While talking to the press Thursday, Cox said he hopes that a few Democrats will vote with him on the budget amendment. He specifically noted VanValkenburg after his speech on Thursday.

“I’m for throwing all of our resources (including CARES Act) into the battle against COVID and opening schools ASAP,” said VanValkenburg in response to Cox. “I’m not for diverting that funding into a voucher program that benefits the few at the expense of the community.”

The House is expected to meet again Saturday to hear the fourth reading of the motion to suspend Rule 81. Once the Democrats pass the motion on Monday, committee meetings will begin virtually.

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Catch up on the criminal justice legislation that has advanced in committee on the Senate side here.