The Virginia legislature will soon convene. How does it work?

The Virginia legislature convenes Wednesday, and once the pomp and circumstance of the opening rituals subside, legislators will quickly set about making policies on issues from transportation and housing to guns and labor. Beginning this week I will be covering the 2020 Virginia General Assembly and the top issues that impact the region. GGWash will also be covering the Maryland General Assembly.

While many urbanist policies get made in cities and counties, the Virginia legislature plays an outsized role in municipal governance. Virginia uses the Dillon Rule, whereby the state holds all non-federal powers unless the legislature specifically cedes them to localities.

In practice this means local governments often find their hands tied on issues ranging from transit to place-making and combating climate change. Intimately aware of the General Assembly’s often imperious approach to local governance, Virginia’s localities have even established a coterie of groups to lobby the legislature on their behalf.

Virginia has long prided itself on its General Assembly being the oldest continuous law-making body in the world, but this year a lot is likely to change because, for the first time in 26 years, Democrats control the state’s House, Senate, and the governorship. After electing the state’s first trans, lesbian, Latinx, Asian, Muslim, and Democratic Socialist legislators in recent years, this new—and more representative—suite of delegates and senators stand to shake up the Virginia Way, but how much the Democrats accomplish this session will come down to who is steering the ship and how well they can hold their coalition together.

How the Virginia legislature works

Much of Virginia’s legislature resembles our national Congress. One hundred members make up the Virginia House of Delegates, headed by the Speaker of the House. Forty members make up the Senate of Virginia, which is overseen by the state’s lieutenant governor. Bills are introduced in both chambers, debated in committees, and eventually cross over to be considered by the other body before they land on the governor’s desk to be signed.

This relatively straightforward process can be hard to follow, however, due to the breakneck speed at which the General Assembly legislates. In even numbered years like 2020, delegates and senators convene for 60 days; in odd numbered “short session” years that process is further condensed to just 45 days. This year’s relatively longer session will kick off Wednesday, January 8.

New leadership, new budget

2020 is expected to be all the crazier as this is the first year Governor Ralph Northam gets to submit his own budget. Virginia operates on a biennial budget system in which governors propose a statewide spending plan in odd years, budgets are approved of by the legislature in even years, and the governor’s budget gets amended by the legislature every year. If that sounds confusing to you, that’s because it is.

Until this year Virginia has been operating on former Governor Terry McAuliffe’s budget which he submitted in December of 2017 right before he left office.

Northam has been able to work with the legislature to amend the budget somewhat to suit his goals over the past couple of years, but when the chamber was Republican controlled, that proved to be an arduous process.

This year Northam gets to finally propose a budget of his own creation. The legislature can and will amend his budget as they see fit, but taking the first stab at government spending puts the governor in the driver’s seat to set the Commonwealth’s priorities.

The power of conference committees

Another oddity of Virginia’s legislature is the vast power majority leaders hold through their appointment of members to conference committees. If bills on a topic aren’t perfectly identical, a conference committee of usually three legislators from each chamber are convened to hash out the differences and produce a final version of the bill to go to the governor.

Bills frequently die at this stage of the process when the majority leaders of the Senate or House strategically choose an intransigent legislator to sit on the conference committee. Last year Virginia’s hands-free driving bill was killed by Republicans with this maneuver.

What to watch

While many pundits expect fireworks surrounding the Equal Rights Amendment, gun safety reform, or a possible repeal of Right to Work, the true faultline to watch will be between the Democratic caucus’ progressive and establishment wings. Regional tensions may also present another stumbling block for the Democrats’ agenda.

The Speaker, the House and Senate Majority Leaders, and the chairs of both chambers’ Finance Committees all hail from Northern Virginia. Never before has one region exerted so much influence over the Commonwealth.

As NoVA is by far the Commonwealth’s most urbanized region, its lawmakers’ concentration of power could provide an opportunity for progressive policies on transportation, housing, and land use to become the statewide standard. Initial opposition to Delegate Ibraheem Samirah’s bills to allow duplexes and accessory dwelling units statewide, however, shows that the push for good urbanist policy at the state level may take more than one session to achieve.

What is certain is that all eyes will be on the General Assembly this year as Virginia joins the ranks of other blue-trifecta states. Whether they follow in the footsteps of the 14 other states fully controlled by Democrats or chart a new Virginia Way will be decided in the halls of the State Capitol over the next several months.

Advocates and average citizens alike need to know how the system works and when to put pressure on whom. Look out for more coverage of the Virginia General Assembly.