Flurry of action as House, Senate hit legislative deadline

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Virginia House and Senate churned through scores of bills Tuesday as they approached a key deadline for the year’s legislative session.

Lawmakers debated topics ranging from marijuana to campaign finance ahead of what’s known as “crossover,” the point by which all legislation but the budget bills must clear its originating chamber.

The GOP-controlled House and Democrat-controlled Senate will now begin making their way in earnest through the other chamber’s measures and sending more legislation to Gov. Glenn Youngkin. The General Assembly is scheduled to meet through March 12.

A look at some of the legislative action:

OPENING UP PAROLE BOARD VOTES

Both chambers advanced measures this week that would open up Virginia Parole Board member votes to the public.

The agency, which currently is largely exempt from the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, releases online monthly reports of parole decisions without disclosing how individual members voted.

The House passed a bill from Republican Del. Wren Williams that would make individual votes subject to the act. The vote came a day after the Senate passed a similar measure from GOP Sen. David Suetterlein.

Suetterlein said the bill would simply add “sunshine” to the parole process.

The parole board has faced heightened scrutiny from lawmakers since it engaged in an accelerated and sometimes chaotic release of inmates at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

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FOOTBALL STADIUM INCENTIVES

Measures intended to help lure the NFL’s Washington Commanders to Virginia by offering financing help for a potential new stadium advanced this week in both chambers.

The House and Senate signed off on their own substantially different versions of legislation that would allow the team to forego paying certain taxes in the future and instead use the money to pay off stadium financing bonds.

The team has been looking into new stadium possibilities for several years. The team’s current lease at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland, expires after the 2027 season, and it’s unlikely that it gets renewed. The team has played there since it opened in 1997.

Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw, who is sponsoring the Senate version, has said Virginia is competing with Maryland and the District of Columbia in a bid for the project. His measure advanced Tuesday 32-8, a day after the House passed its version.

Lawmakers haven’t formally presented the team’s full plans but have described a complex development that would include other entertainment and retail. Saslaw’s bill would apply only to the stadium, not the rest of the campus, which he compared to a “mini-city.”

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CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS

Democrats in the House of Delegates tried unsuccessfully to force a floor vote to revive two constitutional amendments that would have let voters decide whether to strip legally outdated language prohibiting gay marriage from the state Constitution and automatically restore the voting rights of felons who have served their terms.

The minority party attempted the move after the GOP defeated the measures last week in a subcommittee.

Companion legislation advanced this week in the Senate with bipartisan support, but its passage would require the House to reverse course. If they passed, the issues would go before voters in the fall.

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MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION AND RETAIL SALES

The Democrat-controlled Senate made last-minute changes that would allow existing medical marijuana providers and a limited number of industrial hemp processors to begin retail sales of recreational marijuana in September, more than a year before the full retail market will open.

The late changes combined two bills sponsored by Sen. Adam Ebbin into one, drawing bipartisan criticism from members who did not have time to read the final version of the bill, which is hundreds of pages long.

“This is absurd,” said GOP Sen. Mark Peake.

The GOP-controlled House opted not to take any action on its own marijuana bills before the legislative deadline. House Republicans have said they will consider bills passed by the Senate, although it remains unclear what kinds of changes they intend to propose.

The bill passed by the Senate would allow transitional sales of marijuana to begin on Sept. 15, but only by current medical marijuana providers and 10 industrial hemp processors. Anyone else who wants to get into the retail sales market will have to wait until Jan. 1, 2024.

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FACIAL RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY

After lawmakers last year passed one of the most restrictive bans in the country on the use of facial recognition technology by police, both the Senate and the House have advanced bills that would repeal the ban.

The 2021 law barred all local law enforcement agencies and campus police departments from purchasing or using facial recognition technology unless it was expressly authorized by the state legislature.

This year, bills sponsored by Democratic Sen. Scott Surovell and Republican Del. Jay Leftwich would allow police to use the technology when investigating a suspect in a specific crime. Surovell said his bill would not allow broad surveillance or monitoring.

Republican Sen. Ryan McDougle said the bill still allows opportunities for law enforcement to misuse or overuse the technology. “I think we should put some substantial restrictions on before we allow its use,” McDougle said.

The bill was approved over McDougle’s objections.

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CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

In the state Senate, members passed a measure Tuesday that would prohibit political candidates from using campaign donations for personal spending, including such expenses as mortgages, country club memberships and vacations.

Virginia is currently an outlier for its lack of such a ban.

A ban on the personal use of campaign money passed the House unanimously last year, only to die in the Senate. A House subcommittee has already killed a similar measure this year, so the prospects for Sen. John Bell’s bill are uncertain.

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CRACKDOWN ON SEXUALLY EXPLICIT PHOTOS

On Monday, the Senate unanimously passed a measure intended to crack down on unsolicited sexually explicit pictures and videos.

The measure sponsored by Sen. Jennifer McClellan would make any adult who knowingly transmits “sexually explicit visual material” electronically to another adult without their consent subject to financial damages. Under the bill, a court may also award punitive damages and restrain the sender from sharing such pictures or video again.

It’s unclear if the measure will pass the House, where a subcommittee passed by a companion measure.