When the Virginia General Assembly finally passes a budget and adjourns, legislators will leave behind a session that saw high profile debates and hundreds of small bills constituting the nuts and bolts of state lawmaking.
At the same time, however, the looming budget impasse, if not resolved, threatens a July 1 government shutdown and keeps recipients of state money unsure of what level of funding they will receive.
Out of the spotlight
Del. Robert Bell, R-Charlottesville, and other delegates found success this year on bills regarding drunk driving.
The General Assembly passed bills stiffening penalties against drunk drivers. For example, Bell said several of his bills closed legal loopholes drunk drivers had used to escape punishment for years.
Related bills passed by the General Assembly include those denying third-time offenders bail, allowing the state to seize their cars after the third offense, increasing or instituting mandatory minimum sentences and fines for drunk drivers, and increasing punishments for drunk drivers whose blood alcohol level is twice the legal limit.
"This was the year that drunk driving was on the front burner," Bell said.
Most bills that become law in the General Assembly do so with unanimous or near-unanimous support of lawmakers and are meant to make minor corrections to state law, such as by closing a loophole or correcting an outdated law. Legislators often concern themselves with a specific area and urge fellow delegates and senators to act on that issue.
"Almost every delegate will have a couple of bills like that," Bell said.
Bell said most of the General Assembly's work is done out of the spotlight.
"So much of what we do of substantive good is not high profile," Bell said.
Controversy
As in previous sessions, bills regarding hot-button social issues ranging from civil unions to emergency contraception attracted much attention this year.
After the Board of Visitors at James Madison University voted first to stop issuing emergency contraceptives to students and then reversed the ban, Del. Robert Marshall, R-Prince William, introduced a bill to ban universities and colleges from distributing the pills. The measure passed the House of Delegates but failed in the Senate Committee on Education and Health.
Legislators also grappled over several abortion bills, many sponsored by Marshall, which also met the same fate: passage in the House of Delegates but defeat in the Senate committee. Both houses, however, did pass a bill establishing feticide as a felony.
Following Vermont's establishment of civil unions and the uproar over San Francisco city officials granting same-sex marriage licenses, the General Assembly passed a bill specifically prohibiting Virginia from recognizing same-sex civil unions created in other states.
Odds and ends
The General Assembly generated some controversy after House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, proposed a bill exempting the legislature from its requirement to hold all meetings open to the public under the Freedom of Information Act. After some debate, a revised bill was passed that kept floor sessions and any type of committee meeting open to the public while allowing political party caucuses and informal gatherings of more than three or more legislators to be closed to the public.
The General Assembly also followed the recommendation of the Virginia Crime Commission and passed a bill ending the requirement that evidence supporting a felon's innocence cannot be introduced more than 21 days after sentencing.
Finally, the legislature passed a bill allowing liquor stores, which the state operates, to open after 1 p.m. on Sundays in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.
Budget, budget, everywhere
Ultimately, however, the significance of this year's session rests with the budget, which the General Assembly still has not passed, Politics Prof. Larry J. Sabato said.
"The budget is far more important than everything else added together, times ten," Sabato said. "That's what a state legislature does."
Bell agreed the budget was paramount.
"Clearly, the budget is the biggest bill we pass each year, and until we finish that off, the session isn't done," Bell said.
However, Bell offered a positive description of the remainder of the session.
"But aside from the budget, things have gone pretty well," Bell said.
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