The 2017 session of the Virginia General Assembly began last week, Wednesday January 11th. It will adjourn February 25th. Now's a good time to figure out who your state representatives are, and if they've changed since the election; you can enter your address here to find your state rep and senator.
A brief refresher:
The General Assembly is Virginia’s legislative body. Like the national Congress, it’s made up of the Senate and the House of Delegates. There are 40 senators, and 100 delegates. Senate elections happen every 4 years, and delegate elections every 2. The house has 14 standing committees, and the senate has 11.
You can read about how bills are proposed and how they move through the legislative process to become law here. Here is a glossary of legislative terms.
Two important online resources are Richmond Sunlight, which tracks bills and allows people to post commentary, and LIS.virginia, the General Assembly’s homepage.
I have compiled lists of bills relating to:
Health, Mental Illness, and Disability
Women, Reproductive Health, and Abortion
Education
LGBTQ Rights
Cops, Courts, and Prisons
Labor
Miscellaneous
Here are some ways you can act to support or oppose a bill:
Contacting your representative, via phone calls, email, or letters
Speaking when the bill is heard in committee
Organizing protests or other actions
I have a question about house resolutions....do they have to be passed by the senate as well?
ReplyDeleteYes: every bill, if it is passed in the chamber where it originated, goes on to the opposite chamber to repeat the process and get voted on again.
ReplyDeleteAbout halfway through the legislative session, there's a date called "crossover," after which the House only gets to consider Senate bills, and the Senate only gets to consider House bills (except for the budget bill; everybody will still be working on that). The bills that pass both the Senate and House go on to the governor, who can send them back for amendments, veto them, or sign them into law. This year, that date is February 8th.