10 takeaways from this week’s General Assembly session on vetoes and amendments

The so-called “veto session” is now behind us but more vetoes lay ahead.

How can this be?

A brief civics lesson before we delve into the politics of what went down in Richmond this week. Virginia’s state government operates somewhat differently from the federal government (thank goodness, right?). A Virginia governor has more options on what to do with measures before him than an American president does. He (or next year, likely she) has three options: to sign a bill, veto it, or send it back to the legislature with amendments.

That’s why the General Assembly session this week is officially called the “reconvened” session, not the “veto session,” the layman’s term. That’s because the legislature would reconvene even if there were no vetoes — it had more amendments to consider than vetoes anyway.

In some cases, the General Assembly accepted Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposed amendments to bills, so those are now on their way toward becoming law. Mostly, though, the Democratic-controlled legislature rejected the governor’s amendments. That means Youngkin must now decide what to do with the original bill: sign it without the changes he wanted or veto it. He now has 30 days to do that, and at that point there’s no legislative recourse. If he vetoes a bill because the General Assembly didn’t make the change he wanted, the bill’s as dead as the roadkill I saw on my way home last night.

Here’s one real-life example: The General Assembly passed a bill by state Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico County, that would require social media companies to limit users 16 and under to one hour per day. Youngkin proposed an amendment to raise the age limit to 18 and under. VanValkenburg was fine by that, and the Senate approved the governor’s amendment but the House did not. That means Youngkin’s choice is now to sign the bill with the 16 and under age limit or veto it. We’d expect him to sign it on the theory that, if you want to limit screen time to those under 18, then a bill that puts the limit at under 16 is better than no limit at all, but you never know until the ink is dry.

With that refresher on Virginia government out of the way, here’s a review of the most important things that happened (or will happen).

1. More vetoes are coming.

The most high-profile veto likely coming is to the identical bills by state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Richmond, and Del. Cia Price, D-Newport News, to create a right to obtain and use contraceptives. (Yes, it’s common for the legislature to pass separate House and Senate bills that do the same thing.) During the session, state Sen. David Suetterlein, R-Roanoke County, had introduced his own measure but with a conscience clause that allowed doctors or pharmacists to opt out if the use of contraceptives violate their religious beliefs. The legislature killed that and advanced the Hashmi-Price bills itself. Youngkin wanted a similar conscience clause added but the legislature rejected that amendment.

2. The big question is what Youngkin does with the budget.

More civics: Virginia already has a two-year budget that’s in place. What the legislature dealt with this year were amendments to that budget, although everyone just called it “the budget” anyway. The governor sent back 205 amendments to those amendments (got that?). The General Assembly accepted 41 of those and rejected the other 164 without even so much as any floor debate. With the exception of an amendment to add $50 million for school construction, most of the amendments accepted were on the minor side of things, dollar-wise. The most important ways the governor wanted to reshape the spending plan were rejected. Will he accept this as the best deal he can get from a legislature controlled by the other party? Or would he take the dramatic step of inking a veto to the whole package?

3. The biggest budget changes the legislature rejected dealt with schools.

During the Great Recession of 2008, the General Assembly enacted a cap on non-teaching support staff in schools. What was intended as an austerity measure remains in place all these years later. Schools, especially those in rural areas, say it’s become a burden because the work still needs to be done but it’s become hard to find ways to pay for that staff. The General Assembly this year included $223 million to lift that “support cap.” Youngkin wanted to shift $183.2 million of that to beef up the state’s rainy day fund. On Wednesday, the legislature said no — so the original appropriation remains in place.

Another high-dollar vote included the $80 million that Youngkin wanted to add for construction of a leadership center at Virginia Military Institute. That addition was rejected. Whatever fiscal concerns Democrats add are also magnified right now by their unhappiness with the VMI board for not renewing the contract of the school’s first Black superintendent. In military terms, Youngkin’s move to add that money was a noble but doomed infantry charge.

4. Federal cuts loom over everything.

Even if Youngkin signed the budget amendments, it’s unclear how real this budget is, given the uncertain state of the economy and the cuts that President Donald Trump is making to the state’s biggest civilian employer, the federal government. There’s also the question — a big question, financially — about whether the Republican-controlled Congress produces a spending plan that reduces Medicaid funding, and thereby shifts some of those costs to the states. This year’s General Assembly session has been gavelled to a close but through a parliamentary maneuver, last year’s remains in special session, so the legislature could return (without any gubernatorial action) to deal with a changing fiscal situation.

We’ve already seen what’s happening in Washington influence what’s happening in Richmond. During the past session, the legislature voted to approve two popular tax measures — to raise the standard deduction and expand the refundable earned income tax credit. The legislature’s approval was only good for two years. Youngkin sent down an amendment to make those changes permanent. Democrats who had approved the two-year plan voted against making them permanent. “They’re both good policies, but that’s not the issue,” said Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax County. “The next two budget cycles could be extraordinarily ugly,” so Democrats weren’t in a mood to make those tax changes permanent.

5. Elections loom over everything, too.

The Democratic-controlled General Assembly passed a bunch of gun bills even though they knew exactly what would happen: The Republican governor vetoed those. Democrats also knew they didn’t have the votes to override those vetoes but made sure the bills came up for separate votes anyway (most things were dealt with through votes in a big block). Why go through those motions? One answer is principle: This is what they believe and they want to stand up for their beliefs, just as Republicans do. The other answer, though, is politics.

This fall, Virginia elects a governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general — and all 100 members of the House of Delegates. Democrats believe these votes will be good politics for their side. Likewise, many of Youngkin’s amendments seemed designed for fall consumption, too, because he knew Democrats would never go along — and feels their rejection of his amendments will help Republicans. (Example: Some of his amendments that tried to repeal key parts of the Clean Economy Act, which mandates a carbon-free electric grid by 2050.)

In another year, maybe Democrats might have been more willing to accommodate some of the governor’s less controversial amendments. This is not another year, though. It’s the last year of Youngkin’s term and Democrats are feeling bullish about their prospects. Rather than accept a watered-down version of a bill, they were fine rejecting Youngkin’s amendments and risk doing without a bill at all — because they figure they’ll only have to wait a year until they have a Democratic governor who will sign their preferred version.

6. Gilbert may have seen his last session.

We know four House members are retiring, all Republicans: Del. Jed Arnold of Smyth County, Del. Baxter Ennis of Chesapeake, Del. Nick Freitas of Culpeper County, Del. Danny Marshall of Danville. A much bigger name could join them: House Minority Leader Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, is in the running for the next U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia — a position that’s a presidential appointment. The Gilbert news is big: He’s a former speaker of the House who would be speaker again if Republicans win a majority again this fall. However, Gilbert has said being the top federal prosecutor in the western half of the state is a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

If Gilbert gets the nod, that would have the biggest political impact: House Republicans would need a new leader. That might create an opening for Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Scott County, who was House majority leader when Gilbert was speaker. After Republicans lost the majority, Kilgore challenged Gilbert for the leadership but lost — apparently because Republicans didn’t blame him for the party coming up short.

7. Storm relief was extended to cover February’s floods.

This was a minor change of wording that will have a big impact in Southwest Virginia, which got hit hard by flooding in mid-February. Now, the state’s relief package for the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in September will include the February storms, too.

8. Data centers didn’t get their tax break extended.

Data centers have a tax break that expires in 2035. The governor wanted to extend that to 2050. The legislature said no. That expiration date is still a decade off, but companies making investments like to be able to plan ahead. Given the rising heat around the politics of data centers, the failure to extend this tax break can be seen as a sign of some legislative skepticism. However, there’s also lots of time to change this.

9. James Monroe’s home won’t become a state park.

At least not this year. Our fifth president had many homes. One of those was Oak Hill in Loudoun County. The state is now in private hands, but the owners have offered it to the state for a discount. The legislature passed up that opportunity during the session, citing the unknown costs of upkeep for an 19^th century house. Youngkin proposed an amendment that would set up a process by which the state could acquire the house — no money yet, but the prospect of some if certain conditions were met. The General Assembly rejected that. The owners would like to sell this year, and Oak Hill supporters (which include some Democratic legislators from Northern Virginia) see a rare opportunity to preserve the home of one of the nation’s founders without it being turned into a subdivision. However, it’s unclear now how that happens. Monroe did pretty well in the politics of the early 1700s and early 1800s, but he’s having some trouble with today’s.

10. Democrats once again kill measure for Warren County to be part of the Front Royal Industrial Development Authority.

Of all the things the General Assembly did or didn’t do, this is the most inexplicable. What should have been a routine bill of merely local impact has somehow gotten tied up in politics well beyond this community in the northern Shenandoah Valley. For the full back story, you can see the column I wrote earlier this year. The short version is that there was a non-controversial technical bill that would allow Warren County to be part of the Front Royal Industrial Development Authority for the next five years. After Republicans killed a measure related to the Virginia Beach charter and how many council members there should be elected at-large or through districts, state Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, led the charge for his party to kill the next Republican-sponsored bill that came up. That just happened to be this one related to Front Royal and Warren County.

Youngkin sought to remedy that by adding the provision to the budget as a “language amendment,” meaning one that doesn’t include any money, just legal language. It never came up for a vote in the House on Wednesday. Democrats singled out the amendments they wanted to vote on, then voted to “pass by” the rest, a polite way of killing them. The bottom line: Warren County’s authority to participate in the Front Royal IDA will cease on July 1.

I asked the office of both House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, and House Majority Leader Charniele Herring, D-Alexandria, why this amendment got killed. No explanation. Del. Delores Oates, R-Warren County, has her own: “There was no good reason for Democrats to kill this legislation during the regular session, and there was no reason for them to kill it yesterday. Democrats put spite above the people of my district. They just don’t care about places like Front Royal.”