New laws take effect July 1

Although stated many times before, it bears repeating yet again: the 2020 Virginia General Assembly Regular and Veto Sessions were historically unprecedented. However, there is more to come in a Special Session Governor Northam and members of his Administration have stated will occur sometime in early-to-mid August. 
 
So, there is more work to be done before putting 2020 to rest. And that work is tremendously important and meaningful, as it pertains to the state’s revenue situation and what to do with over $2 billion in unallotted spending for key items prioritized by the Democratic majority. Public safety reform and racial equity issues will be addressed during the upcoming Special Session as well. 
 
For now, though, it is time to reflect upon and attempt to understand the magnitude of what transpired in Virginia legislatively this year. July 1 is almost here, and the laws that were passed take effect Wednesday.
 
The Regular Session began with several major issues garnering much of the media and political spotlight: massive rallies in support of the second amendment (and more than a dozen gun control pieces of legislation), the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, several anti-discrimination measures, and of particular interest to the Alliance and our members, legislation pertaining to increasing the minimum wage and Virginia’s much-discussed Right to Work (and the new majority party’s commitment to repealing it) and several other bills pitting the employee against the employer. 
 
All except the Right to Work and Fair Share bills passed, although many were amended during the committee and floor debate process (and later even in conference committee and via gubernatorial amendments) to make the legislation less burdensome to industry – though how much so is certainly subject to debate. 
 
What the Alliance would like to provide its members and our website visitors is an array of options to consider how best to identify and consider bills and resolutions of interest and relevance. Without question, the gold standard in terms of collating and explaining what happened during Session, from both a granular and macro perspective, are the post-Session documents provided by the attorneys and staff members of the Virginia Division of Legislative Services (DLS). 
 
Their Session Highlight is a 20-page document that chronicles the status of many big-ticket items. That document, replete with an introduction to its purpose and intent, can be accessed here: 
 
http://dls.virginia.gov/pubs/hilights/2020/Highlights2020.pdf
 
For those who want to review the 2020 Session in an exhaustive way and via the definitive account of the fate of legislation, please click the below link, which allows access to DLS’s 368-page, comprehensive Session Summary. Although a massive document, it is easily navigable, user-friendly and includes an introduction on what the new legislation entails. It can be accessed at this link:
 
http://dls.virginia.gov/pubs/summary/2020/Summary2020.pdf
 
For those who would like to review the Governor’s Session amendments and vetoes, please click the ensuing link to access the 31-page document that lists and explains the Governor’s actions taken on over 100 pieces of legislation.  
 
http://dls.virginia.gov/pubs/vetoes/vetoes2020.pdf
 
The fourth document DLS provides, In Due Course: 2020 Changes to Virginia’s Laws, “is a selection of legislation passed by the 2020 Session of the General Assembly that is likely to affect the daily lives of the citizens of Virginia.” That 39-page document can be accessed here:
 
http://dls.virginia.gov/pubs/idc/idc20.pdf
 
 
The final document, a Word Document the Alliance created and collated from a variety of sources (including the DLS documents), is a 22-page document with an emphasis on legislation of interest to the Alliance, our members and our region. Naturally, it focuses on business and commerce but also includes local government, public and higher education and more. 
 
You can access that Word Document here.
 
The Session Statistics section of the Virginia General Assembly website will appeal particularly to those who like numbers. That site can be accessed at the below link. It’s worth noting that the 100 House members introduced over 1,700 pieces of legislation and another 700+ resolutions. Check the LIS website to learn how many bills and resolutions passed. You can obtain the same information for the 40 state Senators.
 
https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+oth+STA
 
For those who would really like to refine their searches and drill down even deeper, the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP) website allows the reader to search for the success rates of individual members. At the same site, you can apply various filters that allow searching via party affiliation, seniority and gender. 
 
https://www.vpap.org/visuals/visual/state-legislators-2020-batting-averages/
 
Please take advantage of these resources to guide your thoughts towards the upcoming Special Session in August. You can watch the Virginia Senate or House sessions via live stream, which will be important since the public will not be allowed in the Capitol buildings due to health precautions.