Legislative check-in: Three constitutional amendments including “right to marry” pass House of Delegates

There is a challenge to covering a legislature remotely, but Charlottesville Community Engagement seeks to capture what it can. Today would have been the first day of the second week, but there have been delays related to the shutdown of Richmond’s water treatment plant.

One way to take a measure of the activity of the General Assembly is to look at the statistics page on the Virginia Legislative Information System. As of 8:18 a.m. on January 17 , there are a total of 1,939 bills bending in both the House of Delegates and the Senate of Virginia. A total of 411 bills have failed, but these are all ones continued from the last session.

So far, a total of nine House Joint Resolutions have passed the House of Delegates and three of these are constitutional amendments. The next step for all three is the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee.

• HJ1 would add reproductive freedom to the Constitution. The House of Delegates voted 51 to 48 on January 14 to move the bill forward.
• HJ2 would add language to the session on voter qualifications to state that “every person who meets the qualifications shall have the fundamental right to vote in the Commonwealth” and remove the Governor’s role in granting rights back to those who have been convicted of a felony. This passed the House of Delegates on January 14 on a 55 to 44 vote.
• HJ9 would repeal the prohibition on same-sex marriage under Virginia law and make the right to marry anyoneover the age of 18. This passed on a 58 to 35 vote with two abstentions. An additional five delegates did not vote.

The other four are related to the operations of the General Assembly for this session. These also passed the Senate and were the only action taken on January 8.

So far, all of the other bills are waiting for action by committee and that means a lot of subcommittee meetings. On Thursday, the House Health and Human Services Committee will meet at 8:30 a.m. One item on their agenda is HB1716 from Delegate Cia Price (D-85) which would establish a right to contraception in Virginia code.

The Public Safety Subcommittee of the House of Delegates Public Safety Committee meeting began at 8 a.m. Their agenda has several bills of note.

• HB1746 from Delegate N. Baxter Ennis (R-89) would add dispatchers and animal control officers to the definition of “public safety officer” to allow them to qualify for the Commonwealth Public Safety Medal of Valor.
• HB1894 from Delegate Holly Seibold (D-12) would require heating and cooling in all state correctional facilities to maintain a temperature range between 65F and 80F.
• HB2033 from Delegate Shelly Simonds (D-70) would direct the Department of Criminal Services to create an online course on human trafficking to be offered by the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority. The course would be to train employees how to recognize the signs and report suspected instances.
• HB2105 from Delegate Hillary Pugh Kent (R-67) would require sheriffs, jail superintendents, and other jail administrators to designate a local law enforcement agency to investigate acts of violence within their facility.

Before you go: This article was originally sent out as part of the Charlottesville Community Engagement newsletter in the January 15, 2025 edition. Both are functions of Town Crier Productions. You can support the work by purchasing a paid subscription or contributing monthly through Patreon. You can also send in a check or send an email, but drop me a line first.