Legislative update: Some of what made it through the Virginia Senate

The 2025 session of the Virginia General Assembly has passed through Crossover Day and overnight the number of failed bills has increased from 624 on Tuesday morning to 1,289 as of 11:55 a.m. on Wednesday.

A total of 632 regular bills have passed the House of Delegates, as well as 112 House Joint Resolutions and 113 House Resolutions. The 40-member Senate passed 445 regular bills, 69 Senate Joint Resolutions, and 43 Senate Resolutions.

Yesterday we took a look at bills that were pending in the House of Delegates. In this snapshot, here’s a look at several pieces of legislation that passed the Senate and have now crossed over to the House of Delegates. This is not a complete list.

Education:

• SB1413 from Senator Scott Surovell (D-34) would require school boards to take certain steps to address indoor air quality issues in facilities including controlling mold. This passed on a 21 to 18 vote on January 28.
• SB1307 from Senator Jeremy McPike (D-29) would allow all localities in Virginia to hold a referendum for a one cent percent sales tax to fund school construction. This was approved on a 27 to 13 vote and is now before the House Finance committee.
• SB1462 from Senator Lamont Bagby (D-14) would require the Board of Education to permit students to substitute African American history courses or Advanced Placement African American Studies courses for Virginia and United States history courses, provided the classes are offered. This was approved on a 30 to 9 vote with one abstention, but it turns out those votes are all wrong anyway.
• SB1104 from Senator Ghazala F. Hashmi (D-15) would require the Board of Education to establish policies for localities related to extreme heat safety for student athletes. This passed the Senate on a 21 to 18 vote.

Energy and communications issues:

• SB1342 from Senator Lamont Bagby (D-14) would require the Department of Energy to create a work group to study barriers to reducing energy costs in low-income households. This passed on January 31 on a 24 to 16 vote.
• SB1449 from Senator Adam Ebbin (D-39) would require localities to require sound tests on “high energy use facilities” such as data centers before they can be approved, as well as an examination of the proposal’s effects on water resources, agricultural resources, parks, historic sites, and forestland. This was approved on a 33 to 6 vote with one abstention, but three of the no votes were incorrect.
• SB1339 from Senator David Marsden (D-35) would amend the Virginia Telephone Privacy Protection Act to permit individuals to opt out of text messages and requiring solicitors to keep such requests on record for ten years. This was adopted on a 38 to 0 vote.
• Under SB1338 from Senator Marsden, fusion energy would be classified as clean energy. This was approved on January 27 on a 38 to 0 vote.

Firearms:

• SB1329 from Senator David Marsden (D-35) would remove an exception from who can carry a concealed weapon. The phrase to be deleted is “any person who may lawfully possess a firearm and is carrying a handgun while in a personal, private motor vehicle or vessel and such handgun is secured in a container or compartment in the vehicle or vessel.” This was approved on January 27 on 20 a 18 vote.
• SB1450 would create standards of conduct for employees of the firearms industry. This was approved on a party-line 21 to 19 vote
• SB1134 from Senator Jennifer Boysko (D-38) would make it a Class 4 misdemeanor for someone to fail to securely store a firearm to keep it away from minors or someone prohibited by law from owning one.

Housing and Health:

• SB1098 from Senator Ghazala F. Hashmi (D-15) is called the Virginia Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Health Care Protection Act and would prevent extradition to other states where such care may now or may soon be criminalized. This passed the vote on a 21-19 party line vote.
• SB1105, also from Hashmi, would establish the right to obtain and use contraception. This bill passed the Senate 21 to 18.
• SB1324 from Senator Scott Surovell (D-34) would make it a class 1 misdemeanor for anyone who obstructs access to a health care facility. This passed on February 4 on a party-line 21 to 19 vote.
• SB1313 from Senator Jeremy McPike (D-29) would amend state code to allow any locality to create affordable housing requirements and expand some of the powers available to cities and counties. Some places are currently blocked from doing so. The Senate Committee on Local Government reported this out on an 8 to 6 vote with one abstention. The full Senate voted 20 to 19 to approve the bill with one Senator not voting. This is now be before the House Committee on Counties, Cities, and Towns.
• SB1350 from Senator Kannan Srinivasan (D-32) would require the State Health Commissioner to publish materials to be placed in restaurants to notify staff how to proceed if a patron identifies themselves as having food allergies. This passed the Senate on a 35 to 5 vote.
• SB1163 from Senator Ryan McDougle (R-26) would lower the food to beverage ratio for certain mixed beverage licenses from 45 percent to 30 percent, provided there is at least $4,000 a month in food sales. This passed 36 to 4.

Land use and transportation issues:

• SB1254 from Senator Lamont Bagby (D-14) would require cities with a population above 20,000 and counties above 100,000 to adopt an environmental justice strategy in their next Comprehensive Plan. It should be noted that the Trump administration is removing all references to environmental justice in Department of Transportation policies. This is a partisan issue and the vote was 20 to 19 on a party-line vote.
• SB1233 from Senator Angelia Williams Graves (D-21) would authorize state and local law-enforcement agencies to install monitoring systems for pedestrian crossings and stop signs in school crossing zones, highway work zones, and high-risk intersections. These would have the same requirements as photo speed monitoring devices. This passed the Senate on a 24 to 15 vote.

Taxation and other monetary issues:

• SB1305 from Senator Jeremy McPike (D-29) would
• SB1306 from Senator Jeremy McPike (D-29) would direct the Tax Commission to end the Virginia Free File program and develop a new program by 2028. This was approved on a 20 to 18 vote.
• SB1291 from Senator Mark Peake (R-8) would increase the maximum civil jurisdictional limit for civil actions from $25,000 to $50,000. This passed the Senate on a 39 to 0 vote on January 28.

Senate Joint Resolutions:

• SJ278 from Senator Emily Jordan (R-17) would establish April as Native Plant Month. This was agreed to on January 29 by a unanimous vote and is now in the House Rules Committee.
• SJ269 from Senator Schuyler T. VanValkenburg (D-16) would establish March as Persian Heritage Month. This was also agreed to unanimously on January 29.
• SJ262 from Senator Lashrecse D. Aird (D-13) would direct the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission to study the need for a Secretariat of Rural Affairs. This was agreed to unanimously on January 29.
• SJ255 from Senator Aaron Rouse (D-22) would direct JLARC to study Virginia’s campaign finance laws. This was also unanimous, same day.
• Virginia is a rare state that holds local and state elections off-cycle from federal elections. SJ253 from Senator Scott Surovell (D-34) would order a study of whether they should be harmonized. This was agreed to on January 29.

Before you go: This article was originally sent out as part of the Charlottesville Community Engagement newsletter in the February 5, 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!