Virginia’s governor has broad power to affect legislation after it passes the General Assembly. In his final session, Governor Youngkin has recommended changes to 159 bills and legislators return to Richmond today for their consideration.
Words matter in the legal realm. The words “shall” and “may” have different legal weight with the former being seen as mandatory and the latter as optional. As passed by the General Assembly, HB1601 would have made it a requirement that localities conduct a site assessment for any “high energy use facility” up for a rezoning.
By swapping out “shall” with “may” Youngkin turned a regulatory requirement into a locality’s choice.
The governor also has the power to insist that legislation must pass through another General Assembly before it becomes law. That’s the case with HB1699 which would have stripped tax-exempt status from many organizations associated with Confederate causes.
A re-enactment clause was also added to HB1918 which would establish a Women’s Menstrual Health Program. Another bill that has to pass again is HB2724 which would require more reporting for automatic license plate recognition systems.
HB1716 as passed would establish a Right to Contraception with a series of definitions and clauses that total 646 words. Youngkin’s amendment would tie Virginia’s right to contraception to two U.S. Supreme Court cases and adds language that states health practitioners can refuse on religious grounds.
Youngkin also made heavy edits to HB2153 which would allow localities to amend their Comprehensive Plan to encourage creation of affordable housing projects by nonprofit developers.
Youngkin’s edit reduces that to a simple directive to the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development to “develop a document describing options for alteration or waiver of requirements for zoning permits, site plan application incentives, and other considerations” for nonprofit developers.
For the full list of amendments, visit the Virginia Legislative Information System.
Before you go: This segment went out in the March 31, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement and should have been longer. However, sometimes doing the newsletter means I need to get something out more quickly. Sometimes I’ll add more information to the post here but that didn’t happen this time.
