VA paves method for marijuana gross sales, assisted suicide as Meeting deadline looms

Virginia lawmakers plowed by means of tons of of payments Tuesday as they reached a key deadline for this 12 months’s legislative session.

The Home of Delegates and Senate debated subjects starting from playing to marijuana gross sales forward of what’s often called “crossover,” the purpose by which all laws however the finances payments should clear its originating chamber.

This 12 months’s session marks the third because the begin of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s time period. However it’s the primary since he is taken workplace with Democrats in full management of the statehouse after they flipped the Home of Delegates in final 12 months’s elections.

VIRGINIA GOV. YOUNGKIN PRIORITIZES MENTAL HEALTH POLICY AS POLICE ARE OVERWHELMED BY CASES

Democrats have used their majorities to fend off Republican efforts to repeal beforehand enacted priorities, together with voting entry protections and environmental legal guidelines. And so they’re advancing new initiatives — together with stricter proposed limits on firearms and laws to extend the minimal wage — that might face the prospect of a Youngkin veto.

The governor has been tight-lipped, nevertheless, about the place precisely he may wield the veto pen, amid carefully watched negotiations over his proposal to convey two Washington pro sports teams to northern Virginia.

Nonetheless to come back this session, which is scheduled to finish March 9, is way of the heavy lifting on one of many Meeting’s most essential duties: crafting the following two-year state finances.

The solar shines on the Virginia Capitol on March 4, 2010, in Richmond, Va. Virginia lawmakers handled tons of of payments on Feb. 13, 2024, as a key legislative deadline arrived. (AP Picture/Steve Helber, File)

Right here’s a have a look at a the place issues stand on a lot of different key points:

NORTHERN VIRGINIA SPORTS ARENA

One of many session’s most carefully watched objects, laws underpinning a proposal by Youngkin to convey the Washington Wizards and Capitals to northern Virginia, handed the Home of Delegates Tuesday on a bipartisan 59-40 vote. Supporters cheered the event as a significant step ahead, whereas opponents vowed to maintain up their organizing.

The deal’s path ahead seems murky, as an similar Senate model was allowed to die in that chamber this week for lack of a listening to. High legislators there have questioned whether or not Youngkin is negotiating with Democrats in good religion and raised issues in regards to the public-private financing that is proposed.

MARIJUANA SALES

Each chambers have handed payments that will pave the way in which for the authorized leisure gross sales of marijuana, however they face a skeptical Youngkin.

In 2021, Virginia grew to become the primary Southern state to legalize marijuana, adopting a coverage change that allowed adults to possess and cultivate the drug. However lawmakers have but to enact a framework for leisure gross sales.

ABORTION

Democrats have defeated measures that will prohibit entry to abortion, together with one proposal that will have instituted a near-total ban on the process. In the meantime, they’re advancing laws prone to face a Youngkin veto that will stop the issuance of search warrants for digital or digital menstrual well being knowledge, which proponents say would stop such data from being weaponized in potential abortion-related court docket circumstances.

Democrats additionally used a uncommon procedural method to pressure a flooring vote Monday on a invoice from a conservative freshman member that will additional prohibit the already restricted circumstances through which public funding can be utilized to supply abortion companies and prohibit state funding from flowing to entities that present abortions.

Democrats stated they needed to place each Home member on the file on the difficulty, although the invoice was not notably divisive. It did not advance on a vote of 95-1, with two abstentions. Republicans referred to as the trade a stunt.

‘SKILL GAMES’ AND CASINOS

The Home and Senate this week handed differing variations of laws that will tax and regulate so-called “skill games,” the slot-like betting machines which have proliferated in companies comparable to truck stops, eating places and comfort shops across the state earlier than a ban took impact.

The Home model has tighter rules, and the Senate’s is most popular by the well-organized trade coalition pushing for legalization.

Different gambling-related payments this 12 months embody a now-defeated effort to permit a referendum on a on line casino within the rich suburbs of the nation’s capital and a separate measure, nonetheless alive, that will add Petersburg to the listing of casino-eligible cities whereas eradicating Richmond, the place voters have twice rejected poll measures to pave the way in which for one.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

Good governance advocates had excessive hopes that this can be the 12 months Virginia lawmakers lastly agree to affix most different states and the federal authorities in stopping elected officers from spending marketing campaign donations on private bills.

However a invoice to just do that seems to face resistance within the Home of Delegates, the place Speaker Don Scott signaled skepticism in regards to the laws in an interview forward of session. The Home model was allowed to die for lack of a listening to. The Senate model, which handed 35-4, will now cross over for Home consideration.

MEDICALLY ASSISTED SUICIDE

A invoice that will let Virginians going through terminal sickness finish their very own lives with a prescription of barbiturates or different managed substance from a well being care supplier narrowly passed the Senate last week. The invoice limits eligibility to mentally competent adults who’ve obtained a analysis that they’ve six months or much less to reside.

The invoice failed in earlier years, however this 12 months handed the Senate on a party-line vote after receiving an endorsement from U.S. Rep. Jennifer Wexton, a Democrat and former state senator who has been identified with a terminal neurological illness. Spiritual and socially conservative teams have opposed the measure.

An identical invoice had been scheduled for a vote within the Home on Tuesday however was handed by, successfully defeating it. The Senate’s model will now cross over.

LICENSE PLATE READERS

After a prolonged debate, the state Senate narrowly defeated a measure from Senate Majority Chief Scott Surovell that will regulate the usage of license plate reader know-how, whereas additionally opening the door to be used of the cameras on state highways.

Surovell stated the invoice would add guardrails on a broadly used know-how that’s presently unregulated by the state. Opponents raised privateness issues.

Sen. Lashrecse Aird stated that with out tighter guidelines on how police can use the information, the invoice would enable for an “unfettered expansion of mass surveillance here in the Commonwealth.”

A distinct model of the invoice continues to be alive within the Home.