The General Assembly convened on January 10 for the first day of the 2018 session. Newly-elected delegates were seated, the House adopted amendments to its rules, and members unanimously elected Delegate Kirk Cox as the 55th Speaker of the House. Both the House and Senate adopted the procedural resolution setting out the schedule for consideration of legislation during the session.
With both chambers now organized and House members expected to be appointed to committees today, General Assembly committees will now begin to meet and consider legislation (the Senate is in the middle of its four-year term and committee members have already been appointed). The deadline to “pre-file” legislation was January 10 at 10 a.m.; in even-numbered years, legislators may pre-file an unlimited number of bills and resolutions. After this deadline, members may file bills until the afternoon of Friday, January 19, but delegates are limited to five bills and senators are limited to eight bills. (After this deadline, members must receive unanimous consent to introduce legislation.) As of the end of the day on January 10, 2,036 bills and resolutions had been filed. VACo staff are reviewing these bills for potential impact on local governments.
In addition to filing bills, legislators are also considering and submitting amendments to the 2016-2018 “Caboose” and 2018-2020 Biennium Budgets. These amendments are due by the end of the day on Friday, January 12. VACo staff are working with members to submit a number of budget amendments and will report on these amendments in an upcoming Capitol Contact.
VACo Contact: Katie Boyle