ALBEMARLE COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) - After 59 days, one day longer than this year’s regular session in January, Virginia’s General Assembly has adjourned once again. The session tackled everything from COVID-19 relief to criminal justice reform, in a gathering held almost entirely online.
In the marathon special session, Virginia lawmakers discussed, debated, and passed 51 bills. Much of that work was done virtually.
“There’s some things that does well,” 58th District Delegate Rob Bell (R) said. “That actually lets you testify, if you’re in Bristol, Virginia, you don’t make the trip to Richmond and get a hotel room.”
Bell notes that the virtual special session was longer even than this year’s “long session,” the General Assembly tradition of meeting for extended session in even years, and shorter ones in odd years. Some of that may have been related to hiccups caused by the unique online approach to legislating, adopted due to COVID-19 safety concerns.
“We had a large number of bills that needed changes late in the process,” Bell explained. “Then, some that even got passed. There was one that just happened with a patron who said, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize my bill said that,’ and if it hadn’t been caught by the governor would have been the law of Virginia in four months.”
The session was originally meant to tackle the budgetary fallout of COVID-19. However, the death of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and the racial justice protests nationwide that followed, prompted criminal justice reform to at least share the spotlight. On that issue, some common ground was found.
“There was one that was in specifically about decertification, an officer is found to have committed some wrongdoing, to make sure that he doesn’t simply pick up and move to another department,” Bell said. “That actually was one where the two sides came together.”
However, that was not always the case.
“There were a number that we thought either made it harder for good cops to do their job, or actually increased increase the risk for officers who are doing a very dangerous job,” Bell explained. “We oppose those, some of them passed.”
On the budget itself, the debate was hard fought. Del. Bell ultimately did not vote for the version that passed, citing concerns over the spending in an uncertain financial situation.
“For some of us who are conservative, we are worried that as we head into a very uncertain budgetary environment, revenues are already way off,” Bell said. “We’re coming back in January. So usually, you’re trying to make guesses that are gonna last for 10 months. Now, it’s a much shorter window, but would have preferred not to have some of the new spending that we saw.”
Of the 51 bills, some have been sent back by Governor Northam with proposed amendments. The rest are waiting for Northam to sign or veto.
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October 23, 2020 at 08:09AM
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Del. Rob Bell reflects on eventful 59-day General Assembly Special Session - WHSV
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