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Virginia House adopts scores of conference reports, appoints conferees and recesses until 5 p.m.
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Summary
The Virginia House of Delegates on March 7 adopted a long series of conference committee reports across energy, labor, education, criminal justice and consumer-protection bills, appointed additional conferees for unsettled measures and recessed until 5:00 p.m.
The Virginia House of Delegates convened and quickly moved through a large slate of conference committee reports on Tuesday, adopting measures across a wide range of policy areas before recessing until 5:00 p.m.
Opening the session, the House agreed to the Senate’s request for second committees of conference on several measures and the Speaker appointed House conferees for multiple bills, including delegates for House Bill 110 and House Bill 1272. Throughout the day lawmakers took up conference reports — the negotiated texts resulting from House–Senate bargaining — and voted to adopt or temporarily set aside specific bills for later consideration.
Major measures the House adopted included labor and wage-enforcement legislation (HB 238), electric utility planning and related energy measures (HB 429, HB 1393, SB 249, SB 253), data center siting (SB 94), student health (SB 122), and multiple public-safety and criminal-justice items (including SB 673 on cyberstalking and SB 764 on deferred disposition and concurrence by the Commonwealth’s attorney for offenses ineligible for sealing).
Delegates who spoke while presenting conference reports explained key changes or the intent of negotiated language. For example, Delegate David Lopez described HB 238 as strengthening enforcement tools for the Department of Labor and Industry and the attorney general to address wage theft and misclassification; that conference report was agreed to by a recorded voice vote. Delegate LaVere Bowling summarized conference language on electric utilities and said it preserved transparency and stakeholder participation in integrated resource planning. On SB 253, conferees said the text moves certain rate-making provisions related to data centers to Dominion’s regularly scheduled annual review and gives the State Corporation Commission an option to approve fuel securitization for the prior year to mitigate large fuel-cost spikes.
Some bills were taken “by temporarily” at members’ requests to move them later on the calendar; others were adopted unanimously or by wide margins. Notable unanimous adoptions included SB 398 (modernizing the Virginia birth-related neurological injury compensation program) and SB 673 (cyberstalking), which passed with recorded tallies of 95–0 and 96–0 respectively where indicated.
The House also adopted conference reports addressing consumer protections (SB 493, click-to-cancel/automatic renewal), prevailing wage definitions (SB 518), medical-malpractice data reporting (SB 536), cannabis and hemp enforcement (SB 542, SB 543), procurement and public-works contract requirements (SB 324), and a clean-energy financing vehicle (SB 225 creating the Virginia Clean Energy Innovation Bank), among many others.
Votes at a glance (conference reports adopted or acted upon; tallies recorded on the floor): - HB 238 (labor/wage enforcement) — adopted (Ayes 62, Nays 35). - HB 429 (integrated resource planning) — adopted (Ayes 72, Nays 24). - HB 1393 (energy assistance/weatherization pilot and cost recovery) — adopted (Ayes 61, Nays 35). - HB 196 (residential development infrastructure pilot) — adopted (Ayes 91, Nays 6). - SB 44 (cemetery registration, Planning District 8) — adopted (Ayes 73, Nays 23). - SB 59 (photo speed monitoring) — adopted (Ayes 58, Nays 38). - SB 94 (data-center siting) — adopted (Ayes 91, Nays 4). - SB 122 (student diabetes care plan) — adopted (Ayes 97, Nays 0). - SB 134 (early-childhood/childcare access report) — adopted (Ayes 85, Nays 12). - SB 137 (obstructing health-care facility access) — adopted (Ayes 62, Nays 35). - SB 190 (student-support program assessment) — adopted (Ayes 66, Nays 30). - SB 223 (distributed energy resource task force) — adopted (Ayes 65, Nays 32). - SB 225 (Virginia Clean Energy Innovation Bank) — adopted (Ayes 63, Nays 34). - SB 249 and SB 253 (integrated resource planning and energy-assistance/rate provisions) — adopted (SB 249 Ayes 63/Nays 34; SB 253 Ayes 73/Nays 23). - SB 276 (DOC visitation work group) — adopted (Ayes 64, Nays 32). - SB 313 (landlord–tenant payment/fee provisions) — adopted (Ayes 62, Nays 35). - SB 323 (plastic firearms/unserialized frames) — adopted (Ayes 62, Nays 35). - SB 324 (public procurement) — adopted (Ayes 61, Nays 35). - SB 337 (National Guard communications) — adopted (Ayes 62, Nays 35). - SB 351 (civil arrest in courthouses/due-process protections) — adopted (Ayes 62, Nays 35). - SB 352 (law-enforcement facial-covering restrictions) — adopted (Ayes 62, Nays 35). - SB 364 (violence-prevention initiatives) — adopted (Ayes 62, Nays 35). - SB 382 (smart solar permitting) — adopted (Ayes 64, Nays 32). - SB 388 (affordable housing/religious nonprofit properties) — adopted (Ayes 55, Nays 40). - SB 398 (birth-injury compensation modernization) — adopted (Ayes 95, Nays 0). - SB 490 (mixed-income housing pilot) — adopted (recorded tally reported on floor). - SB 493 (consumer protection—click-to-cancel) — adopted (Ayes 95, Nays 0). - SB 515 (CEUR name/scope change) — adopted (Ayes 73, Nays 24). - SB 518 (prevailing wage) — adopted (Ayes 62, Nays 35). - SB 536 (medical-malpractice data reporting; caps preserved) — adopted (Ayes 78, Nays 18). - SB 542 (cannabis market penalties) — adopted (Ayes 64, Nays 32). - SB 543 (marijuana enforcement) — adopted (Ayes 65, Nays 30). - SB 620 (ABC/tobacco permitting) — adopted (Ayes 93, Nays 3). - SB 643, SB 644, SB 645 (various: possession/transportation powers; wage protections; anaerobic digestion) — adopted (tallies recorded on floor). - SB 673 (cyberstalking) — adopted (Ayes 96, Nays 0). - SB 685 (standards of quality / LEP parent access) — adopted (Ayes 64, Nays 33). - SB 725 (land records/clerks’ fees) — adopted (Ayes 81, Nays 16). - SB 764 (deferred-disposition concurrence for offenses ineligible for sealing) — adopted (Ayes 62, Nays 34). - SB 777 (regional transmission/transparency) — adopted (Ayes 93, Nays 2). - SB 783, SB 827 (immigration enforcement agreements; underground transmission pilot) — adopted (tallies recorded).
What the House did not do: several measures were taken by temporarily (moved to a later place on the calendar) at members’ requests, and several items will return to conference or require a second committee of conference per the Speaker’s appointments made during the session.
Next steps and procedural notes: the House appointed additional conferees for unsettled measures (including SB 496, SB 661, SB 756 and the companion House measures noted on the floor) and recessed until 5:00 p.m. The schedule and whether any of the taken-by-temporarily items return to the floor will determine the next substantive actions.
