Rules Committee adopts 15‑bill base for 2027 session, allows up to five qualifying additions

The Senate Rules Committee voted to adopt a bill‑limit policy for the 2027 session that sets a base allowance of 15 prefiled bills per senator and permits up to five additional bills that meet qualifying criteria, the panel said during a meeting in Richmond.

The chair, speaking as the committee opened the agenda item, identified senators McPike, Bagby and Newcraig as having formed the subcommittee that produced the recommendation. "The subcommittee recommends that a base of 15 bills be allowed for the senate for the 2027 session with an additional up to 5 additional bills composed of any combination of the following, early bird submissions that would be at the end of August, legislative commissions, recommendations, or governor's requests," said Senator McPike, who moved adoption of the proposal.

The measure was adopted by voice vote after discussion. Committee members emphasized that the five additional slots are limited to qualifying items such as early‑bird submissions, legislative commission recommendations and governor's requests, and several speakers stressed that the total cannot exceed 20 bills per member under the proposal as explained in committee discussion.

Committee members pressed for clarity on whether legislative commissions that approve policy "in concept" — rather than adopting specific bill text — should count toward the extra slots. A committee member said some commissions have been approving ideas without final bill language and asked whether those approvals should count. "I just think having an actual approved bill by a commission is a better way, better practice and also is more likely to get commissions to get their work done promptly instead of pushing things off," one committee member said.

Division of Legislative Services staff responded that for a commission recommendation to qualify as an early‑bird or legislative commission submission, DLS needs "an official recommendation" with sufficient policy detail so staff can prepare a draft. "If we get an official recommendation and it has sufficient policy details that we can actually prepare that draft, then that would count for us as an early bird bill or legislative commission," the DLS staff member said, noting timing constraints for drafting.

Committee discussion also referenced deadlines cited in the proposal: commissions are expected to complete work by late November (November 30 was cited in committee remarks) so that bills or sufficient material to draft bills are available; DLS staff noted an earlier internal date (December 1) for receiving requests to allow time for drafting. The chair and several members said that if a commission's record does not document a clear policy objective or a specific motion, the commission action should not be counted toward the limit.

The committee adopted the policy by voice vote; the chair called for those in favor to say "aye," and none registered opposition on the record. No roll call vote was taken. The committee moved next to consideration of appointments.