The 2015 General Assembly Session adjourned sine die on Friday, February 27th, a day ahead of schedule. The General Assembly is scheduled to return to Richmond on April 15th for veto session, where they will review bills that were amended or vetoed by the Governor in the interim. 

 

On Thursday, both chambers of the General Assembly passed amendments to the State Budget. You'll find the budget items that we were tracking on our Bills We're Watching document, where you'll also notice that we've added a "results" column this week to show where the all of the bills we tracked ended up. You'll also find below a list of items from this session that were related to a Blueprint Virginia initiative. 

 

Our Government Affairs team is also starting to work to develop our 2015 Legislative Report Card, which will be released this spring. The Legislative Report Card recognizes legislators for their support on initiatives that will help move Virginia forward and provides analysis of a legislator's support for the business community's priorities as outlined in Blueprint Virginia.

Blueprint Virginia Legislative Update

 

The following are highlights from the 2015 General Assembly session that align with our Blueprint Virginia initiatives:

 

Business Climate & Economic Development

• HB1751--Would require the Joint Commission on Administrative Rules to review and report to the General Assembly and Governor on any regulation that the Department of Planning and budget determines would have an adverse economic impact on businesses or would impose a significant adverse economic impact on a locality, business, or entity particularly affected.
• HJ515--Constitutional amendment to allow the General Assembly to suspend or nullify any or all portions of any administrative rule or regulation by joint resolution agreed to by a majority of the members elected to each house
• HJ490--Right to Work constitutional amendment
• Defeated labor and employment legislation that would have increased labor costs for businesses by raising the minimum wage above the federally mandated level; mandated leave which would have unnecessarily entangled employers in private personal matters of employees; and increased frivolous litigation against businesses
• Increased funding for the Governor's Development Opportunity Fund
• Restored funding for the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing
• Supported legislation to allow companies to use crowdfunding as a way to raise capital
• Defeated labor and employment legislation that would have increased labor costs for businesses by raising the minimum wage above the federally mandated level; mandated leave which would have unnecessarily entangled employers in private personal matters of employees; and increased frivolous litigation against businesses 

Education and Workforce Development

• HB1676--Allows local school boards to enter into agreements for postsecondary credential, certification, or license attainment with community colleges or other public institutions of higher education that offer a career and technical education curriculum. 
• HB1986/SB1372-- Reforms Virginia's workforce system to deliver more business driven, efficient and cost effective services by:

  creating more accountability among 24 different workforce programs; requiring local Workforce Development Boards to redirect nearly $3.4 million of federal funds to education and establish a minimum threshold spending level of 40% for skills development; and reforming the Virginia Board of Workforce Development

• HB2354/SB1335--Allows for the award of academic credit for military training. 
• Defeated legislation to weaken Virginia's economic education and financial literacy requirements 

Click on the image above to see a full list of the bills we're watching this year.

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