Virginia Senate takes up calendar, rejects multiple House substitutes and dispenses with reading of uncontested bills

RICHMOND — The Virginia Senate convened its morning hour Feb. 18 and completed a series of procedural actions on its calendar, including votes to waive readings, the granting of floor privileges, and repeated roll-call votes rejecting House substitutes on several bills that crossed to the Senate.

The clerk called the calendar and senators addressed several unfinished items. The chamber recorded a motion from the senator from Hampton to waive reading of the journal (the motion passed with Ayes 33, Noes 6). The senator from Eastern Fairfax moved to waive the reading of a House communication; that motion carried (Ayes 34, Noes 5). A motion to suspend the rules and grant privileges of the floor to a distinguished guest was approved unanimously (Ayes 39, Noes 0).

On multiple bills that had arrived from the House with substitutes, senators moved to reject the House substitutes and recorded roll-call results. The clerk announced repeated outcomes that the House substitutes were rejected; for a number of items the roll calls recorded lopsided tallies against the substitutes. The Senate also moved to dispense with the second-reading titles of House bills on the uncontested and regular calendars (pages 6–8); the reading of titles was dispensed with and multiple house bills were ordered to "go by for the day." The clerk noted the presence of items on the regular calendar, including House Bill 29 (the budget bill) and several senate bills on third reading.

After committee and caucus meeting notices were read, the Senate agreed to a motion from the senator from Portsmouth to adjourn and reconvene at 12 noon the next day.

What happened next: The Senate is scheduled to reconvene at noon; committees and caucuses listed during the clerk's announcements will meet later in the day as posted by the clerk.