Senate Rules committee reports a slate of bills to Finance, including lactation policy and school-construction measures

The Senate Rules subcommittee advanced a series of house measures and resolutions in a single session, moving many bills either to Senate Finance for further review or reporting them out of committee. Notable actions included:

- House Bill 860 (substitute): Sponsor explained the substitute removes the work group and instead requires boards of local and regional jails to develop lactation policies for pregnant and postpartum incarcerated Virginians; the committee moved and reported the bill (Ayes 13, No 0). The sponsor emphasized breastfeeding’s health benefits and said removing the work group would eliminate the fiscal impact.

- House Bill 544 (school construction/modernization): Committee moved to report this bill as identical legislation to Senate Bill 498; voice vote recorded as passed.

- House Bill 1040 (VCU Health System Authority): Moved and reported (Ayes 14, No 0).

- Multiple conforming and referral motions: The committee conformed several house bills to their senate counterparts (for example HB 231 to SB 280 on the autism advisory council, HB 285 to the Distributed Energy Resources Task Force bill) and referred or re-referred them to Senate Finance where required.

- House Bill 8140 (tribal-recognition and code modernization): Sponsor described a bipartisan unanimous recommendation to extend a sunset and modernize statutory language to reflect federal recognition of Virginia tribes; the committee reported and referred the bill to finance (Ayes 14, No 0).

- House Bill 371 (Commission to End Hunger): The committee reported the bill to adjust commission membership, including adding a school-nutrition representative and creating a student liaison exempt from quorum requirements (Ayes 14, No 0).

Committee members approved ceremonial designations and several resolutions, including reconstituting a Booker T. Washington commemorative commission and authorizing a replica chair and portrait committee for Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earl Sears. The meeting closed after the Chair confirmed the agenda had been completed.

Where the transcript recorded numerical roll calls, the article lists them; where the committee recorded voice votes, the transcript indicates the measures were reported without numeric tallies.