It’s “halftime” at Virginia’s General Assembly! We have reached crossover – the day that bills introduced and passed in one chamber of the General Assembly “cross over” to be voted on by the other.

No new bills will be introduced or considered now that we have reached crossover. Instead, the state House and Senate will consider only legislation that has successfully passed the opposite chamber. While we are heartened to see many of our priorities successfully making it through, this does mean that the list of bills that are still “alive” has whittled down slightly and we can refocus our advocacy efforts on those that remain to kill bad bills and uplift good conservation policy.

VCN has taken a position to support, oppose, or remain neutral on 179 bills this session and has internally monitored 389 bills – that’s more bills we’re working on to protect Virginia’s environment than ever before!

After crossover, our list of bills narrows as bills get left in their chamber of origin. Of the bills on which we have taken a position, 100 bills have not crossed over. While this means a majority of bills have been defeated, this leaves us with 65 bills for us to focus on supporting through the rest of the session, and only 3 of our opposed bills still need to be defeated or amended this session.

For a full list of bills that the Virginia Conservation Network has taken a position on, please visit our Bill Tracker.

Virginia’s General Assembly is in a “long” session this year that will last for 60 days. Legislators introduced a total of 2779 bills this session. Of these bills, VCN voted to support 134 bills and oppose 35 bills. Note: This chart does not include bills for which we have moved our position to “neutral.”

Now that we’ve reached crossover, our list of remaining conservation bills has been whittled down. Of the remaining 68 bills VCN took a position on, a majority deal with energy and water legislation. See our Bill of the Day updates to learn more about the conservation community’s legislative priorities this session.

Of VCN’s supported bills, the legislators above introduced the most pro-conservation policies to the General Assembly. This year, Delegate Richard Sullivan patroned 10 VCN-supported bills. In the Senate, Senator Scott Surovell patroned 7 VCN-supported bills.

Now that we’ve reached crossover, your advocacy is crucial to get pro-conservation bills across the finish line, or defeat bills that would harm Virginia’s environment. See our General Assembly Advocacy 101 Guide to see actions you can to support/oppose bills or how to contact your legislator to discuss pro-conservation policy.