The Virginia Senate finally passed a budget Monday, after partisan gridlock had Gov. Bob McDonnell and others warning that one of the longest budget delays in state history could lead to a government shutdown.
The evenly divided chamber approved the budget on a 35-4 vote after Democrats backed off demands that they be given more power on Senate committees and after Republicans agreed to provide additional funding for education, health care and transportation.
The Senate version of the two-year budget includes more money for Democratic initiatives than McDonnell requested in his $85 billion proposal.
Democrats did fail to win approval for a $3 million proposal that would have required the state to pay for some of the newly mandated ultrasound examinations women now must undergo before getting an abortion. The ultrasound exams are required under a new Republican-backed law.
“If you have had the conviction and political will to tell a woman what’s in the best interest of her body … then you should at least have the decency to pay for it,” Sen. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, said.
But Republicans argued that most insurance policies already pay for ultrasounds and that the new law did not amount to an “unfunded mandate,” as Democrats claim.
“This is a standard medical procedure that physicians across the country and perhaps even across the world have agreed to do,” said Sen. Jeff McWaters, R-Virginia Beach.
The Senate blocked the ultrasound funding on a 20-19 vote.
Senators also included in their budget $300 million more for the Dulles Rail project, while rejecting amendments that would have prevented the board in charge of the project from using a union-friendly labor agreement for the construction of the $2.7 billion second phase of the project.
The $300 million, which would be borrowed, would be in addition to the $150 million the state already promised to pay toward the project.
Senators must now reconcile their budget with the House of Delegate’s budget before both chambers can vote on a final version.
