The hustle and bustle in the General Assembly will be more fast-paced than usual this week as lawmakers hurry to act on hundreds of bills leading up to the annual Crossover Day.
Crossover Day, which is on Feb. 6 this year, is the deadline for bills in one chamber to cross over into the other. All bills introduced in the House of Delegates must be sent to the Senate by Crossover Day or they are dead, and vice versa.
Before the bills can reach the floor in the respective chambers, they first must win approval in committee. So this week committees are racing to work through the hundreds of bills that have not been acted on yet. To keep things moving, committee chairmen such as Del. Jack Reid, who chairs the General Laws Committee, occasionally resort to motivational outbursts.
“We need to get moving,” said Reid, R-Henrico, as he reminded his panel last week that it had 115 measures on its docket and only three meetings left to consider all of them.
Some committees schedule rare weekend meetings leading up to Crossover Day. The House Transportation Committee, so far, is the only panel with a meeting scheduled this weekend: 8:30 a.m. Saturday.
During the meetings, especially weekend sessions, the committee members’ patience runs thin. With so many bills to consider, the panels do not want to waste time while a legislator tweaks his or her bill. Long debates on bills are also frowned upon as Crossover Day nears.
Sen. Frederick Quayle, R-Suffolk, warned colleagues with bills in his Local Government Committee that the panel plans to quickly plow though its lengthy docket this week leading up to Crossover Day. Legislation that required amendments or other changes, he hinted, would be in serious peril.
“There won’t be any extended discussion,” Sen. Quayle said of this week’s meetings. “Come in with a finished product or take your chances.”
Adding to the charged atmosphere around Crossover Day, the House and Senate money committees will release their respective spending proposals Sunday afternoon. A group of members from each panel will then spend about two weeks hammering out a compromise.
