RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia lawmakers return to the State Capitol on Tuesday for their first full day of session following Wednesday's recess caused by the water outage and Monday's State of the Commonwealth address from Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Below is a snapshot of some of what will be happening at the General Assembly. The full calendar can be found here.
Constitutional Amendments
Three constitutional amendments that could go before voters in 2026 will likely see debate and voting in both chambers of the General Assembly.
The amendments would enshrine abortion access, automatically restore the voting rights of felons after they have served their prison time (rather than having to petition the governor), and repeal a now-defunct state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
Last November, the House Privileges and Elections Committee held out-of-session hearings on the amendments and advanced them to the full body. Republicans criticized not only the timing of the hearings, but also that Democrats changed the language of the abortion amendment and did not give them much time to read the new bill.
The House of Delegates is slated to debate and vote on the three resolutions (unlike bills, which require three readings, the resolutions need one).
Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections will take up the bills in the afternoon.
In order for a constitutional amendment to take effect in Virginia, the General Assembly must pass proposed amendments twice in at least two years, with a legislative election sandwiched between each statehouse session. After that, the public can vote by referendum on the issues. The earliest this could happen is 2026.
Watch: Virginia lawmakers greet Gov. Youngkin's ideas with support and skepticism
News Conferences
Several news conferences are scheduled today, many that where delayed because of last week's recess.
Among them are the House Democratic Caucus and Virginia Legislative Black Caucus laying out their priorities for the session and Republicans in the Senate discussing Virginia's Right to Work laws.
A group of lawmakers will also hold a briefing to discuss a number of bills aimed at addressing the impacts of data centers in Virginia.
This follows a nonpartisan report on the issue in December.
Other Items
Among some of the other legislation that is set to be heard in committees Thursday:
In the House Education - K-12 Subcommittee Committee, lawmakers will discuss HB1663.
The bill from Del. Mike Jones (D-Richmond), would require the Board of Education to issue guidelines on preventing heat illness in student-athletes.
Jones said this was inspired by the death of Hopewell High School football player Jayvion Taylor during practice last August.
They will also hear HB1679, from Del. Laura Jane Cohen (D-Fairfax), which would allow Virginia's Standards of Learning tests to be taken in other languages by students who are English language learners.
House General Laws will discuss HB1624, from Del. Joshua Thomas (D-Prince William), which would ban social media companies from operating addictive feeds for users it knows are under the age of 18, unless they receive parental consent.
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
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