Senator Whipple's Richmond Report

Just when members of the General Assembly were breathing a sigh of relief that we were finally finished for the year, a special session had to be called to correct a legislative error. A bill was drafted incorrectly and no one - not the patron, the committee members, lobbyists, Attorney General or Governor - spotted the error.

The bill dealt with repealing the old blue laws; unfortunately it also repealed the exemptions for businesses such as hotels and restaurants and hospitals to comply with the "day of rest" law that allows employees to refuse to work on Sunday or Saturday. Since no one intended that result, the special session will put the exemptions back in.

You may understand how it happened when you see the text of the bill: "That Sections 18.2-341, 18.2-342. 18.2-343 and 40.1-28.5 of the Code of Virginia are repealed."

There were other contributing factors in addition to the innocuous text and benign purpose.

One is surely the large amount of legislation that is considered by the General Assembly in a very short period of time. Nearly three thousand bills and resolution were considered in the 2004 regular 60-day session. About the same number of bills and resolutions were on the calendar in last year's 46-day session. (We're not nearly as prolific as New York State legislators who introduced 14,821 bills in 2003! Of course they have longer sessions.)

In this case the bill went to the Senate Courts of Justice Committee which considers more legislation than any other committee. Many complicated matters are heard by this committee so a bill like this one that appeared to be very simple was swiftly and unanimously adopted. Because it came out of committee with no dissenting vote, the bill was placed on the consent calendar in the Senate, and again passed unanimously.

Some observers of the legislative process in Virginia target the Dillon Rule for contributing to the overload of bills to be considered. They point out that the General Assembly deals with legislation that in other states would be a local responsibility. This year 92 bills were heard by the Senate Local Government Committee and the House Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns heard 130.

In most states these matters would not be part of the state legislative process.

Additionally, Virginia has a small legislative services staff compared to many other states. Twenty attorneys and researchers draft all of the bills and resolutions. They provide absolutely stellar service to the members of the General Assembly and I really believe one reason this bill didn't receive enough scrutiny was because the staff in the Division of Legislative Services seldom make a mistake.

While there may not be any radical structural changes made any time soon, I think I can guarantee that next year a lot of people will look up any code sections referenced in a bill.