See below for some interesting graphics from VPAP about the the “fate of 2024 legislation” in the just-concluded Virginia General Assembly regular session. A few things that jumped out at me include:
- Out of 2,390 bills introduced in 2024, nearly half (1,098) passed, with another 108 “consolidated,” 405 “carried over” until next year – and 779 (33%) killed.
- Of the 1,098 bills passed, 512 passed unanimously (e.g., were totally non-controversial), while 586 had some opposition (of which around 300 had >40% voting against).
- Bills overwhelmingly were killed in committees/subcommittees, with only 41 being killed on the floor of the Senate or House of Delegates. Also, most were killed with a recorded vote, but 126 (16%) had no recorded vote.
- 2024 saw the highest percentage of bills passed with >40% opposition at least going back to 2017 – presumably due to more extreme Republicans being less willing to compromise or act in a bipartisan manner.
- With Democrats in control of both the State Senate and House of Delegates, it probably shouldn’t be surprising that only 22% of Democratic delegates’ bills failed, and just 11% of Democratic senators’ bills failed, compared to 61% (!) of Republican delegates’ bills failing and 34% of Republican senators’ bills failing. Of course, if you look at those Republican bills, most of them richly deserved to fail, so it’s good news that they did so, but on the other hand, it really would be nice to have a sane, reasonable, pragmatic Republican Party instead of the MAGA freakshow we actually have. Sigh…
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