Long day at the General Assembly as both chambers frequently
recessed to allow time for conference committees to meet and to facilitate
communication between the chambers.
The Senate and house have adopted the conference reports on
Senator Stuart's SB 532 and Delegate Cole's HB 134, the diabetes bills. The outcome was good for VEA, and if you want
to see the impact of lobbying and perfecting in committee, contrast the
introduced bill and the adopted conference report. VEA, VASS, VSBA and the lobbyists from the
various school divisions (the ducks) all worked on these two. They went from being bills we opposed to ones
we can applaud.
Both chambers go back into session on Saturday at 10, when the
conference reports on SOL reform and A-F school grading should be heard.
The Governor is calling for the special session on the budget on
March 24th. This should make
for a most interesting VEA Convention for your GR staff.
