Virginia has now reached the stage in its legislative process when Gov. Abigail Spanberger, not lawmakers, has the most work to do.
The Virginia General Assembly session ended sine die Saturday after passing a number of bills long delayed by divided government — plus more legislation on immigration, elections and data centers.
“Sine die is really halftime for the legislative session,” said Ali Ahmad, a senior managing director at PLUS Communications and the former director of policy and legislative affairs for former Gov. Glenn Youngkin. “The General Assembly is sending a lot of complex pieces of legislation to the governor for her 30-day bill review.”
Spanberger has until 11:59 p.m. on Monday, April 13 to sign, veto or amend legislation, and the General Assembly will reconvene on April 22 to consider her actions.
A notable exception is the state budget. The two chambers have yet to agree on a spending plan to back the legislation up, after running through a Thursday procedural deadline to present a budget agreement before a final vote by Saturday.
On Saturday, the General Assembly voted to convene a special session for the budget on April 23.
The overarching theme this year was affordability, which proved to be a highly adjustable concept as legislators described disparate bills, approaches and policies as various means to help more Virginians make ends meet.
Still, state lawmakers killed dozens of bills that would bring in revenue to support their affordability platform, with exceptions including taxes on new gambling and marijuana licensing, a payroll tax to fund paid family and medical leave and a directive to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Reaching agreements until session’s end
Up until the session’s halfway point it appeared that the newly-expanded Democratic majority, now paired with a Democratic governor, would generally change regulations or direct public utilities to attempt to lower costs rather than inject significant state funds into the commonwealth’s economy.
That changed when budget drafts were presented — and the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee proposed ending a tax exemption that saved Virginia’s booming data center industry nearly $2 billion in the last fiscal year. (Virginia’s fiscal years run from July 1–June 30.)
“That’s affordability,” Sen. Louise Lucas (D–Portsmouth) said at the time. Lucas’ position differed from that of both Spanberger and the House of Delegates, who maintain support for the data center exemption.
But the two chambers were able to agree on other major pieces of legislation throughout session:
- raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2028
- protecting contraception access
- extending the period to pay off back rent before eviction
- closing the “boyfriend loophole” for firearm purchases
- prohibiting federal immigration enforcement at courthouses
- legalizing balcony solar installations
On other bills, though, lawmakers debated up until Saturday evening, with last-minute negotiations to reach compromises between the chambers on measures including banning 287(g) agreements with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, establishing a weatherization pilot program, and ending the state’s longstanding ban on collective bargaining rights for public sector employees.
But bills regulating iGaming and centralizing other gambling regulations had differences that senators and delegates were not able to resolve.
The legislation going to Spanberger has already gone through a number of filters, said Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington.
“When you have a big Democratic majority, you do not need to keep every member happy all the time,” he said, referring to the House’s 64-seat majority. “That Democratic majority in the House gives the speaker, and the governor, the means of keeping things away from the governor that the governor doesn’t want to see.”
As Spanberger considers signing, amending or vetoing bills, she will have the moving target of a budget that is up in the air to consider.
“In many ways, we’re talking about kind of an Incomplete for this Legislature, because there is still no budget, and that’s one of the key things the Legislature has to do. There is still a lot of uncertainty about the shape of the year ahead,” said Farnsworth.
Ahmad said the legislation Spanberger now has in front of her is also particularly complex.
“You’ve got marijuana, you’ve got skill games, you’ve got casino legislation — which is all very complex and going to require the governor to do a lot of additional work and engage with a lot of additional stakeholders in order to get it to a good place,” he said. “This could easily be a year where there’s a lot of important issues still on the table all the way until June.”
Copyright 2026 VPM
