Yesterday was Crossover Day in the General Assembly. All bills, excluding the budget bills, must pass both the House and Senate in the General Assembly. That means the bills that passed one chamber made their way to the other for what looks to be a few weeks of heated discussion.
Up until this halfway point, so cial issues have primarily domi nated the past few weeks. Not much of the talk has been about the $85 billion budget bill, even though the economy is a hot-button federal issue. Some of the bills that have passed either the House or Senate are ones that have died in previous years but now seem to stand a chance of making it out of the 2012 ses sion.
Here is a recap of some of the issues that have been talked about so far.
-Abortion: The Senate struck down legislation that would ban abortions after 20 weeks while the House passed a bill that would take away money from low-income women expecting a child with deformities.
-Autism: Gov. Bob McDonnell signed legislation, in emergency fashion, to fast track an insur ance measure passed at the end of the 2011 session.
-Weapons: Both the House and Senate approved bills that prohibit areas from requiring fingerprints from concealed-handgun permit applicants. They also passed legislation that would ensure civil immunity for anyone who uses deadly force toward a home intruder.
-Driving: The first test for the anti-texting while driving bill cleared the Senate but looks to have a tough time getting out of the House where similar legisla tion has been run off the road.
-Immigration: The Senate passed a bill that would inquire the citi zenship status to any Virginian arrested while a Senate commit tee killed a bill requiring immi gration checks at traffic stops.
In all, Virginians have seen a bill that would make abortions more costly by adding a manda tory ultrasound, one that would mandate the showing of a prop er identification card in order to cast a vote on Election Day, and the "Tebow law," which would allow home school students to partake in interscholastic sports and pass their first hurdle before heading to the governor's desk.
Why are all of these socially conservative bills making their way to Crossover Day? The Re publicans have control of the House and Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling holds the tie-break ing vote in the split Senate. It is the fact that Democrats in Rich mond do not have enough votes to stop the advancement of these bills targeting issues such as abortion and gay rights.
But what is to come is still in question. Will the Republicans continue to prevail on party line votes? Will the Democrats gain some of the more moder ate conservatives to their side? That will all be answered in the second half of the legislative ses sion in Richmond.
