All 140 members of the Virginia House of Delegates and the state Senate will be back in Richmond Wednesday. They'll take action on all the governor's amendments, including a historic number of budget amendments.
Democrats who control the Virginia House of Delegates seem likely to reject the crush of budget amendments from Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin. Some of them might not even need a vote.
"The speaker is in a very, very primary role in a reconvene session because he can rule amendments non-germane, he can rule amendments to be non-specific or non-severable," says Bill Leighty — the former chief of staff for two governors. "So, he can basically rule a lot of things out of order without a vote ever being taken."
This is the first reconvene session for Speaker of the House Don Scott, who has the power to reject most if not all of the governor's budget amendments. That puts the governor in a position to potentially veto the entire budget.
"The advantage there is with the governor," says former Republican Governor Jim Gilmore. He says if Youngkin decides to veto the budget, he might benefit from the spotlight.
"I think the governor does have leverage because if he vetoes the budget, he could bring them back and that will thrust him into the national spotlight. That would be national news."
No Virginia governor has vetoed the budget – at least not in recent memory – but if that were to happen, lawmakers would have to return to the Capitol for a special session to resolve their differences before the beginning of the next fiscal year, which starts on July 1st.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
