The 2023 Virginia General Assembly session starts next week! Here’s a quick preview of what we expect.

2023 is an election year for the entire 140 member General Assembly, so legislators will focus much of their effort on legislative issues that will benefit them at the polls in November. It is also not a budget year and a short session, so things will move quickly with a budget process not expected to take three additional months (as was the case in 2022). The chambers are divided politically: the House is 52-48 Republican and the Senate is 21-18* Democrat. This is a bit of a challenging landscape for advancing bold legislation.

On top of that, special elections and vacant seats are complicating the legislature’s makeup further. Representative Donald McEachin died late last year, and state senator Jennifer McClellan will be the Democratic nominee in the special election for that seat on February 24, shortly before the end of the General Assembly. * State Senator Jen Kiggans was elected to Congress in November, and the special election for her vacated seat is January 10, the day before the start of session. The results of that special election will give us a 21-19 D-controlled Senate, or a 22-18 if Democrats are able to flip that seat. Looking ahead briefly to November, the new districts established by the Virginia Supreme Court promise to shuffle the makeup of the next General Assembly as several incumbents from both chambers are set to run against each other.

Virginia Bicycling Federation’s primary legislative focus this year is improving VA’s laws for bicyclists at intersections, both Stop Signs (the Safety Stop) and at signalized intersections (bicyclists to proceed on walk signals, including LPIs). VBF approved its legislative slate in November to include the following items. Not all initiatives will be picked up by a bill patron, but this is where we started and our next update will show what bills materialize this session. Also see our Bill Watcher.

Initiatives – leading role:

  • Safety Stop
  • Bikes proceed on Walk Signal
  • e-Bike Rebates
  • Update 2011 State Bike Plan & 2004 Complete Streets policy
  • Riding Two Abreast

Initiatives – supporting role:

  • Dedicated Trails Funding
  • Dedicated Bike/Ped Funding
  • Vision Zero Resolution
  • Comparative Negligence
  • Expand Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE)
  • Expand 15 mph use
  • Incentivize lower weight for safety, e.g., Increase fees for heavier vehicles

You can watch our legislative preview webinar from last week on our YouTube Channel, and follow progress on bike/ped bills on our Bill Watcher.

Upcoming dates (click for more detailed list):

  • January 11 – Session starts
  • February 7 – Crossover – bills must pass all committees and the floor vote their house of origin before this date in order to cross over to the other chamber
  • February 15 – Last day to appoint budget conferees
  • February 20 – Last chance for committees to vote on bills
  • February 23 – Last chance to vote on bills
  • February 25 – Session adjourns