Virginia Senate Democrats to Use New Majority to Revive Bills Killed by GOP

Virginia Capitol

As noted on Tuesday, Virginia Senate Democrats have used GOP enacted rules to take over control of Senate committees and now plan to revive bills previously killed by Republicans earlier in the 2014 session of the Virginia General Assembly.  While revived bills will still have to clear the House of Delegates which is controlled by some of the most insane Republicans in Virginia, with Senate control with the Democrats, to pass anything into law, the Virginia GOP will now have to compromise - among some of the bills to be revived are gay friendly bills.  This, of course will drive the Christofascists and Tea Party loons of the GOP base into hysterics.  It ought to make for interesting entertainment.  Here are excerpts from a piece in the Roanoke Times:

There was a lot of political theater on the floor of the Virginia Senate on Tuesday when Democrats used the lieutenant governor’s tie-breaking vote to wrestle control of the evenly divided chamber from Republicans.

Democrats — now installed as chairs on all 11 Senate committees, nine of which feature majorities — are expected to try to revive some legislation that was defeated earlier in the session when Republicans were in control.

Among the bills that could be given new life is a measure to codify the inclusion of gay and transgender Virginians as part of the state’s nondiscrimination hiring policy. SB 248 failed in the General Laws Committee last week on a 7-7 vote. The committee now has eight Democrats and seven Republicans.

Likewise, a bill to provide in-state tuition to the children of undocumented immigrants, the so-called “Dream Act,” is also expected to be revived in the Democrat-fattened Senate Education and Health Committee, where it was defeated last week on a 7-6 party-line vote.

And gun control bills like SB 520, which was defeated Monday in the Courts of Justice Committee, could also be resurrected with a new, 9-6 Democratic majority on the panel.

With 20 members in the 40-member Senate and the vote of Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, Democrats could also defeat bills on the Senate floor that have already advanced thanks to earlier GOP committee majorities.

In most cases, the Democrats’ successes could be short-lived, given the GOP-dominant House of Delegates. But passage in the Senate would provide material for Democratic campaign brochures in the upcoming 2015 Senate elections, when the GOP is expected to mount a significant campaign to again shift the balance of power.