Water in the Virginia General Assembly
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News Articles on Water in the General Assembly
Tracking Legislation and Voicing Your Opinion
Cartoon by George Wills
At this site, the Water Center maintains inventories of water-related measures considered by the Virginia General Assembly in various years. Please click on the link below to download the most recent edition of the 2012 water-related legislation file. See the column to the right for older archives.
Each year's inventory lists measures that dealt with water resources or with land activities with a relatively direct impact on water. The inventory also includes some bills that may affect water resources indirectly, such as certain bills about air pollution, electricity generation, or transportation. The inventories come from the Virginia Legislative Information System (LIS) Web site. Most measures are located by searching the following LIS subject categories: Budget; Conservation; Energy Conservation and Resources; Fisheries and Habitat of Tidal Waters; Game, Inland Fisheries and Boating; Mining; Water and Sewer Systems; and Waters of the State, Ports and Harbors.
2012 Inventory of Water Related Bills
(Second Edition: February 16, 2012)
Key Dates in the 2012 General Assembly
January 11 General Assembly convenes.
January 22 All bills and joint resolutions must be filed with clerk by 5:00 p.m.
February 14 Committees responsible for revenue bills to complete work. Each house to complete work on its own legislation except for its own Budget Bills.
February 17 Each house to complete work on its own revenue bills.
February 19 Committees responsible for Budget Bills to complete work by midnight.
February 23 Each house to complete work on its own Budget Bill.
February 28 Committees considering revenue bills of other house to complete work.
February 29 Each house to complete work on the other house’s Budget Bill and revenue bills and appoint budget conferees.
March 3 First conference on revenue bills to complete work.
March 6 First conference on Budget Bill to complete work.
March 8 Budget Bill conference report due by noon; last day to put bills in conference.
March 9 Only conference reports and certain joint resolutions can be considered.
March 10 Adjournment sine die.
April 18 Reconvened (“veto”) session.
The full session calendar is available online at http://legis.virginia.gov/1_home/session_dates_times.html (in this chart, look for “2012 Session Calendar”).
For a selection of online news articles about water-related legislation in the 2012 General Assembly, please visit the Virginia Water Central News Grouper at http://vawatercentralnewsgrouper.wordpress.com/category/2012-virginia-general-assembly/.
Links to other organizations' updates on natural resource legislation in the 2012 Virginia General Assembly:
Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries
Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts
Tracking Legislation and Voicing Your Opinion
For current information about the General Assembly (including lists and summaries of all bills, budget information, member information, committee schedules, and more) visit the Legislative Information System (LIS) Web site at http://leg1.state.va.us. Also, according to the “Who to Contact” page at the General Assembly’s Web site (http://legis.virginia.gov/), you may check on a bill’s status by phone. During the legislative session only, you may phone (804) 698-1470 for either the House of Delegates or Senate. At all times, you may phone (804) 698-1500 or toll-free (877) 391-FACT for the House Legislative Information Office, and (804) 698-7410 or toll-free (888) 892-6948 for the Senate Legislative Information Office.
For expressing an opinion on legislation, citizens are requested to contact their respective Delegate of Senator. If you do not know your representatives or their contact information, you can find out use the online “Who’s My Legislator” service, available at http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform. You can lists, phone numbers, and links to e-mail and Web sites of General Assembly members online at these links:
House of Delegates: http://dela.state.va.us/dela/MemBios.nsf/MWebsiteTL?OpenView;
Senate: http://apps.lis.virginia.gov/sfb1/Senate/TelephoneList.aspx.
Or, if you know the number of your legislative districts, you can also use the following code to identify your representatives’ Capitol phone numbers: for delegates, (804) 698-10 + district number (for example, 698-1003 for the District 3 delegate); for senators, (804) 698-75 + district number (for example, 698-7510 for the District 10 senator).
Various services are available for following legislation during a General Assembly session. Virginia’s Legislative Tracking Service allows tracking up to five bills in one “profile”; online registration is at www.virginia.gov/liab/cgi-bin/liab_signup.cgi; for assistance, phone (804) 786-4718 or (877) 482-3468 (toll free). The Lobbyist-In-A-Box subscriber service also offers free tracking for up to five bills, and it offers tracking of more than five bills for a fee; visit http://lis.virginia.gov/h015.htm, or for assistance, phone (804) 786-9631.