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Steve Martin: Legislative update

Steve Martin: Legislative update

The 2014 session of the Virginia General Assembly entered the home stretch this week, as negotiations to iron-out differences between the House and Senate versions of the state’s biennial budget began. Of course, the budget isn’t the only legislation under consideration. There are still a few hundred bills on which action must be taken prior to the scheduled March 8 adjournment.

There has been…

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[virginiatowncrier]

Democrats took control of the Virginia Senate Tuesday with help from a new senator who had eked out an 11-vote victory in a recount the day before, bolstering the party’s sway in a divided Capitol while inflaming Republicans who saw the move as an off-year power grab.

Drawing on parliamentary procedures dating to the days of Jefferson, as well as fresh memories of Republican power plays in Senate reorganization and redistricting, Democrats remade committees to give the party control over what legislation dies and what gets to the floor for a full vote.

Democrats intend to use their new brawn to advance the prospects of Medicaid expansion and to bring back some bills killed in committees earlier in the General Assembly session, including measures that would ban discrimination against gays and make the children of illegal immigrants eligible for in-state tuition at Virginia colleges.

Kicking Republicans off crucial panels, Democrats gave themselves chairmanships of every panel and majorities on all but two — relatively inconsequential ones that the GOP had stacked with Democrats for the past two years.

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~ The Washington Post