It’s the final stretch of the General Assembly 2025 session! As we enter Week Six the final bills from each chamber will move through committees and conferees will be named to work out the final agreements between each body’s bill versions. As the bill numbers have dwindled down, we have some updates below on those that moved over from the Senate to the House and vice versa.  

It’s Week Five of the General Assembly! Session’s “halftime” or Crossover occurred on Tuesday, where fewer than half of the introduced bills survived. The House and Senate chambers also approved their respective budgets this week. Next, each chamber will convene a committee of conference to work out any differences between the two bills. We expect budget conferees to be named by the middle of next week. Watch the video for key developments from this pivotal legislative week. 

As the General Assembly enters its final days before Crossover, legislators are rushing to pass bills through their originating chambers. “Budget Sunday” will occur on February 2, where the House and Senate money committees will each release their versions of the budget.

This week, much of our focus is on energy. We continue to stress to our legislators is that our lands are a finite resource. As the Commonwealth works up against the clock to meet the goals of the Virginia Clean Economy Act, Virginia Farm Bureau continues to advocate for the siting of solar facilities on existing infrastructure instead of farm- and forestland.

We are filming at the General Assembly today as things are really heating up with only one more week until Crossover. Legislators have until February 4 to get their bills passed through their home chamber, so everyone’s working overtime. A special shout-out to Delegate Webert for letting us use his conference room when there wasn’t enough time to get back to the office to film!

Week Two of the General Assembly is in the books, and things are picking up steam. Committees and subcommittees are now meeting regularly to discuss bills, and several we had an eye on were heard this week. Looking ahead, we’ve got Legislative Day coming up on Monday, February 3. Next week, we will catch up on solar, data centers and water issues.

The 2025 Virginia General Assembly session started on January 8 with an unexpected snag when a Richmond water treatment plant outage forced a brief recess until January 13. Despite this delay, the 45-day session remains on track for substantive legislative work, even if it means weekend sessions.

This session is particularly significant because it’s Governor Youngkin’s final one, with all 100 House seats and three statewide offices — Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General — up for election this fall. On December 18, Youngkin presented his budget amendments for 2024-2026. While we’re pleased to see several Farm Bureau priorities included, we’re still pursuing additional funding for key programs. Tune in for more updates.