The General Assembly has adjourned, next is the 'veto session'

The Virginia General Assembly adjourned its regular session on Saturday with a budget and more than one thousand pieces of legislation still to be signed or vetoed by the Governor.

So, what’s next?

“While the General Assembly has put in long hours and a lot of hard work over the past few weeks, the work is not done,” Lieutenant Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears said in a statement on Saturday.

The budget and more than 1,000 pieces of legislation that passed the General Assembly will be reviewed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin over the next 30 days.

On April 17, the General Assembly will reconvene in a special session, often referred to as a “veto session,” to consider the governor’s action on legislation.

While the budget that passed both chambers in the General Assembly looked considerably different from the governor’s proposed budget – tax cuts had been removed and additional funds were added to support education – Youngkin will have the final say through a line-item veto.

Battle lines have been drawn

Youngkin has signaled that the version of the budget sent back to him could be veto-heavy once he’s finished with it.

“The General Assembly sent me more than a thousand bills plus backward budgets that need a lot of work. We’re going to have a busy 30 days going into the reconvene session,” he said in a statement on Saturday and again in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday.

Democratic leaders of both chambers were quick to respond to the Republican Governor’s assertion that their budget was “backwards.”

Senate President Pro tempore Louise Lucas, fired back in a post on X on Monday.

“Governor Youngkin with his corporate raider mentality would weaken Virginia’s government if he was left to his own devices. His budget was not structurally balanced. He would starve the future by not funding K-12 appropriately,” she said. “Youngkin had the real ‘backwards budget.’”

Speaker of the House of Delegates Don Scott also had strong words for the governor.

“Newsflash: In the house of delegates the budget was bi-partisan with 11 Republicans voting for this historic budget,” he said in a post on X on Monday. “With leadership like this, no wonder so many Republicans joined Democrats to vote for a responsible budget.”

The General Assembly can override each of the governor's line-item vetoes in the budget if they are able to achieve a two-thirds supermajority in both chambers.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: The Virginia General Assembly will reconvene for a special session