3.2 Legislation

• Library: A Guide to Legal Research in Virginia (Virginia CLE) (2021 Ed.)

3.2 LEGISLATION

3.201 Publication.

A. Chapter Law. In the state of Virginia, statutes are initially published as chapter law. Chapter laws are individually printed pamphlets containing only the text of a newly passed law. These resemble slip laws in the federal context. Virginia chapter law can be found on the Virginia Legislative Information System (LIS) website within the searchable Bills & Resolutions database.⁵

B. Session Law. At the end of a legislative session, all individual laws passed during that session are collected chronologically and published in a collection of session law. Like chapter law, the Virginia Acts of Assembly can be found online on the LIS website. The official publication of Virginia session law is the Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The two unofficial publications of Virginia session law are the Virginia Advance Legislative Service published by LexisNexis and West's Virginia Legislative Service published by Thomson Reuters. These publications are available respectively on Lexis and Westlaw.

C. Code. Current Virginia statutes are organized by subject matter in the statutory Code of Virginia. There are currently two printed editions of the Code. The Code of Virginia 1950, Annotated, published by LexisNexis, has been adopted as the state's official code. The unofficial code is West's Annotated Code of Virginia, published by Thomson Reuters.⁶

3.202 Legislative History. Legislative history refers to the proceedings leading to the enactment of a statute, including hearings, committee reports, and floor debates. Some jurisdictions record legislative history so that it can later be used to aid in or influence interpretations of the statute.⁷ This is the case for federal legislation where record of deliberations and the reports of the commissions and committees of the United States Congress are preserved. For the state of Virginia, however, transcripts of floor debates or committee discussions about a bill are not maintained. Nonetheless, there are still a variety of sources a researcher may use to glean the legislative intent of particular pieces of legislation. The following paragraphs list sources available to a researcher of Virginia legislative history.

A. Legislative Draft Files. The Division of Legislative Services maintains legislative draft files for all bills after 1989. These files are created by the Division of Legislative Services' staff when the request to draft a bill is received. They may contain any of the following information about a particular legislative draft: the final draft of the bill, copies showing substantive drafting changes, the bill request, correspondence between the Division of Legislative Services' staff and the requester, and background information or materials which explain the proposal. Effective July 1, 2017, the Virginia Code was amended to state that legislative draft files are the property of the requester and are to be released only with the specific approval of the requester.⁸ A request for a legislative draft file may be made to the Reference Center Director for the Division of Legislative Services.⁹

B. Video Recordings of Floor Proceedings. Beginning with the 2017 Regular Session, video recordings of the House and Senate floor proceedings are available for viewing online.¹⁰ Prior floor proceedings were recorded beginning in 1982 and are available for viewing or for purchase through the Clerk's office of each house. The Library of Virginia's archives also contain House floor recordings, although not Senate, since 1982.

C. House and Senate Journals. The daily transactions or proceedings of the General Assembly are recorded chronologically in bound annual volumes of the House Journal and the Senate Journal. Incorporated is information from legislative calendars, committee minutes, and a detailed account of floor activities, including roll call votes. Brief statements on the action are sometimes quoted, such as "an emergency exists and this bill will become effective immediately." Both the House and Senate Journal volumes contain useful appendices and indexes to assist in locating relevant passages. While these journals are useful to determine the specific voting record for legislation, they do not contain committee reports, the text of bills, or floor debates. The Journals are published in cooperation with the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.

D. Legislative Studies. Legislative studies are another potential source of legislative history. These studies are created by specially appointed subcommittees, permanent commissions, or state agencies who have been charged by the General Assembly and Governor to research a particular topic and report on their findings and, at times, recommendations. Legislative studies can be found in the database of Reports to the General Assembly through Virginia's LIS website.¹¹ The activities of legislative study commissions and joint subcommittees are reflected in the Virginia Legislative Record. The Virginia Legislative Record can be found on the Division of Legislative Services website.¹²

Although the sources listed above may enable the researcher to learn of the history of a legislative enactment, they often lack expressions of legislative intent. Thus, it is often necessary to rely on general principles of statutory construction to determine legislative intent in Virginia. The following paragraphs outline the legislative process and list the primary sources of the documentation of legislative actions in the commonwealth.

3.203 Creation of Legislation.

A. Bills as Introduced; Engrossed Bills. Prior to 1971, the General Assembly held biennial sessions with an occasional extra or special session in...