Category: Legislative Highlights

The disAbility Law Center of Virginia is a private nonprofit organization, dedicated to advancing the rights of people with disabilities in Virginia.  The dLCV may educate policymakers about the impact of proposed legislation. We urge you to let us know if there is an important issue or proposal that you think we should know about. ...

The Virginia Legislature will be considering many bills and budget amendments relating to the Commonwealth’s mental health services system.  There are several bills that suggest changes to the process for obtaining treatment through an emergency custody order, temporary detention order and involuntary commitment. Currently, a person in a mental health crisis can be held for...

Proposed amendments to the Governor’s budget proposal must be submitted by 5 pm today. There are more than 1000 bills being considered by the Virginia House of Delegates and nearly 600 by the Virginia Senate, plus hundreds of proposed resolutions in both chambers.  We are tracking as many of the disability-related bills as we can,...

The session began yesterday and already it is busy!  Committees are meeting to consider bills assigned to them – you can find the schedule of committee meetings and other useful information about the session at http://leg1.state.va.us. The disAbility Law Center of Virginia may educate policymakers about the impact of proposed legislation. There are a number...

The legislative session begins today.  During the session and throughout the year, the disAbility Law Center is available to assist legislators and other policymakers in understanding the implications of legislative proposals for people with disabilities.  The dLCV is a private nonprofit organization that advocates and advances the rights of people with disabilities in Virginia. There...

The disAbility Law Center is a private nonprofit organization that advocates and advances the rights of people with disabilities in Virginia.  The dLCV is available to assist legislators and other policymakers in understanding the implications of legislative proposals for people with disabilities. The General Assembly session begins at noon on January 8, 2014.  If you...

Final Update from 2013 House Bill 1844 was approved by both the House and the Senate and now goes to the Governor. The bill eliminates or updates certain code references and provides for the transfer of records and physical property to the new protection and advocacy organization. The General Assembly must complete the committee work on...

House Bill 1844 was approved by the Senate Committee on Education and Health today. The bill is in support of VOPA’s transition to a private non profit. The bill eliminates or updates certain code references and provides for the transfer of records and physical property to the new protection and advocacy organization. It now goes to...

Each house has now completed work on the bills that started in that house. They now begin work on bills that started in the other house. The exception is the budget. Both houses are working on their own version of the budget bill this week. Advocates for people with disabilities and for people living in...

Wednesday, February 6th is “crossover.” On that day, each house of the General Assembly may consider only bills that originated in the other house. If a bill has not been approved by its house of origin by Tuesday, the bill will not proceed. If you know of a bill or a budget item of particular...