At the Statehouse: Crossover is Complete as General Assembly Season Nears the End

The halfway mark of the Virginia General Assembly, or Crossover, happened on Tuesday, February 18^th. Crossover is the last day for bills to pass out of the chamber of origin and cross over to the other chamber. From now on this session the Senate may only consider bills that have already passed in the House and the House may only consider bills that have already passed in the Senate.

Speaking generally, more bills survived to crossover in 2026 compared to 2025 by either party that introduced bills. In the current session, 53% of the introduced bills successfully crossed from the House to the Senate and 64% of the introduced bills crossed from the Senate to the House. In both years, the bill pass rate at crossover was substantially greater for Democrats in both chambers.

Click on graphic for more great Crossover 2026 coverage from VPAP.org

 At the time of this writing, there were 142 education bills still being considered by the General Assembly. Of the seven bills that 4 Public Education and the Virginia Grassroots Coalition prioritized for 2026, one is still under consideration: 

HB199: Please answer this Call to action and tell your Senator to Vote YES to allow for a better period of Student Assessment. This bill was passed in the House and is now being considered by the Senate. 

The other bills either already passed in both chambers (HB206, SB33), were continued to the 2027 session (HB92, SB90), or were left in committee (HB279, SB66) 

Virginia’s Budget

In addition to legislative bills, the Delegates, Senators and Governor Spanberger will have an opportunity to review and amend the enrolled budget bill for 2026 and the 2027-2028 budget bill proposed by Governor Youngkin in December 2025. On February 22^nd, the Virginia Delegates and Senators published their proposed amendments to Youngkin’s proposed 2027-2028 bill.

The Commonwealth Institute has assembled the three proposed budgets for easy review. The proposed amendments include: an increase in overall funding for public schools, support for students with disabilities, support for students from low-income families, and support for safer communities and restorative schools. The proposed amendments will be considered by the bipartisan conference committee that has been appointed to develop a single proposed budget for the General Assembly. Only when the House and Senate agree on a budget will they send it to Governor Spanberger who will review it and possibly amend it in light of her administration’s priorities. 

Nearing the End of General Assembly Season

The General Assembly will end its legislative session on March 14, 2026, and Governor Spanberger has until March 24^th to sign, veto or make changes to the bills that have passed in both chambers as well as the budget bill. The legislators will return to Richmond on April 2^nd for a one-day session during which they can accept her changes or override any of her vetoes with a two-thirds majority.