General Assembly 2023 Recap

As the Virginia General Assembly approaches its scheduled adjournment for the regular session, the budget has still not been agreed upon and it seems unlikely to happen in the immediate future. The House and Senate versions remain roughly $1 billion apart.  

If the House and Senate both recess on Feb. 25, they likely plan to complete the budget in the next few weeks. If they adjourn, that will mean they plan to hold a special session in the Spring and the budget will not be complete for at least a month or more.  

While the General Assembly hasn’t quite finished its job this session, a lot was accomplished, and thousands of pieces of legislation were presented and heard.  

Your League read through the bills filed this session and tracked around 100 that were of particular interest to credit unions. Approximately half of these bills ultimately passed and half of them failed, but we are happy to report that all the bills we actively supported passed and all the legislation we actively opposed failed.  

Below is a breakdown of our highest priority bills: 

Supported Legislation:

Passed unopposed by House and Senate. HB1727 - Credit unions; virtual currency custody services. This legislation allows credit unions to engage in virtual currency custody services. VACUL testified on this legislation while in committee. We actively lobbied for this legislation with member credit unions on Credit Union Day in Richmond.  

Passed House and Senate. HB1411/SB1320 Virginia Community Development Financial Institutions Fund and Program; codifies Fund, etc.  This legislation codifies the Virginia Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. Both the House and Senate have included roughly $5million in their budgets.  VACUL testified in support of this legislation in committees.  

Passed with VACUL supported Amended Language. - SB1144/HB2063 Guardian ad litem; appointment, requested information, records, or reports. This legislation requires financial institutions to provide information and records to court appointed guardian ad litems. The original version of the bill required production in 5 days and assessed attorneys’ fees if the deadline was missed. VACUL worked with both bill patrons and other stakeholders to amend the language of the bill and remove reporting deadline requirement and potential attorneys’ fees penalty.  

Opposed Legislation: 

Not Filed. Interchange sales tax exemption – legislation was considered that would have required credit card processors to refund the portion of interchange fees tied to sales tax. VACUL met with a potential patron of this legislation where we discussed the harm and logistical impossibilities of this legislation. Due to our and others’ efforts we were able to prevent this legislation from being introduced this session. 

Failed in committee. HB 2116 Employment; restrictions on use of credit report for employment purposes.  This legislation would have prohibited employers from pulling credit scores for employment purposes. VACUL testified in committee requesting that financial institutions be exempt from the legislation. The bill was amended to exempt financial institutions and ultimately failed in committee.  

Failed in Committee. HB 2485 Operators of automated teller machines and similar electronic terminals; registration required. This bill would have required registrations for ATMs and caps on ATM fees.  VACUL worked with the patron during her drafting of the bill to ensure credit unions were exempted from the legislation.  This bill ultimately failed in committee.  

Failed in committee.  SB 949 C-PACE loans; residential dwellings and condominiums. This legislation would have allowed for residential PACE loans in Virginia.  VACUL met with the patron of this legislation and voiced our concerns and its negative impact on homeowners. VACUL testified in opposition to this legislation in committee where it ultimately failed.   

Listed below are the bills we tracked that passed both the House and Senate. They'll go to the governor for his signature. If approved by the governor, they become law. In some cases, the chambers passed different versions of a bill (perhaps one passed a substitute or it may have had amended language). In this case, the chambers must agree to the same language for the bill. This may require the measures' differences be ironed out by a conference committee. If ultimately agreed to by the two chambers, the final legislation would be forwarded to the governor for his signature.