What to Watch for In and How to Keep Up With Virginia’s Legislative Session
Welcome to 2024, and welcome to Virginia’s brand new legislative session! As I wrote in my other recent blog post, Virginia has a part-time legislature, meaning they’re only in session for about ¼ of the year (I had some things to say about that).
Anyway, you may be wondering: how do I keep up with all this? It is, after all, a lot, and in a short span of time. Well, there are several ways.
Non-Partisan Resources
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Your first option is to directly follow bills on Virginia’s Legislative Information System. This system is comprehensive, but also cumbersome–especially if you’re new to this. I would only recommend using LIS if you know *exactly* what you’re looking for, or else you’re gonna end up giving yourself a headache (don’t ask how I know).
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There are other options, though. The Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP) has some great resources on their website that are a little easier to navigate. They’re what I usually use. They also have an app that I have yet to check out, but it’s my understanding that it’s absolutely loaded with a wealth of information on every legislator and every kind of bill (which I believe is new this year).
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UVA’s Center for Politics has some great resources as well. If you want a refresher on how everything works or just a nice landing page for a whole bunch of resources that are neatly organized, I would check them out. There is too much to capture in one screenshot, so I would recommend heading over to the site to see what they have to offer.
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While you’re at it, why not follow your representative? They will be sharing updates throughout session, and, while they won’t be comprehensive, they will be a good place to start. Use this tool to double-check who your representatives are, then follow them on Twitter (I’m not calling it X–Twitter is the only thing I will deadname). Many will use other socials as well, but most often, Twitter is the most up-to-date due to the nature of the platform.
Partisan Resources
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There are too many to do deep-dives into, so here’s a short list of orgs to follow (linked to their twitters, but most use other socials as well):
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Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights (which has a ton of orgs in it that you should follow individually)
You could also follow me! I will be covering lots of stuff during session, but I am only one man, so I won’t be able to get into everything–though I am going to do my best to keep on top of everything while still posting about general disinformation trends.
Session is going to be a lot, but it’s incredibly important. I hope you join me for the ride, but even if you don’t, you should stay informed about what your representatives are up to. How else are we going to hold them to account?