                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

PREFILING OF BILLS AND RESOLUTIONS (§ 30-19.3)

A. 1. Any member or member-elect of the next regular session of the General
Assembly may prefile bills and resolutions for even-numbered-year regular
sessions beginning the third Monday in November of the preceding year with the
Clerk of the House of Delegates or Senate as appropriate.

   2. Any member or member-elect of the General Assembly may prefile bills and
   resolutions for odd-numbered-year regular sessions beginning the third Monday
   in July of the preceding year with the Clerk of the House of Delegates or
   Senate as appropriate.

   3. Any bill or resolution prefiled shall be endorsed by the handwritten
   signature of at least one member or member-elect as a patron. An electronic
   signature may be substituted for a handwritten signature on prefiled
   legislation as may be approved by each house in accordance with its rules and
   procedures. In no event shall a bill or resolution be prefiled by a member of
   the General Assembly who was not re-elected to the next regular session of the
   General Assembly. The deadline for submitting drafting requests for
   legislation to be prefiled to the Division of Legislative Services and the
   deadline for prefiling legislation with the appropriate Clerk shall be
   established by the procedural resolution adopted by the General Assembly, or
   in default thereof, adopted by the Joint Rules Committee.

B. In the event of the convening of a special session of the General Assembly,
only bills relating to the stated purpose of such special session and
resolutions affecting the rules of procedure or schedule of business of the
General Assembly may be prefiled as provided in subsection A of this section
beginning on the day on which either (i) the Governor announces the date on
which such special session is to convene, or (ii) two-thirds of the members
elected to each house of the General Assembly make application to the Governor
for the convening of such special session.

C. The Clerks of the House of Delegates and Senate shall assign numbers to
prefiled bills and resolutions in the order of their receipt, refer them to the
appropriate committee with the advice of the Speaker of the House of Delegates,
in the case of House bills, and in the case of Senate bills, in accordance with
the Rules of the Senate, and have a sufficient number of them printed for
circulation as provided in this section.

D. Printed prefiled bills and resolutions shall be periodically mailed to each
member and member-elect of the General Assembly and shall be made available to
the press and public in the same manner as bills and resolutions introduced
after the General Assembly convenes.

HISTORY: 1969, Ex. Sess., c. 24; 1973, c. 488; 1981, c. 196; 1987, c. 124; 2001,
cc. 568, 584; 2004, c. 718; 2007, c. 442; 2012, c. 670.