Senator Obenshain Statement on 2021 General Assembly Session

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Jennifer Aulgur

PHONE: (540) 437-1451

Senator Obenshain Statement on Limiting 2021 Session

Supports Limit of 30 days mandated by Constitution of Virginia

HARRISONBURG – Today, Senator Mark D. Obenshain (R-Rockingham) made the following statement echoing the call of House Republican Minority Leader Delegate Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) and Senator Minority Leader Tommy Norment (R-James City) to limit the 2021 Session to Constitution-mandated 30 days.

“I join Delegate Gilbert and Senator Norment in their call to limit the 2021 Session to 30 days. The Constitution requires a two-thirds concurrence to extend the Session and the Republican Caucuses in the House and Senate will not be voting for that,” Senator Obenshain said.

Obenshain continued, “While in the recent past, it has become the norm to extend this “short session” from 30 to 45 days, this year has been anything but normal. Given that our 2020 regular Session lasted 65 days and the Special Session lasted 84 days, we are at risk of veering away from our citizen legislator model. As elected officials, we are accountable to our constituents and if we continue to extend our sessions, we are effectively creating a full-time legislature and another rank of career politicians here in Virginia.”

“Unlike our friends in DC, in Virginia, our legislators have to come home and live and operate businesses under the laws we pass. While some of my Democrat colleagues have been pressing for a full-time legislature, I believe that we must stand strongly in opposition to further movement in that direction.”

“Further, the Governor’s new COVID restrictions are arbitrarily limiting gatherings and may very well be calculated to prevent the General Assembly from meeting in person and limiting citizen access to legislators. In light of this uncertainty, the General Assembly should convene in January to deal only with essential issues and leave all of the pet projects, posturing, and so-called brochure bills until the 2022 session.” Obenshain concluded.

Senator Obenshain represents the twenty-sixth district in the Virginia Senate. The district includes the city of Harrisonburg and the counties of Warren, Shenandoah, Page, Rappahannock and Rockingham (part).

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