Capitol briefs: Panel to again consider welfare drug-screening bill

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The House of Delegates again is expected to take up a bill to require an ultrasound before an abortion.

Senate Republicans lack the votes to pass a state budget

Chances for a bipartisan accord on a Senate version of the budget by Thursday's deadline looked bleak Tuesday after Senate Republicans dismissed a Democratic proposal to reshuffle Senate committees in exchange for the necessary votes.

The dispute is fallout from a partisan fight over power-sharing in an evenly split Senate. Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a Republican, cast a disputed tiebreaking 21st vote that gave the GOP the majority, though Democrats and Republicans each hold 20 seats.

Senate Democratic Leader Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax and Democratic Caucus chairman A. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico, on Friday proposed Democratic and Republican co-chairs of the budget-writing Senate Finance Committee, with Republicans chairing all other committees.

In a stinging rejection, Senate Republican Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-James City, said he won't "link the budget to partisan, political pressures" and would consider Democratic votes against the budget to be "deliberate obstructionist behavior."

"... (I)t was disheartening to read your letter and see there were absolutely no policy concerns expressed, only raw partisan, political objectives having absolutely nothing to do with the budget," Norment wrote in a letter dated Monday and released to journalists Tuesday.

Without at least one Democrat siding with them in Thursday's floor vote, the Republicans can't muster the majority to pass their plan for funding state government for the two years beginning July 1. The Virginia Constitution bars a lieutenant governor from breaking a tied Senate vote on budget issues, and the bill would die on a tie vote.

House money panel to again consider a drug-screening bill

A Senate measure to screen some welfare recipients for drugs was sent Tuesday to the House of Delegates' money committee — the same panel that voted to carry over a House version of the measure to 2013.

The House Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee on Tuesday reported Senate Bill 6, sponsored by Sen. Stephen H. Martin, R-Chesterfield, out of committee 14-8 and referred it to the House Appropriations Committee.

That panel pushed off a similar House measure to allow more time to study its potential costs — pegged at $1.3 million out of the general fund in the first year and about $1 million annually after that.

Senate panel defers candidacy requirement until next year

The Senate Privileges and Elections Committee Tuesday carried over to 2013 a measure that would have required candidates for public office to be in compliance with campaign finance disclosure regulations in order to be placed on a ballot.

House Bill 59, sponsored by Del. Mark L. Cole, R-Spotsylvania, would stipulate that to be on the ballot a candidate would have to have filed all campaign finance reports and satisfied all civil and criminal penalties imposed under the Campaign Finance Disclosure Act.

Senators who had rejected a similar Senate bill earlier in the session expressed concerns that candidates could be disqualified for violations about which they could be unaware, and said the legislation would add a regulation that is not covered by the Virginia Constitution.

From staff and wire reports.