The fun bills of Virginia's 2024 session
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It's quirky bill time.
Driving the news: We scoured through more than 1,500 legislative proposals filed this General Assembly session in search of the slightest chuckle.
Worth noting: Most bills don't actually become law. Of the nearly 3,000 bills filed in both chambers last session, only around 800 or so were signed into law, according to an Axios review.
Here are a few bills that made us giggle:
One of the first bills filed this session would require every high school student to correctly answer at least 70% of the U.S. citizenship test if they want to graduate.
- Most Virginians (70%) would not pass it, according to a national survey from the Institute for Citizens & Scholars.
- On the bright side, that's better than nearly every other state in the U.S.
🎰 House Bill 525/Senate Bill 345
This proposal bans a city from holding a second casino referendum within three years of the first one failing.
- Wonder what inspired this. Any guesses?
If passed, this legislation would allow the state Board of Agriculture to create a management plan for those pesky "free roaming cats" (aka, feral cats) — and allow counties and cities to adopt the plan.
- Our thought bubble: Free-range cats forever. Let the kitties be free!
This would designate the European honey bee as the official state pollinator.
- To be fair, this type of honey bee is one of the most common in Virginia, but we can't help but demand designation for American bees. Like true patriots.
This proposal wants social media companies, like TikTok, to stop letting kids use their platforms when they're supposed to be sleeping.
- If any of the companies intentionally do anyway, they could be forced to pay damages for disrupting a minor's sleep cycle.
Any deer, bear, turkey or elk that "appears to have been killed" in a car crash could be up for the taking to anyone who wants it if this bill is passed.
- Currently, only the driver who killed it has dibs.
- Sabrina's thought bubble: None of those animals would fit in my 2008 Nissan Altima. And I'd try reviving them while sobbing profusely.
This proposal would let people drive golf carts on public rural coastal highways.
- But only if the speed limit is 35 miles per hour or less.
- The fastest golf cart in the world goes up to nearly 120 miles per hour, per Guinness World Records. The average is between 12 and 14 mph.