Legislation: batch E — CA TN VA VT WA WI WV WY

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

legislation/us/states/va/2020/sb-544.md

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+---
+type: "Bill"
+title: "Physician assistant; capacity determinations."
+description: "Advance directives; physician assistants; capacity determinations. Adds physician assistants to the list of healthcare practitioners permitted to determine that a person who has executedan advance directive granting an agent the authority to consent tothe person's admission to a facility, as defined in § 37.2-100,for mental health treatment is incapable of making an informed decisionregarding such admission."
+jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
+legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
+session: "2020"
+identifier: "SB 544"
+citation: "Virginia SB 544 (2020)"
+classification: ["bill"]
+subjects: []
+status: "enacted"
+primary_sponsors: ["John S. Edwards"]
+version_count: 4
+action_count: 29
+vote_count: 6
+first_action: "2020-01-07"
+last_action: "2020-03-10"
+source: "openstates"
+source_identifier: "ocd-bill/10a5d11e-1d0c-4b79-91cb-e312a78b8d08"
+source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+SB544"
+source_hash: "3dedafb3f61748b1de3554d9f467981926787c795b56fb2f4c03106497545b75"
+vintage: "2026-07-01"
+source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
+retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
+confidence: "reported"
+tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
+---
+
+# Virginia SB 544 (2020) — Physician assistant; capacity determinations.
+
+Advance directives; physician assistants; capacity determinations. Adds physician assistants to the list of healthcare practitioners permitted to determine that a person who has executedan advance directive granting an agent the authority to consent tothe person's admission to a facility, as defined in § 37.2-100,for mental health treatment is incapable of making an informed decisionregarding such admission.
+
+## Version chain
+
+The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.
+
+1. **Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0231)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+CHAP0231)
+2. **Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB544ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+SB544ER)
+3. **Engrossed by Senate as amended SB544E** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+SB544E)
+4. **Impact statement from DPB (SB544)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+SB544)
+
+## Votes
+
+- Reported from Health, Welfare and Institutions (22-Y 0-N) — **22–0** (pass) · lower
+- Constitutional reading dispensed (37-Y 0-N) — **37–0** (pass) · upper
+- Reported from Education and Health with amendments (15-Y 0-N) — **15–0** (pass) · upper
+- Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
+- VOTE: Block Vote Passage (98-Y 0-N) — **97–0** (pass) · lower
+- Passed Senate (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
+
+## Sponsors
+
+- John S. Edwards — primary (person)
+- Sam Rasoul — cosponsor (person)
+
+## Timeline
+
+The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.
+
+- **2020-01-07** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/08/20 20102667D `introduction`
+- **2020-01-07** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
+- **2020-01-17** Impact statement from DPB (SB544)
+- **2020-01-27** Assigned Education sub: Health Professions `referral-committee`
+- **2020-02-06** Reported from Education and Health with amendments (15-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
+- **2020-02-07** Constitutional reading dispensed (37-Y 0-N)
+- **2020-02-10** Read second time `reading-2`
+- **2020-02-10** Reading of amendments waived
+- **2020-02-10** Committee amendments agreed to
+- **2020-02-10** Engrossed by Senate as amended SB544E
+- **2020-02-10** Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N)
+- **2020-02-10** Passed Senate (39-Y 0-N) `passage`
+- **2020-02-10** Printed as engrossed 20102667D-E
+- **2020-02-11** Impact statement from DPB (SB544E)
+- **2020-02-13** Placed on Calendar
+- **2020-02-13** Read first time `reading-1`
+- **2020-02-13** Referred to Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions `referral-committee`
+- **2020-02-18** Reported from Health, Welfare and Institutions (22-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
+- **2020-02-20** Read second time `reading-2`
+- **2020-02-21** Read third time `reading-3`
+- **2020-02-21** Passed House BLOCK VOTE (98-Y 0-N) `passage`
+- **2020-02-21** VOTE: Block Vote Passage (98-Y 0-N)
+- **2020-02-26** Enrolled
+- **2020-02-26** Impact statement from DPB (SB544ER)
+- **2020-02-27** Signed by President
+- **2020-02-27** Signed by Speaker
+- **2020-03-04** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on March 4, 2020
+- **2020-03-04** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., March 11, 2020
+- **2020-03-10** Approved by Governor-Chapter 231 (effective 7/1/20) `executive-signature`
+
+## Source
+
+OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/10a5d11e-1d0c-4b79-91cb-e312a78b8d08`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).
+