---
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).