---
type: "Bill"
title: "Continuity of government; extends period of time that locality may provide after disaster, etc."
description: "Continuity of government. Extends fromsix to 12 months the period of time after an enemy attack or otherdisaster that a locality may, by ordinance, provide for a method toassure continuity in its government and requires the ordinance toprovide a method for the locality to resume normal governmentalauthority by the end of that 12-month period."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2021"
identifier: "SB 1208"
citation: "Virginia SB 1208 (2021)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["George L. Barker"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 21
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2021-01-11"
last_action: "2021-03-18"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/0bcabfdd-8ae3-483f-85b7-90a34ba137da"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+sum+SB1208"
source_hash: "82fc2b281c7aba72daa0129759cc510f8578d53e7c970e6565b1245e81cbbbf3"
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 1208 (2021) — Continuity of government; extends period of time that locality may provide after disaster, etc.

Continuity of government. Extends fromsix to 12 months the period of time after an enemy attack or otherdisaster that a locality may, by ordinance, provide for a method toassure continuity in its government and requires the ordinance toprovide a method for the locality to resume normal governmentalauthority by the end of that 12-month period.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **CHAP0295** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+CHAP0295)
2. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21102240D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1208)
3. **SB1208ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1208ER)

## Votes

- Constitutional reading dispensed (38-Y 0-N) — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Continued to Special Session 1 in Counties, Cities and Towns — **0–0** (fail) · lower
- Read third time and passed Senate (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Counties, Cities and Towns (19-Y 1-N) — **19–1** (pass) · lower
- VOTE: Passage (93-Y 6-N) — **92–6** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Local Government (14-Y 1-N) — **14–1** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- George L. Barker — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2021-01-11** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21102240D `introduction`
- **2021-01-11** Referred to Committee on Local Government `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-18** Reported from Local Government (14-Y 1-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-01-19** Constitutional reading dispensed (38-Y 0-N)
- **2021-01-20** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2021-01-21** Read third time and passed Senate (39-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-02-02** Placed on Calendar
- **2021-02-02** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2021-02-02** Referred to Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns `referral-committee`
- **2021-02-08** Continued to Special Session 1 in Counties, Cities and Towns
- **2021-02-19** Reported from Counties, Cities and Towns (19-Y 1-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-02-23** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2021-02-24** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2021-02-24** Passed House (93-Y 6-N) `passage`
- **2021-02-24** VOTE: Passage (93-Y 6-N)
- **2021-02-26** Enrolled
- **2021-02-26** Signed by Speaker
- **2021-02-27** Signed by President
- **2021-03-01** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on March 1, 2021
- **2021-03-01** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., March 31, 2021
- **2021-03-18** Approved by Governor-Chapter 295 (effective 7/1/21) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/0bcabfdd-8ae3-483f-85b7-90a34ba137da`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).