---
type: "Bill"
title: "Adoption by relative; expands the applicability of procedures."
description: "Expands the applicability of adoption procedures for a child's close relatives to all of the child's adult relatives, including stepparents, stepbrothers or stepsisters, and all other adult relatives of the child by marriage or adoption."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2019"
identifier: "HB 2208"
citation: "Virginia HB 2208 (2019)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Minors", "Welfare (Social Services)"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Emily M. Brewer"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 24
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2019-01-08"
last_action: "2019-03-14"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/a1bd44c4-787f-4d36-a15a-62d94959d2be"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+sum+HB2208"
source_hash: "5b9a19ced877c5baf2032511436c2dd6a1e632e572788ea2f61a0d2bd3647594"
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 HB 2208 (2019) — Adoption by relative; expands the applicability of procedures.

Expands the applicability of adoption procedures for a child's close relatives to all of the child's adult relatives, including stepparents, stepbrothers or stepsisters, and all other adult relatives of the child by marriage or adoption.

## Version chain

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

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0377)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+CHAP0377)
2. **House subcommittee amendments and substitutes adopted** (committee substitute) — [source](https://committees.lis.virginia.gov/subcommitteeaction.aspx?ses=191&bil=HB2208)
3. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB2208ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2208ER)
4. **House: Committee substitute printed 19105799D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2208H1)
5. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19101194D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2208)
6. **Senate amendments engrossed** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+amd+HB2208ASE)

## Votes

- Reported from Health, Welfare and Institutions with substitute — **22–0** (pass) · lower
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **97–0** (pass) · lower
- Passed Senate with amendments — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Senate amendments agreed to by House — **99–1** (pass) · lower
- Passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · lower
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute — **10–0** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Rehabilitation and Social Services with amendments — **15–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Emily M. Brewer — primary (person)
- David A. Reid — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-01-08** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19101194D `introduction`
- **2019-01-08** Referred to Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-16** Assigned HWI sub: Subcommittee #2 `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-31** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2019-02-01** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2019-02-01** Committee substitute agreed to 19105799D-H1
- **2019-02-01** Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB2208H1
- **2019-02-04** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (97-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2019-02-04** Reconsideration of passage agreed to by House
- **2019-02-04** Passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2019-02-05** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2019-02-05** Referred to Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-07** Assigned Rehab sub: Subcommittee #2 `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-19** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2019-02-19** Reading of amendments waived
- **2019-02-19** Committee amendments agreed to
- **2019-02-19** Engrossed by Senate as amended
- **2019-02-20** Senate amendments agreed to by House (99-Y 1-N)
- **2019-02-22** Enrolled
- **2019-02-22** Signed by Speaker
- **2019-02-22** Signed by President
- **2019-03-04** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 4, 2019
- **2019-03-04** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 26, 2019
- **2019-03-14** Approved by Governor-Chapter 377 (effective 7/1/19) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/a1bd44c4-787f-4d36-a15a-62d94959d2be`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).