---
type: "Bill"
title: "Commercial driver's licenses; military service members."
description: "Commercial driver's licenses; military service members."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2019"
identifier: "HB 2551"
citation: "Virginia HB 2551 (2019)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Armed Forces", "Motor Vehicles"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Robert M. \"Bob\" Thomas, Jr."]
version_count: 3
action_count: 17
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2019-01-09"
last_action: "2019-02-27"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/a8881109-4654-4df5-aa41-45ff4632ab69"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+sum+HB2551"
source_hash: "b05e6d18870fe2274d7547c64af0b11ad785aa614f971a7fdc14e38501758caa"
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 2551 (2019) — Commercial driver's licenses; military service members.

## Version chain

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

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0161)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+CHAP0161)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB2551ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2551ER)
3. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19103408D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2551)

## Votes

- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Transportation — **22–0** (pass) · lower
- Passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · lower
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **98–0** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Subcommittee recommends reporting — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Transportation — **13–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Robert M. "Bob" Thomas, Jr. — primary (person)
- Chris L. Hurst — cosponsor (person)
- Christopher P. Stolle — cosponsor (person)
- Elizabeth R. Guzman — cosponsor (person)
- Mark L. Cole — cosponsor (person)
- Scott A. Surovell — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-01-09** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19103408D `introduction`
- **2019-01-09** Referred to Committee on Transportation `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-18** Assigned Transportation sub: Subcommittee #3 `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-28** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2019-01-29** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2019-01-30** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (98-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2019-01-30** Reconsideration of passage agreed to by House
- **2019-01-30** Passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2019-01-31** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2019-01-31** Referred to Committee on Transportation `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-11** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2019-02-14** Enrolled
- **2019-02-14** Signed by Speaker
- **2019-02-14** Signed by President
- **2019-02-18** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on February 18, 2019
- **2019-02-18** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 26, 2019
- **2019-02-27** Approved by Governor-Chapter 161 (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/a8881109-4654-4df5-aa41-45ff4632ab69`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).