---
type: "Bill"
title: "Emergency relief payments; automatic exemption from creditor process."
description: "Automatic exemption of emergency relief payments during a state of emergency; emergency. Automatically exempts from the creditor process emergency relief payments, as defined in the bill, paid to individuals and businesses during a state of emergency declared by the Governor. The bill further requires a financial institution receiving such payments directly from a governing body to set aside such payment as exempt from the creditor process under certain circumstances. The bill provides that, if a financial institution does not set aside such payments as exempt, the accountholder receiving such payments must claim the exemption. The bill contains an emergency clause."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2020specialI"
identifier: "HB 5068"
citation: "Virginia HB 5068 (2020specialI)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: []
version_count: 6
action_count: 44
vote_count: 10
first_action: "2020-08-18"
last_action: "2020-10-28"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/0bca660f-0d79-4f2c-8af5-9e06b6598f83"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+sum+HB5068"
source_hash: "4b2834bec70ed744feee4b19c6e5c341af586acbeec8c55527f49ae251b6e16c"
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 5068 (2020specialI) — Emergency relief payments; automatic exemption from creditor process.

Automatic exemption of emergency relief payments during a state of emergency; emergency. Automatically exempts from the creditor process emergency relief payments, as defined in the bill, paid to individuals and businesses during a state of emergency declared by the Governor. The bill further requires a financial institution receiving such payments directly from a governing body to set aside such payment as exempt from the creditor process under certain circumstances. The bill provides that, if a financial institution does not set aside such payments as exempt, the accountholder receiving such payments must claim the exemption. The bill contains an emergency clause.

## Version chain

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

1. **Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0039)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+ful+CHAP0039)
2. **Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB5068ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+ful+HB5068ER)
3. **Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB5068H1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+ful+HB5068)
4. **Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB5068H1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+ful+HB5068H1)
5. **Engrossed by Senate- floor substitute HB5068S2** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+ful+HB5068S2)
6. **HB5068S1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+ful+HB5068S1)

## Votes

- Senate insisted on substitute (34-Y 2-N) — **34–2** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Agreed To (83-Y 14-N) — **82–14** (pass) · lower
- VOTE: (82-Y 16-N) — **81–16** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Finance and Appropriations (14-Y 0-N 2-A) — **14–0** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (36-Y 0-N) — **36–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute (21-Y 0-N) — **21–0** (pass) · lower
- Passed Senate with substitute (36-Y 4-N) — **36–4** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Rejected (66-Y 27-N) — **65–27** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Judiciary with substitute (9-Y 0-N) — **9–0** (pass) · upper
- Conference report agreed to by Senate (36-Y 3-N) — **36–3** (pass) · upper

## Timeline

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

- **2020-08-18** Prefiled and ordered printed with emergency clause; offered 08/18/20 20200825D `introduction`
- **2020-08-18** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2020-08-18** Introduced bill reprinted 20200825D
- **2020-08-26** House committee, floor amendments and substitutes offered
- **2020-08-26** Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute (21-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-08-26** Committee substitute printed 20201042D-H1 `substitution`
- **2020-08-28** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2020-09-03** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2020-09-03** Committee substitute agreed to 20201042D-H1
- **2020-09-03** Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB5068H1
- **2020-09-04** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (82-Y 16-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2020-09-04** VOTE: (82-Y 16-N)
- **2020-09-09** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2020-09-09** Referred to Committee on the Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2020-09-16** Reported from Judiciary with substitute (9-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-09-16** Committee substitute printed 20201176D-S1 `substitution`
- **2020-09-16** Rereferred to Finance and Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2020-09-24** Reported from Finance and Appropriations (14-Y 0-N 2-A) `committee-passage`
- **2020-09-25** Constitutional reading dispensed (36-Y 0-N)
- **2020-10-01** Passed by temporarily
- **2020-10-01** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2020-10-01** Committee substitute rejected
- **2020-10-01** Reading of substitute waived
- **2020-10-01** Substitute by Senator Petersen agreed to
- **2020-10-01** Engrossed by Senate- floor substitute HB5068S2
- **2020-10-01** Passed Senate with substitute (36-Y 4-N) `passage`
- **2020-10-01** Floor substitute printed 20201273D-S2 (Petersen)
- **2020-10-02** Senate substitute rejected by House (66-Y 27-N) (Requires 78 affirmative votes to pass)
- **2020-10-02** VOTE: Rejected (66-Y 27-N)
- **2020-10-07** Senate insisted on substitute (34-Y 2-N)
- **2020-10-07** Senate requested conference committee
- **2020-10-07** House acceded to request
- **2020-10-07** Conferees appointed by House
- **2020-10-07** Conferees appointed by Senate
- **2020-10-13** Amended by conference committee
- **2020-10-14** Conference report agreed to by House (83-Y 14-N)
- **2020-10-14** VOTE: Agreed To (83-Y 14-N)
- **2020-10-14** Conference report agreed to by Senate (36-Y 3-N)
- **2020-10-16** Enrolled
- **2020-10-16** Signed by Speaker
- **2020-10-16** Signed by President
- **2020-10-21** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on October 21, 2020
- **2020-10-21** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., October 28, 2020
- **2020-10-28** Approved by Governor-Chapter 39 (effective 10/28/20) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/0bca660f-0d79-4f2c-8af5-9e06b6598f83`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).