republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2017/hb-1547.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Historical African American cemeteries/graves; disbursement of funds appropriated for preservation."
description: "Directs the distribution of funds appropriated for such purpose to qualifying charitable organizations that preserve historical African American cemeteries established before 1900. The funding formula is $5, or the average actual cost of routine maintenance, multiplied by the number of graves, monuments, and markers of African Americans who lived at any time between 1800 and 1900 and are interred in the cemetery. The bill lists two cemeteries, East End Cemetery in Henrico County and Evergreen Cemetery in the City of Richmond, that are to receive any funds appropriated for a total of 6,975 gravesites."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "HB 1547"
citation: "Virginia HB 1547 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Administration of Government", "Conservation", "Ethnic Groups"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Delores L. McQuinn"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 17
vote_count: 10
first_action: "2016-12-29"
last_action: "2017-03-03"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/caeca6ff-bf0e-45b3-9abb-2be0799380c9"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+HB1547"
source_hash: "e1b818a01283b3b4a50a3ba8473bc4d0e1bda05053eecab8b0978eea39a9e674"
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 1547 (2017) — Historical African American cemeteries/graves; disbursement of funds appropriated for preservation.

Directs the distribution of funds appropriated for such purpose to qualifying charitable organizations that preserve historical African American cemeteries established before 1900. The funding formula is $5, or the average actual cost of routine maintenance, multiplied by the number of graves, monuments, and markers of African Americans who lived at any time between 1800 and 1900 and are interred in the cemetery. The bill lists two cemeteries, East End Cemetery in Henrico County and Evergreen Cemetery in the City of Richmond, that are to receive any funds appropriated for a total of 6,975 gravesites.

## Version chain

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

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0270)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0270)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1547ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1547ER)
3. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17101511D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1547)

## Votes

- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **97–0** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting — **9–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Appropriations — **20–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from General Laws and Technology — **14–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reconsideration of Senate passage agreed to by Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources — **22–0** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting — **7–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **39–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Delores L. McQuinn — primary (person)
- Betsy B. Carr — cosponsor (person)
- Charniele L. Herring — cosponsor (person)
- Christopher K. Peace — cosponsor (person)
- Daun S. Hester — cosponsor (person)
- Eileen Filler-Corn — cosponsor (person)
- Jackson H. Miller — cosponsor (person)
- Jeion A. Ward — cosponsor (person)
- Kathleen Murphy — cosponsor (person)
- Kenneth R. Plum — cosponsor (person)
- Lamont Bagby — cosponsor (person)
- Lashrecse D. Aird — cosponsor (person)
- Luke E. Torian — cosponsor (person)
- Marcia S. "Cia" Price — cosponsor (person)
- Mark L. Keam — cosponsor (person)
- Matthew James — cosponsor (person)
- Paul E. Krizek — cosponsor (person)
- R. Lee Ware — cosponsor (person)
- Richard C. "Rip" Sullivan, Jr. — cosponsor (person)
- Sam Rasoul — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2016-12-29** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17101511D `introduction`
- **2016-12-29** Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-12** Assigned ACNR sub: Natural Resources `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-25** Referred to Committee on Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-25** Assigned App. sub: Commerce, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Technology `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-04** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-02-06** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2017-02-07** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (97-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2017-02-08** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2017-02-08** Referred to Committee on General Laws and Technology `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-16** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-20** Enrolled
- **2017-02-20** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-21** Signed by President
- **2017-02-21** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on 2/21/17
- **2017-02-21** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 27, 2017
- **2017-03-03** Approved by Governor-Chapter 270 (effective 7/1/17) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/caeca6ff-bf0e-45b3-9abb-2be0799380c9`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).