This story was updated Tuesday night after the House and Senate announced they would meet briefly Wednesday before going into recess until Monday.
Due to Richmond experiencing a city-wide crisis of no running water, legislators, lobbyists and staffers are in limbo the day before the legislative session is scheduled to begin.
The General Assembly Building and Capitol Building were both closed Tuesday, which canceled a number of press conferences and meetings on the day that lawmakers and groups typically use to try to gain publicity on legislation they are pushing this year.
Instead, lawmakers and staffers are meandering around, staying in their home or in their hotel rooms and waiting to hear what is next.
“I am just pacing around my hotel room pantless,” said one lobbyist. “Thankfully, with water pressure, but this shit is weird. What is life.”
Zoom meetings, eating meals in surrounding counties where the water system didn’t fail from a few inches of snow, finalizing bills and gossiping in group chats about what is going on seems to be what is helping everyone pass the time.
“I stayed in Northern Virginia last night,” one staffer told Virginia Scope, hoping to avoid the chaos and have access to running water.
Most staffers and lawmakers are already in Richmond and have nowhere to work outside of their temporary living arrangements because most buildings are closed.
“Every building I try to work out of downtown is closed,” another staffer said.
“People are optimistic we will be there for the full session tomorrow,” they continued. “Adapting is the game.”
One lawmaker said it is “oddly quiet,” and they are trying to figure out if we are going to have session tomorrow.
The City of Richmond announced Tuesday afternoon that the problem was fixed, but it would still take several hours for the water pressure to increase and flow to homes across the city.
When Virginia Scope asked a staffer for a member of leadership in one of the chambers if they expected the GAB to open Wednesday, they did not know the answer.
“I’d like to know myself,” they told me.
One lobbyist told me that it hasn’t been that weird for them as they live in Henrico, but all of the events they were involved in were canceled. They are thankful for an extra day with their family.
“We might not have Stella’s, but I’ll take Cheesecake Factory and running water,” they said.
Another lobbyist called Tuesday “totally bizarre.”
The general consensus is that no one was prepared for the day to go this way.
“This was a shit show — not much more to say,” one lawmaker said.
The House and Senate announced Tuesday night that they would convene at 12 p.m. Wednesday to gavel into session. They will then go into recess until Monday due to the water situation in Richmond remaining unresolved.