Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, in a 2021 file photo.Photo by Emily Ketterer, TheStatehouseFile.com.

Summer study committees meet throughout the summer and fall leading up to the legislative session to gain information and further analyze issues that will be legislated on in the following year. The goal is to make a recommendation of what that legislation should be.

The bipartisan Legislative Council decides and approves the topics to be discussed in these committees.

Some of the major topics assigned for discussion are child health and safety, lowering the maternal mortality rate, evaluating discrimination in housing and the housing shortage through the Housing Task Force, lowering high health-care costs, streamlining education mandates, and assessing the health benefits and drawbacks of THC products.

This year, members of the Senate will chair the study committees, and members of the House will serve as vice-chairs. The Senate and House alternate these responsibilities annually.

“Study committees play an important part in the legislative process by giving lawmakers additional time to examine issues in depth ahead of the 2022 legislative session,” Bray said. “I’m confident we will have another productive summer and fall as the committees get their arms around their assigned topics and prepare bill concepts for 2022.”

The list of summer study committee topics can be found here.

Committee agendas and hearings can be seen and streamed online.

—Zachary Roberts