On June 20, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed the state’s two-year budget with a series of line-item vetoes. With plans to introduce stronger ethics reform legislation in next year’s General Assembly session, he vetoed all funding for the Virginia Conflicts of Interest and Ethics Advisory Council.

The council, established to oversee state ethics provisions related to lobbying, gifts, and conflicts of interest, is a product of the recent omnibus ethics reform bill signed by the governor in April.

Lawmakers needed two-thirds of the votes in each legislative body to override the veto; the House overrode the veto on Monday but the closely divided Senate lacked enough votes to follow suit. The veto of funding for the ethics commission was sustained.

Photo of Gov. McAuliffe courtesy of Kate Wellington on Wikimedia Commons.