Virginia House of Delegates

The Virginia House of Delegates is the lower chamber of the Virginia General Assembly, comprising 100 members elected to two-year terms. It shares budget and appropriations authority with the Senate. In June 2026 the House became the blocking vote in the state's data-centre fiscal standoff: Speaker Don Scott cancelled the 18 June special budget session, citing failure to reach agreement with the Senate over how to handle the $1.9 billion sales-tax exemption that data-centre operators currently hold. Governor Abigail Spanberger sided with the House, opposing premature elimination of the exemption on the same day.

The House's position is that the exemption supports Virginia's status as the world's largest data-centre market, concentrated in Northern Virginia. Removing it risks investment flight. The Senate Finance Committee proposed a compromise: preserve the exemption but levy a $35 to $45 per-kilowatt fee on backup generators. The House had not agreed to that mechanism as of 17 June 2026. The Senate is scheduled to reconvene on 22 June; if no deal is struck before 30 June, Virginia faces a partial government shutdown.

The House's position has national significance. Northern Virginia alone accounts for a substantial share of US hyperscaler capacity, and the outcome of this standoff will influence how other state legislatures approach data-centre taxation.