Virginia House and Senate adopt bill allowing localities to remove Confederate statues and monuments

The Virginia House of Representatives and the Senate adopted a bill over the weekend that allows localities to take down Confederate statues and monuments, according to the governor’s office and a delegate who supported the bill.

The legislation strikes a previous Virginia law that prohibited local governments from taking down or modifying war monuments, Democratic Del. Sally Hudson explained.

The bill, as passed by Virginia’s House of Representatives, “provides that a locality may remove, relocate, or alter any monument or memorial for war veterans located in its public space, regardless of when erected,” Virginia’s Legislative Information System website states.

Del. Delores L. McQuinn was chief patron for the legislation in the House, and Sens. Janet Howell and Jennifer McClellan were the bill’s patrons in the Senate. CNN has reached out to all three for comment.

Sunday, the House of Representatives and the Senate approved the consensus draft of the bill, a version that was brought forth by the conference committee, a group that ironed out differences between the House and Senate versions of the legislation, Hudson told CNN.

“I think this a huge step forward for Virginia because this law was standing in the way of communities that really want to reckon with their public history,” Hudson said.

CNN has reached out to a number of delegates who opposed the bill, but has not heard back.

Local governments cannot interfere with war monuments located in public cemeteries, the bill states, and local government must hold a public hearing and a subsequently vote on the issue if they are seeking to alter or remove a monument, Hudson said.

The bill will now be sent to Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, Hudson said.

“This legislation was a priority for Governor Northam, who has long advocated to give localities’ authority over the monuments in their communities. He is proud to see this measure pass, and looks forward to it reaching his desk,” the governor’s spokeswoman Alena Yarmosky told CNN.

Northam has previously expressed public support for localities making their own decision regarding war monuments, saying in January: “These proposals will help us to tell the story of people and places that for too long have been neglected or marginalized and continue to build a modern, diverse, and inclusive Commonwealth.”