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2020 Session Recap

with
Senator Scott Surovell
36th District
and
Delegate Marcus Simon
53rd District
Sen. Scott Surovell
Vice-Chair
Senate Democratic Caucus
(571) 249-4484
District36@senate.virginia.gov
www.scottsurovell.org

Del. Marcus Simon


Parliamentarian and Secretary
House Democratic Caucus
(571) 327-0053
DelMSimon@house.virginia.gov
www.marcussimon.com
Firearm Violence Prevention
● Rule change to prohibit firearms in Capitol building.
● HB 421/SB 35 (Price/Surovell) Control of firearms by localities; permitted events.
Authorizes any locality by ordinance to prohibit the possession or carrying of firearms,
ammunition, or components or any combination thereof in (i) any building, or part
thereof, owned or used by such locality for governmental purposes; (ii) any public park
owned by the locality; (iii) any recreation or community center facility; or (iv) any public
street, road, alley, sidewalk or public right-of-way or any other place of whatever nature
that is open to the public and is being used by or is adjacent to a permitted event or an
event that would otherwise require a permit. Provisions limiting the authority of
localities and state governmental entities to bring lawsuits against certain firearms
manufacturers and others are also repealed. The bill also provides that any firearm
received by the locality pursuant to a gun buy-back program shall be destroyed by the
locality unless the person surrendering such firearm requests in writing that such
surrendered firearm be sold.
● SB 436 (Surovell) Establishment of the Virginia Voluntary Do Not Sell Firearms List;
penalty. Creates the Virginia Voluntary Do Not Sell Firearms List (the List) that prohibits
the possession, transportation, and sale of firearms to any person who voluntarily
registers himself to be enrolled into the List. The List shall be maintained and updated
by the Department of State Police. The bill makes it a Class 3 misdemeanor for any
person enrolled into the List to purchase, possess, or transport a firearm. The bill
disqualifies any person enrolled into the List from obtaining a concealed handgun
permit and prohibits such person from being employed by a firearms dealer. The bill
also makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor for any person who sells, barters, gives, or
furnishes, or has in his possession or under his control with the intent of selling,
bartering, giving, or furnishing, any firearm to any person he knows is enrolled into the
List.
● SB 479/HB 1004 (Howell/Mullin) Protective orders; possession of firearms; surrender
or transfer of firearms; penalty. Prohibits individuals subject to protective orders from
possessing firearms, requires them to turn over their firearms within 24 hours, and
certify to the court that they have turned over their weapons.
● SB 240/HB 674 (Barker/Sullivan) Firearms; removal; from persons posing substantial
risk; penalties. Creates a procedure by which any attorney for the Commonwealth or
law-enforcement officer may apply to a general district court, circuit court, or juvenile
and domestic relations district court judge or magistrate for an emergency substantial
risk order to prohibit a person who poses a substantial risk of injury to himself or others
from purchasing, possessing, or transporting a firearm.
● SB 69/HB 812 (Locke/Ward) Purchase of handguns; limitation on handgun purchases;
penalty. Prohibits any person who is not a licensed firearms dealer from purchasing
more than one handgun in a 30-day period and establishes such an offense as a Class 1
misdemeanor. The bill exempts from this provision (i) persons who have been issued a
certificate by the Department of State Police under certain circumstances and with an
enhanced background check, (ii) law-enforcement agencies and officers, (iii) state and
local correctional facilities, (iv) licensed private security companies, (v) persons who
hold a valid Virginia concealed handgun permit, (vi) persons whose handgun has been
stolen or irretrievably lost or who are trading in a handgun, (vii) purchases of handguns
in a private sale, and (viii) purchases of antique firearms.
● HB 2/SB 70 (Plum/Lucas) Firearm sales; criminal history record information checks;
penalty. Requires a background check for any firearm sale and directs the Department
of State Police (the Department) to establish a process for transferors to obtain such a
background check from licensed firearms dealers. A person who sells a firearm to
another person without obtaining the required background check is guilty of a Class 1
misdemeanor. The bill also provides that a purchaser who receives a firearm from
another person without obtaining the required background check is guilty of a Class 1
misdemeanor. The bill removes the provision that makes background checks of
prospective purchasers or transferees at firearms shows voluntary. The bill also provides
that the Department shall have three business days to complete a background check
before a firearm may be transferred.
● HB 9 (Bourne) Reporting lost or stolen firearms; civil penalty. Requires gun owners to
report their lost or stolen firearms to law enforcement within 48 hours or face a civil
penalty.
● HB 1083 (Hayes) Allowing access to firearms by minors; penalty. Provides that any
person who recklessly leaves a loaded, unsecured firearm in such a manner as to
endanger the life or limb of any person under the age of 14 is guilty of a Class 1
misdemeanor. Current law provides that any person who recklessly leaves a loaded,
unsecured firearm in such a manner as to endanger the life or limb of any child under
the age of 14 is guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor.

● Turned into a study: HB 961 (Levine) Prohibiting sale, transport, etc., of assault
firearms, certain firearm magazines, silencers, and trigger activators; penalties.
Expands the definition of "assault firearm" and prohibits any person from importing,
selling, transferring, manufacturing, purchasing, or transporting an assault firearm. A
violation is a Class 6 felony. The bill prohibits a dealer from selling, renting, trading, or
transferring from his inventory an assault firearm to any person. The bill makes it a Class
6 felony to import, sell, transfer, manufacture, purchase, possess, or transport silencers,
and trigger activators, all defined in the bill. The bill makes it a Class 6 felony to import,
sell, transfer, manufacture, purchase, or transport a large-capacity firearm magazine, as
defined in the bill, and a Class 1 misdemeanor to possess such large-capacity firearm
magazine. Any person who legally owns a large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or
trigger activator on July 1, 2020, may retain possession until January 1, 2021. During
that time, such person shall (i) render the large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or
trigger activator inoperable; (ii) remove the large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or
trigger activator from the Commonwealth; (iii) transfer the large-capacity firearm
magazine, silencer, or trigger activator to a person outside the Commonwealth who is
not prohibited from possessing it; or (iv) surrender the large-capacity firearm magazine,
silencer, or trigger activator to a state or local law-enforcement agency.

Equal Rights and Human Rights


● HJ 1 (Carroll Foy) Constitution of the United States; Equal Rights Amendment. Ratifies
the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution of the United States that was proposed
by Congress in 1972. The joint resolution advocates the position that the 1972 Equal
Rights Amendment remains viable and may be ratified notwithstanding the expiration of
the 10-year ratification period set out in the resolving clause, as amended, in the
proposal adopted by Congress.
● SB 50/HB 1514 (Spruill/McQuinn) Virginia Human Rights Act; racial discrimination; hair.
Provides that the terms "because of race" and "on the basis of race," and terms of
similar import, when used in reference to discrimination in the Code of Virginia and acts
of the General Assembly, include traits historically associated with race, including hair
texture, hair type, and protective hairstyles such as braids, locks, and twists.
● HB 180/SB 62 (Levine/Suetterlein) Records of marriages; identification of race.
Eliminates the requirement that the race of married parties be included in marriage
records, divorce reports, and annulment reports filed with the State Registrar. The bill
also removes the requirement that the State Registrar include race data in the
compilation and posting of marriage, divorce, and annulment data.
● SB 183/HB 1537 (Locke/McQuinn) Memorials for war veterans. Overturn the
Commonwealth’s prohibition on the removal of Confederate war memorials. Starting
July 1, localities will have the ability to remove, relocate, or contextualize the
monuments in their communities. Virginia is home to more than 220 public memorials
to the Confederacy.
● SB 612/HB 1406 (Lucas/Ward) Commission for Historical Statues in the United States
Capitol; replacement of Robert E. Lee statue in National Statuary Hall Collection .
Create a commission to recommend a replacement for the Robert E. Lee statue in the
United States Capitol. To date, eight statues in the National Statuary Hall have been
replaced, and seven additional states are working through a similar process to replace
statues.
● SB 245/HB 386 (Surovell/Hope) Department of Health Professions; conversion therapy
prohibited. Prohibits any health care provider or person who performs counseling as
part of his training for any profession licensed by a regulatory board of the Department
of Health Professions from engaging in conversion therapy, as defined in the bill, with
any person under 18 years of age and provides that such counseling constitutes
unprofessional conduct and is grounds for disciplinary action. The bill provides that no
state funds shall be expended for the purpose of conducting conversion therapy with a
person under 18 years of age, referring a person under 18 years of age for conversion
therapy, or extending health benefits coverage for conversion therapy with a person
under 18 years of age.
● SB 246 (Surovell) Department of Motor Vehicles; sex designation. Requires the
Department of Motor Vehicles to offer any applicant the option to mark "male,"
"female," or "non-binary" when designating the applicant's sex on an application for a
driver's license or special identification card.
● SB 868/HB 1663 (Ebbin/Sickles) Prohibited discrimination; public accommodations,
employment, credit, and housing: causes of action; sexual orientation and gender
identity. Creates explicit causes of action for unlawful discrimination in public
accommodations and employment in the Virginia Human Rights Act. Currently, under
the Act there is no cause of action for discrimination in public accommodations, and the
only causes of action for discrimination in employment are for (i) unlawful discharge on
the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related
medical conditions, including lactation, by employers employing more than five but
fewer than 15 persons and (ii) unlawful discharge on the basis of age by employers
employing more than five but fewer than 20 persons. The bill allows the causes of action
to be pursued privately by the aggrieved person or, in certain circumstances, by the
Attorney General. The bill prohibits discrimination in public and private employment on
the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The bill also codifies for state and
local government employment the current prohibitions on discrimination in
employment on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy,
childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status, disability, or status as a
veteran. Additionally, the bill (a) prohibits discrimination in public accommodations on
the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or status as a veteran; (b) prohibits
discrimination in credit on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy,
childbirth or related medical conditions, disability, and status as a veteran; and (c) adds
discrimination on the basis of an individual's sexual orientation, gender identity, or
status as a veteran as an unlawful housing practice.
● SB 636/HB1325 (Surovell/Bagby) Obsolete Acts of Assembly; racial inequity. Repeals
numerous obsolete and discriminatory Acts of Assembly from the early 20th century.
This is a recommendation of the Governor's Commission to Examine Racial Inequity in
Virginia Law. The purpose of the Commission was to identify and make
"recommendations to address laws that were intended to or could have the effect of
promoting or enabling racial discrimination or inequity."
● SB 161/HB 145 (Boysko/Simon) Public elementary and secondary schools; treatment of
transgender students, policies. Requires the Department of Education to develop and
make available to each school board, no later than December 31, 2020, model policies
concerning the treatment of transgender students in public elementary and secondary
schools that address common issues regarding transgender students in accordance with
evidence-based best practices and include information, guidance, procedures, and
standards relating to (i) compliance with applicable nondiscrimination laws; (ii)
maintenance of a safe and supportive learning environment free from discrimination
and harassment for all students; (iii) prevention of and response to bullying and
harassment; (iv) maintenance of student records; (v) identification of students; (vi)
protection of student privacy and the confidentiality of sensitive information; (vii)
enforcement of sex-based dress codes; and (viii) student participation in sex-specific
school activities and events, excluding athletics, and use of school facilities. The bill
requires each school board to adopt, no later than the beginning of the 2021-2022
school year, policies that are consistent with but may be more comprehensive than such
model policies developed by the Department of Education.
● SB 935/HB 1547 (Boysko/Lopez) Public institutions of higher education; eligibility for
in-state tuition. Provides that any student is eligible for in-state tuition who (i) attended
high school for at least two years in the Commonwealth and either (a) graduated on or
after July 1, 2008, from a public or private high school or program of home instruction in
the Commonwealth or (b) passed, on or after July 1, 2008, a high school equivalency
examination approved by the Secretary of Education; (ii) has submitted evidence that he
or, in the case of a dependent student, at least one parent, guardian, or person standing
in loco parentis has filed, unless exempted by state law, Virginia income tax returns for
at least two years prior to the date of registration or enrollment; and (iii) registers as an
entering student or is enrolled in a public institution of higher education in the
Commonwealth. The bill states that students who meet these criteria shall be eligible
for in-state tuition regardless of their citizenship or immigration status, except students
with currently valid visas issued under 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(15)(F), 1101(a)(15)(H)(iii),
1101(a)(15)(J) (including only students or trainees), or 1101(a)(15)(M). Information
obtained in the implementation of the provisions of the bill shall only be used or
disclosed to individuals other than the student for purposes of determining in-state
tuition eligibility.
● HB 827/SB 712 (Carroll-Foy/McClellan) Virginia Human Rights Act; discrimination on
the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions; reasonable
accommodation for the known limitations of persons related to pregnancy, childbirth,
or related medical conditions. Requires employers, defined in the bill, to make
reasonable accommodation for the known limitations of a person related to pregnancy,
childbirth, or related medical conditions, if such accommodation is necessary to assist
such person in performing a particular job, unless the employer can demonstrate that
the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the employer. The bill also
prohibits employers from taking any adverse action against an employee who requests
or uses a reasonable accommodation and from denying employment or promotion
opportunities to an otherwise qualified applicant or employee because such employer
will be required to make reasonable accommodation to the applicant or employee. The
bill creates a cause of action against any employer who denies any of the rights afforded
by the bill and permits the court or jury to award compensatory damages, back pay, and
other equitable relief.
● HB623 (Simon) Gender-neutral terms; prohibitions on same-sex marriage and civil
unions removed from Code; certain gender-specific crimes; penalty. Replaces the
terms "husband" and "wife," as well as related terms, with gender-neutral terms
throughout the Code to comport with the United States Supreme Court decision
in Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. ___ (June 26, 2015). The bill also repeals the statutory
prohibitions on same-sex marriages and civil unions or other arrangements between
persons of the same sex purporting to bestow the privileges and obligations of
marriage, and it makes conforming changes to various laws involving married individuals
and their rights stemming from marriage.
● HB 1490/SB 17 (Guy/Ebbin) Same-sex marriages; civil unions. Repeals the statutory
prohibitions on same-sex marriages and civil unions or other arrangements between
persons of the same sex purporting to bestow the privileges and obligations of
marriage. These prohibitions are no longer valid due to the United States Supreme Court
decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. ___ (June 26, 2015).

Healthcare:
● HB 74/SB 619 (Kory/Deeds) School boards; mental health awareness training. Requires
each school board to (i) adopt and implement policies that require each teacher and
other relevant personnel, as determined by the school board, employed on a full-time
basis, to complete a mental health awareness training or similar program at least once
and (ii) provide such training, which may be provided pursuant to a contract with the
Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, a community services
board, a behavioral health authority, a nonprofit organization, or other certified trainer
or via an online module.
● HB 980/SB 733 (Herring/McClellan) Provision of abortion. Expands who can perform
first trimester abortions to include any person jointly licensed by the Board of Medicine
and Nursing as a nurse practitioner acting within such person's scope of practice. The
bill eliminates all the procedures and processes, including the performance of an
ultrasound, required to effect a pregnant person's informed written consent to the
performance of an abortion; however, the bill does not change the requirement that a
pregnant person's informed written consent first be obtained. The bill removes
language classifying facilities that perform five or more first trimester abortions per
month as hospitals for the purpose of complying with regulations establishing minimum
standards for hospitals.
● HB 386/SB 245 (Hope/Surovell) Department of Health Professions;conversion therapy
prohibited. Prohibits any health care provider or person who performs counseling as
part of his training for any profession licensed by a regulatory board of the Department
of Health Professions from engaging in conversiontherapy, as defined in the bill, with
any person under 18 years of age and provides that such counseling constitutes
unprofessional conduct and is grounds for disciplinary action. The bill providesthat no
state funds shall be expended for the purpose of conducting conversion therapy with a
person under 18 years ofage, referring a person under 18 years of age for conversion
therapy, or extending health benefits coverage for conversiontherapy with a person
under 18 years of age.
● HB 1251/SB 172 (Torian/Favola) Health insurance; payment to out-of-network
providers, emergency services. Provides that when an enrollee receives emergency
services from an out-of-network health care provider or receives out-of-network
surgical or ancillary services at an in-network facility, the enrollee is not required to pay
the out-of-network provider any amount other than the applicable cost-sharing
requirement and such cost-sharing requirement cannot exceed the cost-sharing
requirement that would apply if the services were provided in-network.
● HB 66 (Carter) Health insurance; cost-sharing payments for prescription insulin drugs.
Prohibits health insurance companies and other carriers from setting an amount
exceeding $50 per 30-day supply that a covered person is required to pay at the point of
sale in order to receive a covered prescription insulin drug. The measure also prohibits a
provider contract between a carrier or its pharmacy benefits manager and a pharmacy
from containing a provision (i) authorizing the carrier's pharmacy benefits manager or
the pharmacy to charge, (ii) requiring the pharmacy to collect, or (iii) requiring a covered
person to make a cost-sharing payment for a covered prescription insulin drug in an
amount that exceeds such limitation.
Electoral Reforms
● HB 1/SB 111 (Herring/Howell) Absentee voting; no excuse required. Allows early voting
45 days prior to an election without a stated excuse. Virginia currently requires voters
who wish to vote absentee to provide the state with a reason, from an approved list,
why they are unable to vote on Election Day.
● HB 201 (Ayala) Elections; voter registration; extended time for persons to register in
person. Provides any person who is qualified to vote is entitled to register to vote in
person up to and including the day of the election at the office of the general registrar in
the locality in which the person resides or at the polling place for the precinct in which
the person resides. Under current law, registration records close for registration
purposes, whether in person or by other means, 21 days prior to a primary or general
election. The bill has a delayed effective date of October 1, 2022.
● HB 19/SB 65 (Lindsey/Locke) Voter identification; repeal of photo identification
requirements; additional forms of identification accepted; signed statement in lieu of
required form of identification; penalty. Removes the requirement that voters show a
form of identification containing a photograph in order to be allowed to vote. The bill
requires a voter to show either his voter registration confirmation documents; his valid
Virginia driver's license, his valid United States passport, or any other identification
issued by the Commonwealth, one of its political subdivisions, or the United States; any
valid student identification card issued by any institution of higher education located in
the Commonwealth or any private school located in the Commonwealth; any valid
student identification card issued by any institution of higher education located in any
other state or territory of the United States; any valid employee identification card
containing a photograph of the voter and issued by an employer of the voter in the
ordinary course of the employer's business; or a copy of a current utility bill, bank
statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows
the name and address of the voter. The bill also provides that the expiration date on a
Virginia driver's license is not considered when determining the validity of a driver's
license offered for voter identification purposes. A voter who does not show one of the
required forms of identification when offering to vote is required to sign a statement
that he is the named registered voter he claims to be in order to be permitted to cast a
ballot. Such statement is signed subject to felony penalties for making false statements,
punishable as a Class 5 felony. A voter who does not show one of the required forms of
identification and does not complete or sign the statement shall be offered a provisional
ballot according to the provisions of current law.
● HB 1 (Herring) Absentee voting; no excuse required. Permits any registered voter to
vote by absentee ballot in any election in which he is qualified to vote. The bill removes
the current list of statutory reasons under which a person may be entitled to vote by
absentee ballot and removes references to those reasons from other sections of the
Code.
● HB 235/SB 219 (Cole/Marsden) Voter registration; automatic voter registration.
Implements automatic voter registration for individuals accessing service at a
Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office or the DMV website.
● HB 238/HB 239/SB 455 (Sickles/Reeves) Absentee voting; deadline for returning
absentee ballot. Provides that any absentee ballot that is returned to the general
registrar after the closing of the polls on election day but before noon on the third day
after the election and postmarked on or before the date of the election shall be counted
if the voter is found entitled to vote.
● HB 108/SB 601 (Lindsey/Lucas) Legal holidays; Lee-Jackson Day; Election Day.
Designates Election Day, the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, as a state
holiday and removes Lee-Jackson Day as a state holiday.
● HB 1678 (Lindsey) Election Day; extending polling hours. Extends from 7:00 p.m. to
8:00 p.m. the time at which polls close on election day. The bill aligns candidate filing
deadlines and party nomination deadlines with the closing of polls. The bill provides that
these changes will not become effective unless reenacted by the 2021 Session of the
General Assembly.
● HB 506 (Hope) County manager plan; election of board members by instant runoff
voting. Provides that, in a county operating under the county manager plan of
government (Arlington County), elections to nominate candidates for and to elect
candidates to the board of supervisors may be conducted by instant runoff voting,
which the bill describes as the method of casting and tabulating votes in which (i) voters
rank candidates in order of preference, (ii) tabulation proceeds in rounds such that in
each round either a candidate or candidates are elected or the last-place candidate is
defeated, (iii) votes for voters' next-ranked candidates are transferred from elected or
defeated candidates, and (iv) tabulation ends when the number of candidates elected
equals the number of offices to be filled. The bill provides that the State Board of
Elections may promulgate regulations governing elections determined by instant runoff
voting. The bill provides that any costs incurred by the Department of Elections related
to technological changes necessary for the implementation of ranked choice voting
pursuant to the bill shall be charged to the localities exercising the option to proceed
with ranked choice voting.

● SJ18 (Barker) Constitutional amendment (second resolution); apportionment; Virginia


Redistricting Commission. Establishes the Virginia Redistricting Commission, a 16-
member Commission tasked with establishing districts for the United States House of
Representatives and for the Senate and the House of Delegates of the General
Assembly.
Environment and Climate Change
● SB 851/HB 1526 (McClellan/Sullivan) The Virginia Clean Economy Act. Establishes a
schedule by which Dominion Energy Virginia and American Electric Power are required
to retire electric generating units located in the Commonwealth that emit carbon as a
by-product of combusting fuel to generate electricity and by which they are required to
construct, acquire, or enter into agreements to purchase generating capacity located in
the Commonwealth using energy derived from sunlight or onshore wind.
● SB 1027/HB 981 (Lewis/Herring) Clean Energy and Community Flood Preparedness Act;
fund. Directs the Department of Environmental Quality to incorporate into regulations
previously adopted by the State Air Pollution Control Board certain provisions
establishing a carbon dioxide cap and trade program to reduce emissions released by
electric generation facilities.
● SB 629 (Surovell) Shared solar programs. Requires the State Corporation Commission to
establish by regulation a shared solar program that allows customers of Dominion
Virginia to purchase electric power through a subscription in a shared solar facility,
which is defined in the bill as a facility that, among other criteria, generates electricity
by means of a solar photovoltaic device with a nameplate capacity rating that does not
exceed 5,000 kilowatts. Under the program, a subscriber receives a bill credit for the
proportional output of a share solar facility attributable to that subscriber. Subscribers
are required to pay a minimum bill, established by the Commission, that includes the
costs of infrastructure and related services. The bill provides that the Commission shall
approve a shared solar program of 150 megawatts with a minimum requirement of 30
percent of low-income customers and that the Commission will approve an additional
50 megawatts upon determining that at least 45 megawatts of the shared solar capacity
have been subscribed to by low-income customers.
● SB 632 (Surovell) Public utilities; energy storage capacity in the Commonwealth.
Provides that it is the objective of the General Assembly that 2,700 megawatts of
aggregate energy storage capacity be placed into service on or before July 1, 2030.
● SB 106 (Surovell) Hydraulic fracturing; groundwater management area; prohibition.
Prohibits hydraulic fracturing, as defined in the bill, in certain groundwater management
areas.
Criminal Justice Reform
● Killed SB 91 (Edwards) Application of parole statutes. Repeals the abolition of parole.
The bill also provides that the Virginia Parole Board shall establish procedures for
consideration of parole for persons who were previously ineligible for parole, because
parole was abolished, to allow for an extension of time for reasonable cause.
● Killed SB 493 (Bell) Conditional release of geriatric, terminally ill, or permanently
physically disabled prisoners. Provides that any person serving a sentence imposed
upon a conviction for a felony offense, other than a Class 1 felony, who is terminally ill
or permanently physically disabled is eligible for consideration by the Parole Board for
conditional release. The bill also provides that any person serving such sentence (i) who
is 65 years or age or older and has served at least five years of the sentence imposed or
(ii) who is 60 years of age or older and has served at least 10 years of the sentenced
imposed is eligible for consideration by the Parole Board for conditional release without
the need to petition the Parole Board.
● Killed SB 116 (Favola) Death penalty; severe mental illness. Provides that a defendant in
a capital case who had a severe mental illness, as defined in the bill, at the time of the
offense is not eligible for the death penalty.
● Killed SB 802 (Morrissey) Death penalty executions; moratorium. Imposes a
moratorium on executions.
● Killed SB 449 (Surovell) Abolition of the death penalty. Abolishes the death penalty, including
for those persons currently under a death sentence.
● SB 270 (Bell) Practice of pharmacy; regulation by Board of Pharmacy; report. Provides
that compounding of drugs provided to the Department of Corrections for the purpose
of carrying out an execution by lethal injection shall constitute the practice of pharmacy
and be subject to the requirements of the Drug Control Act and the jurisdiction of the
Board of Pharmacy.
● SB 103/HB 35 (Marsden/Lindsey) Juvenile offenders; parole. Provides that any person
sentenced to a term of life imprisonment for a single felony offense or multiple felony
offenses committed while that person was a juvenile and who has served at least 20
years of such sentence and any person who has active sentences that total more than
20 years for a single felony offense or multiple felony offenses committed while that
person was a juvenile and who has served at least 20 years of such sentences shall be
eligible for parole.
● HB 257/SB 729 (Mullin/McClellan) School principals; incident reports. Eliminates the
requirement that school principals report to law enforcement certain enumerated acts
that may constitute a misdemeanor offense.
● Killed HB 258 (Simon) Post-conviction relief; previously admitted scientific
evidence. Provides that a person who was convicted of certain offenses, upon a plea of
not guilty or an Alford plea, or who was adjudicated delinquent, upon a plea of not
guilty or an Alford plea, by a circuit court of an offense that would be a covered offense
if committed by an adult may petition the Court of Appeals to have his conviction
vacated.
● HB 259/SB 670 (Simon/Mason) Unrestorably incompetent defendant; competency
report. Provides that in cases where a defendant is likely to remain incompetent for the
foreseeable future due to an ongoing and irreversible medical condition and prior
medical or educational records are available to support the diagnosis, a competency
report may recommend that the court find the defendant unrestorably incompetent to
stand trial, and the court may proceed with the disposition of the case based on such
recommendation. Under current law, the defendant is required to undergo treatment to
restore his competency before the court can find a defendant unrestorably incompetent
to stand trial. The bill also provides that such person who is found unrestorably
incompetent to stand trial shall be prohibited from purchasing, possessing, or
transporting a firearm.
● HB 262 (Lopez) Inquiry and report of immigration status; certain victims or witnesses
of crimes. Prohibits law-enforcement officers from inquiring into the immigration status
of a person who (i) reports that he is a victim of a crime or a parent or guardian of a
minor victim of a crime or (ii) is a witness in the investigation of a crime or the parent or
guardian of a minor witness to a crime. However, a law-enforcement officer is not
prohibited from making such an inquiry if it is necessary for the enforcement or
implementation of certain criminal provisions or if the parent or guardian has been
arrested for, has been charged with, or is being investigated for a crime against the
minor victim.
● HB 477/SB 546 (Guzman/Edwards) Juveniles; trial as adult. Raises the age when a
Commonwealth’s Attorney can transfer a juvenile to be tried as an adult without court
approval from 14 to 16.
● HB 909/SB 513 (Hayes/Edwards) Driver's license suspensions for certain non-driving
related offenses. Ends the practice of suspending driver’s licenses for non-driving
related offenses, including drug offenses and theft of motor fuel.
● HB 974/SB 511 (Herring/Edwards) Petition for writ of actual innocence. Modifies the
current standards for writs of actual innocence. Currently, individuals may pursue writs
of actual innocence under very narrow circumstances, which limits access to relief and
places additional burdens on the pardon process.
● HB 277/SB 736 (Price/Obenshain) Community service work in lieu of payment of fines
and costs. Provides that a court may permit an inmate to earn credits against any fines
and court costs imposed against him by performing community service. Under current
law, credits may be earned only before or after imprisonment.
● HB 33/SB 793 (Lindsey/McClellan) Parole; exception to limitation on the application of
parole statutes. The “Fishback” bills, make individuals sentenced by juries between
1995 and 2000 eligible for parole consideration. Parole was abolished in Virginia in
1995, however juries were not instructed of this change until 2000 following a court
ruling. The Governor proposes adding an “emergency clause” to the measure.
● HB 995/SB 788 (Lindsey/McClellan) Grand larceny; threshold. Increases from $500 to
$1,000 the threshold amount of money taken or value of goods or chattel taken at
which the crime rises from petit larceny to grand larceny. The bill increases the
threshold by the same amount for the classification of certain property crimes.
● HB 972/SB 2 (Herring/Ebbin) Possession and consumption of marijuana; penalty.
Decriminalizes simple marijuana possession and provides a civil penalty of no more than
$25. Current law imposes a maximum fine of $500 and a maximum 30-day jail sentence
for a first offense, and subsequent offenses are a Class 1 misdemeanor.
● HB 1196/SB 1 (Lopez/Stanley) Suspension of driver’s license for nonpayment of fines
or costs. Repeals the requirement that the driver's license of a person convicted of any
violation of the law who fails or refuses to provide for immediate payment of fines or
costs be suspended. The bill also removes a provision allowing the court to require a
defendant to present a summary prepared by the Department of Motor Vehicles of the
other courts in which the defendant also owes fines and costs. The bill requires the
Commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles to return or reinstate any person's
driver's license that was suspended prior to July 1, 2019, solely for nonpayment of fines
or costs. Such person does not have to pay a reinstatement fee.

● HB 1522 (Simon) Forfeiture of property used in connection with the commission of


crimes; finding of guilt required. Requires that any action for the forfeiture of property
used in connection with the commission of a crime be stayed until the person whose
property is the subject of the forfeiture action has been found guilty of the crime
authorizing the forfeiture, regardless of whether he has been sentenced. The bill
provides that property may be forfeited even though no finding of guilt is made if (i) the
forfeiture is ordered by the court pursuant to a plea agreement or (ii) the owner has not
submitted a written demand for the return of the property within 21 days from the date
the stay terminates.

Economic Development and Worker Protections


● SB 36/HB 4 (Lucas/Knight) Lottery Board; regulation of casino gaming. Authorizes
casino gaming in the Commonwealth to be regulated by the Virginia Lottery Board.
● HB 1407/SB 744 (Ward/McPike) Misclassification of employees as independent
contractors; Department of Taxation to investigate and enforce; civil penalties.
Authorizes the Department of Taxation to oversee investigations into suspected cases of
worker misclassification and levy penalties as appropriate. A 2012 report of the Joint
Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) estimated that at least 214,000
Virginians were misclassified as “independent contractors” by their employers.
● HB 984/SB 894 (Delaney/Saslaw) Misclassification of workers; cause of action. Creates
a private cause of action for a misclassified worker to bring civil action for damages
against his or her employer.
● HB 1199/SB 662 (Tran/Boysko) Employee misclassification; retaliatory actions
prohibited; civil penalty. Protects employees or independent contractors who report
misclassification from employer retaliation. Employers that are found to have engaged
in retaliatory action will be subject to a civil penalty up to the value of the employee’s
lost wages.
● HB 1646 (Krizek) Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation; Board for
Contractors; misclassification of worker prohibited. Requires contractors to properly
classify all workers as employees or independent contractors. This law gives the Board
of Contractors the ability to sanction contractors who are found to have intentionally
misclassified workers.
● HB 1049 (Levine) Prohibited discrimination; sexual orientation and gender identity.
Prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in a
number of areas of law, including employment, public contracting, and apprenticeship
programs.
● HB 123 (Carroll Foy) Nonpayment of wages; cause of action; penalties. Creates a
private cause of action for workers to recover unpaid wages lost to wage theft. If a court
finds an employer has knowingly failed to pay an employee’s wages, the court may
award the employee reasonable attorneys’ fees in addition to triple the amount of
wages due.
● SB 838 (Ebbin) Nonpayment of wages; private action; liability for payment of wages
due under construction contracts; penalties. Creates a private cause of action for
workers to recover unpaid wages. Additionally, this new law makes general contractors
liable and subject to penalty for wage theft, under certain conditions.
● HB 336/SB 49 (Price/Spruill) Nonpayment of wages; investigations. Gives the
Department of Labor and Industry expanded authority in investigating wage theft
complaints.
● HB 337/SB 48 (Price/Spruill) Nonpayment of wages; discriminatory actions prohibited.
Protects employees who report wage theft or institute proceedings against their
employer from retaliation.
● HB 330/SB 480 (VanValkenburg/DeSteph) Covenants not to compete; low-wage
employees; civil penalty. Prohibit employers from entering into a non-compete contract
with any of their low-wage employees. This new law also creates a private cause of
action for a low-wage employee to bring a lawsuit against an employer who tries to
enforce a non-compete covenant.
● HB 798 (Delaney) Employment; prohibited retaliatory action. Protects workers from
retaliation from their employer for reporting violations or suspected violations of state
law.
● HB 1201/SB 380 (Tran/McPike) Virginia Public Procurement Act; determination of
nonresponsibility; local option to include criteria in Invitation to Bid. Allows localities
to include criteria in their “invitation to bid” to determine whether a bidder who is not
prequalified by the Virginia Department of Transportation is a responsible bidder. This
new law will support workers and help local contractors find the best trained and safest
workers for their projects.
● SB 548 (Edwards) Unemployment compensation. Addresses qualifications for
unemployment insurance. In light of the current economic crisis, Governor Northam
amended this legislation to authorize a work-sharing program in Virginia. Work-sharing
programs can help businesses avoid laying off their employees by permitting them to
reduce their employees’ hours and allow affected employees to collect reduced
unemployment benefits in the form of short-time compensation. The federal CARES Act
offers funding incentives for states to build work-sharing programs of this sort.
● HB 1252 (Scott) Apprenticeship program; discrimination. Prohibits a sponsor of a
registered apprenticeship program from discriminating against an apprentice or
applicant on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age
(if older than 40), genetic information, or disability. Governor Northam amended this
legislation to also include protections from discrimination on the basis of gender
identity.
● HB 395/SB 7 (Ward/Saslaw) Minimum wage. Increases the minimum wage from its
current federally mandated level of $7.25 per hour to $9.50 per hour effective May 1,
2021,under the Governor’s amendments; to $11.00 per hour effective January 1, 2022;
to $12.00 per hour effective January 1, 2023; to $13.50 per hour effective January 1,
2025; and to $15.00 per hour effective January 1, 2026.
● HB 833/SB 8 (Carroll Foy/Saslaw) Prevailing wage; public works contracts; penalty.
Addresses payment of “prevailing wages” by contractors doing business with certain
government bodies. Under the Governor’s amendments, this law would take effect May
1, 2021.
● HB 582/SB 939 (Guzman/Saslaw) Labor and employment; collective bargaining;
employees of counties, cities, and towns. Permits localities to enter into collective
bargaining agreements with local employees. Under the Governor’s amendments, this
law would take effect May 1, 2021.
● HB 358/SB 182, (Lopez/Saslaw) Project labor agreements; public procurement.
Authorizes state and local bodies to require project labor agreements for construction,
manufacture, maintenance, or operation of public works. Under the Governor’s
amendments, this law would take effect May 1, 2021.
● HB 1211/SB 34 (Tran/Surovell) Driver privilege cards; penalty. Authorizes the issuance
of new driver privilege cards by the Department of Motor Vehicles to an applicant who
(i) has reported income from Virginia sources or been claimed as a dependent on an
individual tax return filed with the Commonwealth in the preceding 12 months and (ii) is
not in violation of the insurance requirements for the registration of an uninsured motor
vehicle.
● HB 395/SB 7 (Ward/Saslaw) Minimum wage. Increases the minimum wage from its
current federally mandated level of $7.25 per hour to $9.50 per hour effective January
1, 2021; to $11.00 per hour effective January 1, 2022; to $12.00 per hour effective
January 1, 2023; to $13.50 per hour effective January 1, 2025; and to $15.00 per hour
effective January 1, 2026. For January 1, 2027, and thereafter, the annual minimum
wage shall be adjusted to reflect increases in the consumer price index. The measure
provides that the increases scheduled for 2025 and 2026 will not become effective
unless reenacted by the General Assembly prior to July 1, 2024. If such provisions are
not reenacted prior to July 1, 2024, then the annual minimum wage will be adjusted to
reflect increases in the consumer price index beginning January 1, 2025.
● HB 10/SB 77 (Simon/Howell) Qualified education loan servicers. Prohibits any person
from acting as a qualified education loan servicer except in accordance with provisions
established by this bill. The bill requires a loan servicer to obtain a license from the State
Corporation Commission (SCC) and establishes procedures pertaining to such licenses.
Banks, savings institutions, credit unions, nonprofit institutions of higher education, and
farm credit systems are exempt from the licensing provisions. The servicing of a
qualified education loan encompasses (i) receiving any scheduled periodic payments
from a qualified education loan borrower or notification of such payments; (ii) applying
the payments of principal and interest and such other payments, with respect to the
amounts received from a qualified education loan borrower, as may be required
pursuant to the terms of a qualified education loan; (iii) during a period when no
payment is required on a qualified education loan, maintaining account records and
communicating with the qualified education loan borrower; and (iv) interacting with a
student loan borrower, including conducting activities to help prevent default. Qualified
education loan servicers are prohibited from, among other things, (a) misrepresenting
the amount, nature, or terms of any fee or payment due or claimed to be due on a
qualified education loan, the terms and conditions of the loan agreement, or the
borrower's obligations under the loan; (b) misapplying loan payments to the
outstanding balance of a qualified education loan; and (c) failing to report both the
favorable and unfavorable payment history of the borrower to a nationally recognized
consumer credit bureau at least annually if the loan servicer regularly reports
information to such a credit bureau. Violations are subject to a civil penalty not
exceeding $2,500 and are prohibited practices under the Virginia Consumer Protection
Act. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2021, but provides that applications
shall be accepted, and investigations commenced, by the SCC beginning March 1, 2021.

● HB 896/SB 384 (Sickles/McPike) Sports betting; Problem Gambling Treatment and


Support Fund; penalties. Directs the Virginia Lottery (theLottery) to regulate sports
betting. The bill prohibits the Lotteryfrom issuing any permits to conduct sports betting
until it has developed and published a consumer protection bill of rights.Before
administering a sports betting operation, an entity is required to apply for a three-year
permit and pay a nonrefundable application fee of $250,000.

● Killed HB 153 (Carter) Right to work. Repeals the provisions of the Code of Virginia that,
among other things, prohibit any agreement or combination between an employer and
a labor union or labor organization whereby (i) nonmembers of the union or
organization are denied the right to work for the employer, (ii) membership in the union
or organization is made a condition of employment or continuation of employment by
such employer, or (iii) the union or organization acquires an employment monopoly in
any such enterprise.

Transportation
● SB 160/HB 874 (Surovell/Bourne) Holding handheld personal communications devices
while driving a motor vehicle. Prohibits any person from holding a handheld personal
communications device while driving a motor vehicle. Current law prohibits (i) the
reading of any email or text message and manually entering letters or text in such a
device as a means of communicating and (ii) holding a personal communications device
while driving in a work zone. The bill expands the exemptions to include handheld
personal communications devices that are being held and used (a) as an amateur radio
or a citizens band radio or (b) for official Department of Transportation or traffic
incident management services. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2021

● HB 1414/SB 890 (Filler-Corn/Saslaw) Transportation. Amends numerous laws related to


transportation funds, revenue sources, construction, and safety programs.The bill
adopts numerous structural changes to the transportation funding system in the
Commonwealth. Most transportation revenues are directed to a new Commonwealth
Transportation Fund and the existing Highway Maintenance and Operating Fund. Funds
are then disbursed, based on codified formulas, to subfunds established to meet the
varying transportation needs of different modes of transportation. The existing gas tax
based on a percentage of the wholesale price of gasoline and diesel fuel is converted to
a cents-per-gallon tax. A rate of $0.262 per gallon of gasoline will be phased in over two
years, and then indexed every year thereafter. The regional gas tax will be converted to
a rate of $0.076 per gallon of gasoline and will be imposed everywhere in the
Commonwealth that a regional gas tax is not already imposed. Registration fees for
motor vehicles will be lowered. The Department of Motor Vehicles will implement a
Highway Use Fee for alternative fuel and fuel-efficient vehicles. Alternatively, a person
whose vehicles would be subject to this new fee may elect to instead enroll in a
mileage-based user fee program to be developed by the Department. The bill also
eliminates the $5 walk-in fee for conducting certain transactions in person at the
Department of Motor Vehicles, and prohibits a person from being issued a citation for
both an expired motor vehicle inspection sticker and faulty equipment. In Northern
Virginia, the regional transportation improvement fee, used to support the Washington
Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), is lowered to $0.10 per $100 for the
recordation of conveyance of a deed. A new regional congestion fee is imposed at a rate
of $0.10 per $100 for the recordation of conveyance of a deed. The regional transient
occupancy tax is raised from two percent to three percent. The bill authorizes the use of
transportation bonds to complete the final section of Corridor Q of the Appalachian
Development Highway System, and authorizes a bond issuance for improvements in the
Interstate 81 and Interstate 66 corridors. The bill establishes a new Virginia Passenger
Rail Authority. The bill also creates numerous new transportation safety programs,
including an Interstate Operations and Enhancement Program, a Virginia Highway Safety
Improvement Program, the Statewide Special Structures Program, and a Transit
Incentive Program.

Consumer Protection
● SB421/HB789 (Locke/Bagby) Consumer lending. Replaces references to payday loans
with the term "short-term loans." The measure caps the interest and fees that may be
charged under a short-term loan at an annual rate of 36 percent, plus a maintenance
fee; increases the maximum amount of such loans from $500 to $2,500; and sets the
duration of such loans at a minimum of four months, subject to exceptions, and a
maximum of 24 months. Short-term loan licensees are required to make a reasonable
attempt to verify a borrower's income and may not collect fees and charges that exceed
50 percent of the original loan amount if such amount is equal to or less than $1,500
and 60 percent of the original loan amount if such amount is greater than $1,500.

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