Casino gaming; eligible host city. Removes the City of Richmond as an eligible host city for casino gaming establishments in the Commonwealth. This bill is identical to HB 1131.
Illegal gambling; exemptions. Exempts from the provisions of Code prohibiting illegal gambling the placement or operation of or communication to and from data center equipment in the Commonwealth associated with the hosting of lottery games duly authorized by another state or jurisdiction and regulated and operated consistent with and exclusively for the benefit of such state or jurisdiction, provided that wagering on such games is legally authorized in such other state or jurisdiction and the individuals wagering on such games are required by the laws or regulations of such other state or jurisdiction to be physically located within the geographic bounds of such other state or jurisdiction at the time the wager is initiated or placed. This bill is identical to HB 991.
School boards; eligibility for Junior ReserveOfficers' Training Corps programs in schools in local school division.Requires each school board to ensure that any Junior Reserve Officers'Training Corps (JROTC) program offered by any branch of the ArmedForces of the United States in any public school in the local schooldivision is open to any student who resides in such school divisionin the attendance zone of such school, receives home instruction or attends a private school, and meets all applicable eligibility requirementsfor participation in such program.
Charter; City of Portsmouth; emergency. Amends the charter for the City of Portsmouth by aligning dates for nomination of candidates and the filling of city council vacancies with state law. The bill also updates a Code of Virginia reference and contains an emergency clause. This bill is identical to SB 106.
Hate crimes and discrimination; ethnic animosity; penalties. Provides that it is the policy of the Commonwealth to safeguard all individuals within the Commonwealth from unlawful discrimination in employment and in places of public accommodation because of such individual's ethnic origin and prohibits such discrimination. The bill also adds victims who are intentionally selected because of their ethnic origin to the categories of victims whose intentional selection for a hate crime involving assault, assault and battery, or trespass for the purpose of damaging another's property results in a higher criminal penalty for the offense. The bill also provides that no provider or user of an interactive computer service on the Internet shall be liable for any action voluntarily taken by it in good faith to restrict access to material that the provider or user considers to be intended to incite hatred on the basis of ethnic origin. This bill incorporates SB 120 and is identical to HB 18.
Department of Environmental Quality; Department of Health; PFAS; identification; monitoring; PFAS Expert Advisory Council established; report. Requires, for every public water system, as defined in the bill, the Department of Health (VDH) to assist the Department of Environmental Quality (the Department) by transferring to the Department quarterly all validated monitoring results available to VDH that indicate PFAS maximum containment level, as defined in the bill, exceedances. In such circumstances, the bill provides that the Department is required to develop and implement a plan to prioritize and conduct PFAS assessments for identifying significant sources of PFAS in such public water system's raw water source or sources. The bill requires any facility, if deemed by the Department to be a potentially significant source of PFAS in the public water system's raw water source, (i) to perform and promptly report the results of quarterly discharge monitoring for one year and (ii) to report to the Department, within 90 days after being directed by the Department, its manufacture or use of PFAS. The bill establishes a PFAS Expert Advisory Committee to assist the Department and VDH in its PFAS-related efforts and requires the Committee to meet at least two times per year through June 30, 2027. The bill requires the Department to annually report certain information to the Governor and the General Assembly by October 1. This bill incorporates SB 462 and is identical to HB 1085.
Illegal gambling; exemptions. Exempts from the provisions of Code prohibiting illegal gambling the placement or operation of or communication to and from data center equipment in the Commonwealth associated with the hosting of lottery games duly authorized by another state or jurisdiction and regulated and operated consistent with and exclusively for the benefit of such state or jurisdiction, provided that wagering on such games is legally authorized in such other state or jurisdiction and the individuals wagering on such games are required by the laws or regulations of such other state or jurisdiction to be physically located within the geographic bounds of such other state or jurisdiction at the time the wager is initiated or placed. This bill is identical to SB 540.
Charter; City of Portsmouth; emergency. Amends the charter for the City of Portsmouth by aligning dates for nomination of candidates and the filling of city council vacancies with state law. The bill also updates a Code of Virginia reference and contains an emergency clause. This bill is identical to HB 1208.
Consumer protection; creation of Unfair Real Estate Service Agreement Act. Creates the Unfair Real Estate Service Agreement Act and adds any violations of the Act to the list of prohibited violations of relevant consumer protection laws in the Commonwealth. The bill prohibits any real estate service agreement, defined in the bill, that is effective and binding for more than one year from its effective date from (i) purporting to run with the land or bind future owners of interests in the residential real property identified in the service agreement; (ii) allowing the service provider to assign or transfer the right to provide services under the service agreement without notice to and written agreement of all parties to the service agreement; or (iii) purporting to create a lien, encumbrance, or other real property security interest on the residential real property identified in the service agreement. This bill is identical to SB 576.
Tax credit for participating landlords. Increases from $250,000 to $500,000 the maximum amount of tax credits that may be issued to participating landlords, as defined in relevant law, each fiscal year beginning with fiscal year 2025 and provides that, in the event that the amount of the qualified requests for tax credits for such participating landlords in the fiscal year exceeds $500,000, the Department of Housing and Community Development will prorate the tax credits among the qualified applicants. The bill also creates a pilot program that earmarks $100,000 for tax credits provided to a participating landlord renting a qualified housing unit in an eligible non-metropolitan census tract, as those terms are defined in the bill.
Permissible venue; personal injury and wrongful death actions; appointment of administrator on behalf of estate of decedent. Provides that in a personal injury or wrongful death action in which an administrator is appointed on behalf of the estate of a decedent, permissible venue shall lie only in a county or city in which venue would have been properly laid if the person for whom such appointment is made had survived. This bill is a recommendation of the Boyd-Graves Conference and is identical to HB 779.
Insurance; continuing education board; membership.Adds a member of the Virginia chapter of the National AfricanAmerican Insurance Association to the insurance continuing educationboard. Additionally, the bill amends the name of the associationof one existing required member, from the Virginia Association ofHealth Underwriters to the Virginia chapter of the National Associationof Benefits and Insurance Professionals, to reflect such association'scurrent name.