Electric utilities; data center demand; allocation of costs among customer classes. Directs the State Corporation Commission to ensure that any plan, petition, or proposal from a utility to meet demand associated with data centers considers generation, transmission, and distribution system costs so as to meet such demand at the lowest aggregate reasonable cost. The bill also directs the Commission to initiate a proceeding, on or before December 31, 2024, (i) to determine if the current allocation of costs among customers and the different classifications of customers of electric utilities results in customers that are data centers receiving unreasonable subsidies from other customers or classifications of customers and (ii) if it determines unreasonable subsidies exist, to amend such allocation of costs.
Cost of competing adjustment; eligibility; certain school boards. Provides that the Accomack County School Board and the Northampton County School Board are eligible to receive the cost of competing adjustment to salaries for instructional and support positions as part of the state share of basic aid pursuant to the general appropriation act.
Disqualification from office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; affidavit of eligibility for candidates for elective office; removal from office for current officeholders. Provides that any person who is found to have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States or to have given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof shall be disqualified from holding any office of the Commonwealth or of its governmental units in accordance with Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Persons holding office who are so disqualified may be removed by a writ of quo warranto, except that a member of the General Assembly may be removed by the house in which he sits. The bill requires any candidate for any elective office to submit an affidavit of eligibility attesting that such candidate is eligible to hold elective office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Public school staffing ratios; specialized student support positions. Increases the number of specialized student support positions required to be employed by each local school board from at least three to at least four such positions per 1,000 students in the local school division. Such specialized student support positions include school social workers, school psychologists, school nurses, licensed behavior analysts, licensed assistant behavior analysts, and other licensed health and behavioral positions.
Mattress stewardship program established; civil penalty. Prohibits the disposal of a mattress, as defined in the bill, in a landfill or an incinerator beginning January 1, 2028, and requires producers of mattresses sold at retail in the Commonwealth or a representative organization acting on a producer's behalf to submit a plan for the establishment of a mattress stewardship program. Such mattress stewardship program plan shall establish an assessment for all mattresses sold in the Commonwealth and a network of convenient and free collection sites for postconsumer mattresses, defined in the bill, that will facilitate higher rates of recycling and materials recovery for postconsumer mattresses. The bill establishes annual reporting requirements for mattress producers or representative organizations and establishes a Mattress Stewardship Program Advisory Board to advise on the proper implementation and sustainability of the mattress stewardship program. The bill also establishes the powers and duties of the Department of Environmental Quality as they relate to the bill and civil penalties for improper mattress disposal and violations of the mattress stewardship program.
Department of Transportation; Dulles Toll Road and Dulles Greenway; report. Directs the Department of Transportation to review the tolls, fines, and penalties assessed on the Dulles Toll Road and the Dulles Greenway.
Health insurance; cost sharing for breast examinations. Prohibits health insurance carriers from imposing cost sharing for diagnostic breast examinations and supplemental breast examinations, as those terms are defined in the bill, under certain insurance policies, subscription contracts, and health care plans delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed in the Commonwealth on and after January 1, 2025. The bill provides that such examinations include examinations using diagnostic mammography, breast magnetic resonance imaging, or breast ultrasound.
In-state tuition eligibility; certain members of National Guard or Reserves of the Armed Forces of the United States units in the Commonwealth. Declares eligible for in-state tuition charges at public institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth regardless of domicile any member of the National Guard or the Reserves of the Armed Forces of the United States who is not a resident of the Commonwealth but who is an active member of a unit of the National Guard or the Reserves of the Armed Forces of the United States in the Commonwealth.
Nonliving shoreline stabilization structures; regulations; Marine Resources Commission. Directs the Marine Resources Commission to promulgate regulations regarding the types of repairs or maintenance to nonliving shoreline stabilization structures in existence prior to July 1, 2020, that are exempt from or require permits.
Study; Joint Commission on Health Care; impacts of cell phone possession and use on students in public schools; report. Directs the Joint Commission on Health Care to study the impacts of cell phone possession and use in public schools on student learning outcomes, including the quality of learning and the ability of students to retain and recall information, student attention and focus, and student mental and behavioral health.
Department of Education; Child Care Implementation and Substitute Employee Pool Grant Program established. Requires the Department of Education, with such funds as may be appropriated for such purpose pursuant to the general appropriation act, to establish and administer the Child Care Implementation and Substitute Employee Pool Grant Program whereby any (i) existing child day program provider or group of such providers may apply for a grant, on a competitive basis, for the establishment of a substitute employee pool that, notwithstanding the provisions of relevant law relating to the disclosure of the results of background checks, enables such provider or providers to ensure efficient and effective staffing with qualified employees or (ii) prospective child day program may apply for a grant, on a competitive basis, to cover costs associated with implementing such program.
Electric utilities; State Corporation Commission; energy policy of the Commonwealth. Requires the State Corporation Commission to ensure that the Commonwealth implements the energy policy of the Commonwealth, as defined by relevant law, at the lowest reasonable cost, taking into account all cost-effective demand-side management options and the security and reliability benefits of the regional transmission entity that each incumbent electric utility has joined. The bill establishes a rebuttable presumption that plans, petitions, or proposals from utilities that do not ensure such implementation at the lowest reasonable cost are not in the public interest.
