Production, publication, sale, financing, etc., of child pornography; penalty. Amends the definition of "child pornography" to include sexually explicit visual material that depicts a minor in a state of nudity or engaged in sexual conduct where such depiction is obscene and specifies that such minor does not have to actually exist.
Public school teachers; daily lunch breaks; data collection; report. Requires the Department of Education to annually collect and present in the Virginia School Survey of Climate and Working Conditions school-level and division-level data on the share of teachers that are provided each working day a lunch break of at least 30 minutes in length and unencumbered by any teaching or supervisory duties.
Military leaves of absence for employees of Commonwealth or political subdivisions; professional firefighters. Provides that any person who is employed by the Commonwealth or a political subdivision of the Commonwealth as a professional firefighter shall receive paid leaves of absence for up to 388 work hours that a leave of absence is required, regardless of whether such amount of work hours exceeds 21 workdays per federal fiscal year, during which such person is engaged in federally funded military duty, to include training duty, or is called forth by the Governor for military duty. Under current law, employees of the Commonwealth or a political subdivision of the Commonwealth are limited to an eight-hour, 21-workday cap, which equates to seven workdays for such employees working in 24-hour shifts. The 388-work-hour cap would provide leave for a little over 16 workdays for such employees working in 24-hour shifts. This bill is identical to HB 279.
Public safety officer; Commonwealth Public SafetyMedal of Valor; dispatcher. Adds a dispatcher to the definitionof a public safety officer for purposes of possible selection bythe Governor for the Commonwealth Public Safety Medal of Valor, presentedfor performance above and beyond the call of duty involving extraordinaryvalor in the face of grave danger, at great personal risk. The billprovides that a dispatcher is not included in the definition of public safety officer for the purpose of an injury where weather constitutesa particular risk of a public safety officer's employment to be compensableunder the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act. A dispatcher is definedin relevant law as an individual employed by a public safety answering point, an emergency medical dispatch service provider, or both, whois qualified to answer incoming emergency telephone calls or providefor the appropriate emergency response either directly or throughcommunication with the appropriate public safety answering point.
Unemployment compensation; employer failure to respond to requests for information; claim determination; notice requirements. Provides that an employer's failure to respond timely or adequately to a written request for information relating to an unemployment claim results in a waiver of all of such employer's rights in connection with the claim, including participation and appeal rights, unless such employer demonstrates that good cause exists for such failure. The bill requires the Virginia Employment Commission to provide written notice for each instance of untimely or inadequate employer response to such requests and specifies that such notice may be delivered through the Employer Self-Service Tax System website maintained by the Commission. The bill also requires the Commission to provide each employer with information regarding deadlines for timely and adequate responses to such requests. Such provisions of the bill apply to erroneous payments established on or after July 1, 2024. The bill also prohibits a deputy designated by the Commissioner to adjudicate unemployment claims from examining or considering facts contained within an employer's untimely or inadequate response and requires that information or evidence from an employer or third party must be shared with the claimant, who must also be provided a reasonable opportunity to review and respond to such information or evidence. The bill requires such deputy to provide the reasoning behind the decision, as described in the bill, and a short statement of case-specific facts material to the determination together with any notice of determination upon a claim. This bill is a recommendation of the Commission on Unemployment Compensation.
Drug Treatment Court Act; eligibility.Replaces the restriction that renders persons convicted of certainviolent felonies or acts of violence within the preceding 10 years ineligible to participate in a drug treatment court with a restrictionon participation if any of the following conditions apply: (i) theoffender is presently charged with a felony offense or is convictedof a felony offense while participating in any drug treatment courtwhere (a) the offender carried, possessed, or used a firearm or anydangerous weapon during such offense; (b) the death or serious bodilyinjury of any person occurred during such offense; or (c) the useof force against any other person besides the offender occurred duringsuch offense or (ii) the offender was previously convicted as an adult of any felony offense that involved the use of force or attempteduse of force against any person with the intent to cause death orserious bodily injury. This bill is a recommendation of the VirginiaCriminal Justice Conference.
Sewage sludge regulations; relief from administrative requirements; adverse and unusual weather events. Requires the State Water Control Board, with the assistance of the Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Department of Health, to adopt regulations that include procedures for addressing administrative, staging, signage, and additional on-site and alternative storage site requirements when routine and on-site storage facility capacity and holding times are anticipated to be exceeded for the purpose of protecting against the release of sewage sludge into state waters and to account for increased intensity, frequency, and duration of storm events. The bill directs the Department of Environmental Quality to form a regulatory advisory panel consisting of certain stakeholders for the purpose of assisting the Board in developing the regulations as required by the bill.
Virginia Employment Commission; provision ofcertain confidential information to the Virginia Port Authority.Requires the Virginia Employment Commission to provide certain employmentinformation to the Virginia Port Authority as may be necessary tofacilitate the administration and enforcement by the Authority ofperformance agreements with businesses that have received incentiveawards. The bill provides that any information provided to the Authorityis confidential, requires that the information only be disclosedto members of the Authority who are public officials or employeesof the Authority for the performance of their official duties, andprohibits redisclosure of any such confidential information to nonlegislativecitizen members of the Authority or to the public.
Preneed funeral contracts; declinable preneedfuneral guarantee fee. Defines "declinable preneed funeral guaranteefee" as an optional and declinable fee agreed to by a preneed funeralcontract purchaser, if offered by a seller, for which the cost ofthe supplies and services as described in the preneed funeral contractare guaranteed. The bill describes certain requirements that mustbe met for funeral service licensees to offer declinable preneedfuneral guarantee fees. The bill directs the Board of Funeral Directorsand Embalmers to adopt emergency regulations to implement the provisionsof the bill.
Fisheries Innovation for Sustainable HarvestFund established. Establishes the Fisheries Innovation for SustainableHarvest Fund for the purposes of supporting and promoting the economicgrowth and development of Virginia's seafood economy. The Fund shallbe administered by the Marine Resources Commission for the sole purposeof supporting and promoting the economic growth and development ofVirginia's seafood economy while enhancing the sustainability ofVirginia's marine fisheries resources through the awarding of grants,revolving loans, or other financial tools. The bill provides thatthe Commercial Fishing Advisory Board shall advise the Commissionon expenditures from the Fund and also requires royalties collectedby the Commission on or after July 1, 2024, as a result of the generationor transmission of electrical or compressed air energy from certainoffshore renewable sources to be credited to the Fund. The bill alsoprovides that any such royalties appropriated to the Virginia CoastalEnergy Research Consortium under current law shall instead be appropriatedto the Fund.
Stationary blinds for waterfowl; providing location of blinds to Department of Wildlife Resources. Requires a person that is obtaining a waterfowl blind license, at the time of the transaction, to provide the unique location of each stationary waterfowl blind to the Department of Wildlife Resources, identified as standardized latitude and longitude coordinates, using the decimal degrees format with a minimum of five digit precision. The bill further requires the Department to publish such coordinates by November 1 of each year, excluding any customer personal information, on its website in a searchable, publicly accessible, and conspicuous manner. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2025.
Insurance; conducting business by electronicmeans. Authorizes a plan sponsor of a health benefit plan, including a dental or vision benefit plan, to agree on behalf of a party enrolled in the sponsored health benefit plan to conduct business by electronic means, provided that the plan sponsor, prior to agreeing on behalf of the party, has confirmed that the party routinely uses electronic communications during the normal course of employment and has provided notice to the party regarding the ability to opt out of using electronic means at any time.
