Reporting requirements of state, regional, and local correctional facilities; pregnant and postpartum inmates. Requires the warden or other official in charge of a state correctional facility that houses women prisoners to compile a monthly summary and the sheriff in charge of a local correctional facility, or his designee, or the jail superintendent of a regional correctional facility, or his designee, to compile a quarterly summary of all of the following and submit such summary to the Director of the Department of Corrections or State Board of Local and Regional Jails, as applicable: (i) the number of prisoners known to be pregnant in the facility, (ii) the number of prisoners in postpartum recovery in the facility, (iii) the number of women prisoners in the facility, (iv) the total number of prisoners in the facility, (v) the number of deaths of prisoners known to be pregnant in the facility, and (vi) the number of deaths of prisoners in postpartum recovery in the facility. The bill also requires such summary to be submitted to the Maternal Mortality Review Team and the Chairs of the House and Senate Committees for Courts of Justice. Lastly, the bill requires the sheriff in charge of a local correctional facility, or his designee, or the jail superintendent of a regional correctional facility, or his designee, to compile a quarterly summary of all written reports received pursuant to relevant law regarding use of restraints on any prisoner known to be pregnant or any prisoner who is in postpartum recovery and any body cavity search of a pregnant prisoner and submit such summary to the Board each quarter.
Local authority to test and monitor the land application of sewage sludge within its political boundaries. Allows a locality to provide for testing and monitoring for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, as defined in relevant law, of the land application of sewage sludge within its political boundaries using an applicable test method established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The bill prohibits any expenses from such testing and monitoring from being eligible for reimbursement from the Sludge Management Fund.
Electric utilities; energy storage resources; Department of Energy to develop model ordinances; State Corporation Commission to conduct technology demonstration program. Increases the targets for energy storage capacity that Appalachian Power and Dominion Energy Virginia are required to petition the State Corporation Commission (the Commission) for approval to construct, acquire, or procure and extends the time frame by which such capacity must be met. Under the bill, (i) Appalachian Power shall petition the Commission for approval to construct, acquire, or procure at least 780 megawatts of short-duration energy storage capacity by 2040 and 520 megawatts of long-duration energy storage capacity by 2045 and (ii) Dominion Energy Virginia shall petition the Commission for approval to construct, acquire, or procure at least 16,000 megawatts of short-duration energy storage capacity by 2045 and 4,000 megawatts of long-duration energy storage capacity by 2045. "Long-duration energy storage" and "short-duration energy storage" are defined in the bill. Under the bill, the Commission shall approve an independent auditor to help develop criteria for and to help review requests for proposals for new energy storage resources. The bill requires the Commission to conduct a technology demonstration program for long-duration energy storage resources and initiate a proceeding to determine if such technology is viable and that the targets in the bill are reasonably achievable, for which a final order shall be entered no later than March 1, 2031. Certain provisions of the bill are only effective upon such determination by the Commission. The bill requires the Department of Energy, in consultation with the Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Fire Programs, to develop model ordinances suggested for use by localities in their regulation of energy storage projects by December 1, 2026. The bill directs the Commission to initiate a technical conference by September 1, 2026, to evaluate safety standards and practices for energy storage development. The bill also includes a provision authorizing the Commission to evaluate energy storage project proposals during annual petitions filed for the development of new renewable generation capacity. This bill is identical to SB 448.
Department of Environmental Quality; industrial wastewater; publicly owned treatment works; PFAS monitoring. Directs every publicly owned treatment works (POTW) to require certain new or industrial users of such POTW to perform and report to such POTW no later than 30 days after receipt from a laboratory the results as received of quarterly discharge monitoring for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) for an initial characterization period of one year, provided, however, that such POTW may discontinue remaining quarterly monitoring by an industrial user with proper monitoring results that are below the method detection level for the first two quarters. If an industrial user detects PFAS in any amount above the detection method limit in its initial year of quarterly monitoring, the bill requires such industrial user to continue to perform and report to the POTW no later than 30 days after receipt from the laboratory the results as received of quarterly discharge monitoring for PFAS. The bill requires a POTW that receives PFAS monitoring results to report such results to the Department of Environmental Quality on a quarterly basis. Finally, the bill directs any POTW to notify an owner or operator of an industrial user subject to the monitoring requirements of the bill of the requirement to submit the initial quarterly monitoring results for PFAS within 30 days of the effective date of the bill. This bill is identical to SB 138.
Department of Housing and Community Development; powers and duties of Director; comprehensive statewide housing needs assessment; review of certain parcels. Requires the Director of the Department of Housing and Community Development to conduct a review of parcels owned by certain partnerships, corporations, or real estate investment trusts as part of the comprehensive statewide housing needs assessment conducted by the Department at least every five years.
Zoning; wireless facilities; temporary support structures. Requires a locality to include in its zoning ordinance provisions that allow for the use of temporary support structures that meet certain requirements. The bill defines a temporary support structure as a monopole or portable wireless communications facility used to provide wireless voice, data, or image transmission within a designated area. The bill provides that an application for a temporary support structure may request approval for up to 180 days with extensions not to exceed two years.
Election results; counting machine-readable ballots; processing absentee ballots. Requires ballot scanner machines to be used to count machine-readable ballots and prohibits such ballots from being counted by hand unless (i) the ballot scanner machine is inoperative, (ii) there is no other available scanner, and (iii) it would be unreasonable to wait for (a) the inoperative ballot scanner to be made operative or (b) an operative ballot scanner machine to be delivered to the polling place rather than hand counting the ballots. "Ballot scanner machine" and "machine-readable ballot" are defined terms under current law. The bill also provides that if, in the processing and counting of provisional and absentee ballots, any machine-readable ballot is damaged or defective, a team of election officials representing both parties shall make a true duplicate copy of such damaged ballot as a substitute for such damaged ballot. This bill has a delayed effective date of September 1, 2026.
Hampton Roads Planning District Commission; development of a Hampton Roads Infrastructure Coordination and Readiness Framework. Directs the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission (HRPDC) to develop an infrastructure coordination and fiscal readiness framework for Planning District 23, to be known as the Hampton Roads Infrastructure Coordination and Readiness Framework (the Framework), and to coordinate and consult with certain other entities in the development of the Framework. The bill requires HRPDC to submit to the Chairs of the House and Senate Committees on Transportation, the House Committees on Finance and Appropriations, and the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations a report of the progress of the development of the Framework no later than December 1, 2026, and a final report on the Framework no later than December 1, 2027.
Health insurance; cost-sharing payments for insulin and diabetes equipment and supplies; limit. Decreases the cap on the cost-sharing payment that a covered person is required to pay for a covered prescription insulin drug from $50 to $35 for a 30-day supply of the prescription insulin drug and provides such cap is an aggregate cap that applies in situations where the covered person is prescribed more than one insulin drug. The bill also establishes such an aggregate cap of $35 for a 30-day supply of diabetes equipment and supplies.
Absentee voting; emergency application for absentee ballot. Provides that a qualified voter may apply for an emergency absentee ballot if he has applied to receive an absentee ballot by the deadline but has not received his ballot within 10 days of the election and will be unable to vote on election day due to his hospitalization or illness, the hospitalization, illness, or death of a spouse, child, or parent, or other emergency found to justify receipt of an emergency absentee ballot.
Workforce housing for employees of a county or county school board; lease of surplus property. Allows any county board of supervisors or county school board to lease as lessor surplus or underutilized property. The bill provides that such leases shall be conditioned on the development of workforce housing serving employees of the county or school division with up to 80 percent of area median household income. The bill also prohibits establishment of a minimum lot size exceeding 5,000 square feet for such workforce housing and provides that the placement of manufactured houses that are on a permanent foundation and on individual lots shall be permitted subject to development standards that are equivalent to those applicable to site-built single-family dwellings.
Keeper of livery stable; liens; requirements. Creates a process by which any person that boards, pastures, or otherwise keeps any horse, cattle, or other animal pursuant to an agreement with the owner of such horse, cattle, or other animal may impose a possessory lien for the reasonable charges due for such animal's care, feeding, and maintenance, which includes a provision for the lienholder to retain possession of the animal for 30 days until certain conditions are met and a procedure for the owner of the animal to dispute such lien. The bill also provides that if no such action has occurred upon the expiration of the 30 days, the lienholder may proceed with enforcing the lien as provided by current law.
