Expungement of police and court records; Expungement Fee Fund created. Provides that final disposition may include (i) conviction of the original charge, (ii) conviction of an alternative charge, or (iii) dismissal of the proceedings. The bill also allows a person to petition for the expungement of the police and court records relating to such person's conviction for misdemeanors and certain felonies if he has been granted a simple pardon for the crime. The bill also allows a person to petition for an expungement of the police and court records relating to convictions of marijuana possession, underage alcohol or tobacco possession, and using a false ID to obtain alcohol, and for deferred disposition dismissals for possession of controlled substances or marijuana, underage alcohol or tobacco possession, and using a false ID to obtain alcohol. The bill requires the person to have paid all court costs, fines, and restitution, and for five years to have elapsed since the date of conviction, depending on the nature of the offense. Under current law, police and court records relating to convictions are only expunged if a person received an absolute pardon for a crime he did not commit.The bill creates an Expungement Fee Fund, which would be funded by all collected expungement fees. The bill provides that expungement fees shall not be refundable, but persons who are indigent or represented by court-appointed counsel shall not be required to pay such fees. The Fund would be administered by the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court and used to fund the costs of court-appointed counsel. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2022, and incorporates SB 5006, SB 5009, and SB 5110.
Unemployment compensation; short-time compensation; sunset repeal; emergency. Repeals two sunset provisions from legislation enacted during the 2020 Regular Session of the General Assembly that, among other things, established a short-time compensation program that provides employers with the option of reducing the hours worked by employees while permitting the employees whose hours are reduced to receive partial compensation for lost wages. The bill also extends the date by which the Virginia Employment Commission is required to establish and implement such short-time compensation program from January 1, 2021 to January 1, 2022.The bill contains an emergency clause.
Hydroxychloroquine; use for COVID-19 treatment. Encourages that hydroxychloroquine should be made available for treating COVID-19.
Amending and readopting Rule 4 of the Rules of the House of Delegates, pertaining to conducting a session of the House, or a committee or other legislative branch public body meeting, by electronic communication means during a disaster or other emergency.
Limiting legislation to be considered by the 2020 Special Session I of the General Assembly and establishing a schedule for the conduct of business coming before such Special Session.
Amending and readopting Rule 4 of the Rules of the House of Delegates, pertaining to conducting a session of the House, or a committee meeting, by electronic communication means during a disaster or other emergency.
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. The Commission consists of eight legislative members and eight citizen members. The legislative members consist of four members of the Senate of Virginia and four members of the House of Delegates, with equal representation given to the political parties having the highest and next highest number of members in their respective houses. The citizen members are selected by a selection committee consisting of five retired judges of the circuit courts of Virginia, from lists submitted to the selection committee by the Speaker of the House of Delegates, the leader in the House of Delegates of the political party having the next highest number of members in the House of Delegates, the President pro tempore of the Senate of Virginia, and the leader in the Senate of the political party having the next highest number of members in the Senate. The Commission is required to submit to the General Assembly plans of districts for the Senate and the House of Delegates of the General Assembly no later than 45 days following the receipt of census data and plans of districts for the United States House of Representatives no later than 60 days following the receipt of census data, or July 1 of that year, whichever occurs later. The measure requires certain vote thresholds for plans, depending on the type of district, in order to be submitted to the General Assembly. No amendments may be made to a plan by the General Assembly, and any plan approved by the General Assembly becomes law without the signature of the Governor. The measure requires additional plans to be submitted, or additional time to be given to submit a plan, in certain circumstances, and further provides that districts will be drawn by the Supreme Court of Virginia if such efforts fail. This resolution incorporates SJ 12 and SJ 70.
Rules of the House of Delegates, pertainingto the voting requirement to discharge a committee from the considerationof a resolution.
Establishing a schedule for the conduct of business for the prefiling period of the 2021 Regular Session of the General Assembly of Virginia. Establishes a schedule for the conduct of business for the prefiling period of the 2021 Session of the General Assembly of Virginia.
Strategic lawsuits against public participation; specialmotion to dismiss; stay of discovery; special motion to quash; fees and costs.Establishes a procedure by which a party alleging that a claim filed against himis a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP), as defined in thebill, may file a special motion to dismiss within 45 days after service of sucha claim. The bill provides that the filing of such a special motion to dismissshall stay discovery proceedings related to the claim, pending the entry of anorder adjudicating the special motion to dismiss, unless the court allowslimited and specific discovery for good cause shown. The bill furtherestablishes a special motion to quash procedure for persons whose personalidentifying information is sought pursuant to a discovery order, request, orsubpoena in connection with an alleged SLAPP. The bill provides that a partyaggrieved by an entry of an order granting or denying a special motion to dismissor special motion to quash shall be permitted to submit a petition for anappeal to the Supreme Court of Virginia. The bill provides that a court shallaward reasonable expenses related to a special motion to dismiss or quash,including attorney fees and costs, if the moving party prevails, in whole or inpart, on such a special motion. The bill allows the court to award suchreasonable expenses to a prevailing responding party to a special motion todismiss or quash if the court finds that such a motion was filed in bad faithor solely with the intent to delay the underlying proceedings.
Certificate of public need. Revises the Medical CareFacilities Certificate of Public Need Program. The bill (i) removes from thelist of reviewable medical care facilities specialized centers or clinics orthat portion of a physician's office developed for the provision oflithotripsy, magnetic source imaging, or nuclear medicine imaging; (ii) removesfrom the definition of project introduction into an existing medical carefacility of any new lithotripsy, magnetic source imaging, or obstetricalservice that the facility has never provided or has not provided in theprevious 12 months and addition by an existing medical care facility of anymedical equipment for the provision of lithotripsy and magnetic source imaging;(iii) creates a new process for registration of projects exempted from thedefinition of project by the bill; (iv) renames the State Medical FacilitiesPlan as the State Health Services Plan and establishes a State Health ServicesPlan task force to provide recommendations related to the content of the StateHealth Services Plan; (v) clarifies the content of the application for acertificate; (vi) reduces the timeline for a person to be made party to thecase for good cause from 80 calendar days to four days following completion ofthe review and submission of recommendations related to an application; (vii)requires the Commissioner of Health to condition issuance of a certificate uponthe agreement of the applicant to provide care to individuals who are eligiblefor benefits under Title XVIII of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. § 1395 etseq.), Title XIX of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. § 1396 et seq.), and 10U.S.C. § 1071 et seq. and permits the Commissioner to condition the issuance ofa certificate on the agreement of the applicant to provide specialty medicalservices or to pay assessments or make contributions into the Health CareCoverage Assessment Fund, in addition to existing options for conditioningcertificates; (viii) requires every certificate holder to develop a financialassistance policy that includes specific eligibility criteria and proceduresfor applying for charity care, which shall be provided to a patient at the timeof admission or discharge or at the time services are provided, included with anybilling statements sent to uninsured patients, posted conspicuously in publicareas of the medical care facility for which the certificate was issued andposted on a website maintained by the certificate holder; (ix) eliminates thata person willfully fail, refuse, or neglect to comply with a plan of correctionto be subject to a civil penalty so that any failure, refusal, or neglecting tocomply with a plan of correction may subject the person to a civil penalty; and(x) provides that the Commissioner may consider any changes in thecircumstances of the certificate holder resulting from changes in the financingor delivery of health care services, including changes to the Commonwealth'sprogram of medical assistance services, and any other specific circumstances ofthe certificate holder when determining whether conditions imposed on acertificate continue to be appropriate. The bill also (a) directs the Department of Health to developrecommendations to reduce the duration of the average review cycle for applicationsfor certificates of public need to not more than 120 days and to report on itsrecommendations to the Governor and the General Assembly no later than December1, 2020, and (b) directs the Secretary of Health and Human Resources toimplement a system to ensure that data needed to evaluate whether anapplication for a certificate is consistent with the State Health Services Planis timely and reliable; to make all public records pertaining to applicationsfor certificates and the review process available in real time in a searchable,digital format online; to make an inventory of capacity authorized bycertificates of public need, both operational and not yet operational,available in a digital format online; and to establish a public education andoutreach program designed to improve public awareness of the certificate ofpublic need process and the public's role in such process by January 1, 2021.
Earned paid sick time. Requires public and private employers with 15 or more employees to provide those employees with earned paid sick time; however, the provisions of the bill would not apply to an employer that has entered into a bona fide collective bargaining agreement. The measure provides for an employee to earn at least one hour of paid sick leave benefit for every 30 hours worked. An employee shall not use more than 40 hours of earned paid sick time in a year, unless the employer selects a higher limit. Employees shall not be entitled to use accrued earned paid sick time until the ninetieth calendar day following commencement of their employment, unless otherwise permitted by the employer. The bill provides that earned paid sick time may be used (i) for an employee's mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; an employee's need for medical diagnosis, care, or treatment of a mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; or an employee's need for preventive medical care; (ii) to provide care to a family member under similar circumstances; (iii) when there is a closure of the employee's place of business or the employee's child's school or place of care due to a public health emergency; or (iv) when an employee's or employee's family member's presence in the community may jeopardize the health of others because of their exposure to a communicable disease. The bill prohibits employers from taking certain retaliatory actions against employees related to leave and authorizes the Commissioner of Labor and Industry, in the case of a knowing violation, to subject an employer to a civil penalty not to exceed $150 for the first violation, $300 for the second violation, and $500 for each successive violation, if the second or successive violation occurs within two years of the previous violation. The Commissioner of Labor and Industry may institute proceedings on behalf of an employee to enforce compliance with this measure and to collect specified amounts from the employer, which shall be awarded to the employee. Alternatively, an aggrieved employee is authorized to bring a civil action against the employer in which he may recover double the amount of any unpaid earned sick time and the amount of any actual damages suffered as the result of the employer's violation. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2021, and incorporates SB 1069.
