Virginia Bills

Authorizes the town council to appoint a member to the office of vice-mayor, to serve in the event of the mayor's absence or inability to act. This bill is identical to

Allows brokers to arrange rides with transportation network company (TNC) partner vehicles. The bill requires such brokers to be licensed by the Department of Motor Vehicles and includes insurance requirements for TNC partner vehicles operating at the request of a broker.

Directs the Boards of Dentistry and Medicine to adopt regulations for the prescribing of opioids and products containing buprenorphine. The bill requires the Prescription Monitoring Program at the Department of Health Professions to annually provide a report to the Joint Commission on Health Care and the Chairmen of the House Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions and the Senate Committee on Education and Health on the prescribing of opioids and benzodiazepines in the Commonwealth that includes data on reporting of unusual patterns of prescribing or dispensing of a covered substance by an individual prescriber or dispenser or on potential misuse of a covered substance by a recipient. The bill contains an emergency clause.

Requires each local school board to develop and implement a plan to test for lead and, if necessary, remediate potable water from sources identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as high priority for testing, giving priority in such testing plan to schools whose school building was constructed, in whole or in part, before 1986.

Requires the Executive Director of the Commercial Space Flight Authority (the Authority) to develop and present to the Authority's board of directors (the Board) every four years a six-year strategic plan for its adoption and eliminates the requirement that a strategic plan be submitted to the Governor and General Assembly every four years. The bill also clarifies that the public purpose of the Authority is to promote (i) industrial and economic development and (ii) scientific and technological research and development for the commercial space flight industry. The bill provides that the Executive Director of the Authority also serves as the Chief Executive Officer; specifies that the Governor's appointments to the Board have experience in the aerospace industry, the financial industry, higher education, or the marketing industry or in scientific research and development; and eliminates the requirement that the Board form a nonvoting advisory committee.

Provides that the attorney for a locality may prepare and file any pleadings necessary in a proceeding to discharge the treasurer. If the locality does not have an attorney, or the attorney declines or is unable to perform this task, the circuit court shall assign legal counsel.

Allows a foreign reciprocal to obtain a license to transact the business of insurance in the Commonwealth if an affiliate of the foreign reciprocal is licensed to write the class of insurance it proposes to write in Virginia and is writing actively that class of insurance in its state of domicile or at least two other states. The measure also provides that a foreign or alien reciprocal is prohibited from transacting the business of insurance in Virginia until it obtains from the State Corporation Commission both a certificate of authority and a license to transact the business of insurance in the Commonwealth.

Creates a new program of parental leave benefits for full-time state employees with one or more years of continuous employment with the Commonwealth who (i) adopt an infant under one year of age or (ii) are the natural father of an infant under one year of age. The amount of leave would be equivalent to the amount of paid leave awarded to an employee pursuant to short-term disability for maternity leave. The bill specifies that the parental leave coverage shall apply only to eligible state employees who take custody of an infant in the course of an adoption on or after July 1, 2018, or, for a natural father, for an infant born on or after July 1, 2018. The Department of Human Resource Management is directed to develop guidelines and policies for implementing the parental leave benefits. The bill also directs the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission to analyze parental leave benefits for state employees in other states and the costs of providing such benefits to the employees of the Commonwealth. The bill has a reenactment clause that applies to all provisions of the bill except the JLARC study, which is effective July 1, 2017.

Requires each insurer domiciled in the Commonwealth, or the insurance group of which the insurer is a member, to submit to the State Corporation Commission (SCC) a Corporate Governance Annual Disclosure (CGAD). The CGAD is a confidential report containing material information related to an insurer or insurance group's internal operations that permits the SCC to gain an understanding of the insurer's or insurance group's corporate governance structure, policies, and practices,. The measure sets out requirements for completing and submitting a CGAD with the SCC and provides for the confidential treatment of the CGAD and related information. The measure has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2018.

Provides that a court may, in its discretion, dismiss a violation for failure to notify the Department of Motor Vehicles of change of address, for failure to register, title, or properly display license plates, for failure to pay local licensing fees or taxes, for failure to have certain safety equipment or having unsafe or defective equipment, or for improper tinting, if such a person can prove to the court compliance with the law on or before the court date and payment of court fees.

Requires that the recipient of certain notices from the board of zoning appeals receive notice via registered mail to the last known address or usual place of abode of the property owner or its registered agent, if any, prior to the commencement of the 30-day appeal period.