Del. Patrick Hope

Paid family and medical leave program. Requires the Virginia Employment Commission to establish and administera paid family and medical leave program with benefits beginning January 1, 2024. Under the program, benefits are paid to eligible employees for family and medical leave. Funding for the program isprovided through premiums assessed to employers and employees beginningin 2023. The amount of a benefit is 80 percent of the employee'saverage weekly wage, not to exceed 80 percent of the state weeklywage, which amount is required to be adjusted annually to reflectchanges in the statewide average weekly wage. The measure caps theduration of paid leave at 12 weeks in any application year. The billprovides self-employed individuals the option of participating inthe program.

Department of Law; Division of Civil Rightscreated; duties. Creates in the Department of Law a Divisionof Civil Rights that has the power and duty to investigate crimesinvolving the nonpayment of wages.

Medical assistance; coverage for reproductivehealth services. Directs the Board of Medical Assistance Servicesto include in the state plan for medical assistance services a provisionfor the payment of medical assistance for medically necessary reproductivehealth care service for eligible individuals, and provides that medical benefits required to be provided to individuals eligible for medicalassistance under the Family Access to Medical Insurance Security(FAMIS) Plan shall include reproductive health care services forwhich the payment of medical assistance is required under the stateplan for medical assistance. The bill directs the Board of MedicalAssistance Services to adopt emergency regulations to implement theprovisions of the bill. The bill also requires health benefit plansto cover the costs of specified health care services, drugs, devices,products, and procedures related to reproductive health. The healthbenefit plan requirements become effective when a plan is delivered, issued for delivery, reissued, or extended in the Commonwealth onand after January 1, 2022, or at any time thereafter when any termof the health benefit plan is changed or any premium adjustment ismade.

Vehicle registration fees; Public Safety TrustFund. Imposes an additional $4 vehicle registration fee to be deposited into the Public Safety Trust Fund, established by the bill.The moneys in the Public Safety Trust Fund are to be used to eliminatebarriers to an inclusive, diverse, and well-qualified workforce byaddressing compensation issues related to staffing, retention, and pay compression at the Department of State Police.

Required release of video or audio recording;discharge of firearm or use of stun weapon or chemical irritant by law-enforcement officer. Requires that, whenever a law-enforcementofficer (i) discharges a firearm or (ii) uses a stun weapon or chemicalirritant on a person resulting in death or serious bodily injury,any video or audio recording that relates to such incident producedor obtained by a law-enforcement officer be open to inspection andavailable for release and posted on a website that is maintained by the law-enforcement agency or on any other website on which the law-enforcement agency generally posts information and that is availableto the public or that clearly describes how the public may accesssuch data within 15 days of producing or obtaining such video oraudio recording. The bill includes exceptions to such release. Thebill also provides that any person denied the rights and privilegesconferred may proceed to enforce such rights and privileges by filinga petition for mandamus or injunction pursuant to the Virginia Freedomof Information Act.

Workers' compensation; injuries caused by repetitiveand sustained physical stressors. Provides that, for the purposesof the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act, "occupational disease"includes injuries from conditions resulting from repetitive and sustainedphysical stressors, including repetitive and sustained motions, exertions,posture stress, contact stresses, vibration, or noise. The bill providesthat such injuries are covered under the Act. Such coverage doesnot require that the injuries occurred over a particular period,provided that such a period can be reasonably identified and documentedand further provided that the employment is shown to have primarily caused the injury, considering all causes.

Purchase, possession, or transportation of firearmsfollowing conviction for assault and battery of a family or householdmember; penalties. Prohibits a person who has been convictedof assault and battery of a family or household member from purchasing,possessing, or transporting a firearm. A person who violates thisprovision is guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor.

Memorializing Congress; H.R. 6422; NationalInfrastructure Bank. Urges the Congress of the United Statesto pass H.R. 6422 and create a National Infrastructure Bank to financeurgently needed infrastructure projects.

Suspension or modification of sentence; transferto the Department of Corrections. Provides that if a person hasbeen sentenced for a felony to the Department of Corrections (theDepartment), the court that heard the case, if it appears compatiblewith the public interest and there are circumstances in mitigationof the offense, may, at any time before the person is transferredto the Department or regardless of whether the person has been transferredto the Department, at any time within 12 months of entry of the sentencingorder, suspend or otherwise modify the unserved portion of such asentence. Additionally, notwithstanding the foregoing, the bill providesthat for good cause shown and in the interest of justice the courtmay, at any time before the sentence has been completely served, suspend the unserved portion of any such sentence, place the personon probation for such time as the court shall determine, or otherwisemodify the sentence imposed. Current law allows such suspension ormodification of the unserved portion of a sentence only if the personhas not yet been transferred to the Department of Corrections.

Teacher compensation; at or above national average.Requires that public school teachers be compensated at a rate thatis at or above the national average. Under current law, compensationat such rate is aspirational. The bill requires state funding tobe provided pursuant to the general appropriation act in a sum sufficientto fund a 4.5 percent annual increase for public school teacher salaries,effective from the 2022-23 school year through the 2026-27 schoolyear. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2022.