Del. Patrick Hope

Death penalty executions; moratorium. Imposesa moratorium on executions. The bill does not affect any other matterof law related to the death penalty, including bringing and tryingcapital charges, sentencing proceedings, imposition of the deathpenalty, appeals of the death penalty, and habeas review. The moratorium will remain in effect until adjournment of the first regular sessionof the General Assembly after a joint subcommittee established pursuantto a joint resolution passed by the 2020 General Assembly conductsa study of the death penalty in the Commonwealth and issues a reportof its conclusions and recommendations.

General Assembly meetings; streaming and recording. Requires the Clerk of the House of Delegates and the Clerk of theSenate to ensure that every (i) subcommittee or committee meetingof a standing committee of the General Assembly, regardless of meetingdate, and (ii) floor session of the House of Delegates or the Senate,including any joint session of the houses, is streamed with closedcaptioning, recorded and archived. The bill defines "stream" and specifiesthat a qualifying meeting is one the date and time of which havebeen scheduled on a public website of any agency of the General Assemblyfor at least one hour prior to the meeting and that takes place inthe State Capitol, the Pocahontas Building, or the General AssemblyBuilding in Richmond. The bill has a delayed effective date of October1, 2020.

Prisoners; medical care. Eliminates theDepartment of Corrections prisoner co-payment program for nonemergencyhealth care services.

Prescription drug price transparency; penalties.Requires pharmaceutical drug manufacturers, pharmacy benefits managers, andhealth carriers to submit reports containing certain information concerningprescription drug costs to the Commissioner of the Bureau of Insurance (theCommissioner). The measure requires pharmaceutical drug manufacturers' reportsto include information on the current wholesale acquisition cost informationfor FDA-approved drugs sold in or into the Commonwealth by the pharmaceuticaldrug manufacturer. The bill also requires such manufacturers to submit a reportfor drugs with a wholesale acquisition cost of at least $50 for a 30-day supplywhen their wholesale acquisition cost increases by 25 percent or more over thepreceding three calendar years or 10 percent or more over the precedingcalendar year. The measure requires pharmacy benefits managers to report dataon the aggregated rebates, fees, price protection payments, and any otherpayments collected from pharmaceutical drug manufacturers and the aggregateddollar amount of rebates, fees, price protection payments, and any otherpayments collected from pharmaceutical drug manufacturers that were healthbenefit plan issuers or enrollees at the point of sale of a prescription drug.The measure requires health carriers to report the names of the 25 mostfrequently prescribed drugs across all plans, percent increase in annual netspending for drugs across all plans, percent increase in premiums attributableto drugs across all plans, percentage of specialty drugs with utilizationmanagement requirements across all plans, and premium reductions that wereattributable to specialty drug utilization management. The measure requires theCommissioner to publish the aggregated data from these reports on a website.The measure authorizes the State Corporation Commission (the Commission) to (i)call public hearings and to subpoena prescription drug manufacturers, pharmacybenefits managers, and health carriers to explain their reports; (ii) conductaudits of data submitted to it; (iii) require these entities to submit acorrective action plan to correct deficiencies in reporting; and (iv) imposepenalties of $30,000 per day on any prescription drug manufacturer, pharmacybenefits manager, or health carrier that fails to make a good faith effort tosubmit a required report within two weeks after receiving written notice fromthe Commission.

Virginia Personnel Act; hiring preference instate government for persons with disabilities. Establishes ahiring preference in state government for persons with disabilities,provided that such person meets all of the knowledge, skill, andability requirements for the available position. The bill definesthe term "preference" as requiring that a person with a disabilitybe hired over a person without a disability when the two individualsare substantially equal in qualifications for an eligible position.

Marijuana; legalization of simple marijuanapossession; penalty. Eliminates criminal penalties for possessionof marijuana for persons who are 21 years of age or older. The bill also decriminalizes marijuana possession for persons under 21 yearsof age and provides a civil penalty of no more than $50 for a firstviolation, $100 for a second violation, and $250 for a third or subsequentviolation. Under current law, a first offense is punishable by amaximum fine of $500 and a maximum jail sentence of 30 days, and subsequent offenses are a Class 1 misdemeanor. The bill also modifies severalother criminal penalties related to marijuana. The bill establishesa regulatory scheme for the regulation of marijuana cultivation facilities,marijuana manufacturing facilities, marijuana testing facilities,and retail marijuana stores by the Board of Agriculture and ConsumerServices. The bill imposes a tax on retail marijuana and retail marijuanaproducts sold by a retail marijuana store at a rate of 9.7 percent(for a total sales tax of 15 percent) and provides that 67 percentof the revenues collected from the tax be deposited into the generalfund and 33 percent of the revenues be deposited into a "Retail MarijuanaEducation Support Fund" to be used solely for purposes of public education.

Virginia Minimum Wage Act; exclusions. Eliminatesthe exclusion in the Virginia Minimum Wage Act for persons whoseemployment is covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act of1938 (FLSA) and for persons whose earning capacity is impaired byphysical deficiency, mental illness, or intellectual disability.The measure also exempts, until July 1, 2024, from the Virginia MinimumWage Act any person who is paid pursuant to a special certificatethat provides for the employment of individuals whose earning orproductive capacity is impaired by age, physical or mental deficiency,or injury at wages lower than the minimum wage otherwise requiredby the FLSA.

Health insurance; mandated coverage for hearing aids for minors. Requires health insurers, health maintenance organizations, and corporations providing health care coverage subscription contracts to provide coverage for hearing aids and related services for children 18 years of age or younger when a licensed audiologist prescribes such hearing aids and related services. The coverage includes one hearing aid per hearing-impaired ear, up to a cost of $1,500, every 24 months. The measure applies to policies, contracts, and plans delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed on and after January 1, 2021.

Preventive services; coverage for outpatientmental health screenings or visits. Requires a health carrierto provide coverage as a preventive service for at least six annualtherapy or counseling outpatient screenings or visits with a licensedmental health professional for the early detection or preventionof mental illness. Health carriers are prohibited from imposing any cost-sharing requirements for mandated preventive services.

Transit funding. Raises the existing regional transportation fee, a grantor's tax, from $0.15 per $100 to $0.20 per $100 for localities in the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority that are also members of the Northern Virginia Transportation District. The bill requires half of the revenues to be deposited in the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority Fund and half to be deposited in the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Capital Fund. The rate of tax in the other localities will remain at $0.15 per $100, with one-third of the revenues to be retained by the locality to be used for transportation purposes and the other two-thirds to be deposited in the Northern Virginia Transportation District Fund. The bill also raises the existing transient occupancy tax in the localities located in the Northern Virginia Transportation District from $2 to $3, with all of the revenues from the tax being used to support WMATA. This bill incorporates HB 977.