Rep. Dan Helmer

Commending Brigadier General Creighton W. AbramsIII, USA, Ret.

Celebrating the life of the Honorable GeraldL. Baliles.

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.

Constitutional amendment (second resolution);apportionment; Virginia Redistricting Commission. Establishes the VirginiaRedistricting Commission, a 16-member Commission tasked with establishingdistricts for the United States House of Representatives and for the Senate andthe House of Delegates of the General Assembly. The Commission consists ofeight legislative members and eight citizen members. The legislative membersconsist of four members of the Senate of Virginia and four members of the Houseof Delegates, with equal representation given to the political parties havingthe highest and next highest number of members in their respective houses. Thecitizen members are selected by a selection committee consisting of fiveretired judges of the circuit courts of Virginia, from lists submitted to theselection committee by the Speaker of the House of Delegates, the leader in theHouse of Delegates of the political party having the next highest number ofmembers in the House of Delegates, the President pro tempore of the Senate ofVirginia, and the leader in the Senate of the political party having the nexthighest number of members in the Senate. The Commission is required to submit tothe General Assembly plans of districts for the Senate and the House ofDelegates of the General Assembly no later than 45 days following the receiptof census data and plans of districts for the United States House ofRepresentatives no later than 60 days following the receipt of census data, orJuly 1 of that year, whichever occurs later. The measure requires certain votethresholds for plans, depending on the type of district, in order to besubmitted to the General Assembly. No amendments may be made to a plan by theGeneral Assembly, and any plan approved by the General Assembly becomes lawwithout the signature of the Governor. The measure requires additional plans tobe submitted, or additional time to be given to submit a plan, in certaincircumstances, and further provides that districts will be drawn by the SupremeCourt of Virginia if such efforts fail.

Income tax; subtraction for low-income military veterans with a permanent service-connected disability. Provides an income tax subtraction for the military retirement income received by a veteran who has been rated with a 100 percent service-connected, permanent, and total disability. The bill provides that the subtraction is available only to those taxpayers whose federal adjusted gross income is not greater than 150 percent of the federal poverty level for a four-person household. This bill incorporates HB 125.

Prohibiting sale, transport, etc., of assault firearms,certain firearm magazines, silencers, and trigger activators; penalties.Expands the definition of "assault firearm" and prohibits any personfrom importing, selling, transferring, manufacturing, purchasing, possessing,or transporting an assault firearm. A violation is a Class 6 felony. The billprohibits a dealer from selling, renting, trading, or transferring from hisinventory an assault firearm to any person. The bill also prohibits a personfrom carrying a shotgun with a magazine that will hold more than seven roundsof the longest ammunition for which it is chambered in a public place; underexisting law, this prohibition applies only in certain localities. The billmakes it a Class 6 felony to import, sell, transfer, manufacture, purchase,possess, or transport large-capacity firearm magazines, silencers, and triggeractivators, all defined in the bill. Any person who legally owns an assaultfirearm, large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or trigger activator onJuly 1, 2020, may retain possession until January 1, 2021. During that time,such person shall (i) render the assault firearm, large-capacity firearmmagazine, silencer, or trigger activator inoperable; (ii) remove the assaultfirearm, large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or trigger activator fromthe Commonwealth; (iii) transfer the assault firearm, large-capacity firearmmagazine, silencer, or trigger activator to a person outside the Commonwealthwho is not prohibited from possessing it; or (iv) surrender the assaultfirearm, large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or trigger activator to astate or local law-enforcement agency.The bill further states that any person who legally owns anassault firearm on July 1, 2020, may retain possession of such assault firearmafter January 1, 2021, if such person has obtained a permit from the Departmentof State Police to possess an assault firearm in accordance with proceduresestablished in the bill. A person issued such permit may possess an assaultfirearm only under the following conditions: (a) while in his home or on hisproperty or while on the property of another who has provided prior permission,provided that the person has the landowner's written permission on his personwhile on such property; (b) while at a shooting range, shooting gallery, orother area designated for the purpose of target shooting or the target range ofa public or private club or organization whose members have organized for thepurpose of practicing shooting targets or competing in target shooting matches;(c) while engaged in lawful hunting; or (d) while surrendering the assaultfirearm to a state or local law-enforcement agency. A person issued such permitmay also transport an assault firearm between any of those locations, providedthat such assault firearm is unloaded and secured within a closed containerwhile being transported. The bill also provides that failure to display thepermit and a photo identification upon demand by a law-enforcement officershall be punishable by a $25 civil penalty, which shall be paid into the statetreasury. The bill also requires the Department of State Police to enter thename and description of a person issued a permit in the Virginia CriminalInformation Network (VCIN) so that the permit's existence and current statuswill be made known to the law-enforcement personnel accessing VCIN forinvestigative purposes. 

Out-of-state concealed handgun permits; reciprocity.Reinstates the prior law providing that the holder of an out-of-state concealedhandgun permit who is at least 21 years of age is authorized to carry aconcealed handgun in Virginia if the other state (i) has a 24-hour-a-day meansof verification of the validity of the permits issued in that state and (ii)has requirements and qualifications that are adequate to prevent possession ofa permit by persons who would be denied a permit in Virginia. Under currentlaw, the holder of an out-of-state concealed handgun permit who is at least 21years of age is authorized to carry a concealed handgun in Virginia if (a) theother state has a means of verification of the validity of the permits issuedin that state, accessible 24 hours a day, if available; (b) the person carriesa government-issued photo identification and displays it upon demand of alaw-enforcement officer; and (c) the person has not previously had a Virginia concealedhandgun permit revoked. The bill states that the Attorney General shall (1)determine whether states meet the requirements and qualifications of the bill,(2) maintain a registry of such states, and (3) make the registry available tolaw-enforcement officers for investigative purposes. The bill further requiresthe Attorney General to review the determinations of whether states meet therequirements and qualifications of the bill and update the registry accordinglyevery two years. The bill removes the requirement for the Superintendent ofState Police to enter into agreements for reciprocal recognition with otherstates that require an agreement to be in place before the state will recognizea Virginia concealed handgun permit as valid in the state and provides that theAttorney General may enter into agreements for reciprocal recognition with anystate qualifying for recognition. The bill also reinstates the recognition ofcertain Maryland concealed handgun permits and eliminates the requirement thatthe Superintendent of State Police enter into agreements for reciprocalrecognition of concealed handgun permits or licenses with other states whereagreements were in existence on December 1, 2015.

Study; Department of Transportation; U.S. Route 50; report. Requests that the Department of Transportation study traffic congestion on that portion of U.S. Route 50 between the intersections of Interstate 66 in Fairfax County and U.S. Route 15 in Loudoun County and the feasibility of implementing improvements to such portion of the highway.

Nomination of candidates for elected offices;primary election or partisan nomination process required; restrictionson nomination method selected by political party; party identificationon ballots. Requires each candidate who has been nominated bya political party or in a primary election to be identified by thename of his political party. The bill removes the restrictions oncandidates for elected school boards and soil and water conservationdistricts from being nominated by a partisan nomination method orat a primary election. The bill further provides that a political party committee may not select a nomination method that will havethe practical effect of excluding participation in the nominatingprocess by qualified voters who are unable to attend meetings becausethey are (i) a member of a uniformed service, as defined in § 24.2-452,on active duty; (ii) temporarily residing outside of the United States;(iii) a student attending a school or institution of higher education;or (iv) a person with a disability.

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, 2023. 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 2022. 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.