Workers' compensation; post-traumatic stress disorder;law-enforcement officers and firefighters. Provides that post-traumaticstress disorder incurred by a law-enforcement officer or firefighter iscompensable under the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act if a mental healthprofessional examines a law-enforcement officer or firefighter and diagnosesthe individual as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result ofthe individual's undergoing a qualifying event, which includes an event occurringin the line of duty on or after July 1, 2020, in which a law-enforcementofficer or firefighter views a deceased minor, witnesses the death of a personor an incident involving the death of a person, witnesses an injury to a personwho subsequently dies, has physical contact with and treats an injured personwho subsequently dies, transports an injured person who subsequently dies, orwitnesses a traumatic physical injury that results in the loss of a vital bodypart or a vital body function that results in permanent disfigurement of thevictim. Other conditions for compensability include (i) if the post-traumaticstress disorder resulted from the law-enforcement officer or firefighter actingin the line of duty and, in the case of a firefighter, such firefightercomplied with certain federal Occupational Safety and Health Act standards;(ii) if the law-enforcement officer's or firefighter's undergoing a qualifyingevent was a substantial factor in causing his post-traumatic stress disorder;(iii) if such qualifying event, and not another event or source of stress, wasthe primary cause of the post-traumatic stress disorder; and (iv) if thepost-traumatic stress disorder did not result from any disciplinary action,work evaluation, job transfer, layoff, demotion, promotion, termination,retirement, or similar action of the officer or firefighter. The measureestablishes procedural requirements on employers that contest a claim for suchbenefits. The measure also establishes requirements for resilience and self-caretechnique training.
Sponsored bills
Prohibited discrimination; public accommodations, employment, credit, and housing: causes of action; sexual orientation and gender identity. Creates causes of action for unlawful discrimination in public accommodations and employment in the Virginia Human Rights Act. Currently, under the Act there is no cause of action for discrimination in public accommodations, and the only causes of action for discrimination in employment are for (i) unlawful discharge on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, or childbirth or related medical conditions including lactation by employers employing more than five but fewer than 15 persons and (ii) unlawful discharge on the basis of age by employers employing more than five but fewer than 20 persons. The bill allows the causes of action to be pursued privately by the aggrieved person or, in certain circumstances, by the Attorney General. Before a civil cause of action may be brought in a court of the Commonwealth, an aggrieved individual must file a complaint with the Division of Human Rights of the Department of Law, participate in an administrative process, and receive a notice of his right to commence a civil action. The bill prohibits discrimination in public and private employment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The bill also codifies for state and local government employment the current prohibitions on discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status, disability, or status as a veteran. Additionally, the bill (a) prohibits discrimination in public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or status as a veteran; (b) prohibits discrimination in credit on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, disability, and status as a veteran; and (c) adds discrimination on the basis of an individual's sexual orientation, gender identity, or status as a veteran as an unlawful housing practice. The bill makes technical amendments. This bill incorporates SB 66 and SB 159.
Workers' compensation; occupational disease presumption; correctional officers. Adds correctional officers and full-time sworn members of the enforcement division of the Department of Motor Vehicles to the list of public safety employees who are entitled to a presumption that certain infectious diseases are compensable occupational diseases.
Distributed renewable energy. Promotes the establishment of distributed renewable solar and other renewable energy. The measure (i) requires the State Corporation Commission to establish by regulation a shared solar program that allows multifamily customers of investor-owned utilities, other than American Electric Power, to purchase electric power through a subscription in a shared solar facility; (ii) raises the cap on the total amount of renewable energy that can be net metered in a utility's service territory from one percent to six percent, five percent of which is available to all customers and one percent of which is available only to low-income utility customers; (iii) raises the cap for net-metered nonresidential generation facilities from one megawatt to three megawatts; (iv) allows certain localities to install solar or wind facilities of up to five megawatts on government-owned property and use the electricity for government-owned buildings; (v) increases the cap on the capacity of generation from facilities from the customer's expected annual energy consumption to 150 percent of such amount for customers in Dominion Energy Virginia's service territory; (vi) prohibits standby charges for any residential customer-generator or agricultural customer-generator of an investor-owned utility other than Dominion Energy Virginia; and (vii) increases the cap on third party power purchase agreements to 500 megawatts for jurisdictional customers and 500 megawatts for nonjurisdictional customers of Dominion Energy Virginia and to 40 megawatts for customers of American Electric Power. The measure also amends the Commonwealth Energy Policy to include provisions supporting distributed generation of renewable energy. This bill is identical to HB 1184, HB 1647, and SB 710.
Absentee voting; postage prepaid on return envelope. Requires the envelope provided to an absentee voter for the return of the absentee ballot to include prepaid postage. The provisions of the bill do not become effective unless reenacted by the 2021 Session of the General Assembly.
Absentee voting; no excuse required. Permits any registered voter to vote by absentee ballot in any election in which he is qualified to vote. The bill removes the current list of statutory reasons under which a person may be entitled to vote by absentee ballot and removes references to those reasons from other sections of the Code. This bill incorporates HB 25, HB 208, and HB 209.
Ranked choice voting; elections for local governing bodies; local option pilot program. Provides that elections for local governing bodies may be conducted by ranked choice voting, which the bill defines as the method of casting and tabulating votes in which (i) voters rank candidates in order of preference, (ii) tabulation proceeds in rounds such that in each round either a candidate or candidates are elected or the last-place candidate is defeated, (iii) votes for voters' next-ranked candidates are transferred from elected or defeated candidates, and (iv) tabulation ends when the number of candidates elected equals the number of offices to be filled. The bill allows any local governing body to decide to conduct such election by ranked choice voting and requires any such decision to be made in consultation with the local electoral board and general registrar and by a majority vote of the governing body. The bill authorizes the State Board of Elections to promulgate regulations for the proper and efficient administration of elections determined by ranked choice voting. The bill provides that any costs incurred by the Department of Elections related to technological changes necessary for the implementation of ranked choice voting pursuant to the bill shall be charged to the localities exercising the option to proceed with ranked choice voting. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2021, and sunsets on July 1, 2031.
Local disposable plastic bag tax. Authorizesany locality to impose a tax of five cents per bag on disposableplastic bags provided to consumers by certain retailers, with certainbags being exempt from the tax. Revenues from the local tax wouldbe collected by the Tax Commissioner and distributed monthly to thelocality imposing the tax to be used by such locality for the mitigationof pollution and litter. The bill requires each locality imposingthe tax by ordinance to provide a certified copy of the ordinanceto the Tax Commissioner at least six months prior to the date thetax is to become effective. The bill also allows every retailer thatcollects the tax to retain one cent of the five-cent tax.
Public schools; school resource officers andschool security officers; data. Requires the Department of CriminalJustice Services, in coordination with the Department of Educationand the Department of Juvenile Justice, to annually collect, report,and publish data related to incidents involving students and schoolresource officers or school security officers. The bill also requiresthe Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety to analyze and disseminatesubmitted data.
Standards of Quality; state funding; ratiosof teachers to English language learners. Requires state funding, pursuant to the general appropriation act, to be provided pursuantto Standard 2 of the Standards of Quality to support divisionwideratios of English language learner students in average daily membershipto full-time equivalent teaching positions as follows: (i) for eachEnglish language learner identified as proficiency level one, oneposition per 25 students; (ii) for each English language learneridentified as proficiency level two, one position per 30 students;(iii) for each English language learner identified as proficiencylevel three, one position per 40 students; and (iv) for all other English language learners, one position per 58 students. Currentlaw requires 17 full-time equivalent instructional positions for each1,000 students identified as having limited English proficiency.