Control of firearms by localities. Removes the authority for a locality by ordinance to prohibit the possession or carrying of firearms, ammunition, or components or any combination thereof in (i) any building, or part thereof, owned or used by such locality for governmental purposes; (ii) any public park owned or operated by the locality; (iii) any recreation or community center facility; or (iv) any public street, road, alley, or sidewalk or public right-of-way or any other place of whatever nature that is open to the public and is being used by or is adjacent to a permitted event or an event that would otherwise require a permit. The bill provides that any firearm received by the locality pursuant to a buy-back program shall be offered for sale by public auction or sealed bids to a person licensed as a dealer. Current law provides that any such firearm shall be destroyed by the locality unless the person surrendering the firearm requests in writing that the firearm be offered for sale. The bill also limits the authority of localities and state governmental entities to bring lawsuits against certain firearms manufacturers and others.
Sponsored bills
Issuing citations; marijuana and certain trafficoffenses. Removes the provisions that provide that no law-enforcementofficer may lawfully stop a motor vehicle for operating (i) withouta light illuminating a license plate, (ii) with defective and unsafeequipment, (iii) without brake lights or a high mount stop light,(iv) without an exhaust system that prevents excessive or unusuallevels of noise, (v) with certain sun-shading materials and tintingfilms, and (vi) with certain objects suspended in the vehicle, and the accompanying the exclusionary provisions. The bill also repealsthe provision that provides that no law-enforcement officer may lawfullystop, search, or seize any person, place, or thing solely on thebasis of the odor of marijuana and that no evidence discovered or obtained as a result of such unlawful search or seizure shall beadmissible in any trial, hearing, or other proceeding.
Education improvement scholarship tax credits; eligible students in need of a safer school environment. Declares eligible for a scholarship from a scholarship foundation that receives an education improvement scholarship tax credit, on the same basis as any other eligible student, eligible students in need of a safer school environment, defined in the bill as any student who, while enrolled in a public elementary or secondary school in kindergarten through grade 12, was the victim of assault, battery, bullying, harassment, hazing, kidnapping, or robbery on school property, on a school bus, or at a school-sponsored activity, as substantiated by an investigation and written report by the school principal. The bill provides that (i) eligible students in need of a safer school environment are permitted to use such scholarships to cover the expenses associated with attending another public school within or outside of his school division of residence and (ii) there are no family income restrictions on scholarships for eligible students in need of a safer school environment. The bill clarifies that no public elementary or secondary school or local school division is prohibited or precluded from offering various educational alternatives to an eligible student in need of a safer school environment.
Prescriptions; off-label use. Provides that a prescriber may prescribe, administer, or dispense and a pharmacist may dispense a drug that has been approved for a specific use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for an off-label use when the prescriber or pharmacist determines, in his professional judgment, that such off-label use is appropriate for the standard of care and such prescribing, administering, or dispensing is to improve health care outcomes. The bill also prohibits a hospital from denying, revoking, terminating, diminishing, or curtailing in any way any professional or clinical privilege of any licensed health care provider with prescriptive authority or authority to dispense drugs solely on the grounds that such health care provider prescribes, administers, or dispenses a drug that has been approved for a specific use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for an off-label use, provided that such prescribing, administering, or dispensing is in accordance with laws of the Commonwealth and is to improve health care outcomes.
Department of Education; policy on sexually explicit content in instructional material. Requires the Department of Education to develop and each local school board to adopt model policies for ensuring parental notification of any instructional material that includes sexually explicit content and include information, guidance, procedures, and standards relating to (i) ensuring parental notification; (ii) directly identifying the specific instructional material and sexually explicit subjects; and (iii) permitting the parent of any student to review instructional material that includes sexually explicit content and provide, as an alternative, nonexplicit instructional material and related academic activities to any student whose parent so requests. The bill provides that the local school board model policies may be more comprehensive than the model policies developed by the Department. The bill requires the Department to develop such model policies no later than July 31, 2022, and requires each local school board to adopt policies consistent with this act no later than January 1, 2023. The bill states that the provisions of the bill shall not be construed as requiring or providing for the censoring of books in public elementary and secondary schools.
Conformity of the Commonwealth's taxation system with the Internal Revenue Code; Rebuild Virginia grants and Paycheck Protection Program loans; emergency. Advances Virginia's date of conformity with the Internal Revenue Code from December 31, 2020, to December 31, 2021. The bill also deconforms from provisions of the (i) federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) related to the net operating loss limitation and carryback, a loss limitation applicable to taxpayers other than corporations, the limitation on business interest, and certain loan forgiveness and other business financial assistance and (ii) federal American Rescue Plan Act related to restaurant revitalization grants and emergency injury disaster loans received for taxable years beginning before January 1, 2021. The bill also retroactively allows up to $100,000 of the individual and corporate income tax deduction or subtraction, as applicable, for Rebuild Virginia grants and certain amounts related to Paycheck Protection Program loans to certain fiscal filers. The bill also allows full deductibility of expenses paid or incurred with forgiven Paycheck Protection Program loan proceeds and expenses paid or incurred with Economic Injury Disaster Loan program funding for taxable year 2021 and thereafter. The bill contains an emergency clause.
Voter registration; list maintenance; lists of decedents transmitted by State Registrar of Vital Records. Requires the State Registrar of Vital Records to transmit to the Department of Elections a weekly list of decedents from the previous week. Currently, this list is transmitted monthly. The bill requires the general registrars to use this information to conduct list maintenance and to promptly cancel the registration of a person on the list. This bill is identical to SB 211.
Absentee voting; deadline for returning absenteeballot. Requires that an absentee ballot be received before the closing of the polls on election day in order to be counted. Currently,an absentee ballot that is received after the closing of the pollsbut before noon on the third day after the election is counted ifit is postmarked on or before the date of the election.
Absentee voting; return of absentee ballots;drop-off locations. Repeals the provisions of law providing forthe establishment of drop-off locations for the return of absenteeballots.
Absentee voting in person; available beginningon the fourteenth day prior to election; hours of operation. Limits absentee voting in person to the two weeks immediately precedingan election. During these two weeks, the bill requires that absenteevoting in person be available Monday through Saturday, from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. each day.