Del. Alfonso Lopez

Product safety; flame retardants; regulations; fund; civil penalty. Prohibits the manufacture or sale in the Commonwealth, beginning July 1, 2021, of upholstered furniture intended for residential use or any product that is intended to come into close contact with a person younger than 12 years of age if such upholstered furniture or product contains any flame-retardant chemical listed in the bill. The bill requires the manufacturer of any prohibited product to notify sellers of the prohibition by March 31, 2021, and requires a manufacturer to recall by that date any products that it has sold in violation of the prohibition. Casual or isolated sales of previously owned products containing the listed chemicals are exempted from the prohibition. The bill subjects any manufacturer in the Commonwealth that manufacturers a product in violation of the provisions of the bill to a civil penalty of $5,000 for a first offense or $10,000 for a second or subsequent offense, and it directs the funds collected to the Virginia Product Safety Fund, created by the bill. Finally, the bill directs the Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services to adopt regulations to carry out the provisions of the bill and to impose the chemical prohibition on certain other consumer products.

Protective orders in cases of family abuse;definition of family abuse; identity theft. Includes acts ofidentity theft committed against a person's family or household memberin the definition of "family abuse" for purposes of the issuanceof protective orders in cases of family abuse. The bill containstechnical amendments.

Juvenile confinement for violation of court order. Reduces from 10 days to seven days the maximum allowable period of confinement of a juvenile in a secure facility for a contempt violation or when a child in need of supervision is found to have willfully and materially violated an order of the court. The bill also provides that any order of disposition of such violation confining the juvenile in a secure facility for juveniles shall (i) identify the valid court order that has been violated; (ii) specify the factual basis for determining that there is reasonable cause to believe that the juvenile has violated such order; (iii) state the findings of fact that support a determination that there is no appropriate less restrictive alternative available to placing the juvenile in such a facility, with due consideration to the best interest of the juvenile; (iv) specify the length of time of such confinement, not to exceed seven days; and (v) include a plan for the juvenile's release from such facility.

Misdemeanor; maximum term of confinement. Reduces the maximum term of confinement in jail for a Class 1 misdemeanorand certain unclassified misdemeanors from 12 months to 364 days.

Study; Department of Housing and Community Development;Commonwealth-wide housing needs. Directs the Department of Housingand Community Development to (i) determine the quantity and qualityof affordable housing across the Commonwealth, (ii) conduct a reviewof current programs and policies to determine the effectiveness of current housing policy efforts, (iii) develop an informed projectionof future housing needs in the Commonwealth and determine the orderof priority of those needs, and (iv) make recommendations for theimprovement of housing policy in the Commonwealth.

Critical National Security Language Grant Fundand Program established. Establishes the Critical National SecurityLanguage Grant Fund and the Critical National Security Language GrantProgram within the Department of Education for the purpose of awardinggrants on a competitive basis to any school division that providesa foreign language course in a foreign language that is currentlyidentified as critical by the National Security Language Initiativefor Youth scholarship program. Such grants are limited to $5,000per student who successfully completes a critical foreign languagecourse per school year.

Transfer of firearms; criminal history recordcheck delay; penalty. Increases from the end of the next businessday to within five business days the time in which State Police mustadvise a dealer if its records indicate that a firearms buyer ortransferee is prohibited from possessing or transporting a firearmand the time after which a dealer may complete the sale or transferwithout a response from the State Police. The bill removes the optionin current law that a dealer may immediately complete the sale ortransfer if he is advised by the State Police that a response willnot be available within the required timeframe.

Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act;notice of termination to contain legal services contact information.Provides that no notice of termination of tenancy served upon anyresidential tenant is effective unless it contains on its first page,in type no smaller or less legible than that otherwise used in thebody of the notice, the name, address, and telephone number of thelegal services program, if any, serving the jurisdiction in whichthe premises is located. The same requirement is currently only applicableto a public housing authority organized under the Housing AuthoritiesLaw.

Study; JLARC; reinstatement of discretionaryparole; report. Directs the Joint Legislative Audit and ReviewCommission to study the reinstatement of discretionary parole, whichwas abolished in 1995.

Child labor; tobacco farms; civil penalty.Prohibits any person from employing a child under the age of 18 towork in direct contact with tobacco plants or dried tobacco leavesunless (i) the owner of the farm or other location at which suchwork is conducted is the child's parent, grandparent, or legal guardianor (ii) the child's parent or legal guardian has consented in writingto such employment.