Del. Lee J. Carter

Celebrating the life of the Honorable MamyeE. BaCote.

Traffic regulations; bicycles. Permits operatorsof bicycles to treat a stop sign as a yield sign in certain situations.The bill requires the driver of a motor vehicle to change lanes whenovertaking a bicycle or certain other vehicles when the lane of travelis not wide enough for the overtaking motor vehicle to pass at least three feet to the left of the overtaken vehicle. The bill also removesthe limitations on riding bicycles and certain other vehicles twoabreast.

Presidential electors; National Popular VoteCompact. Enters Virginia into an interstate compact known asthe Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by NationalPopular Vote. Article II of the Constitution of the United Statesgives the states exclusive and plenary authority to decide the mannerof awarding their electoral votes. Under the compact, Virginia agreesto award its electoral votes to the presidential ticket that receivesthe most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.The compact goes into effect when states cumulatively possessinga majority of the electoral votes have joined the compact. A statemay withdraw from the compact; however, a withdrawal occurring withinsix months of the end of a President's term shall not become effectiveuntil a President or Vice President has qualified to serve the nextterm.

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.

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.

Official emblems and designations; state fruit.Designates the pawpaw fruit (Asimina triloba) as the state fruitof Virginia.

Marijuana; legalization of simple marijuana possession;penalties. Eliminates criminal penalties for possession of marijuana forpersons who are 21 years of age or older. The bill also decriminalizesmarijuana possession for persons under 21 years of age and provides a civilpenalty of no more than $100 for possession of (i) two and one-half ounces orless of marijuana or (ii) 12 or fewer marijuana plants and a civil penalty ofno more than $500 for possession of more than (a) two and one-half ounces ofmarijuana or (b) 12 marijuana plants. Under current law, a first offense ispunishable by a maximum fine of $500 and a maximum jail sentence of 30 days,and subsequent offenses are a Class 1 misdemeanor. The bill also modifiesseveral other criminal penalties related to marijuana. The bill establishes aregulatory scheme for the regulation of marijuana cultivation facilities,marijuana manufacturing facilities, marijuana secure transporters, marijuanatesting facilities, retail marijuana stores, and marijuana microbusinesses bythe Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The bill imposes an additionaltax of 10 percent on retail marijuana and retail marijuana products sold byretail marijuana stores and microbusinesses and directs the first $20 millionof such revenues, after expenses of the Board are paid, to the VeteransTreatment Fund, established in the bill. The remaining tax receipts will bedistributed to the localities in which the businesses operate, toward thestate's share of Standards of Quality basic aid payments, and to theCommonwealth Mass Transit Fund. The bill also expands the legal medical uses ofmarijuana and tetrahydrocannabinol from only cancer and glaucoma to any use toalleviate the symptoms of any diagnosed condition or disease determined by theprescribing doctor to benefit from the use of such substance.

Minimum wage and workers' compensation; inmatesas employees. Requires the entity that operates the correctionalfacility at which an inmate performs labor to be paid therefor ata rate not less than the Commonwealth's minimum wage. The measurealso provides that, for purposes of the Virginia Workers' CompensationAct, an inmate is an employee of the entity operating the correctionalfacility where the inmate participates in any work program duringhis incarceration.

Credit unions. Authorizes localities andpolitical subdivisions to hold public deposits in a credit union.The measure allows localities and political subdivisions to becomemembers of a credit union for purposes of placing deposits in andreceiving services from the credit union.

Virginia Information Technologies Agency; Cybersecurity Advisory Council created; report. Creates the Cybersecurity Advisory Council to (i) assist the Chief Information Officer (CIO)of the Virginia Information Technologies Agency with the developmentof policies, standards, and guidelines for assessing security risks,determining appropriate security measures, and performing securityaudits of government electronic information; (ii) make recommendationsto the CIO regarding strategies to strengthen the Commonwealth'scybersecurity; and (iii) analyze and investigate breaches of theinformation technology security of any independent agency or anyagency or other entity within the executive branch, legislative branch,or judicial branch of state government. The bill requires the Councilto submit an annual report to the Governor and the General Assembly.