Absentee voting; absentee voting in person;available beginning 30 days prior to election. Limits the availabilityof absentee voting in person to 30 days before the election. Undercurrent law, absentee voting in person is available beginning 45 days prior to the election.
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 absentee voting in person be available Monday through Saturday, from 7:00a.m. to 7:00 p.m. each day.
Virginia Public Procurement Act; prohibitionon boycotting Israel. Requires all public bodies to include in every contract in excess of $100,000 with a business that employsmore than 10 employees and in every subcontract or purchase orderin excess of $10,000 a provision that states that during the performanceof the contract, neither the contracting business nor any of itsaffiliates shall engage in a boycott of Israel.
Energy policy of the Commonwealth; state authority;legislative declaration. Declares that affordable, reliable,and secure energy resources are important to the health, safety,and welfare of the Commonwealth's citizens and provides that theCommonwealth has a duty to defend the production and supply of affordable, reliable, and secure energy from external regulatory interference.Under the bill, if the State Corporation Commission or an electricutility, as defined in the bill, receives notice of any federal regulationthat may threaten the production or supply of affordable, reliable,and secure energy within the Commonwealth, the Commission or suchelectric utility shall inform the Office of the Attorney Generalof such regulation within 30 days of the receipt of such notice.The bill requires the Office of the Attorney General to take anyaction necessary to defend the Commonwealth's interest in the productionand supply of affordable, reliable, and secure energy, includingfiling an action in court or participating in administrative proceedings.
Fees for resident concealed handgun permits.Eliminates the fees that may be charged for the processing of anapplication for or issuing of a resident concealed handgun permit, including any costs associated with the clerk's consultation withlaw-enforcement agencies, which under current law is $10; a fee notto exceed $35 to the law-enforcement agency conducting the backgroundinvestigation; and a fee not to exceed $5 to the State Police tocover its costs associated with processing the application.
Elections; voter identification containing photograph required; who may register up to and including the day of the election;absentee voting application requirements; absentee voting in personavailability; return of absentee ballots. Requires presentationof a form of identification containing a photograph in order to voteand provides that a voter who does not have one of the required formsof identification is entitled to cast a provisional ballot. The bill repeals a provision that would permit any person who is qualifiedto register to vote to do so in person up to and including the dayof the election and limits the persons who are entitled to registerto vote after the close of registration records to members of a uniformedservice on active duty, persons who are residing temporarily outsideof the United States, and their spouses and dependents. The billlimits the period during which absentee voting in person is availablefrom 45 days preceding the date of the election to the 14 days precedingthe date of the election. The bill requires that absentee ballotsreturned by mail be returned to the office of the general registrarby the close of polls on election day and be postmarked on or beforethe Saturday preceding the date of the election. The bill eliminatesthe use of drop-off locations for the return of absentee ballots.The bill requires absentee ballot applications to contain the lastfour digits of the applicant's social security number.
Personal property tax; classification; sunsetdate. Removes the sunset date from the provision of law that authorizes localities to classify most motor vehicles as a class ofproperty subject to a different rate of tax or rate of assessmentfrom the rate applicable to the general class of tangible personalproperty. Under current law, such classification would expire beginningwith taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2025.
Smithsonian; return of human bodily remainsto Virginia descendants; review; compensation. Requests the Smithsonianto complete a full review of all human bodily remains within itscare, to return the bodily remains of all ancestors of Virginia citizensthat are within its care due to unethical practices, and to compensatefamilies for the reasonable funeral and burial expenses related to such return. The bill also requests that, upon completion of suchreview, the Smithsonian publicly publish such review, including thecircumstances resulting in its acquisition of such remains and anyrecords that might assist in the identification of the descendantsof the individuals whose human bodily remains are included in anyof the Smithsonian's collections.
Board of Health; hospital regulations; patientdrug testing. Requires the Board of Health to amend its regulationsto require hospitals to test patients who are presenting with overdosesymptoms for fentanyl and to test for fentanyl, marijuana, amphetamines, opioids, and phencyclidine as a part of any routine drug screeningadministered to a patient.
Directing the Speaker of the House of Delegates to order a study of the legal effects and consequences of a constitutional amendment enshrining a right to reproductive freedom. Directsthe Speaker of the House of Delegates to order a study of the legaleffects and consequences of a constitutional amendment enshrininga right to reproductive freedom, including whether the phrase "Thisright to make and effectuate one's own decisions about all mattersrelated to one's pregnancy shall not be denied, burdened, or infringedupon...." would constitutionally protect abortion throughout allof pregnancy, create a constitutional right for the parents of adead child to sell such child's body parts, and legally permit partialbirth infanticide, born-alive murder, child pornography, sexual assault, and any other crime so long as the umbilical cord and placenta arestill attached to both the mother and the child.
